124 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Also, many complaints come from shippers that their stock has 

 been unloaded at some small town where there is neither feed nor 

 water, and but a few miles from the Union Stock Yards, because the 

 conductor claimed the thirty-six-hour limit had expired. I find that stock 

 is often unloaded within twenty-five to fifty miles of Chicago, and al- 

 lowed to remain in those little two-by-four yards for from eight to 

 twelve hours, when, at the pleasure of the railroads, they are picked 

 up and taken into the stock yards, arriving too late for the market, 

 and of necessity must be held over until the next day. This is certainly 

 a gross injustice on the part of the railroads, by taking undue advan- 

 tage of the thirty-six hour law. The intention of the law was to give 

 the railroads ample time to deliver the stock from the farthest point 

 in Iowa inside of the thirty-six-hour limit. We well remember their 

 plea for an extension of the twenty-eight-hour law, in order to enable 

 them to reach the market without the necessity of unloading the stock, 

 which they claimed they could not do under the law as it was then 

 enforced. At that time the stockmen believed that the railroads were 

 acting in good faith, and took them at their word, and consented to the 

 extension of time to thirty-six hours; but since then we have learned 

 that they were only playing for more time to get our stock to market, 

 and that the speed on stock trains has been reduced in proportion to 

 the extension of time, and that the percentage of live stock now un- 

 loaded on account of the expiration of the time limit is practically as 

 large as it was under the twenty-eight-hour law. This should not be 

 the case, however, and it does seem to me that any Iowa-Chicago line 

 of railroad ought to be ashamed to confess that it can not deliver a car 

 or cars of live stock from the farthest Iowa point to Chicago inside of 

 thirty-six hours, when they formerly did it almost every day in the week 

 inside of twenty-eight hours. 



These questions have been taken up by your officers wath the offi- 

 cials of the different railway companies without avail, and practically 

 no headway has been made toward solving these vexatious problems. 

 So I hope this convention will thresh them out and decide what is the 

 proper course for this organization to pursue in dealing with these very 

 important matters, which not only affect the profits on your live stock 

 and reduce your bank accounts, but have to do with your comfort and 

 safety while accompanying your stock to market. 



Then there is the question of a five-day-per-week Chicago market, in- 

 stead of three, which is being agitated again by the commission men 

 of the Chicago Live Stock Exchange. Some time ago a meeting was 

 held in Chicago, at which representatives of the exchange, the packers 

 and the railroads decided to try to further the plan for a five-day-per- 

 week market, and if possible, distribute the receipts more evenly over 

 the five-day period. They are now asking the feeders and shippers to 

 join with them in making this plan a success. This is certainly a 

 commendable undertaking, and one in which our members should most 

 heartily join, I have written a number of reliable commission firms 

 concerning the success of the market on off-days, and the consensus 

 of opinion coming from them is that, quality considered, the stock sells 



