392 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



that some four years ago the railroads refused to pay for live stock 

 when it was killed or injured in transit, more than the printed valua- 

 tion in the contract. This action caused the officers of your organiza- 

 tion to bring complaint hefore the Interstate Commerce Commission, 

 asking that tribunal to increase the valuations on the different kinds of 

 live stock, or, rather, to rea^uire the railroads to remove the valuation 

 clause from the contract, thus making the carriers liable for full value. 

 About the same time, the matter was taken up with Senator Cum- 

 mins, anil he agreed to introduce a bill in the form of an amendment to 

 the federal interstate commerce act, which v/ould prevent the railroads 

 from limiting their liabi'ity by contract. Your organization, with others, 

 backed this measure, and finally secured its passage. We also fought 

 out the case before the Interstate Commerce Commi;:sion, and secured 

 through that tribunal, an increase of 50 per cent in the valuations 

 placed in the live stock contracts, without increasing the rate, making 

 the present valuations as follov/s: Horse or mule, .?150; steer, $7.5; 

 cow, $50; hog, $15; sheep, $5. 



The shippers are also given the privilege -of increasing these valu- 

 ations by paying a slightly increased rate; but no shipper should pay a 

 higher rate on the above valuations than the regular printed tariff. 



Unfortunately for the live stock industry, both the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission and the railroads refused to apply the first Cum- 

 mins amendment to the shipment of live stock, and as a result the 

 law was neither a benefit nor a protection to the stock men. When 

 the situation became known. Senator Cummins was requested to in- 

 troduce an amendment to his bill which v/ould specifically meet the 

 approval of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Accordingly, about 

 a year ago, the senator introduced the second amendment, and it finally 

 passed the house of representatives, and was signed by the president 

 on August 15th. It was confidently believed that this second amend- 

 ment fully covered the situation and prevented the carriers from limit- 

 ing their liability on ordinary shipments of live stock, thus making 

 them liable for full value when accidents occurred. However, the rail- 

 roads have not accepted this amendment as binding and are still requir- 

 ing the shipper to place a valuation upon his animals. If he places 

 the valuation above that prescribed by the contract, he is charged a 

 higher rate. So you see the matter is still muddled up. But your 

 officers, along with others, ' are still working on this matter, and we 

 believe it will yet terminate favorably to our interests. 



At this juncture, I wish to drop a word concerning the live stock 

 industry of our state. Immediately following a serious outbreak and 

 devastation by the foot and mouth disease came a period of depression 

 and a succession of heavy losses to the farmers and stockmen; but for 

 the past nine months, prices on all kinds of live stock have been ab- 

 normally high. In fact, we are led to feel that they are dangerously 

 high, and if it were not for the extrem.ely high price of corn and other 

 feedstuffs, stockmen would be reaping a rich harvest. However, we 

 must not be deceived by the conclusion that these inflated prices have 



