196 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



vvas all nicked and caved in; but if he had ordered the three cars 

 rs I directed, we would have had the two cars. All the way down 

 to Chicago I saw stock cars loaded with coal and other freight com- 

 ing in. That didn't look right to me, but of course I am not a rail- 

 road man and am not here to dictate. 



Mr. Whitenton : Of course the railroad companies are doing just 

 as you are : trying to conduct their business with the least possible 

 investment consistent with a return on the investment. We are 

 loading stock cars with company coal or other coal going to the 

 northwest, where we get a load back. It is not a question of hav- 

 ing sufficient stock cars in this territory to take care of the busi- 

 ness, because we have. It is simply a question of distribution and 

 movement. As the gentleman before me said, it is quite a prob- 

 lem at this time to get empty cars out of Chicago. There is quite 

 congestion of traffic on all lines in Chicago at this time. We have 

 this morning in Chicago about 1,500 cars of grain, waiting to be 

 unloaded at the various elevators, and they are only unloading at 

 the rate of about 300 cars a day. That makes it difficult to get our 

 cars through the yards and get them moving as fast as we should. 



Mr. Oliva : The section men were right there, and we asked them 

 v/hether they couldn't put the car on the center, and they said that 

 they didn't have any jacks, and didn't want to tackle it. I sup- 

 posed it was out of their line of business, and we didn't insist on 

 it; but the ccnductor said the track jack could have put that back 

 on center in a short time. 



]\Ir. AVhitenton : Any ordinary car can be put back on its center 

 in thirty minutes. That is another case where they didn't do what 

 they should. 



J. F. Eisele, Malcom: Our stock yards are so situated that we 

 have to push the cars uphill to get them to the chute. It is a little 

 bit on the wind, and the same iron is on there that was there thirty 

 years ago, and I guess the same ties, and when it is a little cold it 

 is almost impossible to push the cars up to the chute, and the most 

 of the time we have no crowbar. The Brooklyn section hands claim 

 the Malcom hands steal their bars, and the Malcom hands say they 

 steal ours. That has been a standing complaint to my recollection 

 for twenty-eight years, and from Mr. Preston down the line they 

 have all said they were going to fix it. The last few years we gave 

 it up ; we got promises, but we never got it fixed. 



