460 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



We had no money to work with and no other help. We studied the Mis- 

 souri rates that I have spoken of. Now, in Missouri at that time some 

 rates were fixed by the legislature and some were fixed by the railroads 

 themselves. When we ran onto that I wrote a letter to the secretary of 

 the Railroad Commission in Missouri and got a statement from him with 

 regard to the rates fixed by the legislature and those fixed by the rail- 

 roads. In other words the statutory rates and the voluntary rates. 



I filed that letter away with my papers. On the stand one day I intro- 

 duced one of those Missouri rates, and after I got through the attorney 

 for one of the railroads said something like this: 



"Mr. Wallace, this testimony has been quite interesting. Evidently you 

 have put in a good deal of work preparing these figures, but I am sorry 

 you didn't speak to me about it first. You have assumed that these rates 

 in Missouri which you have shown to be lower than the rates in Iowa are 

 rates fixed by the railroads, haven't you?" 



I said, "In most cases, yes." 



"Didn't you know," he questioned me, "that those rates are fixed by the 

 legislature and not by the railroads?" 



"No." 



"I don't mean to doubt your honesty," he went on, and he was as keen 

 and suave as you please, then turning to the commission, "These rates 

 are fixed by the legislature and the railroads have nothing to do with 

 them." 



Well, I knew better, but I thought I would wait until I had the evidence. 

 That letter was in my office, instead of in my pocket, and as it was noon 

 the case was adjourned. Instead of going down to lunch in the state house 

 I went to the office and got the letter from the secretary of the Missouri 

 Railroad Commission. During the afternoon session I went on the stand, 

 and I said, "I would like, before we go into any further matters, to make 

 a statement about those Missouri rates." Up jumped the lawyer and 

 said: "I want to make a statement about that too, Mr. Chairman. After 

 adjournment one of my colleagues spoke to me about it. It seems I was 

 a little hasty about what I said." 



Just headed me off, you see. He knew well enough he was lying about 

 it, but he thought he would catch me off my guard, don't you see? And 

 they did that all the way through. They were nice gentlemen, but they 

 were playing the game from their own standpoint, and the message to you 

 gentlemen is that you have got to be loaded and ready to play it from 

 your standpoint. 



It is like trying to buy a horse from your neighbor. You make up 

 your mind just exactly what you think the animal is worth, and you don't 

 get together on a basis of good fellowship or anything else. If you cannot 

 agree you don't trade. You have got to follow the same policy. You have 

 got to get your facts and then fight for them. 



Now, in every organization like this — we have it in the Corn Belt Meat 

 Producers' Association — there are three general classes of men. First, 

 there are the radicals. They cuss and damn the middleman or the fellows 

 they are fighting, just on general principles. They relieve their feelings 

 and that is about all they get out of it. 



