36 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



business. Theoretically, that ought not to be so. We ought to 

 receive more net money for hauling live stock or meat, than for 

 coal or grain, but we do not, because we can haul the grain and 

 coal in much larger cars; get a great many more tons in a car; 

 we can put more cars in a train, a great many more tons in the 

 train, we can do the business a great deal cheaper than we can 

 this high class business, live stock and meat. 



Mr. Wallace : You can tell us how many tons or pounds 

 you haul of dressed beef from Kansas City or Omaha to Chi- 

 cago. I believe that the load of a refrigerator car is about 

 eighteen thousand pounds, and that the total weight of a refrig- 

 erator car is about the same, of dressed beef. Now, the rate of 

 dressed beef from Missouri River to Chicago, when destined for 

 eastern shipment, is eighteen and one- half, which makes, as I 

 understand it, about $33.60 for that haul, and from which is to 

 to be deducted a cent a mile each way, or an average of about 

 $10, making it about $23.60, or such a matter, as a net return 

 for that haul. Now, when you come to put in twenty-three 

 thousand pounds, then the rate is twenty-three and one-half. 

 Suppose you deduct from that the general haul for the usual 

 rent for a cattle car, about $6, you get about $48, or twice as 

 much as you get from the dressed beef company. 



Now, there is a little history to this. Away back in 1890, this 

 matter came before the Interstate Commerce Commission. The 

 Interstate Commerce Commission, after a hearing, ordered the 

 railroads not to charge more for cattle than for dressed beef. 

 Then it was all put down to 2Sj4 cents. And it was then the 

 railroads began giving rebates until it amounted to 15 j4 cents. 

 Here is where Stickney came in. 



Now, how does this bear upon the farmer? Simply, the rail- 

 roads have been making a combination with the beef trust and 

 they have built up a trust to Chicago and eastern points that is 

 absolutely the most dangerous trust in the United States, and so 

 dangerous that Mr. Delano would rather face anything than a 

 member of the beef trust company. It is this discrimination, 

 not in favor of the individual, but in favor of a line of business 

 as against the farmer's line of business of which the farmers 

 complain. 



There is a great deal, Mr. Delano says, that has my hearty 

 approval. I am glad to see railroad men in farmers' meetings. 

 These gentlemen have told us how they have improved the 

 facilities of the road and have gone to this great expense of 



