The names of the former presidents of the Kansas City Stock Yards company are given below: James F. Joy, Detroit, Mich., 1871-73; James M. Walker, Chicago, Ill., 1873-75; Charles Francis Adams, Boston, Mass., 18751902; Charles F. Morse, 1902 and serving in 1908. General managers: George H. Nettleton, Kansas City, 1871-79; Charles F. Morse, Kansas City, 1879-1902; Eugene Rust, Kansas City, 1902 and serving in 1908.

The live stock traffic at Kansas City is handled by seventy-five commission firms, members of the Kansas City Live Stock exchange. The association was organized April 6, 1886, to establish and maintain a commercial exchange, not for pecuniary gain or profit, but to protect and promote all interests concerned in the purchase and sale of live stock at the Kansas City market; to promote and foster uniformity in the customs and usages at the market; to inculcate and enforce high moral principles in the transaction of business; to inspire confidence in the methods and integrity of its members; to provide facilities for the orderly and prompt conduct of business; to aid in the speedy and equitable adjustment of disputes, and, generally, to promote the welfare of the Kansas City market.

The association in 1908 had 284 members, live stock commission men, order buyers, stock raisers, representatives of railways, farmers, bankers, and other classes of business men whose interests were, more or less, centered at the market. During the twenty-two years of its existence the members have sold $2,176,835,896.00 worth of live stock. Of this amount returns were made to the various owners with a loss of only one ten-thousandth of one per cent a wonderful showing for this gigantic business. There were 2,403,189 cars of live stock disposed of, which running in one train would reach a distance of 19,225 miles, and which, going at the rate of twenty miles an hour, would require one month and ten days to pass a given point. Since its incipiency 1,417 different persons have been members of the organization, and of this number twenty-one were expelled as being unworthy of further connection with an organization having a high standard of business morals and integrity.

R. P. Woodbury has been secretary of the Kansas City Live Stock exchange since it was organized in 1886. The names of the former presidents of the exchange follow: C. F. Morse, 1886-88; K. B. Armour, 1888-89; H. P. Child, 1889-91; Frank Cooper, 1891-93; J. H. Waite, 1893-94; J. C. McCoy, 1894-95; J. N. Payne, 1895-96; J. R. Stoller, 1896-97; J. C. McCoy, 1897-98; W. S. Hannah, 1898-00; G. M. Walden, 1900-03; C. G. Bridgeford, 1903-05; F. G. Robinson, 1905-07; J. C. Swift, 1907-09.

The large supply of cheap cattle afforded by the range of the West early attracted the attention of the packers to the advantages of this locality. E. W. Pattison, of Indianapolis, Ind., made the experiment in Junction City,

Kas., in 1867 and was pleased with the result. He found, however, that Kansas City would afford him better facilities, and in 1868, with J. W. L. Slavens and William Eperson, built the first packing plant in Kansas City. In the first year of their operations they slaughtered about 4,200 cattle, the first beef packing done in the city.

Thomas J. Bigger, formerly of Belfast, Ireland, came to Kansas City in 1868 and began packing hogs for the Irish and English markets, the first enterprise of this sort started in the city after the war. Previous to the war, about 1858, M. Dively and a few others had packed a few hogs, and in 1859 J. L. Mitchener opened a packing house on the east levee, but his business was ruined by the war. Mr. Bigger built a small storehouse on St. Louis avenue in West Kansas City in 1868, for storing meat, the slaughtering being done for him by Pattison & Slavens. J. W. L. Slavens sold his interest in the packing house of Pattison & Slavens to Dr. F. B. Nofsinger in 1869, and formed the co-partnership known as Ferguson, Slavens & Co., by whom was built the packing house occupied later by the Morrison Packing company.

Plankinton & Armours came to Kansas City in 1870. The first year the firm rented the packing house of Pattison & Nofsinger, but in the following year built its own plant Plankinton & Armours already had two large houses, one in Milwaukee and one in Chicago. The firm began at once to build up a great packing business. John Plankinton retired from the firm of Plankinton & Armours in 1885 and the celebrated corporation of the Armour Brothers Packing company was organized. The Armour plant in Kansas City has been enlarged at various times until now (1908) it is one of the largest slaughter houses in the world.

In the summer of 1880 Jacob Dold & Sons, one of the largest packing firms in Buffalo, New York, came to Kansas City and purchased the packing house of Nofsinger & Co. The firm began business in the fall of 1880. The new venture was a success from the beginning, and the Kansas City branch soon outstripped the parent establishment in the quality of its productions. The leading spirit of the concern here was J. C. Dold, under whose management an immense business was developed. The extensive beef and pork packing and lard refining firm of Fowler Brothers, with packing houses in Liverpool, New York and Chicago, began operations in Kansas City in 1881. Early in 1884 George Fowler purchased his brother's interest in the establishment here, and conducted it alone until January 1, 1886, when his son, George A., became a partner under the firm name of George Fowler & Son. The Morrison Packing company, a branch of the Cincinnati firm of James Morrison & Co., established in 1845, began operations in Kansas City in 1884, as successors to Slavens & Oburn. The Kansas City Packing com

pany was established in 1884, and the Allcut Packing company in 1885. The Kingan Packing company established a plant in Kansas City in 1888.

Later came the packing firms of Swift & Co., Cudahy & Co., Nelson Morris & Co., Schwarzchild & Sulzberger, Ruddy Brothers, American Dressed Beef & Provision company and others. Eight large packing plants are in operation in Kansas City in 1908. The number of animals slaughtered in Kansas City in 1907 was 5,250,624.

The packing houses in Kansas City have been built with a view of meeting all requirements of the meat trade. The capacity of the packing plants and slaughtering establishments here is such that it would be possible to slaughter daily 15,600 cattle, 26,500 hogs and 16,700 sheep. For several years the packing plants in Kansas City have been able to handle the bulk, or more than two-thirds, of all the live stock marketed in Kansas City.

It was with remarkable foresight that the pioneer packers came into the "western country" in the early '70s to build their packing houses on the banks of the Kaw and Missouri rivers at Kansas City. They desired to have close communication with the people who were producing live stock. At least, they realized that greater things could be done by conducting their packing operations at the point nearest the base of supply.

CHAPTER XXII.

FEDERAL DEPARTMENT IN KANSAS CITY.

The United States government had about 1,500 employees under civil service in Kansas City in 1908. For their services they were paid an average of about $127,000 a month. A wide variety of duties are performed by those who are in the Kansas City service of Uncle Sam. The government has floors to be scrubbed, elevators to be run, meat and food products to be inspected, customs duties and revenues to be collected, weather reports to be made and mail to be collected and distributed.

About three-fourths of the civil service employees in Kansas City were connected with the postoffice department. In 1908 there were 230 letter carriers and substitute letter carriers, and about 400 postal clerks. Six hundred railway postal clerks had headquarters in Kansas City and were paid here. The pay roll of the letter carriers was $16,000 a month; the clerks, $24,000 a month, and the railway mail clerks, $50,000 a month. The bureau of animal industry gave employment to 200 men in Kansas City. Of this number 185 were meat inspectors The others were assigned to the