[PUBLIC LAW 850-77TH CONGRESS] [CHAPTER 836-2D SESSION] [H. R. 7370] AN ACT To further insure the protection of vessels in wartime by amending the Communications Act of 1934, as amended. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 606 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (U. S. C., 1940 edition, title 47, sec. 606; Public Law 413, Seventy-seventh Congress), is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "(h) During the continuance of the war in which the United States is now engaged and for a period ending not later than six months after the termination of such war or such earlier date as the Congress by concurrent resolution may designate "(1) section 201 (b) of the Act shall not be construed as permitting or requiring the furnishing of reports of the positions of ships by common carriers subject to provisions of this Act; such reports may be furnished by such common carriers only pursuant to such rules and regulations as may be promulgated by the Secretary of the Navy; "(2) section 306 shall not be construed to permit the transmission of communications or signals by a foreign ship when the same is within the jurisdiction of the United States except pursuant to such rules and regulations as may be promulgated by the Secretary of the Navy; "(3) Section 318 shall not be construed as preventing the emergency or temporary operation of the transmitting apparatus of radio stations for which licensed operators are required by international agreement or for safety purposes by any member of the armed forces of the United States, or upon aircraft by any person pursuant to direction of the military and naval authorities of the United States; "(4) section 321 (b) shall not be construed as establishing any priority for distress messages over military message traffic determined by the Secretary of the Navy to require priority in transmission in the effective prosecution of the war; "(5) intercommunication by radio stations in the mobile service as provided for in section 322 shall be conducted only in such manner and at such times as may be authorized by the Secretary of the Navy; "(6) nothing contained in part II of title III of the Act shall be construed as preventing the military and naval authorities of the United States from ordering the emergency movement of ships at such times and under such circumstances as they may deem necessary in the effective prosecution of the war." Approved, December 29, 1942. [PUBLIC LAW 4-78TH CONGRESS] [S. 158] AN ACT To amend the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, to permit consolidations and mergers of domestic telegraph carriers, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, is amended by adding at the end of Title II the following new section: "CONSOLIDATIONS AND MERGERS OF TELEGRAPH CARRIERS "SEC. 222. (a) As used in this section "(1) The term 'consolidation or merger' includes the legal consolidation or merger of two or more corporations, and the acquisition by a corporation through purchase, lease, or in any other manner, of the whole or any part of the property, securities, facilities, services, or business of any other corporation or corporations, or of the control thereof, in exchange for its own securities, or otherwise. "(2) The term 'domestic telegraph carrier' means any common carrier by wire or radio, the major portion of whose traffic and revenues is derived from domestic telegraph operations; and such term includes a corporation owning or controlling any such common carrier. "(3) The term 'international telegraph carrier' means any common carrier by wire or radio, the major portion of whose traffic and revenues is derived from international telegraph operations; and such term includes a corporation owning or controlling any such common carrier. "(4) The term 'consolidated or merged carrier' means any carrier by wire or radio which acquires or operates the properties and facilities unified and integrated by consolidation or merger. "(5) The term 'domestic telegraph operations' includes acceptance, transmission, reception, and delivery of record communications by wire or radio which either originate or terminate at points within the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Saint Pierre-Miquelon, Mexico, or Newfoundland and terminate or originate at points within the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Saint Pierre-Miquelon, Mexico, or Newfoundland, and includes acceptance, transmission, reception, or delivery performed within the continental United States between points of origin within and points of exit from, and between points of entry into and points of destination within, the continental United States with respect to record communications by wire or radio which either originate or terminate outside the continental United States Alaska, Canada, Saint Pierre-Miquelon, Mexico, and Newfoundland, and also includes the transmission within the continental United States of messages which both originate and terminate outside but transit through the continental United States: Provided, That nothing in this section shall prevent international telegraph carriers from accepting and delivering international telegraph messages in the cities which constitute gateways approved by the Commission as points of entrance into or exit from the continental United States, under regulations prescribed by the Commission, and the incidental transmission or reception of the same over its own or leased lines or circuits within the continental United States. "(6) The term 'international telegraph operations' includes acceptance, transmission, reception, and delivery of record communications by wire or radio which either originate or terminate at points outside the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Saint Pierre-Miquelon, Mexico, and Newfoundland, but does not include acceptance, transmission, reception, and delivery performed within the continental United States between points of origin within and points of exit from, and between points of entry into, and points of destination within, the continental United States with respect to such communications, or the transmission within the continental United States of messages which both originate and terminate outside but transit through the continental United States. "(7) The terms 'domestic telegraph properties' and 'domestic telegraph facilities' mean properties and facilities, respectively, used or to be used in domestic telegraph operations. "(8) The term 'employee' or 'employees' (i) shall include any individual who is absent from active service because of furlough, illness, or leave of absence, except that there shall be no obligation upon the consolidated or merged carrier to reemploy any employee who is absent because of furlough, except in accordance with the terms of his furlough, and (ii) shall not include any employee of any carrier which is a party to a consolidation or merger pursuant to this section to the extent that he is employed in any business which such carrier continues to operate independently of the consolidation or merger. "(9) The term 'representative' includes any individual or labor organization. (10) The term 'continental United States' means the several States and the District of Columbia. "(b) (1) It shall be lawful, upon application to and approval by the Commission as hereinafter provided, for any two or more domestic telegraph carriers to effect a consolidation or merger; and for any domestic telegraph carrier, as a part of any such consolidation or merger or thereafter, to acquire all or any part of the domestic telegraph properties, domestic telegraph facilities, or domestic telegraph operations of