The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1915-04-15
Clifford Thorne is an ex-
luxury.-Monticello Express.

While Mr.. Thorne has made loud
/ noise, his net results with all OF the
opportunity of his Office have beer
negligible or nearly so. He has de
posted nothing to the bank account
| OF the public Fort Dodge Chronicle
| To the above and other criticisms
the Sioux City Tribune makes the fol
lowing answer:
These and similar utterances by
these and other Iowa newspapers fur
nish pretty good evidence of a vel
organized campaign to discredit Cliff
ford Thorne and his work as railroad
commissioner OF Iowa and representa-
tive of the shippers and general pub
lie. No newspaper in Iowa could be
ignorant enough to print such asser
tons as those quoted, in the belief
that they were true.
The significant thing is that every
time there is fight between the rail
roads and the public approaching
this campaign against Thorne sudden
ly breaks out afresh. The papers
quoted, with others, such as the Wat
erloo Times-Tribune, begin a round
robin attack on Thorne. One paper
prints some slur at him or his work
the others reprint it and add little
This process Is kept up until the
cause which furnished the motive has
passed away.
There could be only one interest in
the world that would be DESTROYS OF
having these attacks upon Thorne
come at such times-the railroads.
The fight is being renewed now that
the hearings of the petition of the
western roads for an increase in
freight rates are open at Chicago be-
fore the interstate commerce COM
mission. and Mr.. Thorne represents
the western shippers. 1t is given ad-
ditional incentive by the petition filed
by the railroads operating in Iowa
with the state legislature and the
Iowa railroad commission asking for
permission to advance rates. There
can be and Is but one purpose to these
attacks--the discrediting of Mr..
Thorne so as to break the force Of
his opposition to the railroads.
The despicable part of 1t is the alb
solute disregard for truth the papers
making the attack display. They
speak of Thorne and the work of the
Iowa railroad commission as though
he were the common type of Office
holder who does nothing but draw his
salary and adds to it all the prequis-
ties he can think of. To assert that
the work of Thorne and the commits
sion has been devoid OF results and
added nothing to the bank account of
the public is to attempt a deliberate
deception OF the public.
In the first place, they secured the
first general revision IN the schedule
of interstate freight rates for Iowa.
This revision reduced the rates on
over 5000 articles between 1000 in
terror Iowa points and many thou
sands Of towns in the eastern and
western portions of the United States,
the first general revision ever secured
in the history OF the state of Iowa.
What this means to the commercial
of our state can be ap-
preciated when 1t is realized that 85
per cent of our freight traffic Is in
terstate in character.
Second, the most important thing
of all. measured in dollars and cents.
was the prevention of an increase OF
S50.OO0,000 a year, proposed in 1910.
which would have cost the country as
a whole s50,000,000 a year, or $780,
100000 in the aggregate. BY this case