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27-April 30, 1917.

The Postmaster General and the railroads agreed upon a plan by which reports were to be obtained from all railroads in the country engaged in transporting the mails, giving details of the amount of service rendered and the approximate costs. These reports were tabulated by the Post Office Department and the railroads, respectively, and were submitted in evidence and explained by the compilers at extended hearings. The case was argued orally and the decision and order of the Commission was rendered on December 23, 1919. In brief, the conclusions were as follows:

The space basis system to govern transportation of mails inaugurated by the act referred to found fair and reasonable and its extention to all mail routes required from March 1, 1920; fair and reasonable rates prescribed for the different classes of mail service; initial and terminal allowances required to be discontinued, payment therefor to be included in the line-haul rates; side, terminal, and transfer services when required of the railroads to be paid for separately on ascertainment of the cost of such services; rules prescribed with respect to authorizations designed to simplify and make definite the procedure by the Post Office Department; and short-line railroads considered separately and higher rates prescribed for them than those prescribed generally.

Subsequently, the commission received requests from the carriers for modifications of its orders of December 23, 1919. At the close of 1921, the railway mail pay proceedings were reopened for such action as might be appropriate with respect to the facts and circumstances surrounding the transportation of mails and the services connected therewith upon the lines of the New England carriers and the short line railroads in the intermountain and Pacific coast states.

The act of July 2, 1918 (40 Stat. L., 742, 748), directed the commission

to fix from time to time the fair and reasonable rates and compensation for the transportation of mail matter by urban and interurban electric railway common carriers and the service connected therewith, and to prescribe the methods for ascertaining such rate or compensation and to publish same; orders so made and published to continue in force until changed by us after due notice and hearing.

Under this act, the commission instituted a proceeding, serving notice to the electrically operated railways of the country, and hearings were held in Washington and at sixteen important electric railway centers of the country. The outcome of the investigation was an order of August 7, 1920, effective on and after December 6, 1920. The commission held that it was fair and reasonable to require electric railroads to be governed by the space basis system in mail transportation, but that side, terminal, and transfer services should be assumed by the Post Office Department or paid for by the department upon the ascertainment of the cost of such services. Reasonable rates were fixed for various classes of mail service and certain rules prescribed for the conduct of the service.

Merchant Marine Act, 1920. The duties of the commission under Sections 8 and 28 of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, have been described in Chapter I. Pursuant to Section 8, the Secretary of War and the United States Shipping Board on March 25, 1921, placed the results of a survey made by the Board of Engineers for Rivers and Harbors before the commission. This survey reported "that the charges, regulations, and practices of rail carriers at these ports were preventing the erection of needed terminal facilities; the natural development of the ports; the proper building up of the merchant marine, and the economical carrying on of foreign commerce. The commission is now conducting a general investigation into this situation.

Under Section 28, upon appropriate certification from the Shipping Board, that adequate shipping facilities were not afforded by vessels documented under the laws of the United States, the commission suspended the operation of the provision of the section which prohibits a lower rate, fare, or charge for transportation in foreign commerce than is charged for like transportation in domestic commerce; unless the water transportation from or to the port of export or import has been or is to be in a vessel documented under the laws of the United States.

Miscellaneous. By the act of March 19, 1918 (40 Stat. L., 450), as amended by the act of August 20, 1919 (41 Stat. L., 280), the commission was designated as the agency to define by order the limits of the five zones into which the country is divided to establish standard time, with due regard to the convenience

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of commerce and the existing junction points and division points of common carriers engaged in commerce between the several states and with foreign nations. The original order of the commission may be modified from time to time.10

By act of March 3, 1919 (35 Stat. L., 703), the Interstate Commerce Commission was directed to prescribe the manner and form of books to be kept by every corporation in the District of Columbia engaged in the manufacture and sale of gas and electricity. This work was done by the commission's Division of Carrier's Accounts, which reported in 1920 that a uniform system of accounts was in effect for these companies.

Section 304 of the Transportation Act directs the commission to prescribe regulations to govern nominations by employees and subordinate officers or carriers for representatives on the United States Railroad Labor Board. Such regulations were drawn up after due hearing and investigation, and the names of the nominees selected in accordance with these regulations were forwarded to the President, accompanied by the commission's certificate that the nominations had been made according to its regulations. From time to time it may be necessary to modify these regulations, particularly in the definition of the term "subordinate officials used in the act.

