FREIGHT CLAIMS I. FOREWORD AND SCOPE OF THIS TREATISE 1. FOREWORD There is probably no point of contact between the common carriers of the country and the shipping public which has given rise to more controversy and has been the cause of more dissatisfaction with the carriers than that arising out of the collection of what are commonly called "freight claims." It is probably just as true that there ought to be no transaction between the shipping public and the carriers easier of adjustment than such claims. There was a time in the history of American railroads when the claim department was the only one in the efficiency of which the carrier had little or no interest, except in its ability to pay as few claims as possible, and in what is known in the vernacular as "stalling off" the remainder until the claimant, despairing of ever securing redress, abandoned the attempt. Needless to say, this attitude upon the part of the carriers was not productive of sympathetic and cordial relations between them and their customers, the shipping public. Fortunately for all concerned, there has been, within |