404 TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 



nations were excessive, and we liave been gatliering information which 

 we hope will result in lower valuations at subsequent hearings. 



2. Following the advances of August 25, 1920, the American Farm Bu- 

 reau Federation asked immediately for reductions on some of the commo- 

 dities which were hardest hit and was successful in a few cases and in 

 particular regions. The first important reduction case was the live stock 

 case of last April, at which we appeared in conjunction with certain live 

 stock associations, but no other farm organization, asking immediate re- 

 duction on live stock rates. We were successful in securing a 20 per cent 

 reduction on the longer hauls of live stock. This did not affect the Iowa 

 producer, but was of much value to the range man. 



3. In August we entered into an extensive case before the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission at Washington for reductions on hay and grain 

 shipments in connection with the state railroad commissions in states 

 west of the Mississippi river. The case was filed jointly by the Commis- 

 sions of the States and the American Farm Bureau Federation. No other 

 farm organization rendered any financial assistance. None of them gave 

 any testimony or entered any protest whatsoever with the single excep- 

 tion of the Grain Dealers of Nebraska, who presented one witness. This 

 hearing lasted throughout three weeks and has resulted in a reduction 

 of rates amounting, on an average, to 16 per cent. 



4. Because of the slowness with which the Interstate Commerce Com- 

 mission reached its decisions and the expense of long drawn-out hearings 

 and because of the uncertainty of any relief regarding rates through 

 legislation, and after conference with members of the Executive Committee 

 recently, I called personally upon a number of railroad executives, urging 

 upon them the seriousness of the farmer's condition, and the part which 

 transportation had had in the whole economic depression, and urged 

 general freight reductions as the quickest and most potent remedy. 



At adjournment the executives promised they would submit this demand 

 to the Executive Committee of the railroad executives, which they did 

 October 8th. This Committee approved the proposition with an imme- 

 diate 10 per cent reduction on agricultural products and subsequent reduc- 

 tions as I had asked for, but submitted it October 14th to a meeting of all 

 the railroad executives in the country, which meeting did not at that time 

 approve it, but which did approve later reductions as operating expenses 

 decreased. 



You are now getting, as a result of the work of the American Farm 

 Bureau Federation, 10 per cent or more reduction on all your commodities 

 with a definite recorded pledge for subsequent reductions as operating 

 expenses decrease without the expense or delays of extended hearings. 

 This reduction is effective, under agreement, for six months, and on the 

 basis of the estimate that the farmer pays in excess of two billion five 

 hundred million dollars freight every year, the 10 per cent reduction, 

 alone, is saving for the farmers of America in outgoing freight many 

 millions of dollars. 



Some people raise a hue and cry against "big business," and a few have 

 warned me to stay away from all conferences with railroad interests, 

 packers, bankers and others of the so-called "big guns." My reply has 

 always been that I am the representative of the biggest interest in Amer- 



