592 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM. 



By Clifford Thome. 



I suppose some woodpeckers can carry all of their stuff in their 

 heads; I can't, I have to bring my satchel along. (Laughter), The fact 

 is, I thought this fellow was going to get thru too soon and I didn't have 

 enough material to carry me until my train leaves. (Laughter). The 

 chairman told you that my train leaves at 1:20. (Laughter). 



I am always glad to get back amongst my old friends here in Iowa. 

 At the present moment we are in the midst of a period of gloom and 

 despondency, altho we like to meet each other. We are conscious of a 

 depressing situation in industry generally, such as is unparalleled in my 

 memory. There are several forces that have helped to bring this about. 

 Persons looking and thinking about one thing have a tendency to re- 

 member that there are other things and forces in existence besides that 

 one with which they are at the moment concerned. 



With the enormous population over in Europe at work in war enter- 

 prises and in the armies, there was a tremendous demand for all the 

 products that industry and agriculture could supply; but when that body 

 of men got back to work on their farms and in their factories, to a cer- 

 tain extent it was natural for that unprecedented demand to fall down. 

 I am told that today there are between one-third and one-fourth of the 

 population in Germany without the means of subsistence. I am told 

 that there are 15,000,000 people in China who are starving, and only 

 about 500,000 can be saved. That is not due to the war, but that catas- 

 trophe happens at the same time that these other incidents occur. I am 

 told (I don't know how accurate it is) that there are something like 

 3,000,000 people in this country that are out of work. I am told that 

 there has been a tremendous change in money exchange, creating havoc, 

 chaos, ruin. We have witnessed governments overturned; the falling 

 off of demand for our surplus from across the waters. All of these dif- 

 ferent factors have contributed toward the result of which we are tonight 

 conscious. 



And while I would like to discuss some of those other questions — 

 finance, corporations, efforts to bring about credit relief, and so on — I 

 am going to try to avoid spreading out too thin; I am going to concen- 

 trate a little bit on a few specific problems with which I have had to 

 deal during the past year. I have served as your attorney and you are 

 entitled to a report of the work that has been done. But before I close, 

 I do want to discuss briefly some of these other subjects that have been 

 challenging my attention during the past twelve months. 



We are entitled to discuss our own problems specifically to see if 

 we are receiving our fair dues. I want to make a comment or two about 

 the Federal Reserve Bank. I want to make a comment or two about our 

 railroads, and how our government has treated them as compared to the 

 way we have been treated. You know, the thought runs in my mind that 

 the production of food is pretty nearly as important as the production 

 of transportation! I am going to talk about those things rather frankly. 

 First as to my report: 



