William Greene, President, and Wm. Elsom, Superintendent, of the Cedar Rapids & Marion Railway Company, being duly sworn, depose and say that they have caused the foregoing statements to be prepared by the proper officers and agents of this company, and, having carefully examined the same, declare them to be a true, full, and correct statement of the condition and affairs of said company on the thirtieth day of June, a. D. 1884, to the best of their knowledge and belief.

(Signed),

WILLIAM GREENE.
W. ELSOM.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 15th day of September, A. D. 1884. N. B. CONSIGNY, Notary Public in and for Linn County, Iowa.

[L. S.]

Received and filed in the office of the Commissioners of Railroads, this 17th day of September, A. D. 1884.

E. G. MORGAN, Secretary.

Jay D. Miller, in behalf of the citizens of Ida county, petitions the Board to locate a station on the Maple River Branch of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway between the stations of Odebolt and Ida Grove, the distance between those places being twelve miles. He claims that the country between these points is densely populated and the distance from a railway station to a large portion of those whom this intermediate station would accommodate, subjects them to great inconvenience and long travel to market their products, receive their mail, and transact such other business as a farming community in this country must with a railway station. He claims that the number to be benefitted by the new station is about one thousand. Mr. Hughitt, General Manager of the C. & N. W. R'y, in reply, says that his company would be glad to furnish the accommodation, could it do so with a just regard for its effect on the business of the company; that they are not slow to give the public every advantage the traffic will warrant, but in this case the business will not justify the establishment of a new station, and that it will be done at a loss. On November 11th, the Commissioners visited the locality designated, drove into the country north and found the land generally well cultivated, there being as far as they could see but little unoccupied land. From what they could learn of those present and interested in the station they judge that there is not more than two or three unoccupied quarter sections of land within ten miles either north or south of this point. A very large portion of the products of this vicinity was wheat, oats and corn, all more or less bulky in proportion to their value, and of a character that an additional haulage of six miles would place a severe burden upon the cost of marketing. The Commissioners reached the conclusion that the tonnage was about as large now as it prob

ably would be in the future, from the fact that although the acreage of tilled land would be greater, much of it in the future would go in more condensed forms than at present. One reason that suggested itself why a station should be established at once, if at all, was the loss of almost all the hogs in this region by an epidemic, rendering it necessary to haul to market their corn, the cheapest of all the cereals in proportion to its weight. A few miles haulage of the corn raised in this vicinity would be a serious tax upon the producer.

The Commissioners are not prepared to admit that the only element that enters into the establishment of railway stations is whether or not they are profitable to the company.

Public interest is the reason assigned for the State granting railways special privileges, and it does not seem that they should be given merely for the profit of the company without some reciprocal public advantage. We think that on reflection Mr. Hughitt would not claim this. Railway stations are usually established at about the distance from each other that this would be from the two points before (mentioned, and often are still nearer. The Commissioners, after looking over the situation carefully, feel it their duty to recommend, as authorized by section 2, chapter 77, Laws of the Seventeenth General Assembly, that the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company establish and operate a station at a suitable] point to be determined by themselves between Ida Grove and Odebolt, and would urge that the station be built in time for the farmers in the vicinity to market their present corn crop.

On December 4, 1883, a communication was received from A. T. Judd, of West Liberty, Iowa, and also signed by fourteen other citizens and firms of Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska, complaining of excessive charges by the various railway lines of these States, on animals for breeding purposes, where shipped singly in a car. Complainants alleged that the former arrangement whereby bulls and stallions were received and shipped, at an estimated weight of 2,000 pounds each, had been changed so as to make this weight 4,000 pounds, without regard to actual weight. Under this new arrangement, freight charges on breeding animals were very high, and complainants asked for an order from the Commissioners to relieve them in a measure from the burden of these excessive rates. The matter was re