916 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



year. The reports of the department inspectors fail to show deter- 

 mined efforts on the part of common earners in general to obey the 

 law. Of the 631 cases reported, together with those coming over 

 from the fiscal year 1911, tliere were 9G7 cases pending at the close of 

 June 30, 191^. Penalties were recovered in 357 cases and 98 cases 

 were dismissed. In the preceding fiscal year, of t^e 598 cases reported, 

 together with those commg over from tne preceding fiscal year, penal- 

 ties were assessed in 254 Ciises and 66 cases were dismissed. At the 

 close of that year 807 cases were pending. In the fiscal year 1911, 30 

 cases were lost, or about 8 per cent of the total number; in the fiscal 

 year 1912, 16 cases were lost, or a trifle over 3 per cent of the total. 

 In 1911 penalties in the sum of $26,075 w^ere recovered and costs in 

 the sum of $5,783.85 were paid; in 1912 penalties in the sum of 

 $28,400 were recovered and costs in the sum of $2,937.13 were paid. 

 In short, there were 33 more cases reported in 1912 than in 1911, 

 $2,325 more in penalties and $2,847.72 less in costs collected in 1912 

 than in 1911, and there were 160 more cases pending on June 30, 

 1912, than on June 30, 1911. 



The enforcement of the twenty-eight hour law has undoubtedly 

 resulted m the more humane treatment of cattle in the course of 

 transportation. There are in use in the country a considerable num- 

 ber 01 so-called "feed and water" cars, in which animals are fed and 

 watered and have opportunity to rest. Some of the railroad com- 

 panies have improved the conditions of the yards into which animals 

 are unloaded for food, water, and rest, and maintain yards at con- 

 venient distances to enable compliance with the law. The number 

 ol violations discovered by inspectors of the Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try each year shows that much remains to be accomplished. Experi- 

 ence shows that the recovery of minimum penalties of $100 does not 

 operate as an effective deterrent against new violations. This office 

 has uniformly declined to acquiesce in the settlement of cases on this 

 basis, and has recommended that the facts in the cases be stated to 

 the courts, leaving it to the courts to fix the penalties, or that insist- 

 ence be made for the assessment of the maximum penalty of $500. 

 Compliance with the law will be more readily secured, it is believed, 

 by the exaction for violations of penalties which will make the trans- 

 portation of stock in violation of the law unprofitable to the carrier. 

 Attention has been called in previous reports of this office to the need 

 for the enactment of a law regulating the minimum speed of trains 

 carrying liv€ stock. None of the bills introduced in Congress for this 

 purpose have been enacted into law. Such a measure would con- 

 tribute much to the humane treatment of live stock in transit and at 

 the same time further the interests of the shipper. 



DECISIONS OF THE COURTS. 



During the fiscal year 1912 the following important decisions of the 

 Federal courts were handed down in cases arising under the twenty- 

 eight hour law: 



Grand Trunk Railway Co. v. United States. 

 (191 Fed., 803; Circular No. 59, Office of Solicitor.) 



A decision in favor of the Government was rendered in the lower 

 court, holding that the twenty-ei^hi hour law is applicable to a ship- 

 ment originating in one State and passing through a foreign country 



