4 BULLETIN 191, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
however, are applied in both States on State traffic. In Idaho, New 
Mexico, New York, and West Virginia the subject is covered neither 
by statute nor orders of the commission. However, the roads operat- 
ing in these States pretty generally apply the uniform code,. which, in 
practice, so far as the regulation of demurrage is intrusted to the 
respective commissions, amounts to State regulation by the adoption 
of the uniform code. 
Neither Delaware, Utah, nor Wyoming has a railroad commission 
nor is there any statute relating to demurrage, but the roads operating 
in these three States apply the uniform code on State traffic. 
It is seen then that in 24 of the States the uniform code is in actual 
operation on purely intrastate traffic. In the other 24, while the 
State regulations to a greater or less extent differ from those of the 
uniform code, many, if not most, of their essential features are the same 
as the corresponding provisions of the uniform code. Doubtless the 
commissions of some of the States that have not adopted the uniform 
code would do so if their statutes permitted. On the whole it would 
appear far preferable to have demurrage regulated by orders of a 
commission than by specific statute. Such an arrangement permits 
greater flexibility and makes it possible to adopt changes more readily 
as changing traffic conditions demand. 
INTERSTATE REGULATION. 
Demurrage on interstate shipments is subject to the jurisdiction of 
the Interstate Commerce Commission and all tariffs prescribing 
demurrage rates and regulations affecting such shipments must be 
filed with that body. While the Interstate Commerce Commission 
had authority to prescribe a code of demurrage rules and to require 
all of the roads to adopt them, the authority was never exercised. 
The question was discussed from year to year in the annual meetings 
of the National Association of Railway Commissioners and in 1908 a 
committee was appointed "to frame a uniform code of demurrage 
rules." This committee consisted of Mr. Lane of the Interstate Com- 
merce Commission and one representative from the railway commis- 
sion of each State. The actual work of drafting a code of rules was 
intrusted to a subcommittee of five. The subcommittee sought the 
assistance of practical demurrage men in the person of the managers 
of two of the leading demurrage bureaus of the country, and of Mr. 
Arthur Hale, chairman of the committee on car efficiency of the 
American Railway Association. After much study and public hear- 
ings the code adopted by the subcommittee was approved by the 
general committee and in turn adopted by the Association of National 
Railway Commissioners at its annual session in Washington, D. C, 
in November, 1909. 
