THIRTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 195 



him there was nothing moving. We had the contracts made out, 

 ready to hook on and go. The agent wouldn't guarantee him a car 

 for the next day. There was a stock car loaded with lumber just 

 across the track at the station, but there was too much lumber in 

 it to unload right away, so he took the cattle home; but the agent 

 wouldn't let him take them out of the yard until he returned his 

 contract, which he did. I had gone on with mine. If he had got 

 the car the next day, the market was lower, and there would have 

 been considerable loss to my neighbor. He is a good sort of a fel- 

 low, and didn't put in a claim against the company, and I didn't 

 urge him to. I guess it was a good thing, because he still has his 

 cattle, and the market is doing better. But you can realize what a 

 disadvantage it was, and humiliation, after he had calculated to 

 shii^ and had driven his cattle several miles to town, not to get the 

 cars, after they had been ordered a week ahead. When I got back 

 from Chicago, I noticed that there was still one car on the track 

 with the drav:-bar pulled out. I heard afterward that the car that 

 was off center had ])een loaded with sheep the Sunday before, and 

 unloaded ; so the agent surely knew the condition of the car before 

 we loaded. 



Mr. AVhitenton : Of course the natural assumption of the patron 

 is — and it is correct from his viewpoint — that of course the rail- 

 road management are responsible for those cars being in bad order, 

 and that they sent them out in that condition knowingly. Of 

 course we don't do that, but you can't understand why the cars 

 would stay there a week in bad order. One car was loaded a week 

 previous and unloaded, and the agent knew of it. Some trainmen 

 in setting that other car out, pulled the draw-bar out, and the prob- 

 abilities are that they made no report of it. It was the agent's duty 

 to take the check of his yard every morning and evening and know 

 the condition of every car there ; and if he is going to need stock 

 cars put in there by the dispatcher for loading the following day, 

 he ought to get busy and get someone out there to put a draw-bar 

 in that car. A couple of men with jacks could have put that car 

 back on its center; it is a smaller task to do that than to put in the 

 new draw-bar. Two men could have cleaned the Avhole thing up 

 in three hours if some one had gotten busy and taken the interest 

 they should in the company's welfare and had a proper idea of ac- 

 commodating and taking care of the shipping public. 



Mr. Oliva: As to the car with the disabled draw-bar, they 

 couldn't have fixed it out there, because it seemed that the timber 