any carrier which is not primarily a telegraph carrier: Provided, That, except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, no domestic telegraph carrier shall effect a consolidation or merger with any international telegraph carrier, and no international telegraph carrier shall effect a consolidation or merger with any domestic telegraph carrier. (2) As a part of any such consolidation or merger, or thereafter upon application to and approval by the Commission as hereinafter provided, the consolidated or merged carrier may acquire all or any part of the domestic telegraph properties, domestic telegraph facilities, or domestic telegraph operations of any international telegraph carrier. "(c) (1) Whenever any consolidation or merger is proposed under subsection (b) of this section, the telegraph carrier or telegraph carriers seeking authority therefor shall submit an application to the Commission, and thereupon the Commission shall order a public hearing to be held with respect to such application and shall give reasonable notice thereof, in writing, and an opportunity to be heard, to the Governor of each of the States in which any of the physical property involved in such proposed consolidation or merger is situated, to the Secretary of State, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General of the United States, the Secretary of the Navy, representatives of employees where represented by bargaining representatives known to the Commission, and to such other persons as the Commission may deem advisable. If, after such public hearing, the Commission finds that the proposed consolidation or merger, or an amended proposal for consolidation or merger, (1) is authorized by subsection (a) of this section, (2) conforms to all other applicable provisions of this section, (3) is in the public interest, the Commission shall enter an order approving and authorizing such consolidation or merger, and thereupon any law or laws making consolidations and mergers unlawful shall not apply to the proposed consolidation or merger. In finding whether any proposed consolidation or merger is in the public interest, the Commission shall give due consideration, among other things, to the financial soundness of the carrier resulting from such consolidation or merger. "(2) Any proposed consolidation or merger of domestic telegraph carriers shall provide for the divestment of the international telegraph operations theretofore carried on by any party to the consolidation or merger, within a reasonable time to be fixed by the Commission, after the consideration for the property to be divested is found by the Commission to be commensurate with its value, and as soon as the legal obligations, if any, of the carrier to be so divested will permit. The Commission shall require at the time of the approval of such consolidation or merger that any such party exercise due diligence in bringing about such divestment as promptly as it reasonably can. (d) No proposed consolidation or merger of telegraph carriers pursuant to this section shall be approved by the Commission if, as a result of such consolidation or merger, more than one-fifth of the capital stock of any carrier which is subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission will be owned or controlled, or voted, directly or indirectly, (1) by any alien or the representative of any alien, (2) by any foreign government or the representative thereof, (3) by any corporation organized under the laws of any foreign government, or (4) by any corporation of which any officer or director is an alien, or of which more than one-fifth of the capital stock is owned or controlled, or voted, directly or indirectly, by any alien or the representative of any alien, by any foreign government or the representative thereof, or by any corporation organized under the laws of a foreign government. "(e) (1) In the case of any consolidation or merger of telegraph carriers pursuant to this section, the consolidated or merged carrier shall, except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection, distribute among the international telegraph carriers, telegraph traffic by wire or radio destined to points without the continental United States, and divide the charges for such traffic, in accordance with such just, reasonable, and equitable formula in the public interest as the interested carriers shall agree upon and the Commission shall approve: Provided, however, That in case the interested carriers should fail to agree upon a formula which the Commission approves as above provided, the Commission, after due notice and hearing, shall prescribe in its order approving and authorizing the proposed consolidation or merger a formula which it finds will be just, reasonable, equitable, and in the public interest, will be, so far as is consistent with the public interest, in accordance with the existing contractual rights of the carriers, and will effectuate the purposes of this subsection. "(2) In the case of any consolidation or merger pursuant to this section of telegraph carriers which, immediately prior to such consolidation or merger, interchanged traffic with telegraph carriers in a contiguous foreign country, the consolidated or merged carrier shall distribute among such foreign telegraph carriers, telegraph traffic by wire or radio destined to points in such contiguous foreign country and shall divide the charges therefor, in accordance with such just, reasonable, and equitable formula in the public interest as the interested carriers shall agree upon and the Commission shall approve: Provided, however, That in case the interested carriers should fail to agree upon a formula which the Commission approves as above provided, the Commission, after due notice and hearing, shall prescribe in its order approving and authorizing the proposed consolidation or merger a formula which it finds will be just, reasonable, equitable, and in the public interest, will be, so far as is consistent with the public interest, in accordance with the existing contractual rights of the carriers, and will effectuate the purposes of this subsection. As used in this paragraph, the term 'contiguous foreign country' means Canada, Mexico, or Newfoundland. "(3) Whenever, upon a complaint or upon its own initiative, and after a full hearing, the Commission finds that any such distribution of telegraph traffic among telegraph carriers, or any such division of charges for such traffic, which is being made or which is proposed to be made, is or will be unjust, unreasonable, or inequitable, or not in the public interest, the Commission shall by order prescribe the distribution of such telegraph traffic, or the division of charges therefor, which will be just, reasonable, equitable, and in the public interest, and will be, so far as is consistent with the public interest, in accordance with the existing contractual rights of the carriers. "(4) For the purposes of this subsection, the international telegraph operations of any domestic telegraph carrier shall be considered to be the operations of an independent international telegraph carrier, and the domestic telegraph operations of any international telegraph carrier shall be considered to be the operations of an independent domestic telegraph carrier. "(f) (1) Each employee of any carrier which is a party to a consolidation or merger pursuant to this section who was employed by such carrier immediately preceding the approval of such consolidation or merger, and whose period of employment began on or before March 1, 1941, shall be employed by the carrier resulting from such consolidation or merger for a period of not less than four years from |