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Relations with other Governmental Bodies. The Transportation Act created the Railroad Labor Board with certain jurisdiction over railroad wages and working conditions. No provision is made in the law for coördination between this board and the commission, but informal conferences of the two bodies have been held from time to time. It has been aimed particularly to secure and have on file such statistical data as might aid the Railroad Labor Board in its work.

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In the annual report for 1920 (p. 74) the commission reported that petitions to include in one zone extensive territories properly in the next zone to the West in order to provide for such territories a standard time faster than the mean solar time of the nearest time-governing meridian, were in two instances, after full hearing, denied on the ground that in view of the obvious intent of Congress in repealing the daylight savings or advanced time section of the act, it was not within the commission's discretion to adjust the zone boundaries with the avowed purpose of providing a community with an advanced standard of time.-57 I. C. C., 455, and 59 I. C. C., 249.

A jurisdictional conflict between the Shipping Board and the commission has emerged from the enactment of Section 19 of the Merchant Marine Act, which provides as follows:

SEC. 19 (1) The Board is authorized and directed in aid of the accomplishment of the purposes of this Act

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(c) To request the head of any department, board, bureau, or agency of the government to suspend, modify or annul rules or regulations which have been established by such department, board, bureau, or agency, or to make new rules or regulations affecting shipping in the foreign trade other than such rules or regulations relating to the Public Health Service, the Consular Service, and the Steamboat Inspection Service.

(2) No rule or regulation shall hereafter be established by any department, board, or agency of the government which affects shipping the foreign trade, except rules or regulation affecting the Public Health Service, the Consular Service and the Steamboat Inspection Service, until such rules or regulations have been submitted to the board for its approval and final action has been taken thereon by the board or the President.

(3) Whenever the head of any department, board, bureau, or agency of the government refuses to suspend, modify, or annul any rule or regulation, or make a new rule or regulation, upon request of the board as provided in subdivision (c) of paragraph (1) of this section, or objects to the decision of the board in respect to the approval of any rule or regulation, as provided in paragraph (2) of this section, either the board or the head of the department, board, bureau, or agency which has established or is attempting to establish the rule or regulation in question may submit the facts to the President, who is hereby authorized to establish or suspend, modify, or annul such rule or regulation.

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The Shipping Board has interpreted the above provisions of Section 19 as applicable to the Interstate Commerce Commission. The commission, however, does not concur in this view, maintaining that Section of the Shipping Act, of 1916 which provided that this act shall not be construed to affect the power or jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission or to confer upon the Board concurrent power or jurisdiction over any matter within the power or jurisdiction of such commission; nor shall this act be construed to apply to intrastate commerce," has not been repealed by Section 19 of the Merchant Marine Act. The commission has recommended, therefore, that Section 19 be

amended specifically to exclude it from its operation. Meanwhile, however, to realize the benefits from coöperation of the two bodies, the commission has appointed a committee to confer with a similar body from the Shipping Board "upon matters of common interest and concern."

Under Paragraph (3) of Section 13 of the Interstate Commerce Act the commission is authorized to confer with state regulatory bodies with respect to the relationship between rate structures and practices of carriers subject to the jurisdiction of the commission and the state bodies. In the hearings regarding increased rates held in May, June, and July, 1920, three state commissioners selected by the National Association of Railway and Utilities Commissioners sat with the commission throughout the hearings. and oral argument and participated in the conferences prior to the determination of the matters at issue. Subsequently, various state commission denied, either wholly or partially, the carriers' applications for increases in interstate commerce rates corresponding to the increases for interstate commerce authorized by the commission after the above hearings had been concluded. The carriers thereupon filed petitions with the commission under Paragraph (3) of Section 13 of the act, alleging that such refusals by the state bodies caused undue advantages, preferences, prejudices, or discriminations as between interstate and intrastate commerce, prohibited by this section of the act. The commission after investigation upheld the carriers as to certain interstate rates, fares, or charges, and directed them to make certain increases accordingly. Court proceedings have been instituted by the authorities of certain states to set aside the commission's order, and cases are now pending before the Supreme Court, the decisions as to which will clarify the issues involved in this section of the act.

Summary. In order to present clearly the numerous phases of the commission's work, it has been deemed best to set forth in separate categories, as in the preceding pages, each of its significant powers or duties under the law and, wherever possible, some statistical data illustrative of the scope of the activities thereunder. It is hardly necessary to note that any such isolation and classification of the activities is obviously artificial. In the actual conduct of its operations, under the numerous statutory

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