170 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



it. I refer to Mr. Thorne, our old attorney, and now a member of our 

 railroad commission. We always like to hear from him. (Applause.) 



Mr. Clifford Thorne: Members of the Corn Belt Meat Producers' As- 

 sociation — It of course always gives me great pleasure to face this crowd 

 of men, and I owe so much to you that I always feel when I come before 

 you that it is up to me to give sort of an annual report of what I have 

 been doing. I got that habit from the old days. And I am going to de- 

 scribe just a few things that I have witnessed during the past year, be- 

 cause I believe that you ought to realize that you are still keeping up the 

 fight. 



About two or three weeks ago, I was in a room about this size, or 

 s.maller, and there was present in that room and arguing against a prop- 

 osition for which I was fighting, a man about sixty years old, a man who 

 is chairman of the executive committee representing all the railroads in 

 the United States. Think of it! One man, the authorized representative 

 of companies owning fifteen billion dollars' worth of property, with an 

 annual income of over two billion. It is such scenes as that that make 

 me realize so strongly the necessity for organization on our part. And 

 during days of peace and quiet, don't forget to draw the lines tighter 

 and get ready for some scrap that may loom up in the near future. 



Ycu folks are trying to make two grains of corn grow where one 

 grew before. That is important. Some man has said that the greatest 

 of people are those that can make two blades of grass grow where one 

 grew before. But that is only half of the task. After the grass grows, 

 it is somewhat Important to know who gets the grass. (Laughter.) I 

 would not care much if you produced four times as much corn as you 

 do today if J. Pierpont Morgan got all the corn. The question of who 

 shall own the corn is of equal significance with the problem of raising 

 more corn. 



In dealing with these problems, we have devised different methods of 

 work, and during the past year I have had occasion to study somewhat 

 the methods, of considering them, threshing them out, and reaching con- 

 clusions. Eight western state commissioners joined in filing a brief in 

 the United States Supreme Court in the Sanborn rate case. We have 

 taken the position that state regulation is worth preserving. And, after 

 all, the final conclusion upon these great problems rests a great deal upon 

 your conclusions. The leaders are merely our servants. They look to 

 you and to me to know what they ought to say and what they ought to 

 do. Now, is it wise to do away with state regulation? If it is wise to 

 drop state regulation as to railroads, why not drop it as to all other 

 interstate commerce? And remember interstate commerce is making up 

 today the great bulk of all the business of this nation. This, delicate bal- 

 ance between the state and federal government is the chief distinguishing 

 characteristic of the American form of government. That is the feature 

 that distinguishes our government from all other nations in the past. 

 Greece and Rome, other countries, have tried federal government, but 

 they generally failed. It was not till America came along and demon- 

 gtrated to the world that it was practicable to join and combine that 



