FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART I. 37 



millions — so has the North- Western — in order that they might 

 cheapen transportation. Eight or ten years ago I was talking 

 with Judge Hubbard. We were discussing this Gulf course, and 

 I told Judge Hubbard they had better get busy. He says, I will 

 tell you, we are going to put about two and a half feet of ballast 

 on the North- Western ; we are going to put on 94 -pound rails, so 

 that one of our Mogul engines can haul 40 cars or 40 tons of 

 grain from Omaha to Chicago, and we can then make more 

 money at ten cents than now. You have done all this. How 

 much have you reduced our rates on hogs and cattle? They 

 were 23 >^ cents then and they are 23 >^ cents now; 23 >^ cents 

 half way across the State of Iowa, and yet you have reduced 

 the rates to the other fellow. 



We agree with you all upon your general line of policy, except 

 possibly the watered stock. I have been in the habit for some 

 years of attending the meetings of the Executive Council, and it 

 is astonishing how cheap railroads can be built. It is astonish- 

 ing how much railroads cost at one time and how cheap they can 

 be built at another. I head a man claim the Minneapolis & St. 

 Louis road was worth S15,000 per mile; the next time he came 

 around he said it could be built for S4,000. Take, for instance, 

 here we have the Rock Island stocked at fifteen millions; pres- 

 ently it goes up to seventy-five millions, and over night, to two 

 hundred and twenty -two millions. Take the case of the Q. I 

 think the Q probably has as little watered stock in it as almost 

 any other road. But a strange manipulation was made, doing 

 away with stock altogether, giving two dollars worth of bonds 

 for a dollars worth of stock, thus following out a policy peculiar 

 to finance, and getting just as much capitalization in the shape 

 of a bond and as little as possible in the shape of stock, where 

 the men are taking the risks. 



These are the questions that affect Iowa. We understand the 

 value of railroads; we understand the necessity of co-operation; 

 we appreciate the idea of an Industrial Agent. Let me say to 

 Mr. Delano, if he will send his industrial agent to Glenwood, he 

 will probably hear some stories there, and he will probably find 

 out how to develop the apple industry there so as to get more 

 freight for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. 



Mr. Delano : I do not know whether you want me to take 

 up the time of the convention. The gentleman has made several 

 queries, and it will take longer really than I would like to take 

 to answer. 



