sion in the same manner as though originally commenced before the Commission, if such proceeding, hearing, or investigation (1) involves the administration of duties, powers, and functions. transferred to the Commission by this Act, or (2) involves the exercise of jurisdiction similar to that granted to the Commission under the provisions of this Act.

(c) All records transferred to the Commission under this Act shall be available for use by the Commission to the same extent as if such records were originally records of the Commission. All final valuations and determinations of depreciation charges by the Interstate Commerce Commission with respect to common carriers engaged in radio or wire communication, and all orders of the Interstate Commerce Commission with respect to such valuations and determinations, shall have the same force and effect as though made by the Commission under this Act.

(d) The provisions of this Act shall not affect suits commenced prior to the date of the organization of the Commission; and all such suits shall be continued, proceedings therein had, appeals therein taken and judgments therein rendered, in the same manner and with the same effect as if this Act had not been passed. No suit, action, or other proceeding lawfully commenced by or against any agency or officer of the United States, in relation to the discharge of official duties, shall abate by reason of any transfer of authority, power, and duties from such agency or officer to the Commission under the provisions of this Act, but the court, upon motion of supplemental petition filed at any time within twelve months after such transfer, showing the necessity for a survival of such suit, action, or other proceeding to obtain a settlement of the questions involved, may allow the same to be maintained by or against the Commission.

UNAUTHORIZED PUBLICATION OF COMMUNICATIONS

SEC. 605. No person receiving or assisting in receiving, or transmitting, or assisting in transmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof, except through authorized channels of transmission or reception, to any person other than the addressee, his agent, or attorney, or to a person employed or authorized to forward such communication to its destination, or to proper accounting or distributing officers of the various communicating centers over which the communication may be passed, or to the master of a ship under whom he is serving, or in response to a subpena issued by a court of competent jurisdiction, or on demand of other lawful authority; and no person not being authorized by the sender shall intercept any communication and divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of such intercepted communication to any person; and no person not being entitled thereto shall receive or assist in receiving any interstate or foreign communication by wire or radio and use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto; and no person having received such intercepted communication or having become acquainted with the contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, knowing

that such information was so obtained, shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning of the same or any part thereof, or use the same or any information therein contained for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled thereto: Provided, That this section shall not apply to the receiving, divulging, publishing, or utilizing the contents of any radio communication broadcast, or transmitted by amateurs or others for the use of the general public, or relating to ships in distress.

WAR EMERGENCY-POWERS OF THE PRESIDENT

SEC. 606. (a) During the continuance of a war in which the United States is engaged, the President is authorized, if he finds it necessary for the national defense and security, to direct that such communications as in his judgment may be essential to the national defense and security shall have preference or priority with any carrier subject to this Act. He may give these directions at and for such times as he may determine, and may modify, change, suspend, or annul them and for any such purpose he is hereby authorized to issue orders directly, or through such person or persons as he designates for the purpose, or through the Commission. Any carrier complying with any such order or direction for preference or priority herein authorized shall be exempt from any and all provisions in existing law imposing civil or criminal penalties, obligations, or liabilities upon carriers by reason of giving preference or priority in compliance with such order or direction.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person during any war in which the United States is engaged to knowingly or willfully, by physical force or intimidation by threats of physical force, obstruct or retard or aid in obstructing or retarding interstate or foreign communication by radio or wire. The President is hereby authorized, whenever in his judgment the public interest requires, to employ the armed forces of the United States to prevent any such obstruction or retardation of communication: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to repeal, modify, or effect either section 6 or section 20 of an Act entitled "An Act to supplement existing laws against unlawful restraints and monopolies, and for other purposes", approved October 15, 1914.

(c) Upon proclamation by the President that there exists war or a threat of war or a state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency, or in order to preserve the neutrality of the United States, the Pesident may suspend or amend, for such time as he may see fit, the rules and regulations applicable to any or all stations within the jurisdiction of the United States as prescribed by the Commission, and may cause the closing of any station for radio communication and the removal therefrom of its apparatus and equipment, or he may authorize the use or control of any such station and/or its apparatus and equipment by any department of the Government under such regulations as he may prescribe, upon just compensation to the owners.

(d) The President shall ascertain the just compensation for such se or control and certify the amount ascertained to Congress for appropriation and payment to the person entitled thereto. If the amount so certified is unsatisfactory to the person entitled thereto,

such person shall be paid only 75 per centum of the amount and shall be entitled to sue the United States to recover such further sum as added to such payment of 75 per centum will make such amount as will be just compensation for the use and control. Such suit shall be brought in the manner provided by paragraph 20 of section 24, or by section 145, of the Judicial Code, as amended.

