(Copy.)

Mr. C. J. LANE, A. G. F. A.,

Omaha, Nebr.

CHICAGO, July 7, 1905.

Have

MY DEAR Mr. LANE: I herewith return the clipping you requested. noted your letter. I presume it will take a little while to bring about a change from the conditions which are at present working a hardship upon the shippers. In the meantime, we must have unbounded faith that the law, being in a good cause and having for its purpose the remedying of evils that exist, will undoubtedly be amended so that it will accomplish the purpose intended. Yours, truly,

DEAR SIR: In view of the strong language used by you, as quoted in yesterday's papers, with reference to the 28-hour limit law being elastic enough to permit of railroads running stock over the time limit provided, if it was necessary in order to reach suitable feeding places, beg to submit herewith correspondence with Mr. C. J. Lane, first assistant general freight agent of the Union Pacific Railroad, bearing on a very aggravated case of delay, which I brought to Mr. Lane's attention under date of July 5, 1905.

If you will note Mr. Lane's letter carefully, you will undoubtedly conclude that he is laboring under a wrong impression with reference to the requirements of your Department in regard to carrying out the 28-hour limit law.

The holding of the Skillern shipment of sheep at Grand Island in the cars fifteen hours, they then being obliged to unload and feed where the facilities were inadequate, both for grazing and water, was such an aggravated case that I personally called upon Mr. Lane immediately after receiving his letter of July 6th. Mr. Lane declared that everything possible on the part of the railroad company was being done to properly care for shipments at feeding stations, stating, however, that it would be impossible for them to establish enough adequate grazing stations on the line of the Union Pacific to meet the "twentyeight hour limit law" requirements, as there were no natural grazing points on their line available.

Yours, very respectfully,

Mr. A. J. KNOLLIN,

UNION STOCK YARDS, CHICAGO, September 14, 1905.

Union Stock Yards, Chicago.

DEAR SIR: We commenced loading at Laramie on the 9th at 3.40 p. m. and left at 6.15 p. m. In Cheyenne we stayed over two hours and stopped at Brady Island one hour and forty minutets, and different other places between there and Grand Island. We arrived at Grand Island at 10.10. They claimed there that the time limit was up and said that we would have to stop there and feed. They stated that they had twenty-eight cars of sheep there already ahead of ours to unload before we could unload ours and that it would be morning before we could get unloaded. We asked the night yard master and insisted upon his letting us go on where we were billed to feed, Valley, Nebraska, being informed by other parties that were at Grand Island that there was no feed there for sheep. We begged the yard master to let us go on to where we could get feed, but he says that it was a Government law that we should not run over our limit and said that we would have to stop there and feed anyway, so the sheep were sidetracked there and stayed on the cars from the time we arrived there until 8.45 before they were unloaded.

It was 11.30 a. m. next morning before they saw to the feed, and a bunch of my sheep that I wanted fed hay were crowded into a cattle pen where it was not fit for anything to go. The water troughs were so high that the sheep could not drink out of them, and I almost had to fight to get them out of there. The Government inspector, John Vincent De Laney, came along, and I told him

the way they were handling my sheep, and he helped me get them out of there and into a pasture where there was a little water. We wanted to get out of there and get where there was feed as soon as possible, and we commenced reloading at 3.50, finished at 6.30, and left there at 8.40. We started for Valley, but were delayed unnecessarily, I think, a number of places, finally arriving at Valley at 4.10 in the morning, and were sidetracked there until 8.30 before they put us up to the chutes, where we could unload the sheep there. We had men there all the time to take care of the sheep. We left Valley and started for Lindenwood at 4. They commenced loading early in the evening, and we arrived at Council Bluffs at 7.40. We claim that the cause for so many of our sheep dying was on account of the delays and poor service we encountered. It is the Union Pacific Ry. and not the C. G. W. that we are complaining about. The C. G. W. treated us all right. We lost 35 head of sheep on account of the treatment they gave us.

MUMFORD BROS., Salt Lake, Utah.

Mr. A. J. KNOLLIN,

Chicago, Ill.

UNION STOCK YARDS, Chicago, November 15, 1905.

DEAR SIR: I loaded 8 cars fat lambs and wethers at Honeyville, Utah, Oct. 31st, 1905, at 4 p. m., billed from myself and brothers to me, billed to Chicago, via Omaha.

We arrived at Green River at 2 p. m. November 1st. We were held up four hours on the sidetrack before unloading. The yardman claimed the switches were blocked with cars. We intended to go on, but were told at last that it would be necessary to unload. We loaded out of Green River at 11 a. m. Nov. 2nd; arrived at Cheyenne Nov. 3rd at 4 p. m. Loaded out at 10 a. m., Nov. 4th. We were held up at a station about 30 miles from Grand Island about three or four hours while they were unloading 28 cars of cattle at a single chute. They used our engine for switching these cattle cars. There was a work train around there all the time, the engine of which did not appear to be busy. I wired the chief dispatcher at Grand Island that he must move our stock or arrange to have it turned over to the Union Pacific. I got no answer. They took their time about moving us out. We arrived at Grand Island at 9.30 p. m., Nov. 5th. They ran our sheep onto the sidetrack and told us we might as well go, as the tracks were blocked and they would be unable to have them unloaded for a couple of hours. They agreed to have the sheep unloaded just as soon as they could get to the yards. When we came back next morning they were just unloading the sheep, at 8 a. m., Nov. 6th.

