DEMUERAGE INFORMATION" FOR FARMERS. ' 19 



missioner was designated by the Interstate Commerce Commission and 

 appointed by the railroads ''to arbitrate all doubtful or disputed cases 

 growing out of the application of the demurrage rules, which the ship- 

 pers or the raihoads deshe to refer to him." As an impartial investi- 

 gator to whom both sides may refer, his efforts are to secure from the 

 raih'oads their best possible service and from shippers cooperation by 

 the prompt release of cars in order that commerce may be facilitated 

 and that efhciency of transportation may be increased. 



The growing importance of demurrage is being generaUy recognized. 

 The necessity for a more careful supervision of it and for a closer 

 study of the subject is making itself apparent in many ways. An 

 example is the recent appointment by the American Railway Asso- 

 ciation of a demurrage supervisor for the State of Texas. 



RECOMMENDATIONS OF DEMURRAGE OFFICERS. 



The fact that the managers of the demurrage bureaus are dealing 

 exclusively with only one phase of the railroad question puts them 

 in a position to know the details of that one phase very thoroughly. 

 Their opinions individually and their recommendations collectively, 

 as the American Association of Demurrage Officers, are deserving of 

 careful consideration and have had great weight in influencing demur- 

 rage practices. Communications addressed to each of them have 

 developed the fact that 13 of them favor the abolition of the average 

 agreement. Fourteen of them favor an increase in the demurrage 

 rate. One advocates a $3 rate on refrigerator cars, one the same rate 

 on hay and straw, and four a $3 rate on all cars. One suggests that 

 the charge be assessed for Sundays and hohdays after the expiration 

 of the free time. 



The rate of S3 per day is suggested by the fact that that is the 

 rate at present in effect on interstate shipments in Arizona and Califor- 

 nia. June 19, 1909, the California State rate was raised by statute 

 from SI to $6 per day. May 1, 1911, it was reduced to $3 by order 

 of the State commission. Records of the Pacific Car Demurrage 

 Bureau showed greatest car efficiency under the $6 rate and efficiency 

 almost as great under the $3 rate. In January, 1912, the manager 

 of this bureau filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission a tarifi 

 raising the interstate rate to $3. The commission, on its own motion, 

 suspended the tariff. After hearings and much testbnony, with little 

 opposition from shippers, the case (I. & S. Docket Nos. 83 and 83A, 

 25 1. C. C. 314) was decided December 2, 1912, and the $3 rate allowed 

 to stand. The chairman of the commission dissented, holding that 

 a rat(5 of SI per day was sufFiciejit, as a general rule, anywhere tlu'ougli- 

 out the country. A/iother member held that the increased car efE- 

 cicncy on State- iraffic under a %'.) rate was due not to the rate, but 

 U) the activity of the nuuuiger of tlie Paei/ic Car Dcjiiurrage Bureau. 



