powers conferred by this Act, shall have and is hereby given such other and further powers necessary or appropriate to give effect to the powers herein and heretofore conferred. The provisions of this Act shall also apply to any carriers to which Federal control may be hereafter extended.

SEC. 10. That carriers while under Federal control shall be subject to all laws and liabilities as common carriers, whether arising under State or Federal laws or at common law, except in so far as may be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act or any other Act applicable to such Federal control or with any order of the President. Actions at law or suits in equity may be brought by and against such carriers and judgments rendered as now provided by law; and in any action at law or suit in equity against the carrier, no defense shall be made thereto upon the ground that the carrier is an instrumentality or agency of the Federal Government. Nor shall any such carrier be entitled to have transferred to a Federal court any action heretofore or hereafter instituted by or against it, which action was not so transferable prior to the Federal control of such carrier; and any action which has heretofore been so transferred because of such Federal control or of any Act of Congress or official order or proclamation relating thereto shall upon motion of either party be retransferred to the court in which it was originally instituted. But no process, mesne or final, shall be levied against any property under such Federal control.

That during the period of Federal control, whenever in his opinion the public interest requires, the President may initiate rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations, and practices by filing the same with the Interstate Commerce Commission, which said rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations, and practices shall not be suspended by the commission pending final determination.

Said rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations, and practices shall be reasonable and just and shall take effect at such time and upon such notice as he may direct, but the Interstate Commerce Commission shall, upon complaint, enter upon a hearing concerning the justness and reasonableness of so much of any order of the President as establishes or changes any rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice of any carrier under Federal control, and may consider all the facts and circumstances existing at the time of the making of the same. In determining any question concerning any such rates, fares, charges, classifications, regulations, or practices or changes therein, the Interstate Commerce Commission shall give due consideration to the fact that the transportation systems are being operated under a unified and coordinated national control and not in competition.

After full hearing the commission may make such findings and order as are authorized by the Act to regulate commerce as amended, and said findings and orders shall be enforced as provided in said Act: Provided, however, That when the President shall find and certify to the Interstate Commerce Commission that in order to defray the expenses of Federal control and operation fairly chargeable to railway operating expenses, and also to pay railway tax accruals other than war taxes, net rents for joint facilities and equipment, and compensation to the carriers, operating as a unit, it is necessary to increase the railway operating revenues, the Interstate Commerce

Commission in determining the justness and reasonableness of any rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice shall take into consideration said finding and certificate by the President, together with such recommendations as he may make.

SEC. 11. That every person or corporation, whether carrier or shipper, or any receiver, trustee, lessee, agent, or person acting for or employed by a carrier or shipper, or other person, who shall knowingly violate or fail to observe any of the provisions of this Act, or shall knowingly interfere with or impede the possession, use, operation, or control of any railroad property, railroad, or. transportation system hitherto or hereafter taken over by the President, or shall knowingly violate any of the provisions of any order or regulation made in pursuance of this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000, or, if a person, by imprisonment for not more than two years, or both. Each independent transaction constituting a violation of, or a failure to observe, any of the provisions of this Act, or any order entered in pursuance hereof, shall constitute a separate offense. For the taking or conversion to his own use or the embezzlement of money or property derived from or used in connection with the possession, use, or operation of said railroads or transportation systems, the criminal statutes of the United States, as well as the criminal statutes of the various States where applicable, shall apply to all officers, agents, and employees engaged in said railroad and transportation service, while the same is under Federal control, to the same extent as to persons employed in the regular service of the United States. Prosecutions for violations of this Act or of any order entered hereunder shall be in the district courts of the United States, under the direction of the Attorney General, in accordance with the procedure for the collection and imposing of fines and penalties now existing in said courts.

SEC. 12. That moneys and other property derived from the operation of the carriers during Federal control are hereby declared to be the property of the United States. Unless otherwise directed by the President, such moneys shall not be covered into the Treasury, but such moneys and property shall remain in the custody of the same officers, and the accounting thereof shall be in the same manner and form as before Federal control. Disbursements therefrom shall, without further appropriation, be made in the same manner as before Federal control and for such purposes as under the Interstate Commerce Commission classification of accounts in force on December twenty-seventh, nineteen hundred and seventeen, are chargeable to operating expenses or to railway tax accruals and for such other purposes in connection with Federal control as the President may direct, except that taxes under Titles One and Two of the Act entitled "An Act to provide revenue to defray war expenses, and for other purposes," approved October third, nineteen hundred and seventeen, or any Act in addition thereto or in amendment thereof, shall be paid by the carrier out of its own funds. If Federal control begins or ends during the tax year for which any taxes so chargeable to railway tax accruals are assessed, the taxes for such year shall be apportioned to the date of the beginning or ending of such Federal control, and disbursements shall be made only for that portion of such taxes as is due for the part of such tax year which falls within the period of Federal control.

