TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 457 



You will notice, over in this nose that sticks out of Iowa into Illinois, 

 that it is not practicable to make them without changing the Illinois rates, 

 but when you get away from that locality you will note a change. The re- 

 grouping of rates made a very substantial change. It threw the 23i^-cent 

 zone clear over to here (indicating on the cliart). We weren't able to get 

 a reduction in that corner, but it was a very substantial difference else- 

 where, as you will see. The saving to shippers, as near as we could esti- 

 mate, was from $100,000 to $150,000 a year, depending, of course, upon the 

 annual shipments of stock, and that saving has been continued ever since. 

 At the same time we got a ruling from the commission putting in the cattle 

 rate and the cattle minimum on double-deck cars for sheep, which was a 

 very substantial saving for our men, especially in the Northwest. 



Along with fighting these rate problems the officers of the association 

 took up and approved other matters of interest to live stock shippers and 

 farmers. For example, the commission charges and practices in Chicago, 

 the use of the Bubbly Creek water which cattle would not drink and conse- 

 quently did not get a decent fill, and other things which I might mention, 

 but your time is too short for them. 



Shortly after we organized we had a talk with Mr. Thorne, a young law- 

 yer down in Washington county. Thorne had not given any attention to 

 railroad rates at that time but he had been studying certain oil rates. He 

 became very much interested. He was our attorney in both the Iowa rate 

 case and the Interstate Commerce rates, and it would be amusing to hear 

 how much we paid him for that work. We paid him for' that Iowa case the 

 grand sum of $200, while the rest of us worked for nothing, and we paid him 

 nothing for the Interstate Commerce case. 



In 1910 when the railroads were going to put on a general advance in 

 freight rates, we had been accumulating evidence, and I think Mr. Thorne 

 is entitled to the credit of preventing that general advance in 1910. We 

 had the organization by that time, and were able to speak with some as- 

 surance on the question of railroad rates. 



This work was carried on by a mere handful of men. I don't remember 

 just what our membership was in this state, not much over 1500, I think, 

 and they contributed ten, twenty-five, fifty or a hundred dollars each. The 

 members of the association gave their time. I see Mr. Ames, the first vice 

 president of the association, here in the room. He gave his time without 

 charge and had a very small expense account. And it came to us that we 

 were doing a work which while of benefit to those contributing to its sup- 

 port, was of exactly the same benefit to those who were not contributing 

 and to the state at large. In other words, it is just as much benefit to the 

 business men of this state that the farmers have fair freight rates as to 

 anybody else. It simply saved that much to the state. 



We concluded that the Iowa Railroad Commission should become the 

 active body — the law made it necessary — and yet I doubt if a member of 

 the commission at that time would have known a freight rate if he had 

 met it coming up the street. I had in my office at that time a more com- 

 plete book of Iowa freight rates than the commission itself had. So we 

 decided that the railroad commission should be reorganized and placed 

 upon the sort of basis where it could do business for It. The result wa3 



