TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 609 



SHRINKAGE ALLOWANCES. 



' Next, folks, that committee was divided on the subject of shrinkage — 

 iwo of the committee were in favor of eliminating shrinkage allowances 

 i-d two opposed it, and I hold in my hand their recommendation. Here 

 _ the recommendation of two of the members: 



•'All shrinkage allowances be canceled and the following rules have 

 ceased and freight charges be adopted: (1) Hoof weights obtained at 

 point of origin to govern; (2) when not obtainable at point of origin to 

 be way-billed at minimum weight and corrected by delivering agent to 

 actual hoof weight, but not less than the minimum." 



Mr. Harris, although not representing the majority, won out again, 

 gentlemen, and the shrinkage still stays. I move another round of ap- 

 plause. (Applause.) Now I am not going to tell you how many other 

 things were at stake before that committee. We furnished you with a 

 long list of the things that we had up before the committee for consider- 

 ation. Mr. Stryker has sent up a note here, "Will you say something 

 on unadjusted loss and damage claims in their present status after the 

 war?" With regard to that subject, the present conference bill has, as 

 I understand it, a provision extending the time. Recently the Interstate 

 Commerce Commission, in deciding the Decker case, recommended that 

 the time be extended, and the railroads have adopted that policy, I be- 

 lieve, in formal instructions issued from Washington. The time should 

 be extended so that the war period should not be included under the 

 statutory limitation provision. You must know that during the war there 

 were enormous claims, great confusion and uncertainty, and it was im- 

 possible to get proper attention paid to this subject, and it would be 

 unfair to the shippers to have that clause prevail. 



I have a few straightforward and specific facts to give you about some 

 questions and problems that you and I have been facing during the past 

 year. I think that the Corn Belt Meat Producers' Association should 

 know those facts. If there wasn't anything that was handled from year 

 to year that was worth while, this organization might well go out of 

 existence. It is the very fact that there are such questions arising that 

 justifies your continued activity. ' 



There were many propositions connected with pending railroad legis- 

 lation where your action did good. You sent a representative to Chicago 

 (Mr. Sykes), who served on the resolutions committee, and your attorney 

 was one of the members of the resolutions committee, and we took a 

 very determined stand on a number of important propositions. We did 

 help, first, to kill the transportation board, which has been eliminated 

 from the bill, although introduced and passed in the senate; second, we 

 had eliminated from the bill the pooling of earnings; third, without spe- 

 cific approval of the commission, we have eliminated from the bill com- 

 pulsory consolidation; fourth, we have helped to get restored the full 

 powers of the state commissions. I think our work has been very much 

 worth while. I am going to refer to various items in a few sentences. 



First, the loss and damage claims I have already discussed at some 

 considerable length. I have shown you how the railroads wanted to 



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