ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV. 109 



in this state to defend their interests and to see that the people don't en- 

 croach on their rights; and yet the great state of Iowa hasn't one special 

 attorney to look after its interests in regard to matters of transporta- 

 tion. The urgent necessity for such an officer has been forced upon us in 

 the last six months by the railroads making a determined effort to ad- 

 vance their rates; and had it not been for this association, the people of 

 the state would have had no one to make an effort to prevent these ad- 

 vances. Had this bill been passed by the last general assembly, the people 

 would have now had a special officer representing them at these hearings, 

 and the expense would have been borne by the taxpayers of the state, who, 

 are in fact the interested parties, instead of by the members of this 

 organization. We were defeated two years ago by the railroad influence 

 in the state senate, but I believe the personnel of the senate was changed 

 sufficiently at the last election to give us a working majority. At least 

 I believe we are in a position to make them "go some," as the people 

 have a much better understanding of what we are contending for than 

 they had two years ago. And what we want is a united effort on the part 

 of our members to help us in this contest, as it is simply a contest be- 

 tween the people and corporation influence. 



Then there is the question of better service, which, to our stockmen, is 

 much more important than rates, which should be taken up by this asso- 

 ciation and a determined effort made to improve. It appears that the 

 more the railroads improve their roadbeds and tracks, the poorer service 

 they give the stockmen, and the past winter was certainly the limit in 

 regard to service, as it took from twenty-four to seventy-two hours to 

 reach Chicago from Iowa points, and the stockmen lost thousands of dol- 

 lars in extra shrink and on account of the cattle becoming stale, being 

 so long on the road. During the winter, I took the matter up with the 

 Iowa Railroad Commission, as under a provision of the law they have 

 supervision over the speed of live stock trains; and instead of them mak- 

 ing an investigation and getting both sides of the question, they simply 

 wrote to the different railroad officers and asked for a report on their 

 furnishing of cars and the movement of their live stock trains. The re- 

 plies seemed to be perfectly satisfactory to the commission as nothing 

 further was done and the service was as bad as ever. However, we must 

 remember that the present commission has great sympathy for our much 

 abused railways. Complaints are already coming in in regard to the poor 

 service, and as the winter advances, it will grow worse. So I feel that 

 we must make a determined effort this winter to have congress pass a 

 measure that will give us relief; but in order for your association to suc- 

 ceed, it must be properly equipped with the necessary information in re- 

 gard to the actual time these stock trains make from the loading station 

 to Chicago, and this must be furnished by our members who are shipping. 

 So if you want the association to make an effort to improve the service, 

 you must fill out the shippers' reports promptly on each shipment, and 

 mail them direct to the secretary. We cannot transport a large number 

 of men to Washington to testify in regard to the poor service, but we 

 can take a thousand reports made out on that many different shipments; 



