VI. Bureau of Traffic.-Director of Traffic.

This bureau deals primarily with the charges for transportation and transmission, including rules and regulations affecting those charges. In it are centered most of activities of an administrative character dealing with such matters, and in addition the bureau acts in an advisory capacity in many formal cases, especially those involving general policies or large amounts of revOne of its important functions is to assist in bringing about more uniform and comprehensive rate adjustments designed to facilitate the free flow of commerce on a stable and reasonable rate basis, thus eventually minimizing complaints.

VII. Bureau of Law.-Chief Counsel.

The Bureau of Law represents the commission in all court proceedings in which the commission is a party. It also prepares briefs and memoranda on questions of law when required by the commission, and supervises and co-ordinates attorneys employed in the various bureaus.

VIII. Bureau of Inquiry.-Chief of Bureau and Attorney.

This bureau has cognizance of apparent violations of the laws within the purview of the Interstate Commerce Commission. It maintains a staff of agents in field work and attorneys to analyze evidence thus obtained."

IX. Bureau of Locomotive Inspection.-Chief Inspector.

This bureau is charged with administration of the Boiler Inspection
Act.63

X. Bureau of Safety.-Director.

The Bureau of Safety has jurisdiction in matters relating to safety, except as to locomotive inspection and transportation of dangerous articles.

XI. Bureau of Signals and Train Control Devices.-Director.

Engineers of this bureau examine plans of automatic trainstop and train-control devices, and prescribes specifications thereof embodying the commission's requirements.

XII. Bureau of Service.-Director.

The bureau keeps in touch with operating and transportation conditions and requirements of shippers, as well as with the Car Service Division of the American Railway Association and the carriers. The bureau takes cognizance of proper distribution of empty cars. It also has jurisdiction over transportation of explosives and other dangerous articles.64

XIII. Bureau of Finance.-Director.

(1) Administrative Section.-Assistant Director.

63 Act Feb. 17, 1911 (36 Stat. 913), as amended by Act March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. 1192 [Comp. St. §§ 8639a-8639dp).

64 Act March 4, 1909 (35 Stat. 1134) and Act March 4, 1921 (41 Stat. 1444 [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923, §§ 10402–10406]).

(2) Section of Securities.-Section Chief. Matters relating to issuance of securities or assumption of obligations by carriers.

(3) Section of Loans.-Section Chief.

(4) Section of Convenience and Necessity.-Section Chief. Issuance of certificates of public convenience and necessity for abandonment, acquisition, or construction of line; the retention of excess earnings from newly constructed line; the acquisition of control by one carrier of another; and the consolidation of telephone companies.

(5) Section of Interlocking Directorates.-Section Chief.

(6) Accounting and Statistics Sections.-Assistant Director. XIV. Bureau of Accounts.-Director.

This bureau, with its field force of examiners, is charged with execution of section 20 of the act authorizing the commission to prescribe a uniform accounting system for carriers.

XV. Bureau of Statistics.-Director.

(1) Administrative Section.

(2) Annual Reports Section.-Receives and examines annual reports from corporations subject to the act.

(3) Operating Returns Section.-Prepares monthly statements of operating statistics of transportation and telephone companies.

(4) Wage Statistics Section.

(5) Accident Statistics Section.

(6) Mechanical Tabulation Section.

XVI. Bureau of Valuation.-Director.

To effect a valuation and keep same up to date under the Valuation Act,65 this bureau has been made permanent. There are three sections under, respectively, a Supervisor of Engineering, Supervisor of Land Appraisals, and Supervisor of Accounts. Experts in these sections prepare the underlying valuation reports which are submitted to the Tentative Valuation Committee (Director of Bureau as Chairman, Solicitor, and a staff of attorneys). This committee issues the tentative valuation reports, which, after the commission's approval, are submitted to the carriers for criticism before final publication.

