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Transcontinental Weighing St Inspection Bureau- October 9, 1923. Mr. Barry: Mr. Lincoln*s le tte r of October 8th to you, his f i l e B-46-1, copy of which was sent to me, seems to c a ll for an expression from this department. The fundamental question is , what is actual weight? As I understand the province of the Transcontinental Weighing & Inspection Bureau, it is an agency of the carriers for the determination of weights, among other things, but I do not understand that the carriers are bound to consider its determination in fa llib le any more than the determination by any other agent o f the c arrier. We may, for example, employ a weighm&ster whose services over a long period of time have proved very satisfactory and whose weighing has proved accurate in p ractica lly every case. Glearly, we would not fe e l obligated to adhere to hi® weight on a particular shipment i f , from oth&r evidence, it appeared, quite clear that there was an inaccuracy. I think the same applies to the Bureau. It serves a real purpose in passing upon weights, but in cases where we have evidence su fficien t to sa tisfy our minds as to the accuracy of a weight, notwithstanding the Bureau's statement that the shipment weighed some other amount, we would be ju s tifie d in overriding the Bureau weight. The Bureau may ask, " I f that is so, what are we here for?" The answer is , to continue as in the past, but the carriers may in a proper case, upon satisfactory evidence, apply some other weight as being the true and actual weight. One d iffic u lt y arises and that is , what railroad company o f f i c ia l or department is to pass upon the sufficiency of such evidence, and this is a feature which I would be glad to discuss. Under present practice I understand thatthis is one of the purposes of the Bureau. Illu stra tin g my point as just expressed. Supposing a shipper were discontented with the weight upon which the rate were based and brought the issue into court. A judge would not hesitate to overrule the Bureau i f the shipper could furnish the