Louis last October. Mr. Kernan was urging the importance of an amendment to the
bill which was designed to hasten the taking of additional testimony if required by
the courts, and his conception of what the experience would be under the Quarles-
Cooper bill without his amendment is indicated by his remark, as follows: Mr. Ker-
nan said:

"After a shipper, whose complaint is filed in his youth, dies of old age the dis-
position of his case is of no use to his business."

The amendment proposed by Mr. Kernan was suggested to Mr. E. P. Bacon in
these rooms last year and he, after consultation with his counsel, rejected it as being
unconstitutional, and the bill in this respect remains hopelessly defective.
The greatest evils now complained of are those growing out of the private car
line, pri\ate terminal-track and side-track systems. It is not claimed by its sup-
porters, and can not be demonstrated, that the Quarles-Cooper bill will in the
slightest degree affect these abuses.
The private car companies deny that they are under the provisions of the interstate-
commerce law, and the Interstate Comitierce Commission has not determined their
status, neither have the courts adjudged them to be subject to such law.