EFFECTIVE DATE OF ACT

SEC. 607. This Act shall take effect upon the organization of the Commission, except that this section and sections 1 and 4 shall take effect July 1, 1934. The Commission shall be deemed to be organized upon such date as four members of the Commission have taken office.

SEPARABILITY CLAUSE

SEC. 608. If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

SHORT TITLE

SEC. 609. This Act may be cited as the "Communications Act of 1934."

Approved, June 19, 1934.

and

ther

ke

[PUBLIC RESOLUTION-No. 8-74TH CONGRESS]

[S. J. Res. 46]

JOINT RESOLUTION

Authorizing and directing the Federal Communications Commission to investigate and report on the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and on all other companies engaged directly or indirectly in telephone communication in interstate commerce, including all companies related to any of these companies through a holding company structure, or otherwise.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it is necessary, in aid of legislation by the Congress and for the use of governmental agencies, including State regulatory commissions, for the information of the general public, as an aid in providing more effective rate regulation, and for other purposes in the public interest, that accurate and comprehensive information be procured and compiled regarding the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and other telephone companies.

SEC. 2. The Federal Communications Commission is hereby authorized and directed to investigate and report to the Congress on the following matters with respect to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and all other companies engaged directly or indirectly in telephone communication in interstate commerce, including all of their subsidiary, affiliated, associated, and holding companies, and any other companies in which any of them have any direct or indirect financial interest, or which have any such interest in them,, or in which any of their officers or directors hold any office or exert any control, or whose officers or directors hold any office or exert any

control in them

(a) The corporate and financial history, and the capital structure and the relationship of such company and of its subsidiary, affiliated, associated, and holding companies, including the determination of whether or not such structure may enable them to evade State or Federal regulation or taxation, or to conceal, pyramid, or absorb profits, or to do any other act contrary to the public interest.

(b) The extent and character of intercompany service contracts and all transactions between the telephone companies and their subsidiaries, affiliated, associated, or holding companies, and particularly between the American Telephone and Telegraph Company and the Western Electric Company and other manufacturers of electrical communication equipment; the methods of publishing telephone directories and placing and charging for advertising therein; the cost of and sale prices of telephone equipment, material, or devices to telephone operating companies or users; the profits upon such sales and the effect of such sales upon the rates or upon the rate base of operating companies when used as a basis for telephone charges in the various States or in interstate commerce; and the probable savings to telephone operating companies and the public by purchasing equipment under a system of competitive bidding.

92563-52

(c) The reasons for the failure generally to reduce telephone rates and charges during the years of declining prices; and the extent, if any, to which local subscribers or the users of toll service have borne the cost of the research developments for telephone equipment and appliances, radio, motion picture, and other inventions, including the maintenance and support of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated.

(d) The effect of monopolistic control upon the reasonableness of telephone rates and charges, upon the methods of competition with independent telephone companies, and upon the character of services rendered, and the alleged unfair or discriminatory practices with respect to such companies, and with respect to radio broadcasting or public speaker "hook-ups."

(e) The effect of mergers, consolidations, and acquisitions of control by telephone companies, including the determination of whether there has been any "write-up" in the purchase price of property, equipment or intangibles, the fairness of the terms and conditions of any merger, consolidation, or acquisition, and the public interest therein, and the effect thereof upon rates or service.

(f) The accounting methods of the companies, particularly with reference to depreciation accounting, apportionment of investment, revenues and expenses between State and interstate operations, employee pension funds, and valuation of properties for both rate and tax purposes.

(g) The methods of competition with other companies or industries, including the determination of whether or not there has been any sale or refusal to buy from or sell to competing companies, or suppression of patents, and the expansion of the companies into fields other than telephone communication, including teletype service, telephoto service, telegraph service, broadcasting, motion and sound picture production and distribution, and the manufacture of electrical equipment, so far as such expansion may relate to or affect communications.

(h) Whether or not the companies have sought through propaganda or the expenditure of money or the control of channels of publicity to influence or control public opinion, legislative or administrative action, or elections.

SEC. 3. As used in the resolution the term 66 "shall company include all subsidiary, affiliated, associated, and holding companies or corporations and all companies directly or indirectly associated or connected with telephone companies, either by direct or indirect stock ownership, interlocking directorates, voting trusts, holding or investment companies, or any other direct or indirect means.

SEC. 4. The inquiry into certain practices of telephone carriers subject to the Communications Act of 1934, recently instituted by the Federal Communications Commission pursuant to its Telephone Division Order Numbered 11 and Statement of November 14, 1934, may be consolidated with the investigation required by this joint resolution in the manner and to the extent deemed desirable by the Commission.

SEC. 5. For the purposes of this resolution the Federal Communications Commission is hereby authorized to hold hearings; to contract for stenographic reporting service; to utilize its regular personnel, facilities, jurisdiction, and powers insofar as practicable;