456 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



Then the question arose, should the association that had got tliese re- 

 sults disband or continue? They talked it over and decided to continue. 

 After two or three meetings of the directors it was decided to make an in- 

 vestigation of live stock freight rates in Iowa. As a result of this inves- 

 tigation it was found that there had been only one change in live stock 

 freight rates in fifteen or twenty years, and that had been an increase. 



You older shippers will remember that they used to establish the car 

 rate without regard to how much was in it. Then they weighed the cars 

 for a period of months to find out what the loading was, and when they 

 made the charge it was from so many dollars per car to so much per hun- 

 dred pounds, and that brought about an increase in the rate. This had 

 been the only change in Iowa rates for fifteen or twenty years. 



We brought a case before the Iowa commission and asked for a reduc- 

 tion of Iowa rates. The Iowa law says that rates in Iowa shall be no 

 greater than the rates in similar territory under similar conditions. So 

 we made a study of rates in the state of Illinois and in the state of Mis- 

 souri as being two states similar to Iowa in general conditions. We 

 found that rates in Illinois were about 23 per cent to 25 per cent lower 

 than in Iowa, while in Missouri we found some of the rates considerably 

 lower and others higher than under our own law. 



- To make a long story short, we won that case and got a freight reduc- 

 tion of 18 per cent on roads in the state of Iowa. That was about 5 per cent 

 less than the rates in Illinois. The commission ruled that that was a fair 

 differential, because of the heavy traffic in Illinois, and perhaps they were 

 right. As nearly as could be estimated, that reduction made a saving of 

 from $50,000 to $60,000 a year to Iowa stockmen and farmers. We also got 

 a reduction of from 25 per cent to 50 per cent on rates for feeding sheep. 



The next year we began the investigation of station rates from Iowa 

 points to Chicago. The Iowa railroad law, passed back in the eighties, 

 makes it the duty of the Iowa Railroad Commission to at once undertake 

 to reduce any rates which Iowa shippers must pay if they are higher than 

 rates which shippers in other states are required to pay, those states being 

 where shipping conditions are the same. 



We found a most interesting condition with regard to rates in Iowa, and 

 I want to show it to you in the form of a chart. These are the rates on 

 cattle as they prevailed at the time we attacked that case. You will notice 

 that they start over on the Mississippi River at 14 cents a hundred pounds. 

 Then they advance every time the train stops until they get into a large, 

 21-cent zone. The next is a 22-cent zone, followed by a very small 22 V^- 

 cent zone. Then you will see that the rate for cattle from the west half 

 of the state was 23i/^ cents to Chicago, while up in this northwest corner 

 they run to 25 cents. 



We studied the rates from other states to Chicago. We took all of the 

 rates from Wisconsin to Chicago, and we took all the rates from Iowa to 

 Chicago, every twelve miles across the state. We took the rates from Wis- 

 consin to Chicago and from Missouri to Chicago. We found the rates very 

 much lower with a tremendous differential at Kansas City. It was a hard 

 fought case, but here is the approximate result: 