I figure that our sheep were on the cars a little more than 100 hours from Honeyville to Grand Island.

Dr. Rowe inspected our wethers and lambs at Honeyville, Utah, at the time they were loaded and it was his opinion that they would make good killers on the market. He figured that they would not us $4.50 per head at Honeyville. You know what they did, and can see how much we were damaged. On account of the poor runs by the Union Pacific, east of Granger, particularly, we arrived in Chicago eight days later than Mr. Ira Tuttle advised we could with reasonable runs. In the mean time, the market declined decidedly.

I wish you would figure up the damage and file a claim for it, sending me a copy of it, and if you can not collect it, I think I can.

Yours, very truly,

The above is correct

H. P. HUNSAKER.

BEN HUNSAKER.

AUGUST 17, 1905.

Hon. JAMES WILSON,

Secretary of Agriculture,

Transit House, U. S. Yards, Chicago.

DEAR SIR: Herewith telegrams from H. W. Prickett, traveling live-stock agent for the St. J. and Grand Island R. R. Co.

In submitting these telegrams for your information I wish to bring out two points. The first is clear. Mr. Prickett advises that there were 130 cars of

sheep at Grand Island. All were double-deck cars, and being mostly lambs, load on an average of 300 to the car, which would make 39,000 sheep and lambs at Grand Island. Mr. Prickett further advises: "Sixty more cars reported to unload here this p. m." This would make 18,000 head more. He also states that there were but two hundred acres of grass available, which I know to be true. This would figure out 285 sheep and lambs to the acre. Of course no attempt was made to graze these sheep. They were simply unloaded and held in the yards, and reloaded and run to Valley, Nebraska (about a five or six hours' run), where there are ample facilities for grazing. It would be needless for me to comment on the loss to the owners in shrinkage and the suffering to the animals through such treatment.

The second point is stated by Mr. Prickett's comments in his further telegrams of the same date with reference to sheep unloading at North Platte.

You will appreciate the point, knowing that the North Platte grazing lands are owned by private individuals and the Grand Island plant either by the Union Pacific R. R. Co. or by officials of the line.

Yours, very respectfully,

GRAND ISLAND, NEBR., 7-28-05.

A. J. KNOLLIN:

One hundred thirty cars sheep here, including Hailey and Saunders's thirtysix cars, which were all reported for us coming in. On strength of this our superintendent annulled freight train at Hastings and sent engine back here to give double header to that train to-night. Thirty-three total here for Stout; sixty more reported to unload here this p. m. Don't know where going. Everything moving slowly here; shippers kicking. Alter has only two hundred acres grass, and can not give satisfaction. Nearly everything unloading here. My idea is for benefit of shippers some of this stuff should be unloaded North Platte, where facilities and feed are better here to-day.

(Signed)

H. W. PRICKETT.

TESTIMONY OF A. E. DE RICQLES, ESQ.

Mr. DE RICQLES was duly sworn by the chairman, and testified as follows:

The CHAIRMAN. Give us your name, residence, and occupation, and state any official position which you hold.

Mr. DE RICQLES. My name is A. E. de Ricqles, and I am general manager of the American Live Stock and Loan Company, Denver, Colo.

The company of which I am the manager owns cattle itself; that is, matures cattle for beef in the western country. We control about twenty-five or thirty thousand cattle in Dakota, Montana, Colorado, and Arizona. These cattle in the Northwest are steers we have shipped from Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico to the Northwest.

I would like to say that my experience in the cattle business commenced about twenty years ago. I am an actual shipper and actual manager of the company. I sometimes go with the cattle; and I handle the business of my company and the business of other people. A little explanation of the cattle business of the country may be in order, because I do not think it has been touched upon. Everybody to-day has been talking of shipping cattle direct to Chicago. We are engaged in a class of business which includes the movement of a large number of thin cattle in the spring of the year from the Southwest, which is the breeding section, to the Northwest, which is the maturing section. In other words, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico is the sec

tion where cattle are bred. Texas alone has 8,000,000 cattle; and these steers and heifers and cows-largely the steers-are sold as yearlings and 2-year-olds to go to the northwestern country, where they are matured into beef and held until they are 4 years old generally. This involves the movement of these cattle for an average, possibly, of over a thousand miles. These cattle move commencing in the first part of May, and the movement is over by the 15th of June. As a rule, they come off grass that has just commenced to grow in the South. If you would like to have a little explanation of just how this business is done, we will go down to Texas together and load a train of cattle. We will start, say, at Estelline, Tex., on the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad and run to Trinidad.

