18 BULLETIN" 191, U. S. DEPABTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 
DEMURRAGE BUREAUS. 
Prior to the Hepburn law of 1906 amending the act to regulate t 
commerce, when discriminations of every kind were the order of the! 
day and railroads adopted various devices as aids to keeping theirjj 
own agreements with one another and as a partial protection against I 
the importunities of favored shippers, many demurrage bureaus were 
formed on somewhat the same theory as that on which the weighing! 
and inspection bureaus came into existence. A demurrage manager 
was located at a central point and given jurisdiction over a certain 
territory. All lines within that territory were members of the bureau 
and the manager was the joint employee of all the lines. He pro- J 
mulgated the rules of the member lines, supervised their enforcement, | 
and decided disputed points. The plan was not very effective in 
enforcing demurrage regulations as a whole, as the big shipper still ! 
had his private understanding with the higher officials. 
Since 1906 the States have taken up demurrage regulation and 
promulgated specific rules, requiring their publication in tariffs and 
making the State railroad commission the final authority on disputed 1 
points. The Interstate Commerce Commission requires tariff pub- I 
lication of definite rules governing interstate shipments. It is the i 
station agent's duty to collect demurrage charges with the same f 
degree of promptness as he uses in collecting freight charges. Public 
sentiment demands the enforcement of demurrage regulations and 
the roads no longer desire to evade them. Consequently many lines | 
have found it more economical to handle demurrage matters through 
already existing machinery and many of the demurrage bureaus have I 
been dissolved. This was true of the Texas Car Service Association I 
and of many of the bureaus in Central Freight Association territory. 9 
Doubtless others may be abolished in the future, but at the present 
time 20 of them are still in existence. In the appendix will be found [I 
a list of them. All important lines in the territory of any bureau D 
are members of that bureau. The duties of the managers are for 1 
the most part administrative under existing tariffs and State regula- j 
tions. In the case of the Chicago, the Intermountain, the Pacific, 
and the Pacific Northwest the bureau manager publishes and files the j 
demurrage tariffs as agent for the member lines. In the other 16 
cases the member lines issue individual tariffs. 
Closely related to the demurrage bureaus is the New England 
Demurrage Commission, with headquarters at Boston. It was estab- 
lished as one of the results of a general investigation in 1910 by the 
Interstate Commerce Commission of demurrage practices in New 
England. All the lines in New England are members of it and, while j 
each line publishes and files its own demurrage tariffs, a demurrage 
commissioner has general oversight of demurrage matters. The com- 
