592 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



nation. The present events transpiring in Europe demonstrate the su- 

 preme importance of that great conflict. If we had had several countries 

 over here in America, instead of the one great, powerful nation that we 

 have, we would probably be wrapped up in similar struggles to that 

 one now going on in Europe. 



The invention of the telegraph and the steam engine, the marvelous 

 industrial developments of the past century, have broght with them 

 some great questions. Chief among those is the regulation of organized 

 wealth, and the most stupendous example of organized wealth in the 

 whole history of civilization is the railroad industry in the United States. 

 .You and I have been studying some phases of this railroad question. 

 We are pioneering in this movement. We are trying to learn the alpha- 

 bet of the subject of governmental regulation. Sometimes the progress 

 seems most miserably slow and unsatisfactory, but here and there, I do 

 feel we are picking up lessons that are worth while. 



One of the first phases of the question that pounded itself into my 

 consciousness was the importance of having an advocate for the public 

 in these controversies before the Interstate Commerce Commission. Be- 

 fore we became very active in the matter, we found the public had 

 provided itself with a deciding tribunal, but they had no advocate to- 

 appear for them. That resulted in our Commerce Counsel law, in the 

 state of Iowa — the first of its kind in the nation. There are other facts 

 that have been gradually coming to the surface during the past two 

 years, that I want to speak of. It has been two years, I think, since I 

 was before this body of men. 



Scarcely had the last session of the legislature adjourned, when the 

 task of valuing the railroads in the United States was commenced. Im- 

 mediately, all of the railroads in the nation united in selecting a com- 

 mittee to represent them in the hearings before the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission. I have attended those conferences. In front there will be 

 a committee of half a dozen men, representing the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission. Before them will be seated one hundred and fifty rail- 

 road experts, lawyers and counsel of all kinds and character; over 

 to one side, perhaps three or four lonely, forlorn-looking railroad com- 

 missioners. I urged upon our Mississippi valley states the absolute neces- 

 sity of having the public represented at these hearings, as they pro- 

 gressed. Fifteen billion dollars' worth of property in this country is 

 being valued. In Michigan they say that there should be a contingent 

 sum allowed of about ten per cent; in Massachusetts and Oklahoma, they 

 say two per cent or less, a variation of eight per cent on that one item. 

 That would mean a variation in your national appraisal of over 

 a billion dollars on that one item. Wisconsin says you should find the 

 cost of acquiring railroad property; then they use this as a sort of a 

 multiple in determing the value of land. That would cost the state 

 of Iowa many millions if that principle were adopted. We have in the 

 state of Iowa over $350,000,000 of railroad property. A variation of ten 

 per cent in that sum means in the neighborhood of $35,000,000. I believe 

 the total revenues of the railroads in this state, on state and interstate 

 traffic, are approximately $80,000,000. A variation of ten per cent would 

 mean $8,000,000 — not in one bulk, but annually. 



