6th District, U. M. Reed, Brooklyn 8th District, L. H. Mattox, Shenandoah 9th District, I. N. Flickinger, Council Bluffs 10th District, J. W. Morse, Estherville 11th District, George Jepson, Sioux City THE PRESIDENT: There is a matter which I wish to speak of, and I am responsible for this suggestion. Mr. A. J. Small has been librarian of this Association for a number of years. We have during all the time he has been librarian stored with him at the State Capitol extra copies of the various reports of the various sessions. He has attended to sending out all these and has given a great deal of attention to the work of this Association. He has prepared indices for the reports, and his services have been valuable; in addition to that, this year, he did practically all the editorial work in preparing this volume of the Early Bar Association Proceedings. That involved a great deal of work. He has never been paid any money and I do not think expects any. But the laborer is certainly worthy of his hire. It has occurred to me, it would be a very proper thing for this Association to vote to Mr. Small the sum of fifty dollars, or something like that, which will be indeed an inadequate recognition of his services. This is a matter in the hands of the Association. MR. J. L. CARNEY: I happen to know something in regard to the services of Mr. Small. I can verify what your President has said. I take pleasure in moving that an appropriation of fifty dollars be made to Mr. Small for his valuable services. MR. R. M. HAINES: By way of amendment, may I raise that amount to one hundred dollars? I know Mr. Small has put in weeks of solid work. I wish we might make it one hundred dollars. MR. CARNEY: I will accept the amendment. The motion was unanimously carried. MR. HAINES: There was a matter the President suggested yesterday in which I have felt a great interest, because of having been on the Committee for the republication of the Early Pro ceedings. I move you that the matter of having further copies printed be left in the hands of the President, Secretary and Librarian. The motion was duly seconded and carried. THE PRESIDENT: There is another matter to which I would like to direct the attention of this Association. Mr. Cooper, our efficient chairman of the Committee on Membership, has prepared some amendments to the constitution. I would like the unanimous consent of the house to appoint a committee of three to consider these amendments and submit a report later in the day. If there is no objection, I will appoint Senator J. L. Carney of Marshalltown; Prof. H. C. Horack, of Iowa City; and Charles J. Wilson, of Washington. The next on our program is a paper-"Some Railroad Problems", by Hon. J. L. Parrish, of Des Moines. SOME RAILROAD PROBLEMS Mr. President, and Members of the Iowa State Bar Association: Following the receipt of an invitation of your President to prepare a paper for delivery on this occasion, there was a somewhat violent struggle between that modesty, which, I am sure, all of the friends of the writer will recognize as his predominating trait, and the desire to take advantage of the opportunity to suggest to the members of this Association a problem which I think deserves the prompt, thorough, and conscientious consideration of our patriotic people. Modesty was finally driven from the field, and I am therefore, inviting your attention to the future of our transportation systems. Elbert Hubbard has said: Next to agriculture, which is the primary need, transportation holds first place in economics. Transportation is one of the prime necessities of our times; without it our present state of civilization could not exist. Imagine, if you can, our condition were the railroads of this country suddenly to be wiped out of existence-financial and industrial chaos would exist. This does not mean that our transportation systems should be the masters of the people or that we should look upon them with awe or reverence, or that they are entitled to any peculiar rights or privileges not necessary to the performance of the public duties. But it does mean that our transportation systems are our indispensable servants, and in whose welfare, therefore, we have a direct interest. It is because of the public character of the services rendered by our transportation companies; because their services are indispensable to our present state of civilization and progress, that the power of regulation exists. To say that the power of regulation exists because there has been given to the railroads the right of eminent domain is to put the cart before the horse; is to consider the power as of the nature of contract. The power of governmental regulation rests upon no such flimsy foundation. The right of eminent domain. is conferred upon the carriers because it is necessary in order that they may perform their public duties. The power of regulation exists because the duties to be performed are public duties, because the services to be performed are essential to public progress and the welfare of the people. That the power of regulation exists; that, within certain well defined constitutional limits, the government may control the service to be rendered by the carriers, and that this power ought to be exercised by the government, not only for the protection of the public, but of the carriers