TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII 641 



are in the position to recover every possible cent for you. And if in the 

 course of a year, this department does not save you two or three times 

 the amount of your membership fee, I believe you will be the excep- 

 tion. The expenses of the department are defrayed entirely by the nom- 

 inal charge on each claim of 15 per cent of what is collected, where the 

 claim is received in the very beginning. Railroad vouchers are made 

 payable only to the order of the shipper, and sent to you that you may 

 be assured you have received the entire sum paid in any settlement; the 

 15 per cent is remitted later by your separate check. 



But to accomplish efficient results we must have your cooperation in 

 two ways: (1) File all your claims thru this association claim depart- 

 ment. (2) Send them to us in the very beginning and before they have 

 been filed with the railroad. 



Remember that your claim must be filed within six months, if the 

 shipment goes into another state, and often sooner, according to the pro- 

 visions of the live stock contract if it has not gone outside of the state. 

 So it is well to always file the claim as soon as it arises and never let 

 more than three months elapse. 



Send us the claim in the beginning and before it has been declined. 

 We can then be of much more service to you. A railroad claim decision 

 once placed on record can usually not be changed without suit. But if 

 we receive it in the beginning, the right work can be done at the start 

 and the claim worked up diplomatically to settlement without having 

 to combat an adverse decision previously given. 



We ask you to file all your claims through the association claim de- 

 partment, that the railroads can be made to feel there is an organized 

 power behind each and every claim that is filed, demanding justice and 

 action in its settlement. The average live stock claim can not afford to 

 be litigated by the individual shipper. The railroads pursue the policy of 

 making it too expensive in time, money, and effort to the shipper to 

 make collection on his claims, with the hope that he will be discouraged 

 from pressing his rights. If the railroads are given to understand that 

 when a meritorious claim, no matter how small, is declined, they must 

 fight the organized power of all the shippers of an organization, results 

 not otherwise thought of will be obtained. Organization is everything. 



One man working as your agent and doing nothing else but handling 

 claims and representing the organized strength of your scores of ship- 

 pers can do far more than any one shipper standing separate and alone. 

 It is only as each member files all of his claims thru the association 

 claim department that the pressure and influence coming from your or- 

 ganized strength can be felt by the railroad. It is for that reason that we 

 ask you to file all your claims thru the association claim department. 



Having considered possible ways in which we can reduce the number 

 of live stock claims, and the method which has been adopted to bring 

 about more efficient results on those that are bound to arise, let us re- 

 member a few legal principles which are the safeguard of the live stock 

 shipper's rights. There can be no limitation of liability upon the actual 

 value of "ordinary live stock" under the Cummins amendment. The rail- 

 road can not limit its liability for the full loss that has been sustained 



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