The increase in both the gross and net earnings of Iowa lines has been remarkable, as shown in the following table gathered from the commissioners' reports: Gross Earnings, Net Earnings, Year. Total. Total. Per Mile. 1888-89 $37,369,276 $11,861,310 $1,421 1889-90 41,318,133 12,798,430 1,522 1890-91 43,102,399 14,463,106 1,720 1891-92 44,540,000 14,945,000 1,777 It was claimed by railroad men that the effect of Iowa legislation would be particularly disastrous to her local roads, which had no opportunity to make up on through business the losses incurred in the local traffic. The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern was particularly cited as a line which would have to go into bankruptcy under the new law. Its earnings commenced to increase, however, immediately after the adoption of the commissioners' schedule, and at the end of the first year they were large enough to change this line from a Class "C" to a Class "B" road. They continued to increase, and in 1891 its gross earnings on substantially the same mileage were 36 per cent, and its net earnings 64 per cent. larger than they had been in 1888. The increase continued and enabled the company to make a dividend to its stockholders February 1, 1893, it being the first dividend ever made by the company. It is a good illustration of what the Iowa law has done for weak railroads. It has again changed class and is now a Class "A" road. It is seen that the fears, or rather the pretended fears of the railroad managers, that the legislature of Iowa would bankrupt her railroads, were entirely groundless. As a result of the law railroads have been able to increase their gross earnings as well as their profits. They have been enabled to give employment to a larger number of men, and there has been no occasion for them to carry out the dishonest threat to decrease the wages of their employes. Had it not been for their increased earnings in Iowa, the losses recently sustained in other States by several of the through lines would have made it impossible for them to declare the dividends which they did. Under her beneficial railroad policy Iowa has prospered wonderfully, and her railroads have been more prosperous than when they were allowed to have their own way. The commissioners' tariff has made jobbing and manufacturing profitable where it was unprofitable before. It has added to our industries and our commerce, and has made new business for the people as well as the railroads. It has contributed to the increase in the value of our farms and factories and their products, and the time will come when wise railroad managers, like the majority of former slaveholders of the South, would not resurrect the past if they could. In fact, honorable managers now acknowledge that they would not if they could.