ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 165 



would know him, even if they never had seen him, because he 

 never talks on anything but rates. I now introduce to you Hon. 

 Clifford Thorne, the newly elected railroad commissioner, who has 

 done so much for the people of Iowa. 



Mr. Thorne : You heard last night about the man who was 

 reduced to such straightened circumstances that he had to eat 

 ox-tail soup and ox tongue in order to make both ends meet. I 

 am in that situation just at the present time. I have been re- 

 quested by several gentlemen who run newspapers around this 

 burg to furnish a copy of some of my remarks ; so I have reduced 

 them to writing, and I am going to give you a little ox tongue 

 and an ox-tail ; in other words, I am going to read off this paper 

 the beginning and end of my speech ; I think it will give more co- 

 herence to it. 



I have had no opportunity to make preparation to give you gen- 

 tlemen the talk that I should in bidding good-bye to this organiza- 

 tion, with whom my relations have been the most pleasant of my 

 whole life. I have been for seven weeks engaged in the court 

 room in the prosecution of a case. I have spent over one hundred 

 days in constant work upon this case. In coming up here I am 

 taking time that should be devoted to the preparation of a brief. 



The average man in Iowa has given little consideration to issues at 

 stake in the present investigation relative to advanced rates. Those is- 

 sues are to be determined largely as a matter of public policy, that is why 

 the public should study the facts seriously, so that it can express itself 

 intelligently and strongly. Certain organs are bringing tremendous pres- 

 sure to bear on one side of the controversy, and unless there is a positive 

 definite statement from other sources, backed up by absolute facts, an 

 entirely one-sided and distorted public sentiment will be built up within 

 the next few weeks, that will necessarily have a powerful effect upon the 

 tribunal called upon to determine these questions of far-reaching national 

 import. 



I give Iowa fair warning that if the railroads succeed it will be al- 

 most impossible to effect any substantial readjustment of her interstate 

 rates for many years to come. 



The gist of the claims advanced by the railroad companies has been 

 well summarized i'n the following brief sentence recently stated by Mr. 

 Commissioner Martin A. Knapp, in New York City. "Must we not in 

 the larger public interest, whatever may be thought by this or that ship- 

 per, make the business of furnishing railroad transportation so desirable 

 to the investor that the necessary funds for betterments and extensions 

 will be forthcoming?" 



It has been very widely asserted during the past few months that rail- 

 way securities are no longer attractive to the investors of the country. 

 Many shippers have tacitly assumed that this is correct, and have endeav- 



