Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

to all persons, vessels, and goods under certain classifications to be established by the company and approved by the Interstate Commerce Commission; and no rebate, reduction, drawback, or discrimination of any sort on such charges, rates, and tolls shall ever be made directly or indirectly. And the said charges, rates, and tolls for the ensuing year shall be fixed, published, and posted on or in every place where they are to be collected, on or before the fifteenth day of February of each year, and shall not be changed except after thirty days' public notice, which notice shall plainly state the changes proposed to be made in the charges, rates, and tolls then in force and the time when the changed charges, rates and tolls will go into effect; and the proposed changes shall be shown by printing new schedules or shall be plainly indicated upon the schedules in force at the time and kept open to public inspection: Provided, That the Interstate Commerce Commission may, in its discretion and for good cause shown, allow changes upon less notice than herein specified or modify the foregoing requirements in respect to publishing and posting of such schedules, either in particular instances or by general order applicable to special or peculiar circumstances or conditions.

Public, No. 402, approved June 30, 1906.

§ 660. Parcel Post. The classification of articles mailable as well as the weight limit, the rates of postage, zone or zones and other conditions of mailability under this Act, if the Postmaster-General shall find on experience that they or any of them are such as to prevent the shipment of articles desirable, or to permanently render the cost of the service greater than the receipts of the revenue therefrom, he is hereby authorized, subject to the consent of the Interstate Commerce Commission after investigation, to reform from time to time such classification, weight limit, rates, zone or zones or conditions, or either, in order to promote the service to the public or to insure the receipt of revenue from such service adequate to pay the cost thereof.

An Act making appropriations for the service of the PostOffice Department for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and for other purposes.

Public, No. 336, approved August 24, 1912.

§ 661. Compulsory Attendance of Witnesses and Production of Papers Provided for.-Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That no person shall be excused from attending and testifying or from producing books, papers, tariffs, contracts, agreements and documents before the Interstate Commerce Commission, or in obedience to the subpœna of the Commission, whether such subpoena be signed or issued by one or more commissioners, or in any cause or proceeding, criminal or otherwise, based upon or growing out of any alleged violation of the Act of Congress, entitled "An Act to regulate commerce," approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, or of any amendment thereof on the ground or for the reason that the testimony or evidence, documentary or otherwise, required of him, may tend to criminate him or subject him to a penalty or forfeiture. But no person shall be prosecuted or subjected to any penalty for forfeiture for or on account of any transaction, matter or thing, concerning which he may testify, or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise, before said Commission, or in obedience to its subpoena, or the subpoena of either of them, or in any such case or proceeding: Provided, That no person so testifying shall be exempt from prosecution or punishment for perjury committed in so testifying.

Any person who shall neglect or refuse to attend and testify, or to answer any lawful inquiry, or to produce books, papers, tariffs, contracts, agreements, and documents, if in his power to do so, in obedience to the subpoena or lawful requirement of the Commission, shall be guilty of an offense and upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction shall be punished by fine not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than one year or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Act of February 11, 1893.

§ 662. Amendment to Compulsory Attendance Act.-Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That under the immunity provisions in the Act entitled "An Act in relation to testimony before the Interstate Commerce Com

mission," and so forth, approved February eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, in section six of the Act entitled "An Act to establish the Department of Commerce and Labor," approved February fourteenth, nineteen hundred and three, and in the Act entitled "An Act to further regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the states," approved February nineteenth, nineteen hundred and three, and in the Act entitled "An Act making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and four, and for other purposes," approved February twenty-fifth, nineteen hundred and three, immunity shall extend only to a natural person who, in obedience to a subpoena, gives testimony under oath or produces evidence, documentary or otherwise, under oath.

Public, No. 389, approved June 30, 1906.
Act of June 30, 1906.

§ 663. Policy of Congress to Encourage Water Transportation. It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to promote, encourage, and develop water transportation, service, and facilities in connection with the commerce of the United States, and to foster and preserve in full vigor both rail and water transportation.

