FIFTEENTH AXXUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IX. 605 



Four years ago, I wrote a little story on railroad expenses and earn- 

 ings for the Saturday Evening Post, and they accepted it by telegraph. 

 In order to get it into an early issue, they wanted to locate me for the 

 reading of the proof. They paid me ?100 for a half a page, and it took 

 me about an hour to dictate it to the stenographer. I would like to make 

 money at that rate a few more hours of my life! I said, "You can't 

 possibly get that into the Saturday Evening Post; they have editorially 

 endorsed the advance repeatedly." I do not think Mr'. Lorimer or his 

 force are dishonest, not for one instant. I believe he has been persuaded 

 by the great, strong, shrewd, capable men like President Rea of the 

 Pennsylvania, and other citizens of Philadelphia. 



One of the gentlemen at the table said: "I can arrange for a con- 

 ference between you and Lorimer, and you can surround him for a little 

 while, and see if you can't offset the effect of those former conferences." 

 I told him that he couldn't get that conference. I didn't speak from ex- 

 perience, because I had submitted no article to the Saturday Evening 

 Post upon this subject, or to any other leading magazine in the country, 

 but I knew from their attitude, from what they were publishing, that he 

 couldn't do it. He excused himself from the table and went to the long 

 distance phone. When he returned, he said it was Saturday afternoon, 

 Mr. Lorimer was out of his office, and all the- force were gone, and it was 

 impossible to get hold of him, but he said he would write to Mr. Lorimer 

 immediately, and before I got home there would be a telegram or letter 

 started to me requesting me to stop off at Philadelphia on my next trip 

 east for a conference. 



Mr. Herbert Quick said: "And, Thorne, just to make this thing doubly 

 sure, I will take it up immediately with Collier's, and you will get a 

 telegram from them requesting a story, and you can take your choice. 



I will also see that the United Press Association has your story and your 

 picture." 



And the editor of the eastern paper said: "You can have two columns 

 of my paper any time you want them. I will contribute my little mite to 

 the cause." 



That was Saturday afternoon, last spring. That is Chapter I. Chapter 



II is as follows: I get home to Des Moines, and there is no telegram 

 from Collier's, and no letter from Lorimer; but there is a letter from this 

 gentleman in the east, enclosing a letter that he had just written to 

 Lorimer, and got a reply to by the next mail, declining any conference. 

 One man in the group did make good. Herbert Quick arranged with the 

 United Press Association — not the Associated Press, and the story ap- 

 peared, I understand, in something like 500 papers throughout the coun- 

 try, with my picture. 



The next time I was in Washington, the editor of that eastern paper 

 amazed me. I received a copy of the paper one evening when Mr. Smith, 

 president of the New York Central, had testified on direct examination 

 that his company was going to the devil as fast as it could, and on cross- 

 examination admitted that their net earnings were higher than any year 

 before in their history, except 1910; and that they made over 11 per cent 

 on all their stock outstanding. Then Mr. Clements, that distinguished 



