APPENDIXES. A. Indictments returned and cases concluded.... B. Summaries showing action taken since the period covered by the last annual report with respect to cases involving orders or requirements of the Commission and status on October 31, 1920, of cases pending 93 F. Average annual railway operating income certifications made to the President pursuant to section 1 of the Federal control act approved REPORT OF THE IBRAR INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION. WASHINGTON, D. C., December 1, 1920. To the Senate and House of Representatives: The Interstate Commerce Commission has the honor to submit its thirty-fourth annual report to the Congress. The period covered by this report extends from November 1, 1919, to October 31, 1920, except as otherwise noted. On February 28, 1920, the President approved the transportation act, 1920, and on March 1, 1920, at 12.01 a. m., relinquished the possession and control of all railroads and systems of transportation then under Federal control, restoring them to the possession and control of their respective owners. The transportation act, 1920, greatly enlarged our duties and powers. Title IV of that act amended in many respects the act to regulate commerce, thereafter to be known as the interstate commerce act, and embodies remedial legislation of a permanent nature. Title III is confined to disputes between carriers and those in their em ploy. Other titles contain provisions relating principally to the transition from Federal to private control of railroads and systems of transportation. In view of the careful consideration given to the transportation act during the time it was pending before the Congress and the wide publicity attendant upon its passage, we deem it unnecessary to attempt a summary of the changes made by that act. Action taken by us responsive to these changes is reported under appropriate headings. NOMINATIONS TO THE RAILROAD LABOR BOARD. Section 304 of the transportation act, 1920, established the Railroad Labor Board. That board comprises nine members, three constituting the labor group, representing the employees and subordinate officials, three constituting the management group, and three constituting the public group. Section 304 provided that the President should appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from not less than six nominees by the employees and subordinate officials three members of the labor board; and.similarly the President should appoint from not less than six ninees three members of the labor board to represent the management group, and three members representing the public group. Section 305 provided that if either the employees or the carriers failed to present their nominations in accordance with regulations to be prescribed by us within 30 days after the passage of the act, the President should thereupon directly make the appointments. It became necessary, therefore, promptly to prescribe regulations governing the making and offering of nominations for appointment to the labor board. It was also necessary to define the term "subordinate official" after notice and hearing, as prescribed in paragraph 5 of section 300 of the transportation act. Accordingly, under date of March 8, we issued regulations governing the making and offering of nominations for appointment to the labor board. For this purpose we grouped certain cognate organizations of employees into three groups with respect to the more or less analogous character of the services performed, and required the accredited representatives of the organizations in each of the three groups who were duly authorized so to act to agree among themselves upon nominees representative of the group, but requiring that the three groups should present a total of not less than six nominees. We required that the nominations so agreed upon should be transmitted direct to the President accompanied by a certificate that the nominations had been made in accordance with our regulations. Similarly we authorized the Association of Railway Executives, representing approximately 95 per cent of the country's railroad mileage, to present nominations representing the management group not less than six in number, which nominations were to be transmitted direct to the President accompanied by a certificate that the nominations had been made in accordance with our regulations. On March 15, after due notice, we held a hearing to determine. what classes of officials should be included within the term "subordinate official" as that term is used in sections 300 to 313, both inclusive, of the transportation act, 1920. On March 23 we issued regulations designating the classes of employees to be included within the term "subordinate official." On March 23 we issued supplemental regulations governing the making and offering of nominations for appointment of members of the labor board. In these regulations it was concluded that the expression "such employees" who by the act were to make and offer nominations for appointment to the labor board properly included subordinate officials as defined by us. We also found that, inasmuch as the organizations named in our original regulations included, or might include, a small percentage of subordinate officials, subordinate officials not so included, as well as employees not members of or represented through the organizations originally named by us, were entitled to make and offer nominations for members of the labor group. Accordingly we supplemented the original regulations by adding a fourth group, which comprised all organizations which had averred that their separate right to make nominations should have been accorded them under the transportation act, with the exception of two organizations whose membership we held was not that included in the term "subordinate official." The accredited representatives of the organizations in this fourth group were similarly authorized to agree among themselves upon nominees representative of each organization or jointly representative of a number of such organizations. In accordance with the regulations prescribed, the names of nominees were duly forwarded to the President. Some dissatisfaction manifesting itself as to the definition of the term "subordinate officials," a further public hearing was had on October 1 to determine whether the regulations defining the term "subordinate officials" should be extended or otherwise modified. On November 1 we promulgated revised regulations designating the classes of employees to be included within that term. REORGANIZATION. The change in duties and the additions to our membership both required us to make a reexamination of our administrative machinery and internal organization. Prior to 1917 all matters requiring Commission action had to be passed upon by a quorum of the entire body. By an act of Congress approved August 9, 1917, we were authorized to divide our membership into as many divisions as might be deemed necessary, and to assign or refer any of our work, business, or functions to a division for action. Divisions so constituted were, by the act, given authority by a majority thereof to prosecute and conclude matters so assigned or referred with the same effect as if the resulting action had been taken by the Commission, subject to rehearing by the Commission itself. As permitted by the act of 1917, on October 17, 1917, we divided our membership into three divisions, known respectively as Divisions. 1, 2, and 3, and provided for the monthly rotation of these divisions in hearing arguments in cases, other than those specially reserved for consideration by the whole Commission. Certain branches of our administrative work were assigned to each of the divisions. In our thirty-first annual report to the Congress, at pages 60 and 61, we stated the details of such assignments. The survey of the situation created by the enactment of the transportation act, 1920, and other legislation, led us by successive steps to create five divisions, known respectively as Divisions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Each division consists of three members, except Division 4, which is composed of four members. By law the commissioner in each division, senior in service, is its chairman. The monthly rotation of Divisions 1, 2, and 3 for the purpose of hearing argument in and determining such cases as are not reserved for consideration by the full Commission has continued. In addition, the respective divisions are charged with the following duties: Division 1: The conduct of the work of the bureau of valuation, and generally with the conduct and determination of matters arising under section 19a of the interstate commerce act, relating to the valuation of railroads; matters arising under the safety-appliance acts, the accident-report act, the hours-of-service act, the ash-pan act, the boiler-inspection act, the block-signal resolution; and section 26 of the interstate commerce act, which has to do with the requirement for the installation of automatic train stops and train control, or other safety devices. Division 2: The disposition of applications and requests for suspension of rates, fares, and charges under paragraph (7) of section 15 of the interstate commerce act; under section 4, the long-and-shorthaul provision; and under section 6, relating to the printing and filing of schedules of rates, fares, and charges. This division also is charged with the disposition of cases on the special docket, involving awards of reparation when rates have been exacted which are conceded to have been unreasonable; the formulation of regulations for the safe transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles; requests and applications for authority to establish and maintain tariffs carrying released rates under section 20 of the interstate commerce act; and matters arising under section 208 (a) of the transportation act, 1920, which prohibits reductions in the rates, fares, and charges which on February 29, 1920, were in effect on lines of carriers subject to the interstate commerce act, prior to September 1, 1920, without approval by the Commission. Division 2 is also charged with the disposition of matters coming from the board of reference, composed of chiefs of various sections, which passes upon minor matters of an administrative character, as to which our policy is deemed to have been settled by our previous rulings. Division 3: The disposition of formal cases not orally argued which are not allotted to a commissioner or reserved by the Commission; and the disposition of recommendations of our bureau of inquiry as to prosecutions and proceedings for the collection of penalties |