It shall be the duty of the Secretary of War, with the object of promoting, encouraging, and developing inland waterway transportation facilities in connection with the commerce of the United States, to investigate the appropriate types of boats suitable for different classes of such waterways; to investigate the subject of water terminals, both for inland waterway traffic and for through traffic by water and rail, including the necessary docks, warehouses, apparatus, equipment, and appliances in connection therewith, and also railroad spurs and switches connecting with such terminals, with a view to devising the types most appropriate for different locations, and for the more expeditious and economical transfer or interchange of passengers or property between carriers by water and carriers by rail; to advise with communities, cities, and towns regarding the appropriate location of such terminals, and to co-operate with them in the

preparation of plans for suitable terminal facilities; to investigate the existing status of water transportation upon the different inland waterways of the country, with a view to determining whether such waterways are being utilized to the extent of their capacity, and to what extent they are meeting the demands of traffic, and whether the water carriers utilizing such waterways are interchanging traffic with the railroads; and to investigate any other matter that may tend to promote and encourage inland water transportation. It shall also be the province and duty of the Secretary of War to compile, publish, and distribute, from time to time, such useful statistics, data, and information concerning transportation on inland waterways as he may deem to be of value to the commercial interests of the country.

The words "inland waterway" as used in this section shall be construed to include the Great Lakes.

Section 500, Title V, Transportation Act, 1920.

§ 664. Effective Date Section Ten Clayton Act Extended. The effective date on and after which the provisions of Section 10 of the Act entitled "An Act to supplement existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes," approved October 15, 1914, shall become and be effective is hereby deferred and extended to January 1, 1921; Provided, That such extension shall not apply in the case of any corporation organized after January 12, 1918. Section 501, Transportation Act, 1920.

§ 665. Part of Act Unconstitutional Not to Invalidate Other Parts. That if any clause, sentence, paragraph, or part of this Act shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate the remainder of the Act, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment has been rendered.

Section 502, Transportation Act, 1920. By a long line of decisions the Supreme Court had adopted as a settled principle: Where a particular provision of a statute is held unconstitutional and where such provision is so connected with the

general law that clearly the legislature never meant to enact only what remains, the whole Act is invalid. Where the unconstitutional part is independent of the general statute, the general provisions may stand notwithstanding the unconstitutional provision. The leading cases are: Allen v. Louisiana, 103 U. S. 80, 26 L. Ed. 318; Bank of Hamilton v. Dudley, 2 Pet. 492, 7 L. Ed. 496; Knott v. C. B. & Q. R. Co., 230 U. S. 474, 57 L. Ed. 1571, 33 Sup. Ct. 975; New York C. & H. R. Co. v. United States, 212 U. S. 481, 53 L. Ed. 613, 29 Sup. Ct. 304. This section has as its purpose to avoid the rule that an unconstitutional-connected clause makes invalid the clauses dependent thereon. It is very doubtful if the section means anything; and, it is believed, that the long established rules of construction will be followed notwithstanding this section.

§ 666. Federal Control.-First by proclamation and later under the Act of March 21, 1918, the United States assumed the control and operation of the railroads of continental United States. This statute gave the Director-General of Railroads, appointed by the President, extensive powers, but it did not wholly suspend the authority of the Commission over rates. Willamette Valley Lumberman's Asso. v. S. P. Co., 51 I. C. C. 250.

One of the principal effects of orders issued by the DirectorGeneral was to create confusion as to where and against whom suits could be brought for causes of action arising out of federal control. On this question the courts have differed widely. The question is discussed in Central Law Journal, Vol. 87, No. 24, 42, Vol. 88, pp. 100, 157; Vol. 90, p. 245; Annotations, 4 A. L. R. 1680.

Intrastate rates could not be regulated by the states during federal control.-Northern P. Ry. Co. v. North Dakota, 250 U. S. 135, 63 L. Ed. 897, 39 Sup. Ct. 502, P. U. R. 1919D, 700, and other cases cited. Annotations to Section 401, ante.

The statutes and proclamations inaugurating and terminating federal control are shown in Appendix 1, post.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »