CLAIMS FOR DAMAGED EGGS 413 



corporation of about five hundred merchants engaged in deahng 

 in eggs and dairy products, which exchange corresponds to the 

 Chicago Grain Exchange or the New York Stock Exchange, and 

 six leading railway systems entering the metropolitan district, 

 it was shown of record that one railroad's gross revenue on eggs 

 and the total claims presented for loss and damage thereon 

 amounted in the periods of 1912 below noted to the following 

 amounts : 



Total Revenue Total Claims Per Cent 



April $34,014.54 $2,774.40 8.1 



May 23,298.59 4>7i7-58 20.25 



June 16,762.41 2,423.66 14.5 



September, first week 5,589.58 3,190.71 57-25 



September, second week 5>594-70 3i338-i2 59-66 



September, third week 4,578.70 2,661.28 58.1 



September, fourth week 4,125.46 1,746.67 42.1 



During the above periods there were no wrecks or derailments, 

 and no unusual weather conditions or labor disturbances to 

 account for these losses. At the same hearing it was also shown 

 that in 19 13 another railroad paid claims on eggs from its New 

 York office alone amounting to $100,207.35. With this and 

 similar losses going on constantly all over the country is it any 

 wonder that the railroads find themselves financially embar- 

 rassed, or that they have had to forego dividends to their stock- 

 holders? In 1916 their total claim bill for loss and damage on all 

 commodities amounted to thirty-five million dollars, which ab- 

 sorbed about two per cent of their total earnings. 



For convenience in analyzing this subject we will divide the 

 egg trade as a whole into four principal divisions or classes: 

 First, the producers, second, the shippers, third, the carriers, 

 and fourth, the distributors, both wholesale and retail. 



All Are to Blame. — It cannot be said that any one class is re- 

 sponsible for our fifty-million-dollar egg-loss, and certainly no 

 class is exempt from it. All are to blame, and' all are equally 

 culpable. 



Losses in eggs occur at all stages of handling, on the farm, in 

 the country store, with the local shipper, the egg-collecting center, 

 the railroad, the packer, the jobber, the commission merchant. 