14. Rules of Practice

I. Public Sessions and Hearings.-Public sessions of the commission or divisions thereof for hearing evidence or oral arguments or for public conferences, and hearings before examiners, will be held as set upon notice by the commission, subject to change upon such notice as may be practicable.

II. Parties. (a) The parties to proceedings before the commission are complainants, defendants, interveners, protestants, respondents, applicants, and petitioners, according to the nature of the proceeding and their relation thereto. Any party may appear and be heard in person or by attorney.

65 Act March 1, 1913 (37 Stat. 701 [Comp. St. § 8591]).

(b) In complaint cases the parties who complain to the commission of anything done or omitted to be done in violation of the provisions of the act to regulate commerce, as amended, otherwise known as the Interstate Commerce Act, and in these rules referred to as the act, by any common carrier subject to the act are those designated in section 13 thereof, and are styled complainants. The common carriers so complained of, and their receivers or operating trustees, if any, are styled defendants. Two or more complainants may join in one complaint if their respective causes of action are against the same defendant or defendants and involve substantially the same violation of the act and a like state of facts.

(c) If complaint is made in respect of through transportation by continuous carriage or shipment, all carriers subject to the act participating therein should be made defendants.

(d) If complaint is made of rates, fares, charges, regulations, or practices of more than one carrier, all carriers against which an order is sought should be made defendants.

(e) If complaint is made of a classification or any provision thereof, it will ordinarily suffice to make defendants the carriers operating one or more through routes between representative points of origin and destination.

(f) The receiver or trustee operating the line of a defendant must also be made defendant.

(g) In investigation proceedings the carriers designated therein are styled respondents.

(h) In investigation and suspension proceedings those upon whose protests the proceeding was instituted are styled protestants, and the carriers whose tariffs are under suspension are styled respondents. In valuation proceedings all parties given notice of a tentative valuation as provided in section 19a (h) of the act who shall have filed protest as therein provided are styled protestants.

(i) In applications for relief from or under any provisions of the act the carriers by whom or on whose behalf the application is made are styled applicants. (j) Others seeking relief are styled petitioners.

(k) Petitioners permitted to intervene as hereinafter provided are styled in

terveners.

(1) Anyone entitled under the act to complain to the commission, and in valuation cases any one having an interest therein, may petition for leave to intervene in any pending proceeding prior to or at the time it is called for hearing, but not after except for good cause shown. The petition shall set forth the grounds of the proposed intervention; the position and interest of the petitioner in the proceeding; and, if affirmative relief is sought, should conform to the requirements for a formal complaint. Leave will not be granted except on allegations reasonably pertinent to the issues already presented and which do not unduly broaden them. If leave is granted the petitioner thereby becomes an intervener and a party to the proceeding. When the petition is filed prior to the hearing the petitioner must furnish therewith a sufficient number of copies for service upon all parties to the proceeding and three additional copies for the use of the com

mission. When not filed prior to but tendered at the hearing sufficient copies must be provided for distribution as motion papers to the parties represented at the hearing. If leave be granted at the hearing sufficient copies must also be furnished for service and three additional copies for the use of the commission. It is desirable, especially where affirmative relief is sought, that the petition be filed in season to permit of service on the parties and to afford them an opportunity to answer before the hearing, thereby making it possible in some instances. to grant leave where otherwise it would be denied in fairness to the parties to the proceeding.

III. Complaints.—(a) Complaints may be either informal or formal.

(b) Informal complaints may be made by letter or other writing and as received are filed. Matters thus presented are, if their nature warrants it, taken up by correspondence with the carriers affected in an endeavor to bring about satisfaction of the complaint without formal hearing, and are given serial numbers on the informal docket. This informal procedure has been found efficacious in the great majority of cases and is recommended.