themselves, is no longer disputed by any well informed student of the subject. The exercise of a power or right always carries with it its burden of duties. The exercise of the right to propel your automobile along the highway or through the crowded streets of the city carries with it its attendant duties, varying in accordance with the surrounding circumstances. The exercise of the power of the city to improve or repair its streets, carries with it its burden of duties. The exercise of the power of regulation on the part of the public is no exception to the rule. The exercise of this power carries with it certain attendant duties; about some of which there can be no dispute. If the public have the power to fix the number and character of trains which shall be operated, the number and character of stations, the character of safety ap pliances to be used and in this and other ways control the expenditure of the carrier; and if they have the power to fix the carriers' rates and therefore control its revenues, certainly the exercise of this power carries with it the duty to see to it that the carriers may, if they can, earn a revenue sufficient to pay their operating and maintenance expenses and a fair return on the value of their property. That the National and State Governments, acting for the people, are controlling both the revenues and expenses of the carriers we all know. Are they discharging the duty attendant upon the exercise of the power and allowing the carriers a fair return for their services? The question is one which may well receive the attention of all men interested in the welfare of their country. We are interested in it from two aspects. If the people, through our governmental agencies are undertaking to regulate the revenues and expenses of the railways, which have been constructed with money furnished by a portion of our people, we are interested in learning whether or not our representatives are administering the trust with due regard for the rights of the people whose property is being used for a public purpose, for it is only an act of simple justice that the carriers should be allowed an opportunity to make, if they can, a fair return on the value of their property. Some years of experience in defending railroad cases before the "average citizen" uninfluenced by political considerations, has given me an abiding faith that he does not want, and will not knowingly allow, an injustice in this respect. We are interested because it is necessary that the future development and maintenance of the railways should keep pace with the development of the country; and as we, the people, whether the railways are operated by private capital or through public ownership, must pay the bill, we are interested in their economical development and maintenance. It is well known that from various causes, for years, everything that has entered into the expense of operation and maintenance of railways has increased in cost, while their rates have constantly decreased. No legislative body ever adjourns without having enacted legislation to increase the expense of operation and maintenance and few, if any, ever adjourn without enacting legislation reducing the revenues. No body exercising the taxing power adjourns without increasing the cost to the railways. No commission, State or National, ever acts except to reduce the rates or increase the expense. Rarely is a railway able to resist a demand for increase in the wages of their employees. In fact about the only oasis in this transportation desert is an occasional farmer jury who seem to be about the only fellows who do not have their ears to the ground and their eyes glued to the newspapers looking and listening for public applause and political promotion. This sort of thing cannot go on forever. You cannot continue to increase the expenses and decrease the revenues of the carrier without eventually bringing disaster, not only to the railways and the people with whose money they are being operated, but to the public who have to depend on them for service. The Executive Council of this State has kept a record of the gross and net earnings, the assessed value, taxes paid, etc., of the railroads in Iowa since 1884. The report for the year 1911 shows the tables for those years as follows: [See table on next page.] This table shows that with an increase in mileage from 7,106 miles in 1884 to 9,858 miles in 1911, and with an increase in gross earnings from $35,490,225 in 1884 to $78,444,295 in 1911 and with, in the opinion of the Council, an increase in value of more than fifty per cent per mile of road, there was a decrease in net earnings after paying taxes from $13,316,807 in 1884 to $12,400,498 in 1911. This table shows a decrease in the net earnings per mile, after paying taxes, from $1,883 in 1884 to $1,259 in 1911. While there is at hand no data by which one can ascertain the value of the Iowa railroads, yet I am sure that those of you who are familiar with the subject will agree with me that this net of $1,259 per mile is less than three per cent on the value of the property. But unfortunately this small net earning does not accurately represent the true situation. Those of us who are familiar with the subject know that this result was reached only by sacrificing the maintenance account. In other words, if the |