458 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



we persuaded Mr. Thorne to run for railroad commissioner and put the 

 office on a business basis. 



You know the history of that, and since that time the railroad commis- 

 sion has had a complete file of railroad tariffs, and you can get a rate from 

 Iowa points to anywhere else, or from anywhere else to Iowa points by 

 simply dropping a line to the department. You now have a working or- 

 ganization and it dates from the time Mr. Thorne went in there. 



At that time the law required that the railroad commission should as- 

 sume the entire burden for securing fair rates for Iowa as compared with 

 points in other states. We had been doing this through an attorney em- 

 ployed by a small group of farmers and stockmen. It was a benefit to 

 everyone, so why shouldn't the state employ an attorney to act for all? 



So we drafted what is called, the commerce counsel bill, provided for 

 an official who shall work with the railroad commission and whose duty 

 it shall be to look into all matters of freight rates, to represent the peo- 

 ple of Iowa before the Interstate Commerce Commission, before the Iowa 

 Railroad Commission, and in the courts wherever our rates were at stake. 

 They beat us on that the first year, and then the secoiid year, but by the 

 third year there were quite a number of Corn Belt Meat Producers in the 

 legislature. 



The association never went into politics, yet quite a number of our 

 members became interested in local communities — perhaps the associa- 

 tion was guilty of contributory negligence in permitting them to get in — 

 and that year we got the commerce counsel bill through and Judge Hen- 

 derson of Indianola was appointed Commerce Counsel. 



From that time on we have had efficient help from the Commerce Coun- 

 sel and the Railroad Commission. When the proposal came to cut out 

 75 per cent on the feeding cattle and hogs the commission was well or- 

 ganized for work. The railroads served notice they would cut that out. 

 Judge Henderson and Mr. Sykes were the chief men to make that fight. 

 They beat the railroads on it, and as near as I can estimate resulted In 

 a saving every year since that time of right around $300,000 to Iowa 

 feeders. That is almost as much as you have raised this year. 



I want to tell you of the activities of the association In fighting the 

 general rate advances in 1915-17. I was In Chicago that time when we 

 were getting ready for it, and Mr. Thorne, the country lawyer that we had 

 hired for $200 the first year to fight our battles, was the chief attorney in 

 that fight. I went with him one night about midnight to three different 

 Ebtels, and during that trip around" we found something over a hundred 

 clerks and statisticians hard at work at midnight working over exhibits, 

 all under the direction of Mr. Thorne. It was quite a growth from the 

 country lawyer to the chief of this great controversy. If that proposed 

 advance In 1915 had gone through it would have cost Iowa at least $2,000,- 

 000 a year, but It was defeated by Mr. Thome's efforts, and I think the 

 Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association is entitled to some share of the 

 credit that the advance was defeated, also the later advance in 1917. 



Now, there Is one thing to note in connection with all this. While we 

 were making the fight on the stock rates in Iowa, and the fight on stock 

 rates from Iowa to Chicago, never at any time was the question as to the 



