Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1907-09-24
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DES MONIES LETTER
Items of Interest From Our CORRESPONDENTS |
| at the State Capital.
81 20 q

tnan IN other states And no atten-
ton was paid to sheep.
This lack of interest in the sheen
rate was due to the fact that the
railroads did give the shippers, own
ers and feeders the feeding in tran.
sit privilege. Under this privilege
the rate on the sheep from the place
OF purchase to the Iowa point was a
proportion Of the rate from the point
of purchase to the market, and SINH
|; larry the rate from the point of feed.
ing in Iowa to the market was pro-
portionate rate of the full shipment.
1t is said that close to 100000
sheep annually are fed In Iowa and
shipped on to market. Withdrawal OF
the feeding in transit rate pushes the
rate on these sheep to point at which
the feeding business will be stopped.
The state commission has nothing
to do with the feeding in transit privi-
lege. 1t is portion of the interstate
shipment and the railroads may or
may not grant it, to their own pleas
ure. However. when the state COM
mission lowered the rates on cattle
about 20 per cent last spring, the board
urged the roads to maintain and ex-
tend the feeding in transit privilege
to all live stock shippers and feeders
in this state
1t is not improbable that If the rail-
roads had given the live stock men
the feeding in transit privilege for
cattle no effort would have been made
by the Corn Belt Meat Producers to
secure lower rates on cattle either
state or Interstate. After securing
the reduction of the Iowa rate about
20 per cent the shippers went to
Washington to file petition for lower
Interstate rates and it is now pend
| ing before the interstate commerce
commission.
The live stock men will now ask the
state commission to reduce the state
rates on sheep to a proportion Of the
interstate rate which the state rate
on cattle bears to the interstate rate on
cattle.
After Doctors Trust.
George Cosson, one of the assist.
ants in the Office of Attorney General
Byers, has returned from Waverly,
where he was in conference with
County Attorney B. Stencil relative
to investigations being made byf the
grand jury of Bremen county into an
alleged combination of the physicians
of that community to fix prices for ser.
vice and to boycott members of the
profession who declined to go into
the organization.
Mr.. Cosson said that the conference
which he held with the county attor.
ney was purely professional and he
had nothing to disclose relative to it.
Attorney General Byers said that the
! interest of his department in the mat
ter related to the prosecution, If per-
sons are indicted for violation of the
law against trusts and combinations.
and his office will assist in such
prosecutions if assistance is asked or
needed by the county attorney.
1t Is stated at Waverly that the
county attorney of Bremen county
had been unable to secure legal as.
sistance in carrying on the threatened
prosecution because the interested
doctors had retained every firm Of
lawyers in the county, or at least
in Waverly. Hence his call on the
legal department of the state.
To Dismiss 2-cent Fare Cases.
1t is understood that the 2-cent fare
test cases in Iowa will be dismissed
altogether by the railroads.
Judge Lochren's decision at Mime.
apolis to the effect that the conten.
ton of the roads that the state OF
Minnesota had no jurisdiction over
interstate lines was not well taken
furnishes the basis for the conclusion
as to the Iowa suits.
In Minnesota the railroad com.
panies have taken the other string
| to their bow and will prosecute their
cases against the 2-cent fare law and
the new commodity rates on the
basis that they are confiscatory. This
is the legitimate contention of the
railroads in cases affecting rates and
the courts have rendered decisions
relating to this sort. But the conten.
ton that state~has no power to fix
rates affecting an interstate road,
was new.