investigation has been made, stating t together with its decision, order, or requ In case damages are awarded, the report of fact upon which such award has been may provide for publication of its repo form and manner as it may deem best ad tion and use. Thus practically every pl activities is reflected in published repor which are of value as works of investi in the more restricted field of interstate c tion and in the general field of econor The commission also conducts economic lems relating to its general field of acti request of Congress. The following inv the list given in the thirty-fifth annual the work of the commission in this field

Investigation pursuant to Senate Res tain the cost of railroad fuel for the yea the year 1919. April 4, 1921, report to t Existing rules, regulations, and pract by railroad as to the supply, exchange, of opentop equipment.

Alleged discriminations and preferen agents in the distribution of cars for sh state and foreign commerce.

Reasonableness of car distribution rules applicable to privately owned coal cars and cars for railroad fuel coal.

History financial operations, accounts, and practices of the Western Pacific Railway Co., The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Co., The Western Pacific Railroad Co., and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Co.

Practices of common carriers in leasing their facilities and other properties to shippers.

Rates, rules, regulations, and practices of carriers governing transportation of live stock, fresh meats, and packinghouse products.

Charges of common carrier subject to the interstate commerce act for wharfage, handling, storage and other accessorial services at south Atlantic and gulf ports.

Promotion of Safety of Employees, Passengers, and Property. As has been noted above, one of the commission's important functions is the administration and enforcement of the laws providing for the safety of passengers, employees, and property. The activities in this direction are as follows:

Investigation of accidents and safety appliances.

Regulation of transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles.

Enforcement of the Safety-Appliance Acts and Hours-of-Service Act.

Inspection of locomotives.

Administration of Medals-of-Honor-Act.

As in the case of the activities already discussed, these activities involve quasi-legislative and judicial as well as administrative processes. Thus, under the act governing the transportation of explosives the commission may formulate regulations which the law states "shall be binding upon all common carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce," while under the Safety Appliance Acts it may "after hearing and for good cause extend the time within which carriers must comply with the provisions of the law."

Investigation of Accidents and Safety Appliances. The act of May 6, 1910 (36 Stat. L., 350), requires the proper officer of every railroad engaged in interstate and foreign commerce to make monthly reports of railroad accidents to the commission, which is authorized to make investigation of "all collisions, derail

ments, or other accidents resulting in serious injury to persons or to the property of a railroad occurring on the line of any common carrier engaged in interstate or foreign commerce by railroad," and when it considers it to the public interest to make report of its findings, stating causes of the accident and making such recommendations as it may deem proper. During the year ended June 30, 1921, ninety-seven train accidents were investigated, of which sixtytwo were collisions and thirty-five were derailments, resulting in the death of 271 persons and the injury of 1367. Reports upon such accidents are summarized and published quarterly.

By virtue of a provision in the act of October 22, 1913 (38 Stat. L., 212), the commission is enabled to investigate and report in regard to the use and necessity for block-signal systems and appliances for the automatic control of trains and any appliances or systems intended to promote the safety of operation, including experimental tests of such systems and appliances as shall be furnished in completed shape, to the commission for investigation and test, free of cost to the government. In 1920 tests were made of an automatic train-control device, a train-signal system, and an automatic train-pipe connector, and the results published. In 1921 plans of 135 devices were examined and opinions thereon transmitted to the proprietors.

The Transportation Act, 1920 added Section 26 to the Interstate Commerce Act, providing that the commission may

after investigation, order any carrier. by railroad subject to this act, within a time specified in the order, to install automatic trainstop or train-control devices or other safety devices, which comply with specifications and requirements prescribed by the commission, upon the whole or any part of its railroad, such order to be issued and published at least two years before the date specified for its fulfillment.

The commission has invited the coöperation of the American Railway Association in the administration of this section. A joint committee of twenty members on automatic train control has been appointed by the association, consisting of an equal number of representatives from its operating, engineering, and mechanical divisions and signal section. Observations were begun jointly in May, 1921, by the Bureau of Safety and the above committee of

the operation of three automatic train-control devices of the "intermittent electric contact type" already installed, and arrangements were made for experimental installation and test of two devices of the "magnetic-induction type" and for installation of a wireless train-control device for purposes of experiment and develop

ment.

Regulation of Transportation of Explosives. The act of March 4, 1909 (35 Stat. L., 1134), directs the commission to formulate regulations for the safe transportation of explosives. These regulations may be changed or modified upon application made by any interested party or upon the commission's own motion as new information or altered conditions make necessary. In its annual report for 1920 the commission noted the beneficent effect of the enforcement of the safety regulations. In spite of the large volume of explosives moved in the year 1918, only two persons were injured and the property damage was about $33,000, whereas in the year 1907, which immediately preceded the enactment of the law, there were seventy-nine accidents resulting in fifty-two deaths, eighty injuries, and a property loss of nearly $500,000.

At the recommendation of the commission, the act of March 4, 1921 (41 Stat. L., 1444), was enacted which not only modified the provisions of the law of 1909 in various particulars but extended the jurisdiction of the law to cover transportation of dangerous articles other than explosives by land and the transportation of both these classes of articles by water. The commission is now engaged in the work of investigation and experimental study which must precede the formulation and publication of regulations concerning water carriers.

Enforcement of Safety Appliance Acts and Hours-of-Service Act. By the act of March 2, 1893 (27 Stat. L., 531), as amended by the act of April 1, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 85), it is made unlawful for any railroad in interstate or foreign commerce to use any locomotive engine not equipped with a power driving wheel brake and appliances for operating the train-brake system; to run any train that has so many cars without power or train brakes that brakesmen must use the common hand brake to control the speed of the train; to haul or use any car in interstate traffic that is not equipped with automatic couplers, or which lacks grab-irons or handholds at the ends and sides of each car; or to use any car,

loaded or unloaded, which does not comply with the standard established by the act for drawbars for freight cars. It it made the duty of the commission to lodge with the proper district attorneys information of any discovered violations of the act, and it is empowered to extend the period within which any carrier must comply with the act after full hearing and for good cause. By the act of March 2, 1903 (32 Stat. L., 943), it was provided that not less than 50 per cent of the cars in a train must have their brakes used and operated by the engineer drawing such train, but the commission was given authority after full hearing to increase the minimum percentage of power or train brake cars to be used.

The act of April 14, 1910 (36 Stat. L., 298), as amended by the act of March 4, 1911 (36 Stat. L., 1397), made it unlawful after July, 1911, for any carrier subject to the provisions of the act to use any car unless equipped with secure sill steps and efficient hand-brakes, secure ladders and running boards if required, and secure handholds or grab-irons on their roofs at the tops of ladders. The commission was directed within six months after the passage of the act to designate the number, dimensions, location, and manner of application of these appliances and the grabirons and handholds mentioned in the act of March 2, 1893, and to give notice of the designations to the common carriers. Thereafter the standards of equipment were to be determined by this designation unless the commission should deem changes necessary "after full hearing and for good cause shown." The commission was empowered to extend the period within which carriers must equip cars actually in service upon the date of the passage of the act and to utilize all powers granted to it by the Interstate Commerce Act in enforcing the provisions of the act.

As illustrative of the volume of business imposed on the commission by these laws, during the fiscal year 1921, 345 cases of violation of safety-appliance laws, involving 1092 counts, were transmitted to United States attorneys for prosecution; cases involving 284 counts were confessed and eighty counts were dismissed; forty-nine counts were tried, resulting in judgment for the government as to forty-four counts and adversely to the government as to three counts. On July 1, 1921, “there were pending in the various district courts 337 cases, involving 1029 counts." The commission stated in its annual report for 1920 that full com