official seal, which shall be judicially noticed. Either of the members of the commission may administer oaths and affirmations and sign subpœnas. (Thus amended March 2, 1889.)

§ 18. Salaries of Commissioners; secretary how appointed; salary; offices and supplies; witness fees. That each commissioner shall receive an annual salary of seven thousand five hundred dollars, payable in the same manner as the judges of the courts of the United States. The commission shall appoint a secretary, who shall receive an annual salary of three thousand five hundred dollars, payable in like manner. The commission shall have authority to employ and fix the compensation of such other employes as it may find necessary to the proper performance of its duties. Until otherwise provided by law the commission may hire suitable offices for its use, and shall have authority to procure all necessary office supplies. Witnesses summoned before the commission shall be paid the same fees and mileage that are paid witnesses in the courts of the United States.

Expenses of the Commission - how paid. - All of the expenses of the commission, including all necessary expenses for transportation incurred by the commissioners or by their employes under their orders, in making any investigation, or upon official business in any other places than in the city of Washington, shall be allowed and paid on the presen tation of itemized vouchers therefor, approved by the chairman of the commission. (Thus amended March 2, 1889.)

§ 19. Principal office of the Commission - sessions of the Commission. That the principal office of the commission shall be in the city of Washington, where its general sessions shall he held; but whenever the convenience of the public or the parties may be promoted or delay or expense prevented thereby, the commission may hold special sessions in any part of the United States. It may, by one or more of the commissioners, prosecute any inquiry necessary to its duties, in any part of the United States, into any matter or question of fact pertaining to the business of any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act.

§ 20. Carriers subject to the act must render full annual reports to Commission; Commission may prescribe methods of keeping accounts. That the commission is hereby authorized to require annual reports from all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act, to fix the time and prescribe the manner in which such reports shall be made, and

to require from such carriers specific answers to all questions upon which the commission may need information. Such annual reports shall show in detail the amount of capital stock issued, the amounts paid therefor, and the manner of payment for the same; the dividends paid, the surplus fund, if any, and the number of stockholders; the funded and floating debts and the interest paid thereon; the cost and value of the carrier's property, franchises and equipments; the number of employes and the salaries paid each class, the amounts expended for improvements each year, how expended and the character of such improvements; the earnings and receipts from each branch of business and from all sources; the operating and other expenses; the balances of profit and loss; and a complete exhibit of the financial operations of the carrier each year, including an annual balance-sheet. Such report shall also contain such information in relation to rates or regulations concerning fares or freights, or agreements, arrangements or contracts with other common carriers, as the commission may require; and the said commission may, within its discretion, for the purpose of enabling it the better to carry out the purposes of this act, prescribe (if in the opinion of the commission it is practicable to prescribe such uniformity and methods of keeping accounts) a period of time within which all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act shall have, as near as may be, a uniform system of accounts, and the manner in which such accounts shall be kept.

§ 21. Annual reports of the Commission to Congress.That the commission shall, on or before the first day of December in each year, make a report, which shall be transmitted to congress, and copies of which shall be distributed as are the other reports transmitted to congress. This report shall contain such information and data collected by the commission as may be considered of value in the determination of questions connected with the regulation of commerce, together with such recommendations as to additional legislation relating thereto as the commission may deem necessary; and the names and compensation of the persons employed by said commission. (Thus amended March 2, 1889.)

§ 22. Persons and property that may be carried free or at reduced rates; mileage, excursion, or commutation passenger tickets; passes and free transportation to officers and employes of railroad companies; pending litigation not affected by act. - That nothing in this act shall prevent the carriage, storage or handling of property free or at reduced rates for the United States, state or municipal governments, or for charitable purposes, or to or from fairs and expositions for exhibition thereat. or the free carriage of destitute and homeless persons transported by charitable societies, and the necessary agents employed in such transportation, or the issuance of mileage, excursion or commutation passenger tickets; nothing in this act shall be construed to prohibit any common carrier from giving reduced rates to ministers of religion, or to municipal governments for the transportation of indigent persons, or to inmates of the National Homes or State Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and of Soldiers and Sailors' Orphan Homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge, under arrangement with the boards of managers of said homes; nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent railroads from giving free carriage to their own officers and employes, or to prevent the principal officers of any railroad company or companies from exchanging passes or tickets with other railroad companies for their officers and employes; and nothing in this act contained shall in any way abridge or alter the remedies now existing by common law or by statute, but the provisions of this act are in addition to such remedies: Provided, That no pending litigation shall in any way be affected by this act. (Thus amended March 2, 1889.)

