THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 187 



gested conditions in Chicago. We liave to start on Monday morning, 

 after those big runs, and organize trains to move these stock cars four 

 or five hundred miks for the next day's heavy run, which is the next Sat- 

 urday. About 25 per cent of these cars we have to set out at the Miss- 

 issippi river for cleaning and repairs; consequently, we, as railroad men, 

 start practically on the first of the week to get ready for the next heavy 

 run on the following Saturday. The necessity for anticipation of orders 

 on the part of stock shippers is one of the important features in the han- 

 dling of the stock business. We recognize the. difficulty of the stockmen 

 on account of uncontrollable conditions in the market, but if you could 

 anticipate a little closer and place your orders as near as you possibly 

 can, it gives a better opportunity for the adjoining stock raiser to get 

 his cars. The uncertainty also creates a hardship for the railroads. They 

 might haul a bunch of stock cars four or five hundred miles in anticipa- 

 tion of your order for ten or fifteen cars for Saturday, and then when we 

 get out tliere have it canceled; and we then have to take those cars to 

 other points at considerable expense. 



All railroads in the state of Iowa have schedules based on a main 

 line Chicago movement. We start as early as five o'clock to consolidate 

 this stock in small trains, and take them to junction points on double 

 tracks; and you can recognize the necessity of all of us co-operating in 

 order that these pick-up trains may get into the junction point, be con- 

 solidated, and arrive at the market at the proper time. You can readily 

 recognize the difficulty and the disadvantage at which you place your 

 brother stockman if a little inactivity on your part has caused a delay 

 to his stock. The stock arrives at the Mississippi river points with 

 probably thirty-five or forty cars in the train. Because of this unfore- 

 seen — possibly unavoidable — delay at some of these originating points, we 

 are obliged on account of the twenty-eight or thirty-six hour law, to 

 set out one or two cars in the train. The law must be obeyed, and we 

 are not criticizing it, but the net result is obstacles to the stockman 

 and the railroad in handling the stock. I only touch upon that point to 

 indicate that we must be fair in each others' consideration for the other. 

 Your interests are ours; ours are yours. 



Another point is this: You who have never been in the railroad busi- 

 ness hardly appreciate the personal effort required on the part of the 

 entire organization in the handling of ten, twelve or fifteen hundred cars 

 of stock. We are sometimes accused of having peculiar vocabularies. 

 We start on Saturday afternoon and begin pickiKg up stock. Between 

 Saturday afternoon at five o'clock and Sunday night at ten or eleven 

 o'clock every conductor, engineer, fireman, brakeman — 'the maximum 

 force — is in the roundhouses and the stations. All telegraph operators, 

 train dispatchers, all officials — superintendents included — spend their en- 

 tire time watching the stock movement. We don't get a chance to go 

 to church. How can you blame us for our vocabularies? 



In looking over the records in Chicago, we find that 55 per cent of the 

 stock received at the Union Stock Yards arrives on Mondays, 25 per 

 cent on Wednesdays — the two large markets — and 20 i>er cent during the 

 balance of the week. We also learn that the stock market for hogs opens 



