TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 667 



week I received a letter from this gentleman who had called me 

 up and he said "it wasn't forty-eight hours until we had all the 

 cars we needed at our station." I received a message from Mr. 

 Aishton saying that he had gone immediately after that situa- 

 tion out there and found it just as I had represented it, and in- 

 structed the people to furnish those shippers some cars. That's 

 all there is to it! There are lots of times that such instances 

 occur over the country. It is not intentional, or anything of 

 that kind, but they simply happen, and if the matter is called to 

 the attention of the proper officials we can get relief for you, 

 because they don't intend that any community shall be discrim- 

 inated against. It is their intention that all communities receive 

 fair play in the distribution of cars, and they will see to it that 

 those conditions are corrected when they are reported to them. 

 So that, as I see it, while we are not bidding for work, or any- 

 thing of that kind, we are always glad to help our members out 

 if they only remember the fact that there is an organization that 

 can do that. I was in Des Moines not so very long ago, and a 

 friend of mine who is a member of this organization happened 

 to see me and he said, "You are just the fellow I am looking 

 for," He said, "Out in our town the boys are complaining; they 

 have had cars ordered for I don't know how long, and there is 

 stock that they want to see shipped out." He said that one man 

 had some sheep that were getting so heavy that they wouldn't 

 be salable if they weren't marketed soon. This happened to be 

 on the Rock Island line, so I said, "We'll go right up to the 

 Rock Island office and see what can be done," and we took it 

 up with the Rock Island offices here in Des Moines, and within 

 three or four days the whole situation was relieved and the 

 people got sufficient cars to ship the stuff out. Instance after 

 instance of that kind has come to our attention where we have 

 actually given immediate relief to the shippers. 



Now, what I was going to say, as Mr. Harris has said to you 

 — pardon me for taking so much of your time — the time of gov- 

 ernment operation of these roads is very close to termination, we 

 believe. That is, everything points that way — these roads are 

 going back to private ownership. For instance, I can't take these 

 matters up with Mr. Aishton or Mr. Holden at Chicago, who are 

 regional directors of these lines, very much longer ; we must go, 

 then, to the men in charge of the various railroads, and that is 

 another thing that we must bear in mind, that we must act and 

 work properly and directly with the officials of the various lines. 