Jurisdiction of United States courts to issue writs of peremptory mandamus commanding the movement of interstate traffic or the furnishing of cars or other transportation facilities.(New section.) That the circuit and district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction upon the relation of any person or persons, firm, or corporation, alleging such violation by a common carrier, of any of the provisions of theact to which this is a supplement and all acts amendatory thereof, as prevents the relator from having interstate traffic moved by said common carrier at the same rates as are charged, or upon terms or conditions as favorable as those given by said common carrier for like traffic under similar conditions to any other shipper, to issue a writ or writs of mandamus against said common carrier, commanding such common carrier to move and transport the traffic, or to furnish cars or other facilities for transportation for the party applying for the writ: Provided, that if any question of fact as to the proper compensation to the common carrier for the service to be enforced by the writ is raised by the pleadings, the writ of peremptory mandamus may issue, notwithstanding such question of fact is undetermined, upon such terms as to security, payment of money into the court, or otherwise, as the court may think proper, pending the determination of the question of fact: Provided, that the remedy hereby given by writ of mandamus shall be cumulative, and shall not be held to exclude or interfere with other remedies provided by this act or the act to which it is a supplement. (Added March 2, 1889.)

AN ACT to promote the safety of employes and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers engaged in interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and continuous brakes and their locomotives with drivingwheel brakes, and for other purposes.

Approved, March 2, 1893.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, "That from and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to use on its line any locomotive engine in moving interstate traffic not equipped with a power driving-wheel brake and appliances for operating the train-brake system, or to run any train in such traffic after said date that has not a sufficient number of cars in it so equipped with power or train brakes that the engineer on the locomotive drawing such train can control its speed without requiring brakemen to use the common hand brake for that purpose.

§ 2. That on and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any such common carrier to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of men going between the ends of the cars.

§ 3. That when any person, firm, company, or corporation engaged in interstate commerce by railroad shall have equipped a sufficient number of its cars so as to comply with the provisions of section one of this act, it may lawfully refuse to receive from connecting lines of road or shippers any cars not equipped sufficiently, in accordance with the first section of this act, with such power or train brakes as will work and readily interchange with the brakes in use on its own cars, as required by this act.

§ 4. That from and after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, until otherwise ordered by the Interstate Commerce Commission, it shall be unlawful for any railroad company to use any carin interstate commerce that is not provided with secure grab irons or handholds in the ends and sides of each car for greater security to men in coupling and uncoupling cars.

§ 5. That within ninety days from the passage of this act the American Railway Association is authorized hereby to designate to the Interstate Commerce Commission the standard height of drawbars for freight cars, measured perpendicular from the level of the tops of the rails to the centers of the drawbars, for each of the several gauges of railroad in use in the United States, and shall fix a maximum variation from such standard height to be allowed between the drawbars of empty and loaded cars. Upon their determination being certified to the Interstate Commerce Commission, said commission shall at once give notice of the standard fixed upon to all common carriers, owners, or lessees engaged in interstate commerce in the United States by such means as the commission may deem proper. But should said association fail to determine a standard as above provided, it shall be the duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission to do so, before July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and immediately to give notice thereof as aforesaid. And after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, no cars either loaded or unloaded, shall be used in interstate traffic which do not comply with the standard above provided for.

§ 6. Penalty for violation of the provisions of this act. That any such common carrier using any locomotive engine, running any train, or hauling or permitting to be hauled or used on its line any car in violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such violation, to be recovered in a suit or suits to be brought by the United States district attorney in the district court of the United States having jurisdiction in the locality where such violation shall have been committed, and it shall be the duty of such district attorney to bring such suits upon duly verified information being lodged with him of such violation having occurred. And it shall be duty of the Interstate Commerce Commission to lodge with the proper district attorneys information of any such violations as may come to its knowledge: Provided. That nothing in this act contained shall apply to trains composed of four-wheel cars or to locomotives used in hauling such trains.

§ 7. Power of Interstate Commerce Commission to extend time of carriers to comply with this act. - That the Interstate Commerce Commission may from time to time upon full hearing and for good cause extend the period within which any common carrier shall comply with the provisions of this act.

§ 8. Employes not deemed to assume risk of employment.- That any employe of any such common carrier who may be injured by any locomotive, car or train in use contrary to the provision of this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk thereby occasioned, although continuing in the employment of such carrier after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car or train had been brought to his knowledge.