Today's Feature
Battle of
Carthage Memorial Service.
The warriors who died July 5,
1861, in the first battle of the Civil War will
be memorialized 140 years later at 6:30 p.m. on
Thursday, July 5, 2001, in a public ceremony at
the Battle of Carthage State Park on East
Chestnut Street at the railroad tracks.
The vespers memorial service,
featuring music that was familiar to those
involved here in the 1861 action, will be
conducted by Historian Marvin VanGilder and the
Carthage Community Band, acting in cooperation
with the Parks Division of the Missouri
Department of Natural Resources and the Friends
of the Carthage Civil War Museum. The band is
sponsored by the Carthage Press and Edwin W.
Wiggins Post 9, American Legion.
Those who attend are asked to
provide for their own seating. Those who desire
are invited to wear period costuming and/or
exhibit Civil War memorabilia.
The Carthage Public
Library’s "Cool Summer Nights"
Teen Program will begin on Thursday, July 5th
with a craft night. Other Thursdays will include
a library scavenger hunt, mystery role play, and
booktalk with Gary Blackwood and Tegan Blackwood.
Commentary
Martin "Bubs" Hohulin
State Representative, District 126
For every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction. From somewhere deep
in the recesses of my memory, I remember that
from high school. I think I learned it in science
class, or maybe math or typing.
The action here is a bill
sponsored two Sessions ago by then Sen. Joe
Maxwell, a democrat from Audrain county. Maxwell
is now the Lt. Governor of Missouri.
The bill was named the Price
Reporting Act. The bill was touted as a way to
level out prices paid to livestock producers in
Missouri.
What was happening was
different prices were being paid to different
producers for the same quality livestock. The
reasons for this were varied. Sometimes a
producer can deliver an entire truckload of
cattle or hogs at once. Other times a producer
can guarantee a certain number of livestock over
a period of time.
If a packer can count on a
certain level of production, they will usually
pay more for that certainty.
When the bill was introduced,
they said it would guarantee that all producers
would be paid the same amount for similar
livestock.
The problem is that there is no
way to mandate that a packer do business with
anyone.
When I was asked to cosign the
bill, I refused and said I would work against the
bill. I said then that one of two things would
happen. Either packers would refuse to buy
Missouri livestock, or everyone would be paid the
same; the low price, not the high price.
As it turns out, both things
have happened. First, the major packers refused
to buy livestock from Missouri producers.
Immediately everyone started
blaming the packers. I couldn’t understand
that. If you make it harder to do business in a
state, the packers are going to go to a state
that wants their business and makes it easier to
do business.
When they did start buying in
Missouri again, my second prediction came true.
Everyone is getting the same price, the low
price. I have already received calls from
producers complaining they no longer get the
premiums they used to.
The reason is that if they
receive them and someone else doesn’t, the
packers are opening themselves up to potential
lawsuits. These are not large corporations that
are calling me. They are local family farmers
just trying to stay in business.
I am trying to keep this column
from sounding like an ‘I told you so’
piece. I have always stated that very rarely is
government intervention the answer. In this case,
there wasn’t a problem. Too many legislators
decided they would go after a large industry and
force some changes.
Now we are stuck with the
changes and we do have a problem. Unfortunately,
the problem that was created is being paid for by
the small farmers of Missouri and the packers are
actually benefiting because of the lower prices
they are paying. Nothing still beats the free
market to set prices.
As usual, I can be reached at
House Post Office, State Capitol, Jefferson City,
MO 65101, or 1-800-878-7126, or
mhohulin@services.state.mo.us for your questions,
comments, or advice.
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