INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF LIVE STOCK. 17 
REMOVAL OF INCOMPETENT EMPLOYEES. 
In the administration of the law it has been found in some in- 
stances that violations have been caused by incompetent employees 
who have, for one reason or another, disobeyed the official instrue- 
tions of the roads. There have also been cases where those employed 
to feed and water the animals had entered into agreements with other 
employees of the roads to furnish less feed than required by the 
schedules and divide the amount paid by the shippers for proper 
service. When these conditions have been made known to the higher 
officials by the department, it has resulted in many instances in the 
dismissal of those responsible for such irregularities. The operating 
officials of a number of roads have adopted systems whereby each 
shipment of live stock which arrives at the market center is checked, 
and if any have been confined beyond the statutory period immediate 
action is taken to locate the person at fault and to discipline, often- 
times by dismissal, the employees responsible for the violations. 
IMPROVED TRAIN SCHEDULES. 
Some of the railroads have revised their train schedules to pro- 
vide for the transportation of live stock to market with greater dis- 
patch so that in some cases it will not be necessary to unload them 
at all and in others not as often as formerly. Other roads have 
placed special stock trains in operation, running on certain days each 
week and maintaining an advertised schedule from the stock ship- 
ping centers to the larger markets. These trains make connection 
with pick-up or local trains of their own and connecting roads, and 
in this manner have done away with the necessity for unloading in 
transit many shipments which formerly were stopped at least once 
for feed, water, and rest. 
VIOLATIONS AND PENALTIES. 
Since the enactment of the present law in 1906 there have been 
reported for prosecution up to and including June 30, 1917, 8,948 
violations of the statute, and a total of $426,818.08 has been collected 
in penalties in the 11 years covered by this period. The administra- 
tive officials, however, are more desirous of securing compliance with 
the provisions of the law than the imposing of penalties. 
FURTHER IMPROVEMENT DESIRABLE. 
While much has been accomplished up to the present time, some 
room for improvement in the handling of live stock still remains. 
Tt is believed that if the carriers will cooperate more with the Gov- 
ernment better results will be obtained and fewer prosecutions will 
