398 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



prudence, and we liave got to re-establish the old principles of economy 

 which characterized the men who made this great state in our land. 



When I was in conference down at Washington, some of the congress- 

 men there — not alone from Iowa, but some to whom I had written who I 

 had known when I was in congress myself — I thought displayed a little 

 impatience with me for writing so much. They said "You have given a 

 lot of free advice," and I said "Yes, since I have quit practicing law, my 

 advice is free to everybody." And they continued "You have been talking 

 about the deplorable conditions in Iowa and elsewhere — what would you 

 do if you were here?" and I replied "That is a fair question, and I don't 

 intend to try to shirk it." "What would you do for the relief of agricul- 

 ture if you were in congress and had the responsibility," they inquired, 

 "Well," I said, "That is a fair question and I am going to undertake to 

 answer it. In the first place, I would bring all the pressure in the govern- 

 ment to bear toward a reduction of freight rates in the United States. 

 Everybody concedes that they are extortionate at this time and they are 

 having the effect on the farmer to throttle his market, and the business- 

 man to impede his trade, and on the manufacturer to close down his 

 shop." Why, twenty years ago nobody would have expected that the time 

 would ever come when the great carrier corporations of our country would 

 exact such tribute as they are now receiving. 



Well, I must pass from freight rates. One of the congressmen down 

 there said "What further?" I said "We have 120-million bushels of sur- 

 plus corn in Iowa — old corn — corn of 1919 and 1920. I agree that we 

 ought to have sold it, but we didn't sell it. Some of us were offered $1.70 

 a bushel for it and we thought maybe it would go to $2.00 and we held 

 on; others couldn't get freight cars to ship it. Anyhow, there is 120 million 

 bushels of old corn there. The foreign governments owe the United 

 States 1 billion 250 million dollars of accrued interest on loans we made 

 them during the war," and I said, "If I were running this thing I would 

 collect one-half of the interest due us on foreign loans; I would come out 

 to the Mississippi valley and would buy every bushel of corn here at 50 

 cents a bushel, ship it to Armenia and give it to the starving people of 

 the world." Why not? There isn't a week goes by that somebody doesn't 

 appeal to your generosity out of your private fund to relieve distress some 

 place in the world, and we have got to do it as humanitarian people, so 

 let's do it in the manner suggested and save the starving babes and at the 

 same time create a market for the products of the farm. Let me say this 

 to you, our situation here will not be substantially or permanently relieved 

 merely by the extension of credit. This is not a question exclusively of 

 credits. Wliat we want is not some arrangement made by which we can 

 borrow money from Peter to pay Paul. What we want is a condition cre- 

 ated whereby we can sell what we have produced at a fair profit and 

 liquidate old debts, instead of incurring new debts. That is what we want 

 in Iowa. "Well," one of those congressmen (not from Iowa, however) 

 said, "That's pure paternalism." And I replied, "What is section 15-a of 

 the transportation act except paternalism? We selected one industry in 

 that act, and," I said, "no matter how prostrate agriculture is, no matter 

 how universal unemployment is, this industry must have 6 per cent on an 

 inflated investment —what is that but paternalism?" 



