[PUBLIC-No. 422-75TH CONGRESS]

[CHAPTER 11-3D SESSION]

[S. 2940]

AN ACT

To make confidential certain information furnished to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any statistical information furnished in confidence to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce by individuals, corporations, and firms shall be held to be confidential, and shall be used only for the statistical purposes for which it is supplied. The Director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce shall not permit anyone other than the sworn employees of the Bureau to examine such individual reports, nor shall he permit any statistics of domestic commerce to be published in such manner as to reveal the identity of the individual, corporation, or firm furnishing such data.

SEC. 2. Any employee of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce violating any of the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $1,000 or imprisoned not exceeding one year, or both.

Approved, January 27, 1938.

1

[H. R. 3141]

An Act To amend paragraph (11) of section 20 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 paragraph (11) of section 20 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"(11) That any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company subject to the provisions of this Act receiving property for transportation from a point in one State or Territory or the District of Columbia to a point in another State, Territory, District of Columbia, or from any point in the United States to a point in an adjacent foreign country shall issue a receipt or bill of lading therefor, and shall be liable to the lawful holder thereof for any loss, damage, or injury to such property caused by it or by any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company to which such property may be delivered or over whose line or lines such property may pass within the United States or within an adjacent foreign country when transported on a through bill of lading, and no contract, receipt, rule, regulation, or other limitation of any character whatsoever shall exempt such common carrier, railroad, or transportation company from the liability hereby imposed; and any such common carrier, railroad, or transportation company so receiving property for transportation from a point in one State, Territory, or the District of Columbia to a point in another State or Territory, or from a point in a State or Territory to a point in the District of Columbia, or from any point in the United States to a point in an adjacent foreign country, or for transportation wholly within a Territory, or any common carrier, railroad, or transportation company delivering said property so received and transported shall be liable to the lawful holder of said receipt or bill of lading or to any party entitled to recover thereon, whether such receipt or bill of lading has been issued or not, for the full actual loss, damage, or injury to such property caused by it or by any such common carrier, railroad, or transportation company to which such property may be delivered or over whose line or lines such property may pass within the United States or within an adjacent foreign country when transported on a through bill of lading, notwithstanding any limitation of liability or limitation of the amount of recovery or representation or agreement as to value in any such receipt or bill of lading, or in any contract, rule, regulation, or in any tariff filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission; and any such limitation, without respect to the manner or form in which it is sought to be made is hereby declared to be unlawful and void: Provided, That if the loss, damage, or injury occurs while the property is in the custody of a carrier by water the liability of such carrier shall be determined by and under the laws and regulations applicable to transportation by water, and

the liability of the initial or delivering carrier shall be the same as that of such carrier by water: Provided, however, That the provisions hereof respecting liability for full actual loss, damage, or injury, notwithstanding any limitation of liability or recovery or representation or agreement or release as to value, and declaring any such limitation to be unlawful and void, shall not apply, first, to baggage carried on passenger trains or boats, or trains or boats carrying passengers; second, to property, except ordinary livestock, received for transportation concerning which the carrier shall have been or shall hereafter be expressly authorized or required by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish and maintain rates dependent upon the value declared in writing by the shipper or agreed upon in writing as the released value of the property, in which case such declaration or agreement shall have no other effect than to limit liability and recovery to an amount not exceeding the value so declared or released, and shall not, so far as relates to values, be held to be a violation of section 10 of this Act to regulate commerce, as amended; and any tariff schedule which may be filed with the commission pursuant to such order shall contain specific reference thereto and may establish rates varying with the value so declared and agreed upon; and the commission is hereby empowered to make such order in cases where rates dependent upon and varying with declared or agreed values would, in its opinion, be just and reasonable under the circumstances and conditions surrounding the transportation. The term 'ordinary livestock' shall include all cattle, swine, sheep, goats, horses, and mules, except such as are chiefly valuable for breeding, racing, show purposes, or other special uses: Provided further, That nothing in this section shall deprive any holder of such receipt or bill of lading of any remedy or right of action which he has under the existing law: Provided further, That all actions brought under and by virtue of this paragraph against the delivering carrier shall be brought, and may be maintained, if in a district court of the United States, only in a district, and if in a State court, only in a State through or into which the defendant carrier operates a line of railroad: Provided further, That it shall be unlawful for any such receiving or delivering common carrier to provide by rule, contract, regulation, or otherwise a shorter period for the filing of claims than nine months, and for the institution of suits than two years, such period for institution of suits to be computed from the day when notice in writing is given by the carrier to the claimant that the carrier has disallowed the claim or any part or parts thereof specified in the notice: And provided further, That for the purposes of this paragraph and of paragraph (12) the delivering carrier shall be construed to be the carrier performing the line-haul service nearest to the point of destination and not a carrier performing merely a switching service at the point of destination: And provided further, That the liability imposed by this paragraph shall also apply in the case of property reconsigned or diverted in accordance with the applicable tariffs filed as in this Act provided."