A great many people have the idea that the Texas or any other cattleman starts his cattle out and wants to run thirty-six hours without stopping, or just as long as he can stay in the cars. As a matter of fact, in moving these particular cattle, the principle is to run them twenty to twenty-four hours that is, to the first feed at Trinidad or other feeding point properly prepared to receive them. We can probably get there in twenty-two hours, if we go at the rate of 12 or 14 miles an hour. Then the cattle are unloaded at Trinidad and kept there, perhaps twenty hours, or may be twentyfour hours, for rest, if the conditions there are favorable-that is, dry and not crowded. Then they are loaded up and run up to Denver, which is 224 miles from there; perhaps it will take fifteen hours, and perhaps sixteen. Denver is the point where they are possibly delivered to the man who is taking them up to Montana. After the cattle have been taken off the green grass and loaded in Texas, they will not eat hay the first time they get to Trinidad. They do not know what a watering trough is. They have never seen one. I speak of these cattle which include the majority of the cattle that are not hay fed in winter. So, in Trinidad, they are given an opportunity to get a little accustomed to the surroundings. When they come to Denver they have become accustomed to watering troughs and know what hay is, and they will commence to eat the hay and they will drink, and it is the practice of our company to hold these cattle there for twenty-four to thirty-six hours. When these cattle leave Denver they will probably be in better condition for shipment than when loaded, or stronger from the dry feed.

The accusation has been made by the Humane Society which Mr. Whitehead is here representing that in the movement of our southern cattle their Humane Society men have seen our cattle at places like Clayton, and other points, with many dead cattle and many cripples in every train, and the shippers drunk in the caboose. I want to say that such statements are absolutely false, and I have the figures here to prove it. I want to show you these figures, which will give you some idea of how this business is carried on, the percentage of dead cattle in the movement of a large number before this law was enforced, and since.

In 1903, in the months of May and June, we moved 23,357 cattle from the Southwest through Denver to the Northwest, an average haul of 1,100 miles. Mind you, these are thin cattle and many of them have not shed their hair, and out of those 23,357 cattle there were 35 head lost in shipment, of which 13 were killed in a wreck—an accident-which left 22 cattle out of 23,357. And, to my personal knowl

edge, some of those cattle were on the cars from thirty-six to forty hours. The greatest loss is in the first part of the trip when first loaded, with thin cattle.

Mr. RYAN. What is the date of that?

Mr. DE RICQLES. The spring of 1903. I have every shipment that we made, the number of cripples, and the number of dead. We keep the records of our cattle with the same care that the National City Bank in New York keeps its cash accounts, and I know every single steer that we have had, and where it goes; whether it is crippled or hurt, or what becomes of it.

In 1904, in the month of May, we shipped 16,137 cattle. I take this because it is the worst side of the business-the shipment of the young cattle and out of those 16,137 head there were 35 cattle killed; more than the other time, because there were 8 cattle that were killed at a place called Carrizozo, N. Mex., by the falling of a temporary double deck in the car. You see sometimes they give us cars that have temporary double decks, and those decks are hooked up to the roof of a car, and this deck fell down on the cattle. And there were 7 of these cattle killed coming out of a place called Magdalena, by running into a washout. That was 15 from the 35, which left 20 dead cattle to be accounted for in the year, when the conditions in the Southwest were bad. I mean by that the cattle were so thin and weak on account of short feed.

In the last year, 1905, they started in to enforce these twenty-eighthour regulations about unloading, and we were compelled to unload at very unfortunate places. For example, we would load cattle on the Southern Pacific west of Deming, N. Mex., and on coming up to go over the Rock Island they made us unload at El Paso, which was only about 200 miles, because there was no intermediate point beyond El Paso where we could unload our cattle.

The result was that last year we lost 37 head in shipment out of 24,581, which increased the percentage.

What I want to show is that even though there was no law enforced about unloading, with these very thin cattle, our company and its men did not abuse the property. There was one-tenth of 1 per cent lost in handling these cattle when left to our own judgment. We have this kind of hardship now. In the first place, in the spring we have the deep mud-that is, all over the country, after the snow goes into the ground everything gets soft. Bringing these thin cattle and being compelled to unload them arbitrarily, not at the end of twenty-eight hours, but perhaps in twenty-three hours, because we can not get to a place that it would take thirty hours to reach, and putting them in these muddy pens is something that is so much more of a hardship than to leave them in dry, warm cars that there is no comparison. I have seen men lose 100 cattle in the stockyards out of one train where, if they had been left on the cars, they would not have lost one. I am giving the figures on the southern cattle business. We never use prod poles or prods of any kind. When cattle get down the men get in the cars to get them up. Cattle do not "get down from exhaustion."

I want to explain a little something about the range cattle in the Northwest.

Mr. RYAN. Will you file that paper with the stenographer which you have there?