TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 459 



fairness of these rates brought up. Our fight was made, not on the ques- 

 tion whether the roads were getting a fair return for the service, at all; 

 It was made on this question: that Iowa was being discriminated against 

 compared with shippers in other states. 



We said: "If you can make rates from Missouri to Chicago for so much; 

 if you can make rates from Wisconsin to Chicago for so much, then Iowa 

 is entitled to rates of so much." It was on that that we got the re-group- 

 ing and a considerable reduction. The later advances asked for in 1915 

 and in 1917 were asked for on the basis of reasonableness, and the fight 

 there was on a wholly different set of issues. 



From now on — and this is a matter that I want to make plain — this 

 whole question of railroad rates is likely to be approached from the stand- 

 point of fairness of returns to the railroads. Now, you see there is a tre- 

 mendous difference between making a fight on the basis of discrimination 

 and making a fight on the basis of reasonableness of returns, and it is 

 going to take a lot more work to prepare a case on the latter issue than 

 on the former. 



I bring your attention to this point because you people are represent- 

 ing the only organization that I know of that can make the fight, that 

 have the money to make the fight, and are prepared to build up the organi- 

 zation necessary to carry it through. It is not going to be an easy fight. 

 It is going to be a very difficult one, yet a tremendously important one, 

 because the change in a railVoad rate will move your farm 100 miles or 

 200 miles nearer the market, or 200, 300 or 500 miles farther away from 

 the market. As land goes up and expenses increase, a little change in 

 rates may make all the difference between profits and loss in your 

 business. 



So, as I look at it, in the next three, four or five years, there isn't any 

 other question that will carry as much financial importance to the farmers 

 of Iowa as this question of railroad rates. During this war period the 

 railroads have been under the control of the government and we have 

 not been able to do anything. Probably the railroad bill now pending 

 will be passed before March 1, and then this whole question of rates will 

 be once more thrown open before us. The railroad people are on the job. 

 They are studying all these things. The Iowa farmer will have to be on 

 the job much more efficiently than he has ever had to be before, if he 

 expects to get a fair deal compared with the farmers of other states, and 

 also based upon the reasonableness of returns to the railroads. 



Now, what is the lesson you can draw from the experience of the Corn 

 Belt Meat Producers' Association? As I see it it is very clear. The asso- 

 ciation succeeded because it studied the game. When Mr. Thorne, acting 

 for the association, went before the Iowa Commission or the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission he went loaded with the goods, with definite in- 

 formation. He knew exactly what he was talking about. It was the re- 

 sult of weeks and months of study, of the work of a great number of clerks 

 and statisticians, and he was loaded to meet the railroad people on their 

 own grounds. 



Let me give an illustration of what I mean. In the Iowa rate case 

 Thorne and I did what work we could — prepared the exhibits ourselves. 



