for damages, etc., in meanor. Punishment. regular rates then established and in force on the line of transportaMaking false claim tion; or who shall knowingly and willfully, directly or indirectly, transit, a misde- himself or by employee, agent, officer, or otherwise, by false statement or representation as to cost, value, nature, or extent of injury, or by the use of any false bill, bill of lading, receipt, voucher, roll, account, claim, certificate, affidavit, or deposition, knowing the same to be false, fictitious, or fraudulent, or to contain any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, obtain or attempt to obtain any allowance, refund, or payment for damage or otherwise in connection with or growing out of the transportation of or agreement to transport such property, whether with or without the consent or connivance. of the carrier, whereby the compensation of such carrier for such transportation, either before or after payment, shall in fact be made less than the regular rates then established and in force on the line of transportation, shall be deemed guilty of fraud, which is hereby declared to be a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction thereof in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction within the district in which such offense was wholly or in part committed, be subject for each offense to a fine of not exceeding five thousand dollars or imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court: Provided, That the penalty of imprisonment shall not apply to artificial persons. "If any such person, or any officer or agent of any such corporation ination from carrier, or company, shall, by payment of money or other thing of value, solicitation, or otherwise, induce or attempt to induce any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act, or any of its officers or agents, to discriminate unjustly in his, its, or their favor as against any other consignor or consignee in the transportation of property, or shall aid or abet any common carrier in any such unjust discrimination, such person or such officer or agent of such corporation or company shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction thereof in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction within the district in which such offense was committed, be subject to a fine of not exceeding five thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the Action for damages, court, for each offense; and such person, corporation, or company shall also, together with said common carrier, be liable, jointly cr severally, in an action to be brought by any consignor or consignee discriminated against in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction for all damages caused by or resulting therefrom." Proviso. Attempting, etc., to secure unjust discrim by bribery, etc., a misdemeanor. Punishment, Complaints for violations. Vol. 24, p. 383, amended. Filing of complaints violations. rier. SEC. 11. That section thirteen of said Act to regulate commerce be amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 13. That any person, firm, corporation, company, or associaagainst carriers for tion, or any mercantile, agricultural, or manufacturing society or other organization, or any body politic or municipal organization, or any common carrier, complaining of anything done or omitted to be done by any common carrier subject to the provisions of this Act, in contravention of the provisions thereof, may apply to said commission Notification to car- by petition, which shall briefly state the facts; whereupon a statement of the complaint thus made shall be forwarded by the commission to such common carrier, who shall be called upon to satisfy the complaint, or to answer the same in writing, within a reasonable time, to Effect of reparation. be specified by the commission. If such common carrier within the time specified shall make reparation for the injury alleged to have been done, the common carrier shall be relieved of liability to the complainant only for the particular violation of law thus complained of. Investigation by If such carrier or carriers shall not satisfy the complaint within the time specified, or there shall appear to be any reasonable ground for investigating said complaint, it shall be the duty of the commission to investigate the matters complained of in such manner and by such means as it shall deem proper. Commission. Commission to in or on its own motion. Enforcement of or ders. Direct damage not necessary. Violations. Vol. 24, p. 384; Vol. Commission to determine if charges, atory, etc. Ante, p. 550. etc.. "Said commission shall, in like manner and with the same authority vestigate complaints and powers, investigate any complaint forwarded by the railroad by State commission, commissioner or railroad commission of any State or Territory at the request of such commissioner or commission, and the Interstate Commerce Commission shall have full authority and power at any time to institute an inquiry, on its own motion, in any case and as to any matter or thing concerning which a complaint is authorized to be made, to or before said commission by any provision of this Act, or concerning which any question may arise under any of the provisions of this Act, or relating to the enforcement of any of the provisions of this Act. And the said commission shall have the same powers and authority to proceed with any inquiry instituted on its own motion as though it had been appealed to by complaint or petition under any of the provisions of this Act, including the power to make and enforce any order or orders in the case, or relating to the matter or thing concerning which the inquiry is had excepting orders for the payment of money. No complaint shall at any time be dismissed because of the absence of direct damage to the complainant.' SEC. 12. That section fifteen of said Act to regulate commerce, as heretofore amended, is hereby now amended so as to read as follows: 34, p. 589, amended. "SEC. 15. That whenever, after full hearing upon a complaint made as provided in section thirteen of this Act, or after full hearing classifications, under an order for investigation and hearing made by the commission are unjust, discrimin on its own initiative (either in extension of any pending complaint or without any complaint whatever), the commission shall be of opinion that any individual or joint rates or charges whatsoever demanded, charged, or collected by any common carrier or carriers subject to the provisions of this Act for the transportation of persons or property or for the transmission of messages by telegraph or telephone as defined in the first section of this Act, or that any individual or joint classifications, regulations, or practices whatsoever of such carrier or carriers subject to the provisions of this Act are unjust or unreasonable or unjustly discriminatory, or unduly preferential or prejudicial or otherwise in violation of any of the provisions of this Act, the commission is hereby authorized and empowered to determine and prescribe what will be the just and reasonable individual or joint rate or rates, charge or charges, to be thereafter observed in such case as the maximum to be