FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 591 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The President : We have with lis this afternoon a man whom 

 I feel it hardly worth while for me to introduce, the Corn Belt 

 members know him so well. He is a man whom we hold in the 

 highest regard of anyone who has ever associated with us. It gives 

 me the greatest pleasure to present to you Hon. Clifford Thorne, 

 chairman of the Iowa Railroad Commission. 



ADDRESS BY HON. CLIFFORD THORNE. 



Next to my home folks, there is no body of people in the world that 

 it gives me greater pleasure to meet than the Corn Belt Meat Producers' 

 Association. You folks, I feel, are sort of fathers to me, all of you to- 

 gether in one great big lump. I owe all that I have to you. 



I have been trying to do what I thought was right as between you 

 people and the railroads. As to interstate matters, I have tried to act 

 as your attorney as well as the counsel for the other consumers and 

 shippers of the state of Iowa. That duty is cast upon me by law and 

 the statute that was enacted in the year 1908. 



In the course of my remarks this afternoon, I am not going to dis- 

 cuss state matters that come before the state railroad commission. As 

 I have repeatedly stated before you on previous occasions, I think it 

 would be highly improper for me to do so. As to interstate matters, 

 where I occupy the position of prosecuting attorney on your behalf, I 

 do propose to discuss with you very frankly what is going on, what 

 is being accomplished, and what can be anticipated in the immediate fu- 

 ture. I know that the attorneys for the railroads have that kind of con- 

 ferences with their clients, and I don't see any reason why I should 

 not have such conferences with my clients. I propose to do so, any-, 

 way, as long as the law remains as it is today, and as long as I occupy 

 my present position. 



You have different sorts of problems and questions confronting you. 

 You always have the poor with you. You have always had and always will 

 have questions of tariff, prison reforms, etc., etc. But in each genera- 

 tion a few great problems loom up above all others, as of supreme im- 

 portance. 



During the latter part of the eighteenth century, regulation of the 

 control of governmental agencies was of supreme importance. The 

 writings of Tom Paine and others aroused the people to the necessity 

 for some sort of a change in the control of governmental agencies. 

 Tyranny of governments had aroused the people to action. That prob- 

 lem overshadowed all others in importance. 



In the middle of the nineteenth century came the great Civil War — 

 that tremendous upheaval that threatened the disintegration of this 



