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 l'ability 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 giving notice of claims than ninety days, for the filing of claims than four 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: Provided, however, That if the loss, damage, or injury complained of was due to carelessness or negligence while the property was in transit, or while the property was being loaded or unloaded, or was due to unreasonable delay in transit or in loading or unloading, then no notice of claim or filing of claim shall be required as a condition precedent to recovery, but in no case under this proviso shall suit be instituted after three years from the time such cause of action accrued: 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.

"(12) That the common carrier, railroad, or transportation company issuing such receipt or bill of lading, or delivering such property so received and transported, shall be entitled to recover from the common carrier, railroad, or transportation company on whose line the loss, damage, or injury shall have been sustained,

the amount of such loss, damage, or injury as it may be required to pay to the owners of such property, as may be evidenced by any receipt, judgment, or transcript thereof."

SEC. 4. Section 204 of the Transportation Act, 1920, is amended by adding at the end thereof a new subdivision to read as follows: "(h) This section shall not be applicable to any carrier which has not, on or before the expiration of sixty days after this subdivision takes effect, filed with the commission a statement, compiled substantially in the manner prescribed in this section, showing the amount claimed to be due such carrier under this section."

SEC. 5. Section 206 of the Transportation Act, 1920, as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof a new subdivision to read as follows:

"(j) All actions at law and claims by or on behalf of the United States for the recovery of any charges, or any part thereof, for services rendered during the period of Federal control by any railroad or system of transportation possessed, used, or operated by the President (under the provisions of the Federal Control Act, or the Act of August 29, 1916) shall be begun or made before the expiration of ninety days after this subdivision takes effect, and not after."

SEC. 6. Section 22 of the Act entitled "An Act relating to bills of lading in interstate and foreign commerce," approved August 29, 1916, is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 22. That if a bill of lading has been issued by a carrier or on his behalf by an agent or employee the scope of whose actual or apparent authority includes the receiving of goods and issuing bills of lading there for for transportation in commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, the carrier shall be liable to (a) the owner of goods covered by a straight bill subject to existing right of stoppage in transitu or (b) the holder of an order bill, who has given value in good faith, relying upon the description therein of the goods, or upon the shipment being made upon the date therein shown, for damages caused by the nonreceipt by the carrier of all or part of the goods upon or prior to the date therein shown, or their failure to correspond with the description thereof in the bill at the time of its issue."

Approved, March 4, 1927.

[PUBLIC-No. 601-70TH CONGRESS]

(H. R. 13512]

An Act To amend the Act entitled "An Act to create the Inland Waterways Corporation for the purpose of carrying out the mandate and purpose of Congress, as expressed in sections 201 and 500 of the Transportation Act, and for other purposes," approved June 3, 1924.

Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 2 of the Act entitled "An Act to create the Inland Waterways Corporation for the purpose of carrying out the mandate and purpose of Congress, as expressed in sections 201 and 500 of the Transportation Act, and for other purposes," approved June 3, 1924 (paragraph 152, chapter 5, title 49, Code of Laws of the United States; chapter 243, volume 43, page 360, United States Statutes at Large), be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "SEC. 2. The capital stock of the corporation shall be $15,000,000, all of which is hereby subscribed for by the United States. Such subscription shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury, within the appropriations therefor, upon call from time to time by the Secretary of War. Upon any such payment a receipt therefor shall be issued by the corporation to the United States, and delivered to the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall be evidence of the stock ownership of the United States. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $10,000,000, in addition to the $5,000,000 heretofore authorized, for the purpose of paying such subscription."

SEC. 2. That section 3 of said Act be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 3. (a) Until otherwise directed by Congress, the corporation shall continue the operation of the transportation and terminal facilities now being operated by or under the direction of the Secretary of War under section 201 of the Transportation Act, 1920, as amended, and shall continue to operate the facilities now being operated or that may hereafter be operated by it under the provisions of this Act; and shall, as soon as there is an improved channe! sufficient to permit the same, initiate and continue the water carriage heretofore authorized by law upon the Mississippi River above Saint Louis.

"(b) When the improvement of any tributary or connecting waterway of the Mississippi River, not including the Ohio River, shall have been completed or advanced to the point where within two years thereafter there will have been substantially completed a sufficient and dependable channel for the safe operation of suitable barges and towboats thereon; and when the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army shall certify that fact to the Secretary of War, the Secretary of War shall thereupon cause a survey of such tributary or connecting waterway to be made for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of traffic, the terminal facilities, and the through routes and joint tariff arrangements with connecting carriers, that are or will, within such years, probably be available on such tributary

or connecting waterway. As soon thereafter as such survey shall have been completed and a sufficient and dependable channel for the safe operation of suitable barges and towboats shall have been substantially completed, the Secretary of War may, if he finds from such survey that water transportation can, in the public interest, be successfully operated on such tributary or connecting waterway, extend the service of the Inland Waterways Corporation thereon as soon as the corporation shall have suitable facilities available. therefor.

