The Interstate Commerce Commission was created as an independent agency by an act of February 4, 1887, to regulate in the public interest common carriers engaged in transportation, interstate commerce, and foreign commerce to the extent that it takes place within the United States. Subsequent legislation strengthened the authority and extended the jurisdiction of the Commission. It is now responsible for promoting safe, adequate, economical, and efficient service on all modes of transportation subject to its authority; encouraging the establishment and maintenance of reasonable charges for transportation services, without unjust discriminations or unfair competitive practices; requiring carriers and freight forwarders to file and publish rates, rules, and regulations concerning interstate traffic; and fostering the development, coordination, and preservation of a national transportation system adequate for the postal service, the national defense, and U.S. commerce.

There are 5,930 cubic feet of records dated between 1887 and 1942 in this record group.

GENERAL RECORDS. 1887-1942. 634 lin. ft. and 1,348 rolls of

microfilm.

General files of the Operating Division, including correspondence of the Chairman, commissioners, secretary, and the Operating Division, 1887-1906, with an index; letters sent to the White House, Members of Congress, heads of

Federal agencies, State Governors, and business leaders, 1887-1942; microfilm copies (1,348 rolls) of annual reports of carriers, containing data on corporate structure, finance, and activities, 18881914; and canceled passenger rate schedules, 1887-1935.

CASE FILES. 1887-1934. 5,456 lin. ft. (in WNRC).

Case files of controversies between carriers and shippers and of cases instituted by the Commission, including pleadings, transcripts of testimonies, exhibits, and reports, 1887-1924; concerning investigation and suspension of carrier tariffs, including petitions for suspension of new rates, exhibits, transcripts of hearings, reports, and briefs, 1910-34; concerning Commission action on carrier requests for permission to issue bonds, make loans, effect consolidations, and engage in other financial operations, April-November 1920; and containing records filed under an act of March 1, 1913, relating to initial valuation of common carrier property, 1916

27.

CARTOGRAPHIC RECORDS. 1900-1941. 683 items.

These consist primarily of maps relating to the railroad industry and prepared by the Bureau of Formal Cases, 19001934, the Bureau of Finance, 1910-41, and the Valuation Division, 1913-38.

Microfilm Publication: Annual Reports by Common Carriers to the Interstate Commerce Commission, 1888-1914, T913, 1,348 rolls.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was preceded

by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, created by an act of

ert E. Horton, a hydraulics engineer, left to the American Geophysical Union, a component of the National Research Council, and relating primarily to snow surveys, studies of irrigation, soil conservation, and water levels (a list of these studies is available); maps (12 items) used by the National Research Council in its World War I studies of mapping; maps (17 items) of the United States, relating to agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, 1930-37; an incomplete set of maps (74 items) prepared for the National Atlas of the United States, a project sponsored by the National Research Council, 1954-58; and photographs (151 items) of the activity of Paricutin Volcano, Michoacan, Mexico, 1943-45.

The present National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created by the National Labor Relations Act (the Wagner Act) of July 5, 1935. It was preceded by two earlier boards, the first of which, the National Labor Board (NLB), was established August 5, 1933, by the President to adjust industrial disputes arising from the interpretation and application of the President's Reemployment Agreement or any approved code of fair competition under the National Industrial Recovery Act. The NLB was replaced by the first National Labor Relations Board, established by authority of a public resolution of June 19, 1934. Both these Boards utilized a system of regional boards to deal with labor controversies in the field; and both regional and national boards engaged in the settlement of labor disputes, enforced collective-bargaining requirements, and conducted elections for employee

representatives. After the National Industrial Recovery Act was declared unconstitutional on May 27, 1935, the first National Labor Relations Board virtually ceased to function.

The Wagner Act affirmed the right of employees to organize and designate representatives for collective-bargaining purposes. The second NLRB was authorized to determine the unit of employees appropriate for bargaining, conduct secret elections for employee representatives, and require employers to end specified unfair labor practices frustrating collective bargaining in industries other than the railroads, and, after 1936, the airlines. The War Labor Disputes Act of June 25, 1943 (the Smith-Connally Act), authorized the Board to hold strike vote elections in labor disputes that seriously threatened to interrupt war production. The Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 (the

Taft-Hartley Act), as amended, defined additional labor practices forbidden to organized labor and restricted the Board to a primarily judicial and policy-making role. NLRB operations, particularly administrative procedures, were further modified by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (the Landrum-Griffin Act). The first National Labor Relations Board continued many cases and enforced decisions of the NLB.

See Lewis L. Lorwin and Arthur Wubnig, Labor Relations Boards (1935); William H. Spencer, Collective Bargaining Under Section 7(a) of the National Industrial Recovery Act (Chicago, 1935); Joseph Rosenfarb, The National Labor Policy and How It Works (New York, 1940); D. O. Bowman, Public Control of Labor Relations: A Study of the National Labor Relations Board (New York, 1942); and the Decisions of the National Labor Board (1934) and Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board (issued annually since 1936).

