FRAUDULENT PRACTICES 425 



these relations are far from amicable. It is hardly likely that 

 they ever will be harmonious until we abandon some of our 

 obsolete practices. 



If you listen to the shipper's or receiver's tale of woe in regard 

 to breakage, you gain the impfession that the carriers are a set 

 of beats, who, for no reason at all, kick egg cases all over the 

 map, smash them into bits, and then refuse to pay claims for 

 damages. 



True, the railroads, express companies and other carriers have 

 adopted rather drastic measures of late, one of which is the allow- 

 ance of five per cent breakage on each case of eggs. Their tariff 

 files now state that they will not be held accountable for breakage 

 unless it exceeds five per cent, and that claims will be considered 

 only on the damage in excess of five per cent on each case or 

 crate. 



Shippers and receivers regard this regulation as an unjust im- 

 position. They go so far as to call it confiscation. The carriers 

 have been put to it in self-defense. There was a time, and only 

 a few years back, when the greatest asset that many of the men 

 engaged in the egg trade had, was the volume of claims which they 

 collected from the carriers. Apparently, the carriers were re- 

 garded as legitimate prey. They were set upon and gouged in 

 a merciless manner by the most unscrupulous practices. The 

 carriers knew they were being gouged, and, like the proverbial 

 worm, they turned. They got the goods on various gentlemen, 

 and said gentlemen were indicted for fraudulent practices. 