(c) No form of informal complaint is prescribed, but in substance the letter or other writing must contain the essential elements of a complaint, including name and address of the complainant, the names of the carrier or carriers against which complaint is made, a statement that the act has been violated by the carrier or carriers named, indicating when, where, and how, and a request for affirmative relief. It is desirable that the informal complaint be accompanied by copies in sufficient number to enable the commission to transmit one to each carrier named, and it may be accompanied by supporting papers. Proceedings thus instituted on the informal docket are without prejudice to complainant's right to file and prosecute formal complaint, whereupon the proceedings on the informal docket will be discontinued.

(d) Section 16 of the act, as amended by section 424 of the Transportation Act, 1920, provides that 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, unless the carrier, after the expiration of such two years or within 90 days before such expiration, begins an action for recovery of charges in respect of the same service, in which case such period of two years shall be extended to and including 90 days from the time such action by the carrier is begun. In either case the cause of action in respect of a shipment of property shall, for the purposes of said section 16, be deemed to accrue upon delivery or tender of delivery thereof by the carrier, and not after. Section 206, subdivision (f), of the Transportation Act, 1920, provides that the period of federal control shall not be computed as a part of the periods of limitation in claims for reparation to the commission for causes of action arising prior to federal control. The period of time within which complaints for recovery of damages shall be filed with the commission under these statutory provisions, and those cited in Appendix 1, page 593, post, will be referred to in these rules as the statutory period.

(e) A complaint for the recovery of damages may be informal, but must be filed within the statutory period, and, if informal, should contain, in addition to

the matters above indicated, such data as will serve to identify with reasonable definiteness the shipments or other transportation services in respect of which recovery is sought, the carriers participating, the kind and amount of injury sustained, when and by whom, and, if any recovery is sought on behalf of others than complainant, a statement of the capacity or authority in or by which complaint is made in their behalf. Notification to the commission that a complaint may or will be filed later for the recovery of damages is not a filing of complaint within the meaning of the statute.

(f) Carriers willing to pay damages for violations of the act should make application in the form prescribed by the commission for authority to pay. Such applications will be filed on the special docket under serial number, and, if granted, orders to that effect will be entered on the special docket. Such application, when not made upon informal complaint filed with the commission, must be filed within the statutory period and will be deemed the equivalent of an informal complaint and an answer thereto admitting the matters stated in the application. If a carrier is unable to file such application within the statutory period and the claim is not already protected from the operation of the statute by informal complaint, a statement setting forth the facts may be filed by the carrier within the statutory period. Such statement will be deemed the equivalent of an informal complaint filed on behalf of the shipper and sufficient to stay the operation of the statute.

(g) If an informal complaint for recovery of damages can not be disposed of informally, or is denied on the informal docket, or is by complainant withdrawn from further consideration the parties affected will be so notified in writing by the commission. In any such case the matter will not be reconsidered unless, within six months after the date of mailing such notice to complainant, it is resubmitted on the informal docket or formal complaint is filed. If so filed the formal complaint will be deemed to relate back to the date of filing the informal complaint. If within said six months the matter is not so resubmitted or formal complaint filed, the complainant will be deemed to have abandoned the complaint and no complaint for recovery of damages based on the same cause of action will thereafter be placed on file or considered unless itself filed within the statutory period. (Conference ruling 508 rescinded.)

(h) Formal complaints must conform to the requirements of rule XXI. The names of all parties complainant and defendant must be stated in full without abbreviation, and the address of each complainant, with the name and address of his attorney, if any, must appear. Each formal complaint must be accompanied by copies in sufficient number to enable the commission to serve one upon each defendant and retain three for its own use. The commission will serve the complaint upon each defendant by leaving a copy with its designated agent in Washington, D. C., or, if no such agent has been designated, by posting a copy in the office of the secretary of the commission.

66 Illustrative of pertinent data are, in case of shipments, their dates, origins, destinations, consignors, and consignees, dates of delivery or tender of delivery, car numbers and initials, if in carloads, routes of movement, if known, commodities transported, weight, charges assessed, at what rate, when and by whom paid, and by whom borne.