Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1907-04-06
ALL RAILROAD
c
The LAW
FINES OF $4,000 PER
DAY BEING ASSESSED
For Failure to Observe the
TWenty-eight Hour Law Reg
uIating the transportation Of
Livestock,
CWashington stare

wv dSlllllEAou GAbisf
The railroads of the United states
are being mulcted of about $4,000 a
day in ines for the violation of the
"tWentY-eight hour law in transport
ing live stock. Now $4,000 is not a
large sun to make or break the aver
age railroad, and as the mes have not
yet begun to be collected. the rail-
roads are paying but little attention.
hut the officials of the department of
agriculture are looking for a howl
TO go up after this systematic process
has gone on for a while and the as
SessmentS get aroun to the auditors
of the roads who have to handle the
funds.
50 far there have been about 400
cases sent to the department of JUS
tiCe and the estimate Of twenty addi-
tionaI cases a day is by no means an
reinstatement, The department of
agriculture has been careful to select
only such cases that are practically
certain of a conviction and the de-
partment Of justice has been cau>
toned not to accept any compromise
for less than the maximum fine, This
Is $500 and convictions at $500 a
throw amount up pretty rapidly WheH
they are kept up day after day.
New Cattle Transportation Bill.
The systematic campaign against
the railroads is a sequel to the pas
sage of the new cattle transportation
bill that was put through at the last
session of congress. The conditions
before that were very bad. and since
then they have not improved much
nul uhdef Inc steady system OF Ines
tnrN are expected TO improve mater
laiIN' lhdei the ola law cattle
iHlShl De transported Tor a period not
I'HSef man tWenlN-elSht hours WIN
que .oou, rest or wafer. ne law was
,onlihually violated both in spirit ana
.1l'I' M ine secretary OF aerlcul-
tu!e GOT altef the f~allfoaus ana the
Shippers and secured a number or
t~ollNlcllohs against thcln. When inc
convictions began to pile up, some OF
the roads 'squealed' and one line
nPEBed to compromise on the basis OF
me minimum inc OF SlO0 IN each of
thirteen cases, provided the other
cases were not pushed. This was al
lowed, and the roads then swooped
u7NIi oH congress Tor = heW-IaW, pfae-
ucalIy extending the time of t~ranspor~
tatlpn To thlrtY-slN hours ION the re-
quest OF me Shlppef. OF course, the
oHutst OF the shipper was easy to Sc
cure IN each case. ana the matter was
supposed to he settled. III now law
provided specHcaliy for the humane
handllng OF inc cattle as points of
"ntratning and d~etraining and for
proper pens and water u feeding
facilities at the rest points. There was
also IN the law as II was drawn by the
department, provision for a minimum
speed OF seventeen miles an hour for
az cattle trains. But the railroads
halked at this. inc persuaded the cat
tie shippers tina il was an impossibla
ana undesirable provision. The re-
SUIT was that u minimum speed
Illnli proVlsp was Killed before the law
was enacted.
inns was iuch N'ed''
How muah this was needed was
shown by the fact That the National
Wool Growers association at its last
annual meeting petitioncd to have the
law amended with the minimum speed