132 IOWA DEPARTMENT QF AGRICULTURE 



after we finally had the pleasure of seeing the necessary amendments 

 which we had contended for enacted into law, which really gave the com- 

 mission some teeth with which to do business, we see the law emasculated 

 by the creation of a Commerce Court which practically nullified the power 

 of the commission. The question of regulating the railroads through the 

 commission seemed entirely too radical for some, and especially the rail- 

 roads, so we see President Taft coming out and declaring for a Commerce 

 Court created for the purpose of reviewing the acts of the commission, 

 with full power to reverse the decisions of the commission or enjoin it by 

 law from enforcing its orders. 



So you see we have the ridiculous spectacle of congress creating by law 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission, and giving it power to prescribe 

 rates for interstate carriers, with full power to enforce its orders after such 

 rates have been fixed, and then turning around and creating a Commerce 

 Court which should hold an ax over the commission and chop off every de- 

 cision that was not according to its liking. So, as the matter now stands, 

 we have the commission reduced to the same level it was years ago, when 

 it had no power to enforce its orders, and was merely a figurehead in regu- 

 lating rates. This is just what your Interstate Commerce Commission is 

 today, with the Commerce Court wielding the ax of disapproval on its de- 

 cisions, as it has been doing. It has always been my impression that this 

 law was suggested and passed at the instance of the railroads, to escape 

 government regulation and supervision. 



Now, the remedy lies in repealing the act creating the Commerce Court, 

 and that should be done at this session of congress. By all means, send 

 these men home that constitute this court, and let them draw their salar- 

 ies from the railroads they are so anxious to protect, and not from the 

 people whom they are supposed to serve. The people are demanding gov- 

 ernment regulation of its interstate carriers. Then if congress deliberately 

 mutilates the only law that gives us that regulation, government owner- 

 ship must inevitably follow. As the situation now is, the shippers have 

 no assurance that when they win a case before the commission that they 

 will secure any relief, as the probabilities are that the Commerce Court will 

 set aside the decision. This, then, being true, I hope this association will 

 take some positive action favoring an early repeal of the Commerce Court. 



Now, let us take a little resume of the work done in building up your 

 association during the past year, and some of the things it has accomp- 

 lished since its organization. 



In my last annual address, I referred at length to the new plan of se- 

 curing five-year membership pledges to the association, adopted by your 

 board last year. This plan, as you will remember, contemplated the stock- 

 men giving five dollars annually and the grain farmers and renters the 

 regular dues. That the change from the old to the new system has been 

 the means of placing your association on a permanent basis goes without 

 saying, and bad it not been that this change was made, I do not believe 

 your association could have long survived. But under the pledge system, 

 if the work is continued, you can easily perpetuate your organization in- 

 definitely. After the winter's campaign closed and the roads settled, I 

 started out with my canvas among the farmers to secure five-year pledges; 