At such periods as the President may direct, the books shall be closed and the balance of revenues over disbursements shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the revolving fund created by this Act. If such revenues are insufficient to meet such disbursements, the deficit shall be paid out of such revolving fund in such manner as the President may direct.

SEC. 13. That all pending cases in the courts of the United States affecting railroads or other transportation systems brought under the Act to regulate commerce, approved February fourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, as amended and supplemented, including the commodities clause, so called, or under the Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies, approved July second, eighteen hundred and ninety, and amendments thereto, shall proceed to final determination as soon as may be, as if the United States had not assumed control of transportation systems; but in any such case the court having jurisdiction may, upon the application of the United States, stay execution of final judgment or decree until such time as it shall deem proper.

SEC. 14. That the Federal control of railroads and transportation systems herein and heretofore provided for shall continue for and during the period of the war and for a reasonable time thereafter, which shall not exceed one year and nine months next following the date of the proclamation by the President of the exchange of ratifications of the treaty of peace: Provided, however, That the President may, prior to July first, nineteen hundred and eighteen, relinquish control of all or any part of any railroad or system of transportation, further Federal control of which the President shall deem not needful or desirable; and the President may at any time during the period of Federal control agree with the owners thereof to relinquish all or any part of any railroad or system of transportation. The President may relinquish all railroads and systems of transportation under Federal control at any time he shall deem such action needful or desirable. No right to compensation shall accrue to such owners from and after the date of relinquishment for the property so relinquished.

SEC. 15. That nothing in this Act shall be contrued to amend, repeal, impair, or affect the existing laws or powers of the States in relation to taxation or the lawful police regulations of the several States, except wherein such laws, powers, or regulations may affect the transportaton of troops, war materials, Government supplies, or the issue of stocks and bonds.

SEC. 16. That this Act is expressly declared to be emergency legislation enacted to meet conditions growing out of war; and nothing herein is to be construed as expressing or prejudicing the future policy of the Federal Government concerning the ownership, control, or regulation of carriers or the method or basis of the capitalization thereof.

Approved, March 21, 1918.

(Extract from Public law No. 323, approved March 2, 1919.)

SEC. 7. That the Act entitled "An Act to provide for the operation of transportation systems while under Federal control, for the just compensation of their owners, and for other purposes," approved March 21, 1918, be, and the same hereby is, amended by adding at the end of section 6 thereof the following:

"No provision of this Act shall be construed to prevent the routing of freight by a shipper or consignee over any inland canal or coastwise waterway, or a part way over such waterway and a part way by rail. In case the shipper or consignee shall so route the freight, no provision of this Act shall be construed as giving power to change the routing."

[H. R. 328.]

An Act To amend an Act entitled "An Act to regulate commerce,"

as amended, in respect of car service, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section one of the Act entitled "An Act to regulate commerce," approved February twentyfourth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, as heretofore amended, is further amended by adding thereto the following:

The term car service" as used in this Act shall include the movement, distribution, exchange, interchange, and return of cars used in the transportation of property by any carrier subject to the provisions of this Act.

It shall be the duty of every such carrier to establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable rules, regulations, and practices with respect to car service, and every unjust and unreasonable rule, regulation, and practice with respect to car service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful.

The Interstate Commerce Commission is hereby authorized by general or special orders to require all carriers subject to the provisions of the Act, or any of them, to file with it from time to time their rules and regulations with respect to car service, and the commission may, in its discretion, direct that the said, rules and regulations shall be incorporated in their schedules showing rates, fares, and charges for transportation and be subject to any or all of the provisions of the Act relating thereto.

The commission shall, after hearing, on a complaint or upon its own initiative without complaint, establish reasonable rules, regulations, and practices with respect to car service, including the classification of cars, compensation to be paid for the use of any car not owned by any such common carrier and the penalties or other sanctions for nonobservance of such rules.

Whenever the commission shall be of opinion that necessity exists for immediate action with respect to the supply or use of cars for transportation of property, the commission shall have, and it is hereby given, authority, either upon complaint or upon its own initiative without complaint, at once, if it so orders, without answer or other formal pleading by the interested carrier or carriers, and with or without notice, hearing, or the making or filing of a report, according as the commission may determine, to suspend the operation of any or all rules, regulations, or practices then established with respect to car service for such time as may be determined by the commission, and also authority to make such just and reasonable directions with respect to car service during such time as in its opinion will best promote car service in the interest of the public and the commerce of the people.

The directions of the commission as to car service may be made through and by such agents or agencies as the commission shall designate and appoint for that purpose.