March 27,. I'jlO 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



new set of rules by which all chance for dispute would be 

 eliminated. 



Although several other topics were scheduled for consideration 

 at this session, the lateness of the hour made it necessary to 

 ad:iourn. 



THURSDAY MORNING SESSION 



Thursday morning's session was opened with the report of the 

 committee on railroads and transportation, prepared by Chair- 

 man Germain and read by W. S. Phippen, who told of victories in 

 the New York lighterage and car spotting cases, resulting in a 

 saving of twelve cents per ton in the first instance on all "lighter- 

 age free" freight handled in lighters in New York harbor, and 

 in the second of an additional charge for every car of lumber 

 loaded or unloaded from private track. 



Mr. Phippen reviewed the subject of reclassification of lumber 

 and lumber products, which is of vital interest to lumbermen, 

 saying this subject was touched on in May, 1915, in a letter 

 issued by the Forest Service of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture requesting replies to three questions relating to 

 freight rates. He told of the plans maturing for the protection 

 of the whole industry from unfair regulation in this particular 

 when the question is decided. The remainder of his report follows 

 in part: 



Ix THE MaTTKR of FrKICHT BILLS 



After lengthy correspondence on the subject of disclosure by rail- 

 roads of destination the commission assigned the subject for argument 

 on brief and in February, 1915, after obtaining the views of our mem- 

 bers, I filed a brief, copies of whlchwere mailed to all members Interested. 

 . On February 7, 1916, the commission rendered its decision (38 I. C. C. 

 91) holding as follows: 



Freight I)ills presented to tlie xiltimate consignees of sliipments recon- 

 signod in transit ouglit not to disclose the name of the original con- 

 signors ; neitiier should they siiow the original point of shipment nor the 

 route of movement to the roconsigning point except in instances where 

 the ultimate consignee is required to pay the through charges. 



This decision should go tar toward affording the legitimate whole- 

 saler the protection which is so necessary to his business. 



TjNDERCn.ARGE BiLLS RENDKRED BY CARRIERS 



Many complaints have been received and much annoyance is expe- 

 rienced by wholesalers on account of carriers rendering undercharge bills 

 long after shipments have been delivered and settlements have been 

 made with the mills. The Interstate Commerce Commission referred to 

 this situation in its twenty-fifth and twentj^-seventh annual reports and 

 recommended to Congress that the Interstate Commerce act be amended 

 mailing it compulsory for a carrier to collect its charges within a reason- 

 able period (perhaps ninety days) and if not collected within that time. 

 It should be deemed guilty of giving a rebate. 



On December G, lOl."), the Honorable Edward Keating, representative 

 from Colorado, introduced in Congress a hill, H. R. 651. This bill sub- 

 stantially provides that it shall be the duty of carriers to demand of the 

 party legally liable therefor payment of all of the charges for any serv- 

 ice in the transportation of property within ninety days from the time 

 of the delivery of the shipment ; and that if any carrier shall wilfully 

 and knowingly fail or neglect to demand within ninety days payment 

 of all charges, it shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, 

 upon conviction thereof, be subject to a fine not exceeding $5,000. The 

 bill also provides that all suits by common carriers for the recovery of 

 charges for any service in the transportation of property or any part 

 thereof shall be brought within two years from the time the cause of the 

 action accrues and not after. This bill was referred to the committee 

 on interstate and foreign commerce on January 5, 1916. It is my opinion 

 that this bill should have the active support of the lumbermen, as it is only 

 • by such an amendment to the act that relief can be obtained from the 

 present injustices. 



Remarks by Geo. Dallas Dixon 



George Dallas Dixon, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Kail- 

 road, in charge of trafiie, was the principal speaker at this session. 

 Mr. Dixon's address on freight congestion and the much-discussed 

 embargoes, was decidedly timely. In part Mr. Dixon said as 

 follows: 



One of your own people wrote a letter to the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission last week and suggested that "shipments destined to con- 

 sumers, factories and dealers who have private sidings be permitted to 

 go forward." 



"This," he said, "will not allow specuJative or transit consignments to 

 add to the congestion at junction points and thereby, as in many cases in 

 the past they have done, only increase the confusion." 



I quote this shipper's exact words because they show that he had 

 clearly in his own mind a practice which has greatly aggravated the 

 present situation — that Is, the ordering of material shipped as a specula- 



tion, without having made arrangements for disposing of It on arrival, 

 and with the intention of using the freight cars and railroad yards for 

 storage. 