"(c) It is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to continue the transportation services of the corporation until (1) there shall have been completed in the rivers where the corporation operates, navigable channels, as authorized by Congress, adequate for reasonably dependable and regular transportation service thereon; (2) terminal facilities shall have been provided on such rivers reasonably adequate for joint rail and water service; (3) there shall have been published and filed under the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, such joint tariffs with rail carriers as shall make generally available the privileges of joint rail and water transportation upon terms reasonably fair to both rail and water carriers; and (4) private persons, companies, or corporations engage, or are ready and willing to engage, in common-carrier service on such rivers.

"(d) When the Secretary of War shall find that navigable channels and adequate terminals are substantially available as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, and when the Interstate Commerce Commission shall report to the Secretary of War that joint tariffs with rail carriers have been published and filed as provided in said paragraph, the Secretary of War is hereby authorized to lease for operation under private management, or to sell to private persons, companies, or corporations, the transportation facilities, or any "nit thereof, belonging to the corporation: Provided, That for the purpose of this paragraph the facilities of the corporation on the Mississippi River and its tributaries shall be considered one unit, and those on the Warrior River and its tributaries as one unit: Provided further, That the facilities of the corporation shall not be sold or leased (1) to any carrier by rail or to any person or company directly or indirectly connected with any carrier by rail; or (2) to any person, company, or corporation who shall not give satisfactory assurance and agree, as part of the consideration for such sale or lease, that the facilities so sold or leased will be continued in the common-carrier service in a manner substantially similar to the service rendered by the corporation, together with ample security by bond or otherwise to insure the faithful performance of such agreement; or (3) until the same has been appraised and the fair value thereof ascertained and reported to the President by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the sale or lease thereof has been approved by the President.

"(e) Any person, firm, or corporation, including the Inland Waterways Corporation, engaged or about to engage in conducting a common-carrier service upon the Warrior River or the Mississippi River, or any tributaries thereof, may apply to the Interstate Commerce Commission and obtain a certificate of public convenience and necessity in accordance with the provisions of section 1 of the

Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, and the Interstate Commerce Commission shall thereupon, by order, direct all connecting common carriers and their connections to join with such water carrier in through routes and joint rates with reasonable rules, regulations, and practices, as provided in paragraph 3) of section 15 of the Interstate Commerce Act, as amended, and the commission shall, in such order, fix reasonable minimum differentials between all rail rates and joint rates in connection with said water service to apply until changed by order of the commission. Such joint routes, rates, rules, regulations, and practices may be changed by order of the commission or by agreement of the water carriers and the other participating carriers. The commission shall further require the interested common carriers to enter into negotiations for the purpose of establishing equitable divisions of the aforesaid joint differential rates within thirty days after such joint rates are established, and if the carriers are unable to agree upon equitable divisions within one hundred and twenty days from date of publication the commission shall, by order, determine and establish reasonable divisions to become effective coincident with the effective date of the joint rates. The commission is hereby given authority upon 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 (1) the reasonableness or lawfulness of any through route or joint rate filed pursuant to such order of the commission, or (2) the reasonableness of any minimum differentials between all rail rates and joint rates in connection with any water service; or (3) the reasonableness of any division of joint rates ordered by the commission under the provisions of this Act; and after full hearings the commission may make such order with reference to any such matters as it may find to be proper and in the public interest. At any such hearing the burden of proof concerning the unreasonableness or unlawfulness of any through route, joint rate, minimum differentials between all rail rate and joint rate in connection with water service, or division of joint rates shall be upon the carrier or carriers making the complaint; and the commission shall give the hearing and decision of such questions preference over all other questions pending before it, except such questions as are given like preference by law, and decide the same as speedily as possible: Provided, That if the Inland Waterways Corporation sells or leases its transportation facilities to any person. firm, or corporation to be operated as a common carrier, such person, firm, or corporation shall be entitled to a certificate of public convenience and necessity upon making application therefor; and all through traffic arrangements and joint tariffs with rules, regulations, and practices in connection therewith published by the Inland Waterways Corporation and filed with the Interstate Commerce Commission and participated in by other carriers shall remain in full force and effect between such carriers and the person, firm, or corporation purchasing or leasing such transportation facilities from the Inland Waterways Corporation and operating the same as common carriers until changed by order of the commission, except that such through-traffic arrangements and joint tariffs, with rules, regulations, and practices therewith, may be changed by mutual consent of the water carrier