CONFERENCE ON TRANSPORTATION 



125 



trouble. We go to them and tell them they have done well, and it 

 makes them smile all over. This year they have inaugurated 

 another plan. They run the train on schedule time almost to the 

 minute. There is another train on the Pennsylvania Railroad which 

 takes refrigerator cars and carries them west. My impression is that 

 they have not failed once to make connections with that train on the 

 Pennsylvania. I think it is due to a large extent to our keeping after 

 them and showing them that they must- do it. 



A Member: You mentioned putting produce on the platform 

 on the railroad company's property. I had heard of that before and 

 this fall I took occasion to find out about it. A lawyer told me I 

 could not do it. I had given two weeks' notice. He said that is not 

 an unreasonable length of time. The best thing you can do is to 

 write the Superintendent of the Division, and see if you can get him 

 to send you cars. 



Mr. White: My opinion is that the local lawyer was giving his 

 opinion as based upon law rather than upon a decision of the Inter- 

 state Commerce Commission. This body has gone so far as to rule 

 that the railroad company is obliged to load and unload package 

 freight. There is no reason why they should compel you to load a 

 car of freight and become liable yourself for any discrepancy that 

 may occur there, if you take a billing and have to be subject to ship- 

 per's tally. 



A Member: If you deliver a load of celery on the railroad com- 

 pany's platform, and they do not load it until three or four days 

 afterward, can you oblige them to load it and take care of it? 



President White: You can with reasonable notice, which 

 would depend upon the distance it had to come from and the usual 

 necessary time. In our section, we are supposed to get a refrigerator 

 car the next day after ordering. 



Mr. Locke : W^e have been in the habit of getting cars the next 

 day, but what the law would specify in regard to reasonable time, I 

 don't know. 



President White: The law doesn't state. It depends on 

 circumstances. Railroads are liable for damage in frost-proof cars. 

 The law states that the carrier shall furnish cars suitable for the 

 transportation of the product which is to be shipped. 



