22 BULLETIlSr 191^ 17. S. DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



as cold-storage space instead of in refrigerator cars would appear to 

 require no argument. 



Any discussion of a charge based on the value of a car is useless 

 because of the impossibility of determining what the value is. The 

 value of a car will vary with the kind of car, the commodity handled, 

 the season of the year, the location of the business, and whether it 

 is being considered from the standpomt of the interest of the owning 

 road, the using road, or that of the owner of the lading. It is simply 

 a question of whether it is cheaper for a shipper to use cars for storage 

 than to provide storage elsewhere. It is a very simple matter to 

 determine a rate that will make car storage unprofitable. 



Every effort to increase the demurrage rate brings forth a loud pro- 

 test from the misusers of cars on the ground that vested rights and 

 long-established customs are being interfered with. No demurrage 

 charge need be burdensome to shippers. As a rule, it is voluntaril}'' 

 assumed and can readily be avoided by prompt loading and unloading. 



From one pomt of view the railroads are between the upper and 

 nether millstone of the man who has the car and the man who wants 

 it. Each abuses the road for the shortcomings of the other. In 

 the last analysis of the case both are the same man, unable or un- 

 willing to see that a car can not be a stationary warehouse and a 

 movable vehicle at the same time. 



The railroads would gladly forego all revenue from demurrage in 

 return for prompt release of cars. In fact the charge is not intended 

 as a revenue producer, but as a stimulant to speedy release of equip- 

 ment. The excess of demurrage charges over the immediate cost 

 of collection does not take into consideration the economic loss from 

 car shortage and the economic waste involved in switching blockaded 

 yards. This loss and waste it is impossible to calculate in terms of 

 dollars and cents. 



Under the totally inadequate demurrage charge prevaHing thi'ough- 

 out the greater part of the country there have grown up indefensible 

 practices, altogether wrong in principle. This is especially true in the 

 case of the coal brokers, grain dealers, commission men generally, and 

 big manufacturing plants. In periods of acute car shortage and con- 

 gested terminals there is an almost universal demand that carriers 

 be compelled to increase their car supply, enlarge their terminal yards, 

 and provide increased switching facilities, when it has never been 

 shown that they are not already adequately equipped in these respects 

 if cars were used for transportation solely and not used for storage 

 warehouses. Increased expenditures for additional cars, more switch 

 engines, and bigger yards mean increased interest charges which the 

 commerce of the country must bear. 



Farmers are not large receivers of carload shipments and many of 

 the products which they forward are perishable and must on that 



