a general railroad system of transportation or which does not derive more than 50 per centum of its operating revenues from the transportation of freight in standard steam railroad freight equipment. "(s) In proceedings under this section, claims for personal injuries to employees of a railroad corporation, and claims of personal representatives of deceased employees of a railroad corporation arising under State or Federal laws, shall be preferred claims against the assets of such railroad corporation in receivership or in reorganization as herein provided, such claims to be subordinate only to costs of administration of such receivership or reorganization."

SEC. 2. This Act shall take effect and be in force from and after the date of its approval, and shall apply as fully to debtors, their stockholders and creditors, whose interest or debts, whether secured or unsecured, have been acquired or incurred prior to such date, as to debtors, their stockholders and creditors, whose interest or debts have been acquired or incurred after such date. Proceedings under section 1 of this Act may be taken in proceedings in bankruptcy which are pending on the effective date of this Act.

SEO. 3. In all bankruptcy proceedings the officers and agents in charge of the bankrupt funds are authorized to deposit the same without limit as to amount in the postal savings depositories at the prescribed interest rate in all cases where local banks are unable or unwilling to give the required security. Such deposit or any portion thereof may be withdrawn as required in the bankruptcy proceedings. Approved, March 3, 1933.

(S. 1580]

AN ACT

To relieve the existing national emergency in relation to interstate railroad transportation, and to amend sections 5, 15a, and 19a of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "Emergency Railroad Transportation Act, 1933."

TITLE I-EMERGENCY POWERS

SECTION 1. As used in this title

(a) The term "Commission" means the Interstate Commerce Commission.

(b) The term "Coordinator" means the Federal Coordinator of Transportation hereinafter provided for.

(c) The term "committee” means any one of the regional coordinating committees hereinafter provided for.

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(d) The term carrier means any common carrier by railroad subject to the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, including any receiver or trustee thereof.

(e) The term "subsidiary" means any company which is directly or indirectly controlled by, or affiliated with, any carrier or carriers. For the purpose of the foregoing definition a company shall be deemed to be affiliated with a carrier if so affiliated within the meaning of paragraph (8) of section 5 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended by this Act.

(f) The term "employee" includes every person in the service of a carrier (subject to its continuing authority to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of his service) who performs any work defined as that of an employee or subordinate official in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act.

(g) The term "State commission " means the commission, board, or official, by whatever name designated, exercising power to regulate the rates or service of common carriers by railroad under the laws of any State.

SEC. 2. In order to foster and protect interstate commerce in relation to railroad transportation by preventing and relieving obstructions and burdens thereon resulting from the present acute economic emergency, and in order to safeguard and maintain an adequate national system of transportation, there is hereby created the office of Federal Coordinator of Transportation, who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or be designated by the President from the membership of the Commission. If so designated, the Coordinator shall be relieved from other duties as Commissioner during his term of service to such extent as the President may direct; except that the Coordinator shall not sit as a

member of the Commission in any proceedings for the review or suspension of any order issued by him as Coordinator. The Coordinator shall have such powers and duties as are hereinafter set forth and prescribed, and may, with the approval of the President, and without regard to the civil service laws and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, appoint and fix the compensation of such assistants and agents, in addition to the assistance provided by the Commission, as may be necessary to the performance of his duties under this Act. The office of the Coordinator shall be in Washington, District of Columbia, and the Commission shall provide such office space, facilities, and assistance as he may request and it is able to furnish. The Coordinator shall receive such compensation as the President shall fix, except that if designated from the Commission, he shall receive no compensation in addition to that which he receives as a member of the Commission.

SEC. 3. The Coordinator shall divide the lines of the carriers into three groups, to wit, an eastern group, a southern group, and a western group, and may from time to time make such changes or subdivisions in such groups as he may deem to be necessary or desirable. At the earliest practicable date after the Coordinator shall have initially designated such groups, three regional coordinating committees shall be created, one for each group, and each committee shall consist of five regular members and two special members. The carriers in each group, acting each through its board of directors or its receiver or receivers or trustee or trustees or through an officer or officers designated for the purpose by such board, shall select the regular members of the committee representing that group, and shall prescribe the rules under which such committee shall operate; but no railroad system shall have more than one representative on any such committee. In such selection each carrier shall have a vote in proportion to its mileage lying within the group. The two special members of each committee shall be selected in such manner as the Coordinator may approve, one to represent the steam railroads within the group which had in 1932 railway operating revenues of less than $1,000,000 and the other to represent electric railways within the group not owned by a steam railroad or operated as a part of a general steam railroad system of transportation. Each such special member shall have reasonable notice of all meetings of his committee at which any matter affecting any carrier which he represents is to be considered, and may participate in the consideration and disposition of such matter. Members of the committees may be removed from office and vacancies may be filled in like manner.

