times. The service required by this species of traffic is peculiar and exacting. The defendant may with propriety appoint a certain day or days upon which it will run trains for the accommodation of this traffic and shippers should accommodate thenselves to this schedule, if reasonable service is thereby afforded. Such an arrangement is for the mutual interest of the railway and the shipper.

CONCLUSIONS.

Upon the foregoing findings of fact the defendant should be ordered to cease and desist from imposing the present charge of $15 per car above the rate of 422 cents per hundred pounds.

10 L. a. C. REP.

No. 724.

C. M. BARROW

v.

THE YAZOO & MISSISSIPPI VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY and THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY.

Decided June 25, 1904.

Defendants' rate on horses and mules in less than carloads from Bayou Sara, La., to St. Louis, Mo., is the double first class rate of $1.80 per 100 lbs. upon an estimated weight of 2,000 lbs. for the first animal, 1,500 lbs. for the second, and 1,000 lbs. for each additional animal. The distance covered is 667 miles. This rate when applied to the transportation of a single animal is not unreasonable, but it is unreasonable for a shipment of four animals, amounting in that case to $99, while the charge upon a carload of 25 animals is only $100. Defendants' less than carload tariff would be rendered more just by reducing the charge to 90 cents per 100 lbs., the first class rate, increasing the estimated weight of the first animal to 4,000 lbs., and leaving the weights for the additional animals as they now are, at 1,500 lbs. for the second and 1,000 lbs. each for all others included in the shipment. No order issued, but complainant may apply to Commission for reparation if compelled to pay rates in excess of those indicated.

Ed Baxter for defendants.

REPORT AND OPINION OF THE COMMISSION.

PROUTY, Commissioner:

The complainant resides at Bayou Sara in the State of Louisiana and complains of the rates of the defendants upon horses and mules from that point to St. Louis, Missouri. The Southern Classification, which is in force over the lines in question,

provides that horses, mules and horned animals shall be carried at estimated weights which are 2,000 pounds for the first animal, 1,500 pounds for the second animal and 1,000 pounds for each additional animal. The rate of the defendants upon live stock from Bayou Sara to St. Louis is $1.80 per hundred pounds. The complainant insists that these estimated weights are greatly excessive, and, therefore, unjust, that the charge per hundred pounds is unreasonably high, and claims that the defendants should be obliged to transport live animals between these points for 80 cents per hundred pounds upon actual weights.

The above estimated weights are undoubtedly in most instances excessive but it cannot be said that they are for this reason unjust. The two other principal classifications name estimated weights upon live stock; those of the Official being 4,000 pounds for the first and 3,000 pounds for each subsequent animal; of the Western 2,000 pounds for the first, 1,500 pounds for the secand and third, and 1,000 pounds for each additional animal. The fixing of an estimated weight is in effect a method of providing that a given article shall be carried for a certain price. The defendants might with propriety provide that live animals should be transported for so much a head, and this is virtually done by the estimated weight. The real question is not whether the weight as estimated is excessive, but whether the transportation charge produced by applying the rate to the weight is an unreasonable one.

The rate in force upon live animals between Bayou Sara and St. Louis is $1.80 per hundred pounds, which is just double the first class rate. Applying this to the estimated weight of the first animal we have as a resulting charge for the carriage of that animal $36. This hardly seems to us unreasonable. The distance is 667 miles. Ordinarily an entire car is used, for while it is probable that certain kinds of freight may with safety be placed in the other end, an entire half of the car must be appropriated to the use of this animal and as a practical matter the whole of the car generally is. If the time occupied in transit is more than 28 hours, as it would be between the points in question, the animal must be taken out, fed, watered and rested.

The liability to damage is greater in case of live animals than of most other commodities.

Live stock must from its very nature be transported long distances at a comparatively low rate, but the carriage is ordinarily, and ought to be, in carloads. There is comparatively little necessity for moving live stock distances of 500 miles and. over in less than carload lots. We cannot feel that these defendants ought to be required to haul this car, weighing not less. than 20,000 pounds, almost 700 miles, assuming the liability and discharging the other duties required, for less than $36.

While it seems to us, however, that in case of a single animal. the application of the rate of the defendants to the estimated weight complained of, does not produce an unreasonable charge, this is not true as the number of animals increases. The complainant desired to ship four horses. The estimated weight of this shipment would be 5,500 pounds and the freight would aggregate $99. The carload rate on horses and mules between St. Louis and Bayou Sara in either direction is $100 per car, on horned animals $75 per car, and this carries with it, as we understand the testimony, the transportation of an attendant. It is not claimed that these carload rates are too low, and it seems to us that if $100 is a fair compensation for transporting twenty-five horses, which is about an average carload, together with an attendant, $99 is too much for transporting four horses with no attendant. The car may perhaps weigh the same in either case, but the total weight of the full carload is considerably more, the actual cost of hauling is more, the expense of unloading and reloading is greater.

In our opinion a more just tariff would result if the present commodity rate of $1.80 per hundred pounds were reduced to the regular first class rate of 90 cents and the estimated weight of the first animal increased from 2,000 to 4,000 pounds, the estimated weight of the second and subsequent animals remaining at 1,500 and 1,000 pounds as they now are. This would vield the defendants less than the Official but more than the Western classification.

10 I. C. C. REP.