There are 5,140 cubic feet of records dated between 1933 and 1959 in this record group.

HEADQUARTERS RECORDS OF THE NATIONAL LABOR BOARD. 1933-35. 56 lin. ft.

The first National Labor Relations Board, in continuing cases and enforcing decisions of the NLB, often changed the numbers of NLB case files to conform to its own filing system, which usually makes the use of indexes, case files, transcripts, exhibits, and correspondence files of both Boards necessary to locate all records relating to a particular labor dispute. Many NLB headquarters and regional board records were maintained in a continuous series. The records comprise case files, with briefs, exhibits, transcripts of hearings, and indexes, 1933-35 (in WNRC); correspondence and related records concerning such matters as Board and regional board cases and complaints, 1933-35; original signed decisions of the Board and records of the Chairman, technical advisor to the Board, General Counsel,

and executive director and executive officer, 1933-34; and monthly statistical summaries of regional board cases, January-July 1934.

RECORDS OF THE FIRST
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS
BOARD. 1933-36. 90 lin. ft.

These consist of case files (see above for discussion of cases begun by the NLB), with briefs, transcripts of hearings, exhibits, and indexes, 1933-35 (in WNRC); and reports, memorandums, correspondence, press releases, and other records relating to headquarters and regional board cases, complaints of unfair labor practices, decisions, administrative procedures, mediators, examiners, and regional board operations, 193336. There are also records of the Board Chairman about organization and personnel of regional boards, of Board members about the organization and functions of regional boards and industrial relations boards created under National Recovery Administration codes, and of the director of research and staff members of the Research Department about election studies conducted by boards during labor disputes, 1934-35.

jurisdiction was divided between Region II (New York) and Region IV (Philadelphia), the latter of which also acquired its records; the Pittsburgh board was made a branch office of Region IV; the Toledo subboard and the Detroit board were made branch offices of Region VIII (Cleveland); the Indianapolis board was made a branch office of Region X (Chicago), and a new branch office of that region was established at Milwaukee; the Kansas City board was made. a branch office of Region XII (St. Louis); and the San Antonio board was abolished, and its jurisdiction and records were divided between Region VII (New Orleans) and Region XIII. Records, as late as 1938, of regional boards established by the second NLRB are to be found among records of some regional boards of the NLB and the first NLRB. Records of regional boards and branches include case files (see above for discussion of cases begun by the NLB), transcripts, and exhibits (in WNRC). Most also include general subject files consisting of memorandums, issuances, correspondence, reports, statistical data, and other records relating to administration, board cases, operations, and relations with headquarters and other regional boards. Some boards arranged administrative and operational records into categories of correspondence, decisions, issuances, press releases, narrative and statistical case reports, and press clippings. Records for several boards include minutes of meetings. Most regional board records include docket books or indexes (in WNRC) to case files, and, in some instances, indexes to correspondence files.

RECORDS OF THE SECOND
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS
BOARD. 1935-59. 5,728 lin. ft.

There are headquarters and regional case records (5,681 lin. ft. in WNRC), including Wagner Act case files, with transcripts, dockets, and exhibits, 1935

48 (documenting all unfair labor practices and representation cases heard and adjusted at the Board's headquarters and a 10 to 12 percent sample of those at regional offices); War Labor Disputes Act strike-vote case files, with dockets, 1943-45; Taft-Hartley Act case files, with transcripts and exhibits, 1947-59 (documenting a 1 to 3 percent yearly sample of the various categories of unfair labor practice and collective-bargaining representation cases); union authorization cases that were closed after formal action or appealed to the Board, 1947-51; and union-shop deauthorization cases, 1947-59.

Other records of administrative units of the Board include records relating to an action of the Federal Power Commission, 1936; records of the Office of the Secretary, including reports and correspondence about regional offices, cases, and personnel, 1935-40; and a file of the Administrative Division, concerning procedures of the Files and Mails Section (later the Files and Dockets Section), 1938-41. There are Legal Division records, consisting of correspondence, case reports, and transcripts of meetings of the legal staff in the Office of General Counsel, 1935-44; Litigation Section records, comprising the senior litigation. attorney's files and records relating to NLRB cases in Federal court litigations, 1935-42; and Review Section files, 193539. Also included are press releases of the Division of Information, 1935-42.

The House of Representatives Special Committee To Investigate the National Labor Relations Board (the Smith Committee) was created by a House resolution of July 2, 1939, to investigate the administration of the National Labor Relations Act. As a result of this investigation amendments to the act were recommended and organizational changes were made in the NLRB. The records comprise files documenting NLRB operations brought together by the General Counsel's Office and the Legal Division