When mediation services are requested or proffered the Board is authorized to put itself promptly in communication with the parties to the controversy and use its best efforts by mediation to bring the parties to agreement. When unsuccessful in bringing about an adjustment through mediation the Board shall at once endeavor to induce the parties to submit the controversy to arbitration in accordance with the provisions of the act. The failure or refusal of either party to submit a controversy to arbitration shall not be construed as a violation of any legal obligation imposed upon such party by the terms of the Railway Labor Act or otherwise.

When an agreement to arbitrate has been filed with the Mediation Board a board of arbitration shall be chosen in the following manner:

The representatives of the carrier or carriers and of the employees shall each name one arbitrator (or two if the agreement to arbitrate so designates); the arbitrators thus chosen shall select the remaining arbitrator or arbitrators. On failure of the arbitrators named by the parties to agree on the remaining arbitrators during a period stipulated in the act, it shall be the duty of the Mediation Board to name such remaining arbitrator or arbitrators.

The agreement to arbitrate shall be in writing and shall stipulate, among other things, that the respective parties to the award will each faithfully execute the same. Copies of arbitration awards shall be furnished to the respective parties to the controversy, to the clerk's office of the district court of the United States for the district wherein the controversy arose or the arbitration is entered into, to the Mediation Board, and to the Interstate Commerce Commission.

If a dispute between a carrier and its employees is not adjusted under the foregoing provisions of the act and should, in the judgment of the Mediation Board, threaten substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive any section of the country of essential transportation service, the Mediation Board shall notify the President, who may thereupon in his discretion create a board to investigate and report respecting such dispute. The act also provides that after the creation of such board no change in the conditions out of which the dispute arose shall be made by either party to the controversy during a period of 60 days.

The Mediation Board makes an annual report to Congress of its activities and of the activities of each of the four divisions of the National Railroad Adjustment Board.

PAN AMERICAN SANITARY BUREAU

(Formerly International Sanitary Bureau)

The Pan American Sanitary Bureau is the central coordinating sanitary agency as well as the general collection and distribution center of sanitary information of the American Republics. It was created by the Second International Conference of American Republics (1901-2), organized by the First Pan American Sanitary Conference (1902), and reorganized by the Sixth Pan American Sanitary Conference (1920). Its functions and duties are fixed by the Pan American Sanitary Code (1924) and modified and amplified by the various international sanitary and other conferences of the American Republics. The Bureau is concerned in maintaining and improving the health of all the people of the 21 American Republics and in preventing the international spread of communicable diseases. It acts as a consulting office for the national directors of health of the American Republics, prepares the programs and publishes the proceedings of the Pan American Sanitary Conferences and the Conferences of the National Directors of Health, and carries out epidemiological and other scientific studies and investigations. It also publishes in four languages a monthly Pan American Sanitary Bulletin, weekly reports on disease prevalence, and a series of other publications on sanitary subjects. The Bureau is governed by a council elected at each Pan American Sanitary Conference. Its executive officer is a director, also chairman of the board, who is elected at the same conferences. The necessary personnel, including an assistant director, editor, traveling representatives, epidemiologists, experts, translators, and clerks, is assigned or employed by the director to attend to the various duties imposed on the Bureau by the Pan American Sanitary Code and the Pan American Sanitary Conferences. The Bureau is supported by a fund contributed by all the American Republics in proportion to their populations. Address all correspondence to the Director, Pan American Sanitary Bureau, Washington, D. C.

PAN AMERICAN UNION

(Formerly International Bureau of American Republics)

The Pan American Union is the official international organization of the 21 Republics of the Western Hemisphere. It was established with a view to developing closer cooperation between the nations of America, the fostering of interAmerican commerce, the strengthening of intellectual and cultural ties, and the interchange of information on all problems affecting the welfare of the nations of this continent. It is supported through their joint contributions, each nation annually paying that part of the budget of expenses which its population bears to the total population of all the Republics. Its general control is vested in a governing board made up of the diplomatic representatives in Washington of all the Latin-American Governments and the Secretary of State of the United States. Its executive officers are a director general and an assistant director, elected by the board. They in turn are assisted by a trained staff of editors, statisticians, compilers, trade experts, translators, librarians, and clerks. It is strictly international in its scope, purpose, and control, and each nation has equal authority in its administration. Its activities and facilities include the following: Publication in English, Spanish, Portuguese, with separate editions, of an illustrated monthly bulletin, which is the record of the progress of all the Republics; publication of handbooks, descriptive pamphlets, commercial statements, maps, and special reports relating to each country; correspondence covering all phases of pan-American activities; distribution of every variety of information helpful in the promotion of pan-American commerce, acquaintance, cooperation, and solidarity of interests. It also sets the date and prepares the programs for the International Conferences of the American States, known as the Pan American Conferences, and is custodian of their archives. Its library, known as the Columbus Memorial Library, contains 100,000 volumes, including the official publications, documents, and laws of all the Republics, together with a large collection of maps. The Union also possesses a collection of more than 25,000 photographs, lantern slides, and negatives. Its reading room has upon its tables the representative magazines and newspapers of Latin America. Both are open to the public for consultation and study. It occupies and owns buildings and grounds facing Seventeenth Street, between Constitution Avenue and C Street, overlooking Potomac Park on the south and the White House Park on the east. These buildings and grounds, representing an outlay of $1,100,000, of which Mr. Andrew Carnegie contributed $850,000 and the American Republics $250,000, are dedicated forever to the use of the Pan American Union as an international organization. The Pan American Union was founded in 1890, under the name of the International Bureau of American Republics, in accordance with the action of the First Pan American Conference, held in Washington in 1889-90 and presided over by James G. Blaine, then Secretary of State. It was reorganized in 1907 by action of the Third Pan American Conference, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1906, and upon the initiative of Elihu Root, then Secretary of State. At the fourth conference, held at Buenos Aires in 1910, its name was changed from the International Bureau of American Republics to the Pan American Union. The fifth conference, held at Santiago, Chile, in 1923; the sixth conference, which met at Habana, Cuba, in 1928; the seventh conference, held at Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1933, and the eighth conference, held at Lima, Peru, in 1938, considerably enlarged the functions of the Pan American Union. All communications should be addressed to the Director General, Pan American Union, Washington, D. C.

