482 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 



We try not to antagonize them any more than we can possibly help; 

 and while we may have been given credit for other than that, you can 

 take it from me that it is not so. We have been busy enough looking 

 after our own business without bothering the other fellow. 



(President Horlacher presiding.) 



President Horlacher: I know we have all appreciated Mr. 

 Doty's talk. While he didn't tell us how to raise and feed our 

 live stock, Mr. Doty has tried to tell us something about the sell- 

 ing end of it. We have with us now a man who needs no intro- 

 duction. In fact, he is far better known in this state than I am. 

 He is going to tell us something about transportation. I am 

 pleased at this time to present Doctor Nourse, of the Iowa State 

 College, who will talk on transportation. 



RAILROAD RATE PROBLEMS 

 BY PROF. E. G. NOURSE 



Mr. Chairman, and Gentlemen: I think the chairman was just about 

 right, friends, when he said I was going to tell you something of trans- 

 portation, as related to live stock. I think that it is possible that the 

 most of what I may say relates to something other than what is set down 

 as the topic of my talk this afternoon — Railroad Rate Problems. 



I can not forego the opportunity, however, of saying something about 

 the work that we have been doing up at the college in connection with 

 the economic side of the live stock industry, and I think it is logical 

 enough to begin with that, because what I say about transportation sim- 

 ply grows out of a program of work reaching back a number of years, and 

 I want to run over very hastily what we have done there. So it will be 

 something in the nature of a report upon that live stock marketing work, 

 and also I think I am justified in taking this opportunity in connection 

 with that to explain somewhat our attitude, our conclusions, with refer- 

 ence to this whole co-operative live stock shipping and selling problem. 



This is the last time I shall have an opportunity to appear before you 

 as the representative of that line of work, and it seems to me that it is 

 such an important time in connection with the whole development of 

 that, that I hope you will bear with me if my story seems to be a little 

 bit long. 



Now when the agricultural economics section of the college was es- 

 tablished and began its work a few years ago, we had one idea in mind, 

 namely, that we would not scatter our energies. Our offices and person- 

 nel were limited; we could not afford to scatter our energies over a lot 

 of fields. We had to pick out one field which we considered of para- 

 mount importance, one subject which was timely, and to start in at some 

 logical place on that and to stay with it until we got through to some 

 place which would result in doing something of real, permanent, con 

 structive benefit. 



You will have to be the judge of whether we have done that or not, 

 but I state at the beginning that that much is what we have been trying 



