The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-02-06
PRES. SMITH OF |. AND N.
 TALKS TO HOUSE COMMITTEE

on Commerce and Common Carriers and read to the corresponding Committee of the Senate last night, on House Bill 2T2 requiring the Railroad Commission of the State to furnish cars Tor shippers and providing a penalty for failure to do so, follows:
 The regulations proposed by the bill are sometimes termed reciprocal demurrage. the meaning of which scetis to be that because carrier is permitted to charge consignee. or owner of property. storage on prop erty which the consignee does not re- ceive and remove with reasonable exact penalty when carrier Is un- able, or for any reason fails. to fur nish. with reasonah'~ nromptness. transportation tor property winch tne owner may desire to ship. Due con- sideration will show that the condi- tions and obligations are unlike and that the term 'reciprocal demurrage' erroneousiy designates two entirely distinct obligations. I think all of the States have enacted statutes which provide that the obligations of com mon carrier cease after the property has reached destination and Is ready for delivery to the consignee. and that thereafter the responsibility of the carrier is limited to that, of ware houseman. that after a reasonable time the carrier may store the property in an ordinary freight warehouse and make reasonable charge therefor. and, if deemed prudent, insure the property sufficient to secure the car Tier against loss of freight and other legal charges, or may place the prop erty on storage with public ware houseman, said warehouseman being responsible for the safeguarding of the property and responsible to the carrier for the accumulated freight or charges. The statutes also provide that after the expiration of a certain period the property may be sold and the proceeds applied to the payment of the freight and charges of the car Tier and warehousemar, the excss re- ceived belonging to the owner of the property. or in case the owner is un- known, or does not claim the amount, in some of the States the surplus goes to the State, and, think in some cases is credited to the school fund.
 There Is no difficulty in applying the statutes to miscellaneous merchandise, or property handled through ware houses, or in less than car load auan- titles. There are some classes of property. however. shipped in carload quantities. which under the contract between the owner and the carrier is to be unioaded by the consignee. that 1t Is impractIcable for the carrier to unload and store in it's warehouse. or to place on storage in a public ware house when the consignee fails to promptly unload. This applies sspe- cialiy to bulky articles of low value. such ss coal and lumber. At points where there are elevators, or grain storage warehouses, the carrier may store the grain. To some extent. this may be- and is done with bulky ar ticles like hay.
 It is evident that if carrier has the right to charge storage on merchan. disc left in it's warehouse, or to place such property in a public warehouse. it has the right to make reasonable charge for storing the carload prop erty left in its cars which the con- sivnee Is under contract to unload.
 From these conditions the carriers adopted the rule of making a small charge seldom more than $1 per day for each car not unIoaded within a reasonable time. usually fortv-eight hours. after the same had arrived al destination. and was placed at point where the consIgnee could unload fhe same In practice however. this charge was not uniformly enforced. During periods when the facilities of
 
 quirements, they could. and oftentimes did permit consignees to store prop erty in cars for indefinite periods. Un- der such conditions, the strife between the carriers was ofter acute, and ship pers availed of the circumstances to secure unreasonable concessions. or permission to stofe the property in cars indefinitely. The result was that in many cases brokers, or commission N~AA rr.A 70 property shipped, taking the chances of selling the same. If they failed to do so promptly, they secured valuable concessions in the way of free storage. Under these circumstances, when the demand for transportation increased the carriers were oftentinies greatly embarrassed by their inability to se- cure the prompt unloading of cars, and endeavored to obtain relief by rein- stating the storage charge. Unregu- lated competition rendered the practice irregular. and, some years ago, what are called Car Service Associations were formed, to prevent discrimina- ton and insure the treatment of all alike. or enforce like regulations upon aIl A common agent was employed to represent all of the carriers in speci- fled districts, who collects the storage, or what Is termed demurrage.
 The object of collecting the storage charge is to induce the owner of the property to unload and remove 1t. The amount collected in no way reim- purses the carrier for the loss of the use of the equipment, and this is espe- cially true at the present time when the demands for transportation are largely in excess of the facilities.
 The cost of maintaining the bureaus and collecting the storage or demur- rage charge absorbs large part and in some cases all of, or more than the amount collected.
 Notwithstanding the owners of prop orty are as a whole, interested in hay ing cars promptly unloaded. so that they may be utilized to the advantage of all concerned, yet, many consignees selfishly resist the payment of the so- called demurrage, or if they pay, do so unwillingly. I believe that In every instance where the payment has been resisted in the courts, the result of the contention has been in favor of the car riers.
 Notwithstanding the interests of the shipper and consignee seem to be iden- tical, they do not always corporate to promote the interests of both. AS an illustration. a manufacturer of lumber ships a car to customer. pos sibly a commission merchant. which Is not unloaded, and for that reason the manufacturer is unable 10 secure additional cars and is oftentimes great ly embarrassed end suffers a heavy loss. This in no way seems to concern the party at fault. although he may be directly affected by the failure of the millman to secure cars in which to make additional shipments. Tn cases where the shipper and conslgnee are