SEC. 4. The purposes of this title are (1) to encourage and promote or require action on the part of the carriers and of subsidiaries subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, which will (a) avoid unnecessary duplication of services and facilities of whatsoever nature and permit the joint use of terminals and trackage incident thereto or requisite to such joint use: Provided, That no routes now existing shall be eliminated except with the consent of all participating lines or upon order of the Coordinator, (b) control allowances, accessorial services and the charges therefor, and other practices affecting service or operation, to the end that undue

impairment of net earnings may be prevented, and (c) avoid other wastes and preventable expense; (2) to promote financial reorganization of the carriers, with due regard to legal rights, so as to reduce fixed charges to the extent required by the public interest and improve carrier credit; and (3) to provide for the immediate study of other means of improving conditions surrounding transportation in all its forms and the preparation of plans therefor.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of the committees on their own initiative, severally within each group and jointly where more than one group is affected, to carry out the purposes set forth in subdivision (1) of section 4, so far as such action can be voluntarily accomplished by the carriers. In such instances as the committees are unable, for any reason, legal or otherwise, to carry out such purposes by such voluntary action, they shall recommend to the Coordinator that he give appropriate directions to the carriers or subsidiaries subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, by order; and the Coordinator is hereby authorized and directed to issue and enforce such orders if he finds them to be consistent with the public interest and in furtherance of the purposes of this title. SEC. 6. (a) The Coordinator shall confer freely with the committees and give them the benefit of his advice and assistance. At his request, the committees, the carriers, the subsidiaries, and the Commission shall furnish him, or his assistants and agents, such information and reports as he may desire in investigating any matter within the scope of his duties under this title; and the Coordinator, his assistants, and agents, and the Commission, shall at all times have access to all accounts, records, and memoranda of the carriers and subsidiaries. If, in any instance, a committee has not acted with respect to any matter which the Coordinator has brought to its attention and upon which he is of the opinion that it should have acted, under the provisions of section 5, he is hereby authorized and directed to issue and enforce such order, giving appropriate directions to the carriers and subsidiaries subject to the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, with respect to such matter, as he shall find to be consistent with the public interest.

(b) Insofar as may be necessary for the purposes of this title, the Commission and the members and examiners thereof shall have the same power to administer oaths and require by subpena the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of books, papers, tariffs, contracts, agreements, and documents and to take testimony by deposition, relating to any matter under investigation, as though such matter arose under the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended and supplemented; and any person subpenaed or testifying in connection with any matter under investigation under this title shall have the same rights, privileges, and immunities and be subject to the same duties, liabilities, and penalties as are provided in the case of persons subpenaed or testifying in connection with any matter under investigation under the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended.

SEC. 7. (a) A labor committee for each regional group of carriers may be selected by those railroad labor organizations which, as representatives duly designated and authorized to act in accordance with the requirements of the Railway Labor Act, entered into

the agreements of January 31, 1932, and December 21, 1932, with duly authorized representatives of the carriers, determining the wage payments of the employees of the carriers. A similar labor committee for each regional group of carriers may be selected by such other railroad labor organizations as may be duly designated and authorized to represent employees in accordance with the requirements of the Railway Labor Act. It shall be the duty of the regional coordinating committees and the Coordinator to give reasonable notice to, and to confer with, the appropriate regional labor committee or committees upon the subject matter prior to taking any action or issuing any order which will affect the interest of the employees, and to afford the said labor committee or committees reasonable opportunity to present views upon said contemplated action or order.

(b) The number of employees in the service of a carrier shall not be reduced by reason of any action taken pursuant to the authority of this title below the number as shown by the pay rolls of employees in service during the month of May, 1933, after deducting the number who have been removed from the pay rolls after the effective date of this Act by reason of death, normal retirements, or resignation, but not more in any one year than 5 per centum of said number in service during May, 1933; nor shall any employee in such service be deprived of employment such as he had during said month of May or be in a worse position with respect to his compensation for such employment, by reason of any action taken pursuant to the authority conferred by this title.

(c) The Coordinator is authorized and directed to establish regional boards of adjustment whenever and wherever action taken pursuant to the authority conferred by this title creates conditions that make necessary such boards of adjustment to settle controversies between carriers and employees. Carriers and their employees shall have equal representation on such boards of adjustment for settlement of such controversies, and said boards shall exercise the functions of boards of adjustment provided for by the Railway Labor Act.

(d) The Coordinator is authorized and directed to provide means for determining the amount of, and to require the carriers to make just compensation for, property losses and expenses imposed upon employees by reason of transfers of work from one locality to another in carrying out the purposes of this title.

(e) Carriers, whether under control of a judge, trustee, receiver, or private management, shall be required to comply with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act and with the provisions of section 77, paragraphs (o), (p), and (q), of the Act approved March 3, 1933, entitled "An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Act to establish uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States', approved July 1, 1898, and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto."

SEC. 8. Any order issued by the Coordinator pursuant to this title. shall be made public in such reasonable manner as he may determine and shall become effective as of such date, not less than twenty days from the date of such publication, as the Coordinator shall prescribe in the order; and such order shall remain in effect until it is vacated by him or suspended or set aside by the Commission