FIFTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 593 



We went to President Wilson with the thought. He indorsed it; said 

 he could not make it an administrative measure, but would indorse it 

 and support it wherever people consulted him. That resulted in the 

 selection of one attorney to represent all the people of the United States 

 as their advocate, Mr. Ferrall, at a salary of $6,000 a year. The rail- 

 roads have ex-Governor Hadley, of Missouri, at a salary of $25,000 a 

 year; Pierce Butler, of Minnesota, and half a dozen other lawyers, con- 

 stantly on the job, with all of their corps of experts. The thought oc- 

 curred to me that the representation on the other side was almost hope- 

 lessly inadequate. 



What are you doing today to offset the efforts of the carriers to make 

 that valuation large? That valuation is going to be the basis of your 

 rates, state and interstate, for the coming generation or longer. Whoever 

 buys the railroads, that will be the basis of the valuation upon which the 

 purchase is made. What are you doing to see that that is not being made 

 too large? If a railroad condemns a little tract of your land, and has a 

 jury trial on the valuation of that property, you hire attorneys and go to 

 enormous trouble to see that your side is presented properly. The judge 

 may be honest, but you are going to play safe; you try to see that he 

 has the facts on your side. A case comes up before the supreme court of 

 the United States; the Standard Oil Company is involved. The supreme 

 court is certainly an able body of men; but do you leave it to the supreme 

 court to decide it and take care of your side? Does the Standard Oil 

 Company leave it to the supreme court to take care of its interests? Not 

 for a single instant; they are there from the beginning to the end. Now, 

 what are you going to do in this national appraisement? 



You say you have selected a railroad commission to look after your 

 interests. That is true; we have to do with over $300,000,000 of property 

 in Iowa; our time is occupied in various matters. Valuation requires the 

 expert assistance of engineers, etc. 



I went to the committee on Retrenchment and Reform of the last 

 session of the legislature. I urged upon them that the state of Iowa 

 should employ two or three expert engineers to gather cost data, to in- 

 spect values in this state, to prepare facts and figures to present to the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission in connection with this valuation, to 

 see that the Iowa values were not exaggerated. I wanted to feel sure 

 that the facts were being gathered correctly when the railroads are 

 gathering their evidence; I wanted to know the other side of the story. 

 If you are called upon to decide any question, and you listen to only 

 one side, your attitude or position on that subject is liable to be biased 

 and one-sided. The committee on Retrenchment and Reform unanimously 

 indorsed my position, and passed a set of resolutions recommending that 

 the executive council provide for taking care of this proposition. All 

 of the members of the executive council indorsed the proposition except 

 one, who was out of the city. When the governor returned, he took the 

 position that the present act, allowing them to make expenditures of 

 that character, provided that they could do so in any proceeding in 

 which the state was interested or a party. The word "proceeding," he 

 said, meant a case in court; it did not mean a case before the Interstate 

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