lie by either party to the circuit court of appeals for the proper circuit, and from that court, if the subject in dispute exceeds one thousand dollars or the record presents a question which would be reviewable in any case of law or equity by the Supreme Court, irrespective of the amount involved, to the Supreme Court of the United States, but such appeal shall not vacate or suspend any order made by the circuit court in the premises during the pendency of the appeal. The copies of schedules and tariffs of rates, fares, and charges, and of all contracts, agreements, or arrangements between common carriers filed with the Commission as herein provided, and the statistics, tables, and figures contained in the annual reports of carriers made to the Commission as required by the provisions of this act, shall be preserved. as public records in the custody of the Commission and shall be receivable in evidence as prima facie what they purport to be for the purpose of investigations by the Commission and in all judicial proceedings; and copies of, or extracts from, any of said schedules, tariffs, contracts, agreements, arrangements, or reports made public records as aforesaid, certified by the secretary of the Commission under its seal, shall be receivable in evidence with like effect as the original. Sections fifteen and sixteen, as hereby amended, shall not apply to any proceedings now pending, but all such proceedings shall be conducted and disposed of as if this act had not been passed; and the said sections are hereby continued in force as to such proceedings. 2. To enable the Commission to determine after investigation and upon due hearing when greater charges may be made for shorter distances and the extent of any such greater charges, it is further recommended that section 4 be so amended as to read: SEC. 4. The Commission created by this act may, in its discretion, upon notice and hearing, prohibit any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act from charging or receiving any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of passengers or like kind of property for a shorter than for a longer distance, over the same line in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance, or may, upon such notice and hearing, prescribe the extent to which such greater compensation may be received; but this shall not be construed as authorizing any common carrier within the terms of this act to charge or receive as great compensation for a shorter as for a longer distance. 3. To enable the Commission to obtain statistical information more promptly, it is further recommended that section 20 be amended to read: SEC. 20. That the Commission is hereby authorized to require annual reports from all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act, and from the owners of all railroads which are used in interstate commerce as defined in this act; to prescribe the manner in which such reports shall be made, and to require from such carriers specific answers to all questions upon which the Commission may need information. Such annual reports shall show in detail the amount of capital stock issued, the amounts paid therefor, and the manner of payment for the same; the dividends paid, the surplus fund, if any, and the number of stockholders; the funded and floating debts and the interest paid thereon; the cost and value of the carrier's property, franchises, and equipments; the number of employees and the salaries paid each class; the amounts expended for improvements each year, how expended, and the character of such improvements; the earnings and receipts from each branch of business and from all sources; the operating and other expenses; the balances of profit and loss, and a complete exhibit of the financial operations of the carrier each year, including an annual balance sheet. Such reports shall also contain such information in relation to rates or regulations concerning fares or freights, or agreements, arrangements, or contracts with other common carriers as the Commission may require; and the said Commission may, within its discretion, for the purpose of enabling it the better to carry out the purposes of this act, prescribe (if in the opinion of the Commission it is practicable to prescribe such uniformity and methods of keeping accounts) a period of time within which all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act shall have, as near as may be, a uniform system of accounts, and the manner in which such accounts shall be kept. Said detailed reports shall contain all the required statistics for the period of twelve months ending on the 30th day of June in each year, and shall be made out under oath and filed with the Commission, at its office in Washington, on or before the 30th day of September then next following, unless additional time be granted in any case by the Commission; and if any carrier, person, or corporation subject to the provisions of this section shall fail to make and file said annual reports within the time above specified, or within the time extended by the Commission for making and filing the same, or shall fail to make specific answer to any question authorized by the provisions of this section within thirty days from the time it is lawfully required so to do, such party shall forfeit to the United States the sum of $100 for each and every day it shall continue to be in default with respect thereto. Said forfeiture shall be recovered in the manner provided for the recovery of forfeitures under the provisions of this act. The oath required by this section may be taken before any person authorized to administer an oath by the laws of the State in which the same is taken. 4. If it is deemed wise to make more specific and detailed provision than that provided in the proposed sections for securing continuous carriage at through rates, it is recommended that the following be added to section 3 of the act: The facilities to be so afforded shall include the due and reasonable receiving, forwarding, and delivering by every such common carrier, at the request of any other such common carrier, or at the request of any person or shipper interested in through traffic, of through traffic at through rates or fares: Provided, as follows: (1) If any one of such common carriers shall desire to form a through route for interstate traffic, or any class thereof, over its own line, or any part thereof, in connection with the line or any part of the line of one or more other common carriers, or if any person or shipper interested in the shipment of through traffic shall desire a particular through route for such traffic, such carrier, person, or shipper shall address a request in writing to the common carrier or carriers constituting such through route, describing therein the proposed route specifically, and naming proposed through rates or fares and divisions thereof for such traffic, and shall deliver such request to such carrier or carriers, and also transmit a copy thereof to the Commission hereinafter named. (2) If such common carrier or carriers shall not, within ten days after receiving such request, make and serve and file with the Commission written objections, either to the proposed route or to the proposed rates, fares, or divisions, the same so far as not objected to shall be deemed agreed to; but