186 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the stockmen, I felt that a stock story and illustration of the red tape 

 that the railroads are sometimes accused of would not be out of place. 



On our western lines we frequently are called upon to send out engi- 

 neers who are strangers to the territory. A few seasons ago an engineer 

 from one of the northern territories, where they don't have much stock 

 business, was sent out. He ran into a bunch of stock and killed a very 

 fine steer. When he got it off the road, the fireman said: "It will be 

 necessary for you to make out and sign a long report." That was rather 

 new to him. He got one of the blanks with a lot of questions. The 

 first was: "What did V'ou see first?" "I saw a big, black steer coming 

 out of the big tall grass." "What did you next see?" "I saw the big 

 tall grass coming out of the big, black steer." It is needless to say that 

 that was the most valuable animal in the bunch. 



Last night we heard considerable comment from our attorneys and other 

 professional men about their connection with the live stock business of 

 Iowa, and I was very much pleased to hear our attorney, Mr. Davis, state 

 that he was in the live stock business, having three cows out on the boule- 

 vard. That brought to my mind how close I came to being connected 

 with the farming interests of Iowa. In our family there were but two 

 boys. Father had an ambition to make farmers out of us. Early in life 

 I smelled the car smoke; my brother had an aspiration for a college edu- 

 cation, and the farming proposition was given up. I just state that to 

 indicate how small a margin we sometimes have for changing our en- 

 vironment. Railroad men — who are we? We are boys coming from the 

 same towns that you gentlemen do. We had the same opportunity you 

 boys do, but we chose as our avocation the railroad business. We got 

 into it with earnestness; we try to be fair and make it a success. Isn't 

 it proper that we grant to you gentlemen all consideration in your line 

 of business, assuming that you are working on the same basis, and 

 shouldn't you grant to us as railroad men the same opportunity and the 

 same consideration? A.nd along that line, it is a little discouraging when 

 the rank and file who have grown up into these official positions come 

 into a town, and raise our families alongside of yours, to be treated as 

 tools of soulless corporations. It is therefore my desire in speaking to 

 you to treat the subject fairly on both sides. 



Speaking from the railroad standpoint, the company which I represent 

 has invested in the handling of the stock proposition 5,000 cars, repre- 

 senting $4,000,000. We have in the state of Iowa 236 stock yards, served 

 by thirty miles of track. In looking over statistics in Chicago, we find 

 that the receipts in the Union Stock Yards by the stockmen during the 

 year of 1912 amounted to 255,088 cars of stock, of which approximately 

 58,000 came over the North Western railroad. In the month of Decem- 

 ber we find that 51 per cent of the stock received in the Union Stock 

 Yards via the North Western railroad originated within the state of Iowa. 

 We are proud to state that a little less than eight-tenths of one per cent 

 of that stock was late for the market. 



The first difficulty we encounter as railroad men is the distribution of 

 stock cars from our congested terminals after the receipt of 

 1,000, 1,200 or 1,500 cars in Chicago. We all know the con- 