charged, and what individual or joint classification, regulation, or practice is just, fair, and reasonable, to be thereafter followed, and to make an order that the carrier or carriers shall cease and desist from such violation to the extent to which the commission finds the same to exist, and shall not thereafter publish, demand, or collect any rate or charge for such transportation or transmission in excess of the maximum rate or charge so prescribed, and shall adopt the classification and shall conform to and observe the regulation or practice so prescribed. All orders of the commission, except orders for the payment of money, shall take effect within such reasonable time, not less than thirty days, and shall continue in force for such period of time, not exceeding two years, as shall be prescribed in the order of the commission, unless the same shall be suspended or modified or set aside by the commission, or be suspended or set aside by a court of competent jurisdiction. Whenever, Apportionment of the carrier or carriers, in obedience to such order of the commission Commission on failor otherwise, in respect to joint rates, fares, or charges, shall fail to agree among themselves upon the apportionment or division thereof the commission may, after hearing, make a supplemental order prescribing the just and reasonable proportion of such joint rate to be received by each carrier party thereto, which order shall take effect as a part of the original order. 24768°-61-2-PT 1--25 Just and reasonable rates to be observed. Orders to carriers. Taking effect of orders, Continuance. joint rates, etc., by ure of agreement by carriers. New rates, classifications, etc. "Whenever there shall be filed with the commission any schedule Commission to de- stating a new individual or joint rate, fare, or charge, or any new termine propriety of. individual or joint classification, or any new individual or joint regulation or practice affecting any rate, fare, or charge, the commission shall have, and it is hereby given, authority, either upon complaint or upon its own initiative without complaint, at once, and if it so orders, without answer or other formal pleading by the interested carrier or carriers, but upon reasonable notice, to enter upon a hearing concerning the propriety of such rate, fare, charge, classification, Suspension until de regulation, or practice; and pending such hearing and the decision thereon the commission upon filing with such schedule and delivering to the carrier or carriers affected thereby a statement in writing of its reasons for such suspension may suspend the operation of such schedule and defer the use of such rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice, but not for a longer period than one hundred and twenty days beyond the time when such rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice would otherwise go into effect; Final determina- and after full hearing, whether completed before or after the rate, cision. tion. Proviso. Extension of suspension. fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice goes into effect, the commission may make such order in reference to such rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice as would be proper in a proceeding initiated after the rate, fare, charge, classification, regulation, or practice had become effective: Provided, That if any such hearing can not be concluded within the period of suspension, as above stated, the Interstate Commerce Commission may, in its discretion, extend the time of suspension for a further period not exceedHearings, on rates ing six months. At any hearing involving a rate increased after January first, nineteen hundred and ten, or of a rate sought to be increased after the passage of this Act, the burden of proof to show that the increased rate or proposed increased rate is just and reasonable shall be upon the common carrier, and the commission shall give to the hearing and decision of such questions preference over all other questions pending before it and decide the same as speedily as possible. increased since January 1, 1910. Commission may establish through etc., on failure of carriers. included. The commission may also, after hearing, on a complaint or upon routes, joint classi- its own initiative without complaint, establish through routes and fications, and rates: joint classifications, and may establish joint rates as the maximum to be charged and may prescribe the division of such rates as hereinbefore provided and the terms and conditions under which such through routes shall be operated, whenever the carriers themselves shall have refused or neglected to establish voluntarily such through Water connection routes or joint classifications or joint rates; and this provision shall Electric roads not apply when one of the connecting carriers is a water line. The carrying freight ex- commission shall not, however, establish any through route, classification, or rate between street electric passenger railways not engaged in the general business of transporting freight in addition to their passenger and express business and railroads of a different Water transporta- character, nor shall the commission have the right to establish any route, classification, rate, fare, or charge when the transportation is wholly by water, and any transportation by water affected by this Act shall be subject to the laws and regulations applicable to transportation by water. cepted. tion excluded. Through routes to embrace entire length of railroad. Exception. "And in establishing such through route, the commission shall not require any company, without its consent, to embrace in such route substantially less than the entire length of its railroad and of any intermediate railroad operated in conjunction and under a common management or control therewith which lies between the termini of such proposed through route, unless to do so would make such through route unreasonably long as compared with another practicable through route which could otherwise be established. Shipper's choice of Issue of through bill of lading, etc., as re "In all cases where at the time of delivery of property to any routes to be observed. railroad corporation being a common carrier, for transportation subject to the provisions of this Act to any point of destination, between which and the point of such delivery for shipment two or more through routes and through rates shall have been established as in this Act provided to which through routes and through rates such carrier is a party, the person, firm, or corporation making such shipment, subject to such reasonable exceptions and regulations as the Interstate Commerce Commission shall from time to time prescribe, shall have the right to designate in writing by which of such through routes such property shall be transported to destination, and it shall thereupon be the duty of the initial carrier to route said property and issue a through bill of lading therefor as so directed, ques and to transport said property over its own line or lines and deliver the same to a connecting line or lines according to such through route, and it shall be the duty of each of said connecting carriers to receive said property and