TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 125 



into effect it would have cost the farmers and stockmen of this state 

 something like one-half million of dollars yearly additional freight on 

 their stockers and feeders — an amount certainly worth making a fight 

 for. And I will just say that we have made a good case and a strong 

 defense, and it is now up to the commission to determine if the railroads 

 are entitled to the advance in the face of the showing made by the stock- 

 men. 



Then there is another matter just here that I want to call attention 

 to, and that is the Iowa-Chicago rate on sheep, as our members are very 

 much mixed up on this rate. In February of 1910 the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission handed down a supplemental decision in the case of 

 this association against the various railroads, in which we were asking 

 for lower rates on live stock to Chicago. In this supplemental decision 

 the commission say, among other things, that sheep shipped in double 

 deck cars should take the cattle rate and the cattle minimum, and that 

 where a shipper orders a double deck car and reasonable time is given, 

 if the railroads furnish two singles in its stead, the double deck mini- 

 mum rate shall apply. And in closing its decision the commission says 

 that a reasonable time will be given for the railroads to adopt the changes 

 in rates recommended, but if they fail to do so, an order will be issued 

 requiring them to comply with the findings of the commission. Now the 

 facts are that the carriers adopted without an order all of the rates rec- 

 ommended except the one applying to sheep shipped in single deck cars 

 when doubles had been ordered. And neither the officers of your associ- 

 ation nor the commission caught onto this fact until the sheep began to 

 move to market during the last winter. We then took the matter up with 

 the commission, and asked them to issue an order requiring the railroads 

 to apply the double deck rate on sheep shipped in single decks, where 

 double deck cars had been ordered. We have been at work on this case 

 all summer, and when Mr. Thorne was in Washington. D. C, in October, 

 he took the matter up personally with the commission, and we very much 

 hope that it will issue the order in the near future, and that the stockmen 

 will soon have the benefit of the lower rate on this class of shipments. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the reduced rate on sheep in double deck 

 cars went into effect in May, 1910, many of our shippers have been charged 

 the old rate, and to all who have thus been overcharged, I want to say, 

 put in your claims at once, if you have not already done so, for the over- 

 charge. Look at your report of sales from your commission firm, and see 

 what rate you paid. It should be the same as your rate on cattle. If it is 

 higher, you have a refund from the railroad company coming to you, and 

 you should have it. The mix-up on this rate came about on account of the 

 railroads not complying with that portion of the decision of the commis- 

 sion, and not from any fault of the officers of your association. 



Now, just a word about shipping your feeding sheep in. For some three 

 or four years I have been calling attention to the double deck rate on 

 feeders, and advising our sheep feeders to order double deck cars in ship- 

 ping their sheep in. Many of them seem to forget this, and persist in 

 ordering single deck cars, and then wonder why the rate is so high. The 

 facts are that under the Iowa distance tariff and the rule that applies, it 



