180 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Mr. Kittgers: The thought comes up in this conection, just 

 what rights have the stock men on trains? I have found some 

 conductors that are the most gentlemanly persons you could meet ; 

 they have given me from their train book every stop, and the 

 number of minutes they have stopped. Other conductors have ab- 

 solutely refused to give me any information whatever; you couldn't 

 find out how long they would stop at any definite point, if you 

 wanted to make an examination of your stock or your cars. 



Mr. Wilcox: I have had a little experience in keeping the 

 time of the running of a train. I had a case in Cass County. I 

 loaded some cattle at Wiota, and it was eight days before they 

 were sold. We kept the exact time of that train at every station. 

 They had every train dispatcher from Chariton to Lincoln on the 

 witness stand with their time sheets, but when we got 

 through they found that we had a good deal better time sheet than 

 they had. You know at a good many of the little stations they 

 don't have any man at night, and our witnesses testified that the 

 stock was held at certain places; and when they came to produce 

 their evidence, they had none at all, because of the fact that they 

 didn't know what time the train arrived at those little stations 

 along the road. So that if you undertake to keep the time, you 

 ought to keep it accurately. 



President Sykes : We have tried to impress upon you the value 

 of filling out these train reports. However, the shippers scarcely 

 ever accompany their shipments, and the only thing we can ask 

 of those men is to fill out the report, giving the time when the 

 stock was loaded, when it left the station, and then, as Mr. Eisle 

 has suggested, get the time from the commission firm as to when 

 it arrived in Chicago, and attach that to their report. But I agree 

 with Mr. Wallace that it is very essential that we have these inter- 

 mediate stops. If you have a damage claim, there is nothing that 

 would be as valuable to you as that report, because if the report 

 is properly filled out, it would show the movement of the train 

 from the time it left your loading station until it was pulled up at 

 the chutes in Chicago. 



Is there a sheep man in the house who has been shipping to 

 Chicago; and if so, what is your experience? 



A Member: Mr. Fox and I ordered a double-decker, but they 

 could not furnish it, and they gave us two single-decks; but when 

 we got to Chicago they wouldn't accept them. 