Approved, April 23, 1930.

[S. 4481]

An Act Authorizing the exchange of certain real properties situated in Mobile, Alabama, between the Secretary of Commerce on behalf of the United States Government and the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company, by the appropriate conveyances containing certain conditions and reservations.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secre tary of Commerce is hereby authorized to convey by quitclaim deed to the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company, the Choctaw Point Lighthouse Reservation, Mobile County, Alabama, described by metes and bounds as follows:

A tract of land situated in the southeast corner of section 37, township 4 south, range 1 west, Saint Stephens meridian, Alabama, the northern boundary of which is four and eight hundred and forty-five one-thousandths chains true south of a point four chains north eighty-two degrees twelve minutes west true from the eastern end of the northern boundary of section 37. From the above-mentioned point on the northern boundary of the lighthouse tract, said northern boundary being a true east and west line, the northeast corner of the lighthouse tract is three and three hundred and eightyone one-thousandths chains true east. Beginning at the northeast corner of the tract marked by a wooden post set at the water's edge, the northern boundary extends true west seven chains to the north west corner marked by a one-inch gas pipe; thence true south eleven and three one-hundredths chains to the water's edge, also marked by a one-inch gas pipe; thence by meanders of shore line, north eighty-three degrees fifty-three minutes east, five and fifty-six onehundredths chains to a point by triangulation; thence north seven degrees nineteen minutes east, six and fifty-two one-hundredths chains, one chain of which is along sand beach and remainder along wooden retaining wall of south edge of pier; thence north ten degrees seven minutes east, one and fourteen one-hundredths chains across wharf to north edge at shore; thence north eight degrees forty-seven minutes east to a wooden stake at the northeast corner of the tract, containing six and sixty-seven one-hundredths acres, all as per survey of October 20-31, 1911, executed by R. M. Towson, of the United States General Land Office, approved December 5,

1911.

SEC. 2. The tract of land described in the foregoing section is to be given in exchange for, and dependent upon, the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company conveying to the United States, by warranty deed and such abstracts and certifications as may be necessary to convey a title acceptable to the Attorney General of the United States, the following property, consisting of a parcel of land and a pier one thousand and twenty feet long, described in puragraphs (a) and (b) of this section.

(a) A parcel of land embraced within the boundary of the abovementioned lighthouse reservation, the initial point of which is two hundred and twenty-seven and sixty-five hundredths feet south seven degrees forty-five minutes west from the northeast corner of the Choctaw Point Lighthouse Reservation and is at the intersection of the west bulkhead line of Mobile River and the center line of the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company's Pier Numbered 3. From the initial point of the parcel the boundary extends north seven degrees forty-five minutes east (true) along said west bulkhead line a distance of one hundred and fifteen feet to a point; thence to the left with angle of ninety degrees eighty feet to a point; thence to the left with an angle of ninety degrees and parallel to said west bulkhead line a distance of one hundred and ninety feet to a point; thence to the left with an angle of ninety degrees eighty feet to a point in said west bulkhead line; thence north seven degrees fortyfive minutes east along said west bulkhead line a distance of seventy-five feet to the point of beginning, containing three hundred and forty-eight thousandths acre.

(b) A pier of pile and timber construction, mentioned above and known as the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad Company Pier Numbered 3, extending south eighty-one degrees forty-eight minutes east true from shore, or from the line of bulkhead as it now exists, approximately one thousand and twenty feet long, with all tracks and improvements thereon.

SEC. 3. The said warranty deed shall contain the following provisions:

(a) No pier or wharf, exclusive of the present Pier Numbered 2, which shall remain in its present position and shall not be extended, shall be maintained closer than three hundred feet northward of Pier Numbered 3.

(b) No pier or wharf parallel to Pier Numbered 3 shall be built within three hundred feet southward of it, other than the pier which the said railroad company reserves the right to build and maintain, commencing on its shore end within two hundred feet of Pier Numbered 3 at the bulkhead, and extending in a straight line which would bring its outer end, or the prolongation of the line, four hundred feet southward of the end of Pier Numbered 3.

(c) The United States shall have free access at all times across the tracks of the said railroad company by the most convenient route to be determined by the Lighthouse Service and the said railroad company for pedestrians and vehicles, and the said railroad company shall provide a road therefor which will be shown on a map to be recorded in the office of the judge of probate of Mobile County, Alabama. No change shall be made in the route presently used and shown on said map without the consent of the Lighthouse Service.

(d) The said railroad company shall continue to maintain railroad switch-track privileges to Pier Numbered 3 as the needs of the Lighthouse Service reasonably require and so long as such Lighthouse Service continues.

(e) The said railroad company shall carry fire insurance for two years on Pier Numbered 3 in the sum of $30,000, payable to the United States Government, until July 31, 1931.