606 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



old commissioner, leaned forward and said: "Doesn't it rather look as if 

 perhaps during the last few years you have been getting away from the 

 devil as fast as you could?" Not one word of that cross-examination ap- 

 peared in that eastern daily, but most of the direct examination was 

 printed. That same paper had an editorial endorsing the advance. And 

 one of the leading newspaper associations of this country sent out all over 

 the United States an account of the direct testimony and none of the 

 cross-examination of Mr. Smith. 



A day or so later, I was invited out to luncheon at the home of a 

 friend back east. He invited that other gentleman, the editor, to be 

 present at the luncheon, with his wife. I went out to his home. On the 



way out, I said: "What under the sun has happened to our friend, ?" 



"Thorne," he replied, "don't twit him about that. He could not help it. 

 He is a hired man." During that whole evening that hired man was 

 condemning the action of the carriers, and praising my attitude on the 

 whole subject! 



One other thing. You have perhaps noticed the statement that I did 

 not have authority to represent those for whom I was speaking. Resolu- 

 tions were of record in the office of the state commission giving that 

 authority. And, further, there is a little fact that may not have attracted 

 your attention. Week before last, the National Association of Railway 

 Commissioners, composed of all the commissions in the United States, 

 including the Interstate Commerce Commission, unanimously elected me 

 their president; and before the conclusion of that national meeting, they 

 unanimously passed a resolution endorsing my work in regard to the ad- 

 vanced rate case. Have you seen that in any of your Associated Press 

 dispatches? 



My time is just about up, but I want to tell you about the Chicago 

 Board of Trade; I must say a word about it. The president of the 

 Chicago Board of Trade led us to believe they were going to help us in 

 this grain fight. Later, the fact developed that the Chicago Board of 

 Trade doesn't care one iota what advance is made on your grain. They 

 are not the people who pay the bill; it is you folk who pay it. At first, 

 we thought the Chicago Board of Trade was going to stay by us and 

 help us in the case, because it affected the grain traffic in general — a 

 broad-minded position to take. But it was discovered by their traffic 

 manager, a former employe of the Illinois Central Roalroad, that there 

 was a slight preference of one cent a hundred pounds on traffic to the 

 east that did not apply to shipments from other grain centers, and be- 

 cause of that slight preference it became the controlling factor, compelling 

 the Chicago Board of Trade to say, through its president, that because of 

 the division in sentiment among their directors, they had decided not to 

 take part in the case. 



If that case is going to be presented, you men will have to stand behind 

 it and fight it through. I have asked the grain men to help. I think the 

 Meat Producers' Association ought to help. We need from $5,000 to 

 $10,000 to employ a corps of accountants and experts to do nothing else 

 but work on these general advances that affect the producers and con- 

 sumers of the middle west. 



