TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 563 



stock men, the bitterest part of the fight centering around the question of 

 shrink. The railroads took the position that there was no commercial 

 loss to the shipper in the form of shrink on his live stock on account of 

 it beinj^ delayed and arriving twenty-four to forty-eight hours late on 

 the market; in other words, they undertook to prove by what they chose 

 to call expert testimony that there was no such thing as shrink only in 

 the minds of the stock men, and that they should not be paid for this 

 imaginary loss. Their untenable position so incensed your representa- 

 tives that a pitched battle at once was staged and soon became exceed- 

 ingly unpleasant and the stock men poured such hot shot and steady 

 fire into their ranks that before the close of the second day's hearing 

 they withdrew from their opposition and were willing to admit that we 

 at least sustained a loss of commercial weight. 



After this and some minor points were won by the representatives of 

 the stock men, the sub-committees went into executive session to try 

 if possible to get together on the general draft of the rules. Three days 

 and nights were spent in almost continuous sessions in an attempt to 

 reach an agreement as to a uniform set of rules and regulations for the 

 settlement of these claims, but without succeeding, and on Saturday 

 afternoon after spending the entire week the two sub-committees dead- 

 locked in what seemed to be a hopeless attempt to agree upon a proper 

 allowance for shrink for the different kinds of live stock, and the various 

 kinds of delays, so an adjournment was taken to meet again later on and 

 try it over. This was done and at the second meeting, which was held 

 in July, a real determination was manifest to try if possible to get to- 

 gether and agree upon something definite which could be submitted to 

 the administration at Washington. So after a three-days' strenuous 

 session this was finally accomplished and a set of rules and regulations 

 was unanimously adopted by the two committees and sent to Washing- 

 ton with the recommendation that they be accepted and published and 

 put in force by order of the director general of railroads. This, how- 

 ever, has not been done, and we are still operating under the old system 

 of catch-as-catch-can in the settlement of claims, and I regret to inform 

 you that I have just recently been notified that Mr. J. W. Howard, the 

 head of the claims department at Washington, has refused to recommend 

 to the director general the adoption of the rules and regulations as 

 adopted by the sub-committees at Chicago. However, I believe that this 

 general stirring up has had a very wholesome effect on the railroads 

 and claim agents, as I understand they have been cleaning up a lot of 

 delayed claims in the last three or four months and I wish in this way 

 to publicly urge upon all farmers and stock men who have claims pend- 

 ing to keep right after them; don't let up and get discouraged. The rail- 

 roads are just as much obligated to pay all just claims as when they 

 were under private control, so don't let them hoodwink or mislead you 

 by the plea that they are not liable. 



THE SECOND CUMMINS AMENDMENT. 



In circulating among the farmers during the past season I have been 

 told that some railroad agents are still insisting that they place a valua- 

 tion upon their stock when billing it out. I am certainly surprised at 



