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? Weighing Shippers‘ Commodities free of charge over vehicle scales. November 16, 1929* File 176. Mr. W. F, Lincoln; Referring to your le tte r of November 12th, your f i l e 0- 10- 51- 6, with respect to weighing shippers' commodi­tie s free of charge over the company's scales, and returning a l l correspondence sent me with that le tte r: Personally, I would be inclined to take the position that the carriers should weigh free of charge a l l commodL ties where it is necessary to use such weights to assess freigh t charges, and that in a l l other instances we should not hold ourselves out to be a public weighmaster. I see no le g a l objection, however, to o u r following the suggestions made in Mr. Saunders' le tte r of October 2Sth — namely, to weigh free of charge a l l commodities the weight of which i t is necessary to ascertain in order to assess freigh t oharges, and to take the necessary legal steps to become a public weighmaster, in which event I believe the charges so assessed should correspond to charges assessed by other public weighmasters in the same parts of the state. This would reduce any possible h o stility against the r a i l ­roads by the public weighmasters. From a p ractical standpoint, however, I believe we are buying more trouble in holding ourselves out as public weighmasters then the revenue derived therefrom would warrant, and, as I have stated, I believe we would be fa r better o ff in the long run to confine our weighing operations to only those instances where it is necessary to weigh the commodi­tie s fo r the purpose of assessing freigh t oharges or of con­firming weights on commodities which have been previously weighed. S. S. Bennett. Enc. EEB:£B3