110 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



and if they are carefully made out they will be more convincing than 

 anything else. So let me again urge upon you the importance of filling 

 out these shippers' blanks, or reports. 



Then there is the urgent necessity for the passage of some laws rela- 

 tive to the regulation and control of telephone companies. At the present 

 the state has practically no supervision of her telephone companies, and 

 they are handling us about as they please. Competition is almost elimin- 

 ated; the great Iowa Telephone Company, commonly known as the Bell, 

 has forced almost every competitor out of business in some way or other, 

 and they now have practically the entire field, and are beginning to put 

 the screws to us, both in cost and in the kind of service they give; so 

 I think we should urge upon the coming general assembly the necessity 

 for proper laws regulating and controlling this gigantic trust. 



There is another question of vast importance to our Iowa farmers that 

 I believe this association should urge upon congress, and that is tne ques- 

 tion of federal inspection of grains at the great terminal markets. That 

 the present system is nothing short of robbery under the cloak of in- 

 spection, there is absolutely no doubt, and the farmers are robbed of 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars by the rotten system now employed in 

 the inspection of their grains. 



Millions of bushels of grain are shipped into these terminal eleva- 

 tors, from the farmers, and either declared to be no grade or are graded 

 No. 3 or No. 4, and when it is re-sold the same grain is advanced from 

 two to three grades, thus increasing the value from 5 to 15 cents per 

 bushel, all of which advance the farmers should have received when they 

 sold their grain. There is no good reason why we should not have fed- 

 eral inspection of our grain and protect our farmers' interests. So I 

 would recommend that this association in a strong resolution urge upon 

 congress the importance of passing a bill requiring federal inspection of 

 grain. 



Then there is the question of ship subsidies that is still pending and 

 we do not want to lose sight of the fact that it is .liable to be forced 

 upon us at any time. In my last annual address, I called attention to the 

 fact that the Standard Oil interests and the great American packers had 

 gone into the Argentine Republic to develop their live stock industry so 

 as to secure cheaper meats for the American trade. Recent developments 

 have proven this to be true, and in my opinion it will not be many years 

 until live beef cattle and dressed meats will be imported from the Argen- 

 tine into this country, and indications are that in the near future there 

 will be a determined effort made to pass a ship subsidy bill so as to give 

 the packers the benefit of subsidized shipments. So, in view of these 

 facts, I believe this association should go on record as opposing ship sub- 

 sidies in any form. 



While our members are feeling gratified over the good work that has 

 been accomplished, it is well for them to understand that there is a move- 

 ment on foot among some of the live stock exchanges to again advance 

 the commission charges. 



