154 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



Now, while interest is keen, can we not devise some way, some 

 method, some means that will help to protect our interests after the 

 agitation has passed away? Where is the defect in our present 

 methods? I believe the commission system has proven a success 

 as a tribunal for the determination of causes brought before it by 

 outsiders. But I say deliberately, that I believe the commission 

 system has proven a failure in its capacity to take the initiative 

 on behalf of the public ; and this failure can be ascribed with prac- 

 tical certainty to the fact that we place too big a task upon our 

 commissions. We empower them and expect them to hear eases 

 brought before them, and we also empower and expect them to take 

 the initiative on behalf of the state in beginning proceedings and 

 carrying them on. In other words, we expect our commissions to 

 be judges, and jurors and witnesses and attorneys, all rolled into 

 lone — an absurd combination, wholly eontrarj^ to the entire spirit 

 of Anglo-Saxon legal history; almost certain to prove a failure. 

 And the natural result has been that these commissions have gravi- 

 tated into judicial tribunals, or semi-judicial tribunals — many peo- 

 ple object to the word judicial when speaking about railroad com- 

 missions. 



Your present statute provides for your commission to take initia- 

 tory steps, just as though complaint had been filed. But where 

 have your important cases originated? The work accomplished in 

 the 80 's did not originate with the commission; the work done 

 when Governor Larrabee was at the State House did not originate 

 with the commission. The work done last year in Illinois, when 

 they effected a ten per cent reduction on practically all freight 

 rates in that state, did not originate with the commission ; it was 

 commenced and prosecuted to the finish by, outside sources. The 

 express rate case now pending before your commission was practi- 

 cally ordered by the legislature. Your commissioners have author- 

 ity over passenger fares; the reduction in passenger rates was not 

 effected by your commission. As I said before, this authority giv- 

 ing the commission initiatory power is practically a dead letter in 

 this state as well as elsewhere. Last year, when they reformed the 

 inter-state commerce act, they specifically excepted that provision, 

 and at the present time the Inter-state Commerce Commission has 

 no jurisdiction to fix rates in the absence of a complaint. 



Gentlemen, you have elected your tribunal to hear and determine 

 the case, where are your Avitnesses and your counsel ? It is to your 

 interest to have low rates; to the railroad's interest to have high 

 rates. How do you protect your interests ; how do they protect 

 theirs? Here are a couple of paper bound pamphlets. In these 