if either the route, the rates or fares, or the divisions thereof are objected to, the objections shall be stated in writing and transmitted to the Commission. (3) The Commission shall then have the power to determine whether, having regard to all the circumstances, the route proposed is demanded in the public interest and is a reasonable route for the traffic; and if the Commission shall so find and the rate or divisions are not assented to, the Commission shall have the further power to prescribe the same. (4) But the Commission in any case, in apportioning the through rate, shall take into consideration all the circumstances of the case, including any special expense incurred in respect of the construction, maintenance, or work of the route, or any part thereof, as well as any special charges which any such common carrier may have been entitled to make in respect thereof. (5) It shall not be lawful for the Commission in any case to compel any company to accept lower mileage rates than the mileage rates which such company may for the time being legally be charging for like traffic carried by a like mode of transit on any other line of communication between the same points, being the points of departure and arrival of the through route. 5. To make enforceable and effectual its penal provisions, we propose for consideration that section 10 of the act be amended to read: 1. Every person shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor who shall, directly or indirectly, do, or cause, procure, or solicit to be done, or assist, aid, or abet in the doing of any of the following acts, namely: Any act of unjust discrimination as defined in this act. Any fraudulent act or false representation by which transportation is obtained or attempted to be obtained at less than the lawfully established rate. 2. Said misdemeanors shall be punishable with a fine of not over $5,000 or imprisonment for a term of not over one year, or both, for each offense. 3. Any advance or reduction in schedule rates, fares, or charges, whether the same is effected by a change of classification or by any device or means whatsoever, except as permitted by the sixth section of said act, or any charge, demand, collection, or reception of, or offer to make or accept any other or different compensation for, the transportation of traffic that is scheduled in conformity to the provisions of section 6 of said act shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000 for each offense. 4. Every person who shall willfully do, or cause, procure, or solicit to be done, by any device or means whatsoever, any other thing in said act prohibited or declared to be unlawful, or omit to do, or cause, procure, or solicit to be omitted, anything in said act required to be done, or who shall otherwise assist, aid, or abet such willful deed or omission by any device or means whatsoever, or on whose behalf any violation of said act is accomplished, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars for each offense. 5. The word "person" shall be deemed to include every person acting on his own behalf or that of another, as agent, director, officer, receiver, trustee, or otherwise, as carrier, either on the main line or to or from the terminals, consignor, consignee, freight or passenger agent, broker, expressman, or in any other way connected with the making or performance of a contract of carriage. 6. Every corporation which shall be guilty of any act or omis sion which, if done or omitted by an individual, would be a misdemeanor under the provisions of this act, shall be liable to a penalty of five thousand dollars for each offense. 7. Every violation of the act to regulate commerce shall be prosecuted in any court of the United States having jurisdiction of crimes within the district of which such offense is committed; and wherever the offense is begun in one jurisdiction and is completed in another, it may be dealt with, inquired of, tried, determined, and punished in either jurisdiction, or in any jurisdiction through which the traffic that is the subject of the violation shall pass in transit, in the same manner as if the offense had been actually and wholly committed there. 8. In construing and enforcing the provisions of this section, the act, omission, or failure of any officer, agent, or other person acting for or employed by any common carrier shall in every case also be deemed to be the act, omission, or failure of such carrier, as well as that of the person. 9. Whenever any carrier files or publishes a particular rate under the provisions of this act, or participates in any rate so filed or published, that rate, as against such carrier, its officers or agents, in any prosecution begun under this act, shall be conclusively deemed to be the legal rate, and any departure from such rate, or any offer to depart therefrom, shall be deemed unjust discrimination. Whenever, on the trial of a defendant for a violation of this act, the defendant is shown to have given or aided, abetted, or assisted in the giving of a rate to one or more individuals, firm, company, or corporation, different from the rate or rates for the same service in the schedule of rates provided for by this act, such evidence shall be deemed evidence sufficient to authorize a conviction; and it shall not be necessary in any indictment hereunder for unjust discrimination to allege or to prove in the trial that other and less favorable rates were offered or granted to other shippers than the defendant, or to allege or prove the names of such shippers, the true intent of this being that the published schedule of rates shall be conclusive evidence that the rates therein provided were charged to the general public. 10. Any person who shall willfully testify falsely on an examination. before any member of the Commission created by this act, or who in any certificate or report required by such Commission to be made under oath to enable them to carry out the provisions of this act, shall make any false or fraudulent statement, shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and be subject to the penalties provided in section 5392 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. 11. All offenses heretofore committed shall be prosecuted and punished as provided for in the laws existing at the time such offenses were committed, for which purpose all acts or parts thereof inconsistent with this act are continued in force. 6. An amendment requiring common carriers subject to the act to carry imported merchandise under the same tariffs and at the same rates as domestic merchandise is carried; and if Congress shall deem it wise to justify higher charges on domestic than on imported traffic, then it is respectfully submitted that some provision of law be enacted under which it will be practicable to determine the extent to which discriminations shall be made, through lower rates, on freights of foreign origin. 7. In addition to the amendments above recommended, others necessary to effectual regulation are indicated in the several articles of this report. These include a bill pending in the Senate providing for uniform classification, and a bill pending in both the Senate and House prohibiting ticket brokerage. All of which is respectfully submitted. WM. R. MORRISON. JAMES D. YEOMANS. CHARLES A. PROUTY. |