transport it over the said line or lines and deliver the same to the next succeeding carrier or consignee according to the routing instructions in said bill of lading: Provided, however, That the shipper shall in all instances have the right to lines. determine, where competing lines of railroad constitute portions of a through line or route, over which of said competing lines so constituting a portion of said through line or route his freight shall be transported. ful. Proviso. Disclosing informa "It shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the pro- tion of shipments unvisions of this Act, or any officer, agent, or employee of such com- lawful. mon carrier, or for any other person or corporation lawfully authorized by such common carrier to receive information therefrom, knowingly to disclose to or permit to be acquired by any person or corporation other than the shipper or consignee, without the consent of such shipper or consignee, any information concerning the nature, kind, quantity, destination, consignee, or routing of any property tendered or delivered to such common carrier for interstate transportation, which information may be used to the detriment or prejudice of such shipper or consignee, or which may improperly disclose his business transactions to a competitor; and it shall also be unlawful, Receiving, unlawfor any person or corporation to solicit or knowingly receive any such information which may be so used: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to prevent the giving of such information in process. response to any legal process issued under the authority of any state or federal court, or to any officer or agent of the Government of the United States, or of any State or Territory, in the exercise of his powers, or to any officer or other duly authorized person seeking such information for the prosecution of persons charged with or suspected of crime; or information given by a common carrier to another carrier or its duly authorized agent, for the purpose of adjusting mutual traffic accounts in the ordinary course of business of such carriers. "Any person, corporation, or association violating any of the pro- Penalty for violavisions of the next preceding paragraph of this section shall be tions. deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each offense, on conviction, shall pay to the United States a penalty of not more than one thou sand dollars. Proviso. Adjustment of ac counts. portation facilities, Determination by "If the owner of property transported under this Act directly or Allowance for transindirectly renders any service connected with such transportation, ete, furnished by or furnishes any instrumentality used therein, the charge and allow- shipper. ance therefor shall be no more than is just. and reasonable, and the commission may, after hearing on a complaint or on its own initia- Commission. tive, determine what is a reasonable charge as the maximum to be paid by the carrier or carriers for the services so rendered or for the use of the instrumentality so furnished, and fix the same by appro Other powers of Commission not excluded. Enforcing orders of Commission. Vol. 24, p. 384; Vol. 25, p. 859; Vol. 34, p. 590, amended. Payment of money damages. Proceedings in circuit court if money be not paid. Commission prima facia evidence. priate order, which order shall have the same force and effect and be enforced in like manner as the orders above provided for under this section. "The foregoing enumeration of powers shall not exclude any power which the commission would otherwise have in the making of an order under the provisions of this Act." SEC. 13. That section sixteen of said Act to regulate commerce, as heretofore amended, is hereby now amended so as to read as follows: "SEC. 16. That if, after hearing on a complaint made as provided in section thirteen of this Act, the commission shall determine that any party complainant is entitled to an award of damages under the provisions of this Act for a violation thereof, the commission shall make an order directing the carrier to pay to the complainant the sum to which he is entitled on or before a day named. "If a carrier does not comply with an order for the payment of money within the time limit in such order, the complainant, or any person for whose benefit such order was made, may file in the circuit court of the United States for the district in which he resides or in which is located the principal operating office of the carrier, or through which the road of the carrier runs, or in any state court of general jurisdiction having jurisdiction of the parties, a petition setting forth briefly the causes for which he claims damages, and the Findings, etc., of order of the commission in the premises. Such suit in the circuit court of the United States shall proceed in all respects like other civil suits for damages, except that on the trial of such suit the findings and order of the commission shall be prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated, and except that the petitioner shall not be liable for costs in the circuit court nor for costs at any subsequent stage of the proceedings unless they accrue upon his appeal. If the petitioner shall finally prevail he shall be allowed a reasonable attorney's fee, Time limit for filing to be taxed and collected as a part of the costs of the suit. All complaints for the recovery of damages shall be filed with the commission within two years from the time the cause of action accrues, and not after, and a petition for the enforcement of an order for the payment of money shall be filed in the circuit court or state court within one year from the date of the order, and not after. Attorney's fee. complaints. "In such suits all parties in whose favor the commission may have made an award for damages by a single order may be joined as plaintiffs, and all of the carriers parties to such order awarding such damages may be joined as defendants, and such suit may be maintained by such joint plaintiff's and against such joint defendants in any district where any one of such joint plaintiffs could maintain such suit against any one of such joint defendants; and service of process against any one of such defendants as may not be found in the district where the suit is brought may be made in any district where such defendant carrier has its principal operating office. In case of such joint suit the recovery, if any, may be by judgment in favor of any one of such plaintiff's, against the defendant found to be liable to such plaintiff. "Every order of the commission shall be forthwith served upon the designated agent of the carrier in the city of Washington or in such other manner as may be provided by law. "The commission shall be authorized to suspend or modify its orders upon such notice and in such manner as it shall deem proper. "It shall be the duty of every common carrier, its agents and employees, to observe and comply with such orders so long as the same shall remain in effect. "Any carrier, any officer, representative, or agent of a carrier, or any receiver, trustee, lessee, or agent of either of them, who knowingly fails or neglects to obey any order made under the provisions |