no IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now, I say, gentlemen, that under the enormous penalties that are 

 imposed by this law (and they are being enforced, as you will see every 

 day in the newspapers — that is, the penalties of the old law, which did 

 not include imprisonment), I say it is unfair to the shippers of this coun- 

 try to hold their fortunes and their liberties subject to the accepting and 

 receiving of rates on freight which are published in such a way that you 

 nor any other living man on earth can tell by an investigation of six or 

 seven weeks what the real legal rate is. 



Now, gentlemen, it has been a doctrine that I have been preaching 

 ever since the interstate commerce law was passed that it was the duty 

 of the railways to devise some means by which they could publish their 

 schedules in such way that a person of ordinary understanding by 

 inspection of the schedules could determine for himself the legal rates 

 in all cases. 



My first attempt at this was shortly after the law was passed in 1887, 

 when old Judge Cooley, who was a very able jurist, was chairman of the 

 Commission, and when the Commission was composed of probably abler 

 men than have ever sat on the Commission since, unless we except the 

 present Commission, who are largely new men and I do not linow what 

 their capacity may be. I induced the railroad commissioners of Minne- 

 sota to file a petition with the Interstate Commerce Commisisoners to 

 compel the railroads to publish their tariffs in proper form. The Com- 

 mission, pursuing their usual practice, subpoenaed the twenty railroads 

 that center in Chicago, to bring with them their tariffs, and to prove or 

 show whether they were published according to law. I well remember 

 that meeting. It was in a room about the size of this, and there were 

 two tables down on each side, and the commissioners were ranged on the 

 platform like this. Judge Cooley looked over and on this table; in front 

 of each traffic man was a pile of tariffs. Judge Cooley looked over and 

 he saw the traffic manager of the Chicago & Northwestern road — his head 

 just appeared above an enormous pile of tariffs in front of him. Said he, 

 "Mr. Wicker, you may be sworn." Mr. Wicker stood up and was sworn. 



"Have you got your tariffs with you?" 



"Yes, sir." 



"Where are they?" 



"Here they are." (A pile of tariffs as big as that table down there.) 



Says he: "How many tariffs are there in that pile, Mr. Wicker?" 



He says: "Oh, I don't know; there's somewhere from three to five 

 thousand, I suppose." 



"Are they published in such a way that a man of ordinary under- 

 standing can determine the rates for himself?" 



"No, sir." 



"Are they published in such a way that you, Mr. Wicker, by inspecting 

 those tariffs can tell the legal rate?" 



"No, sir," he says; "but I would modify that. Yes, I could tell if I 

 spent the time to go through them and sift them out and examine them — I 

 could probably tell," he says, "but it would take me three or four weeks 

 to determine with certainty as to the actual legal rate on any com- 

 modity." 