We appreciate the fact that the free movement of your lumber from 

 one part of the country to another is absolutely necessary to a healthy 

 condition of your business, and we want to help you In every way we 

 can. In return, we want your understanding, for our railroad is "sick," 

 too. And we want your confidence ; we cannot serve you properly with- 

 out it. 



Possibly both shippers and the railroads would have been better off 

 if we had placed our embargoes earlier and had made them even more 

 drastic than we did. There is only one reason why the Pennsylvania 

 Railroad did not do this. We wanted to try every way that we possibly 

 could to render the service our patrons needed, even though we seriously 

 doubted our ability to do it. 



Last week in Washington we had a meeting with shippers before the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission to talk about the freight congestion, 

 and what should be done to relieve it. The railroads told the commission 

 that immediate relief could be obtained only by resorting to measures that 

 would compel consignees, in their own interest, to take their freight off 

 the railroads' hands with reasonable promptness after its arrival. Ac- 

 cordingly, the railroads proposed to charge progressive demurrage, for the 

 purpose of making abuse o£ the privilege of storage in cars too expensive 

 to be profitable. 



The attitude before the commission of each of the shippers was about 

 like this : "Something must be done to relieve the congestion, but the 

 'something' must not affect my particular business." The grain man 

 said nothing must be done to affect his Imsiness, the flour man the same, 

 and the steel man, too. Naturally we did not get very far. Let us hope 

 that some day we will develop more of a give-and-take spirit. 



Don't think for a minute that all this congestion is due to the move- 

 ment of freight for export. Several weeks ago when we placed a com- 

 plete embargo on carload freight for Philadelphia — it has since been 

 lifted almost entirely, I think — we had about 12,000 cars of all kinds of 

 goods for this city. Of these 2,500, or 20.8 per cent, held grain for 

 export ; 923 cars, or 7.7 per cent, held other export freight, and 423 cars, 

 or 3.5 per cent, held coast wise freight. The remainder 8,154 cars, or 

 68 per cent of the total, were for local delivery in Philadelphia. 



But we are not the only ones who are making unusual efforts. The 

 subterfuges some shippers are employing to evade our embargoes are 

 many and ingenious. Furthermore, some shippers resent our keeping as 

 close a watch as we can on the actual requirements of the plants along 

 our line. 



We keep such a watch for two reasons. We try to find out when ship- 

 pers are actually in want for material, coal or whatever it may be, and 

 we also try to learn whether a shipper is having sent to him more than 

 he can take care of. Knowledge of this kind is necessary in order that 

 the railroad may perform, as well as circumstances permit, the duty of 

 rendering adequate service to all. 



I can't see that any measure will bring immediate relief except one that 

 will penalize the shippers who forward freight without knowing whether 

 it will be accepted promptly upon arrival at destination — in other words, 

 a measure that will make it unprofitable to use cars as storehouses. 



But, to take a broader view of the whole situation ; 



While we are seeking immediate relief from the congestion, because o( 

 the urgency of our business, we must not fail to take some steps to 

 guard against future congestion. 



At present the railroads generally cannot authorize large expenditures 

 for improvements in facilities because they do not know what will be 

 imposed on them by the public in the way of Increased taxes, higher 

 wages to employes in the train service, full crew laws, and such. We 

 are moving in the dark, with the result that railway building is at a 

 standstill. 



The crying railroad nee<l in this country is for a unification and con- 

 solidation of our system of regulation of railroads, so that carriers and 

 Investors will know what to expect. Then we will be able to see some 

 daylight ahead. 



Howard E. Pratt, chief of the United States Bureau of Foreign 

 and Domestic Commerce, -was unable to appear, but Roger E. Sim- 

 mons, another official of the bureau, spoke on "Lumber Conditions 

 in South America with Eelation to the Possibilities of Extension 

 of American Trade." A summary of his talk follows: 



When some of you think of South .\merica you regard it as largely 

 undeveloped, but the cities with their high degree of development com- 

 pare favorably with our American cities. The South American business 

 man, while differing somewhat in his methods from ours, is of high 

 integrity and conducts his business with the same high Ideals we do. 



South .\merlca must depend on the United States for 600,000,000 feet 

 of soft woods annually. Their own forests consist of many different 

 kinds of wood, but they are nearly all hardwoods. Many of these are so 

 Inaccessible and so heavy as to be unmarketable. Brazil places a duty 

 of $31 a thousand feet on lumber brought to Its ports, but In spite of 

 this excessive tax the American lumberman can undersell the Brazilian. 

 They think they are protecting their lumber Industry by this tax and 

 aim to drive the consumer to use the native hardwoods, but they fail, 

 succeeding only in forcing the consumer to the use of substitutes. 



There was some surprise when Mr. Simmons stated that on the entire 



