ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. Ill 



It will be remembered that during the existence of the Co-operative 

 Commission Company the stockmen were frequently warned against this 

 and other arbitrary rules being passed by the livestock exchanges if the 

 Co-operative was forced out of business, and now we already have those 

 predictions verified, for the stockmen's commission company was not out 

 of business more than six months until the agitation was started for 

 higher commissions, and the probabilities are that increases along other 

 lines will be agitated. The live stock exchanges have become something 

 like our railroads — every time their members make up their minds that 

 they need a little more cash for their own personal convenience, they 

 simply boost the commissions or make some other move, and the stock- 

 men pay the bills. I simply call your attention to the matter, and it is 

 for you to take whatever action you see fit. 



And now I wish to say a few words for the benefit of our railroad 

 friends, that they may know just where we stand and the position we 

 occupy toward them. 



It has been repeatedly charged that this association is continuously 

 fighting the railroads and fighting to secure rates that we are not entitled 

 to. This charge is not only unfair, but it is absolutely false, as the asso- 

 ciation has always held that it wanted to be perfectly fair to the rail- 

 roads, and believed that they should be allowed a fair and reason- 

 able return on the money actually invested; but what we are opposed to 

 is the holding up of the shippers by excessive freight rates in order to 

 pay dividends on the millions of dollars of watered stock that does not 

 represent a dollar of actual investment. 



Then, we have also contended that Iowa farmers and stockmen were 

 entitled to as low rates as those given by the railroads for a like serv- 

 ice in other states. In other words, what we have contended for was a 

 square deal from the railroads for the Iowa farmer, and we shall not be 

 satisfied with anything short of this. 



I believe that the railroads have no place in our state politics, and that 

 their lobbyists should be barred from our legislative halls. That when 

 measures are being considered by committees in which their interests 

 are effected, they should be given hearings the same as other iinterested 

 parties, and that they should then be barred from lobbying in the legis- 

 lature while such measures are pending. The sooner railroad men learn 

 that the people have made up their minds that they will have a voice in 

 questions pertaining to railroad regulation, the better it will be for them. 

 And I think the recent election should teach them a lesson along this line- 

 as the railroads did everything possible to defeat Mr. Thorne for railroad 

 commissioner, and yet he had as big a majority as the man that they 

 backed all through the campaign. Railroads are a great necessity, and 

 we don't wish to do anything that would impair their usefulness, but they 

 should learn that they are the servants and not the masters of the peo- 

 ple. 



Now a few words in regard to the many write-ups the officers of 

 your association received during the past year in the different news- 

 papers, ostensibly in the interests of the Iowa packers. Your officers 



