TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 439 



Hogan, your fellow citizen, tells me that he doesn't have a single, soli- 

 tary delinquent loan in the state of Iowa, out of 23-miIlions of it. 

 (Applause.) 



Let's go one step further. What is the Pennsylvania railroad doing 

 when it wants money? Does it try to float a bond on a steam engine 

 or a shovel or a pick? Oh no! It gets together all its assets, its picks, 

 its shovels, its engines, its rolling-stock, its good-will, puts a blanket 

 mortgage on them and issues a short-term certificate on them and sells 

 the certificate. The Southern railroad is doing that right now, and it is 

 paying nearly 11% for its money. The Standard Oil Company, as I 

 recall it, did the same thing not long ago. There is not a big business 

 concern in the country that you can hardly mention that doesn't finance 

 itself by the issuance of short-term certificates, or long-term mortgages, 

 held against its collective assets. Isn't that true, Mr. Simpson? And yet 

 we have two of the essential necessities of the human race. There are 

 just three things you have got to have. You have got to eat, and that 

 means bread; to go into decent society you must wear clothing, and that 

 means cotton or wool; to live you have got to have something to keep you 

 warm, and that means fuel. Those three things the human family of 

 necessity must have; the other things come in mighty well, but you 

 could get along without them. Adam and Eve didn't have any railroads, 

 or even a Ford automobile. (Laughter.) And they got along first-rate; 

 and I don't suppose they saw much more than we do with Ford auto- 

 mobiles. (Laughter.) Here you have got your wheat crop and your corn 

 crop; and here we have got our cotton crop. The price of it has dropped 

 from 42c a pound to 13c a pound. The price of your crop has dropper 

 from $1.80 to 50c a bushel; and yet your experts from Ames, the greatest 

 agricultural college in America (Applause and Cheers.), acting with 

 these gentlemen, as is shown in this gentleman's paper, compute that 

 the cost of producing corn is 93c a bushel in the state of Iowa. 



If the Pennsylvania railroad can pool its assets and get money, why 

 cannot we pool our assets and get money? What is our security? It is 

 the best security in the world, because the human family must have it. 

 Did you ever try to eat a steam engine? (Laughter.) Did you ever try 

 to use a shovel for a shirt (Laughter.), or a pick for a pair of breeches? 

 (Laughter.) On the other hand, did you ever try to go without bread 

 long? Or did you ever try to walk down the streets of Des Moines with- 

 out breeches on? (Laughter.) It is inconceivable to me, my fellow 

 citizens, that the genius of America is not able to conceive a piece of 

 machinery which will make available for credit such assets as cotton, 

 corn, wool, wheat, and the absolute necessities of life. If we cannot 

 do it, we do not measure up to that high quality of genius which I at- 

 tribute to the American people. 



And how will you do it? You have got the laws already; you have 

 got the Grain Grades Act, both state and federal, that assures you a com- 

 petent, impartial grading of your products; you have got your Ware- 

 house Act, both state and federal. I was the author myself of the Federal 

 Warehouse Act. Your grain goes into your warehouse, it is graded, it is 

 insured, the warehouseman is bonded, the warehouse is open to the in- 