PERMANENT JOINT BOARD ON DEFENSE

The Permanent Joint Board on Defense was set up by the United States and Canada for the purpose of undertaking studies relating to sea, land, and air problems, including personnel and matériel, in connection with the defense of the United States and Canada.

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD, THE

Creation, authority, and purpose. The Railroad Retirement Board was established by the Railroad Retirement Act of 1935 (49 Stat. 967), approved August 29, 1935, which, as amended by part I of the act of June 24, 1937 (50 Stat. 307),

is cited as the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937. Additional responsibility is derived from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (52 Stat. 1094), approved June 25, 1938, as amended by the act approved June 20, 1939 (Public. No. 141, 76th Cong.) and by act approved October 11, 1940 (Public, No. 833, 76th Cong., 3d sess.), and from Public Resolution No. 102, Seventy-sixth Congress, Third Session. Under the authority of these acts, the Board administers two related social insurance systems-one for the payment of annuities to aged or disabled railroad employees or benefits with respect to their deaths in certain cases, and pensions to former railroad pensioners, and the other for the payment of unemployment insurance benefits to railroad employees who become unemployed. The retirement and unemployment insurance acts cover employees of any carrier by railroad, express company, or sleeping-car company, subject to part I of the Interstate Commerce Act (with the exception of certain electric lines), and companies owned or controlled by or under common control with one or more of them and performing any service (except trucking or casual) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad; employees of associations, bureaus, and agencies controlled and maintained by carrier or carrier subsidiary employers and engaged in the performance of services in connection with or incidental to transportation by railroad; and employees of railway labor organizations national in scope and organized in accordance with the Railway Labor Act, their State and national legislative committees, their insurance departments, and, under certain circumstances, their local lodges and divisions; and employee representatives.

Organization. The Board is composed of three members appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate—one upon recommendation of representatives of employees, one upon recommendation of representatives of carriers, and one, the chairman, without designated recommendations. The Board is organized so as to integrate the duties imposed by the retirement and insurance acts. The administrative organization is divided into two branches, the staff branch in which are centered the service functions, and the operations branch. The chairman serves ex officio as chief executive officer and, as such, is responsible for the proper performance, in conformity with the policies and the rules of the Board, of all the functions and the exercise of all powers residing in the Board, except such as are reserved by the Board. The heads of the bureaus in the staff branch report, and are administratively responsible, directly to the chief executive officer. The staff branch embraces four bureaus: General Control, Law, Research and Information, and Audits and Investigations.

The director of unemployment insurance is also the coordinator of operations. Under the administrative direction of the chief executive officer, he is responsible for the supervision and direction of the operations branch. Included in this branch are the Bureau of Employment and Claims, the Bureau of Wage and Service Records, and the Bureau of Administrative Services. The functions of the Bureau of Employment and Claims in Washington are divided between three divisions Retirement Claims, Clearance and Coordination, and Employment Service. Claims for annuities and death benefits under the Railroad Retirement Acts are adjudicated in the Division of Retirement Claims. The Division of Clearance and Coordination is the coordinating center of the nation-wide system for servicing the Unemployment Insurance Act, the primary operations of which, including the adjudication of claims and their certification for payment, are placed in ten regional offices. An auxiliary administrative service is performed, under contract and for an agreed compensation, by covered employers who designate certain of their employees to receive unemployment insurance claims and registrations and forward them through a higher placed employee to the appropriate regional office of the Board. The Division of Employment Service operates an employment service for the railroad industry. Employment offices are part of the organization of each regional office and function in close coordination with the operations involving the receipt and processing of unemployment insurance claims.

RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACT OF 1937

Annuities. To receive an annuity, an individual who is otherwise qualified must either (1) be 65 or more years of age or (2) have completed 30 years of creditable service and be totally and permanently disabled for regular employment for hire, or (3) be 60 years of age and either (a) have completed 30 years of creditable service or (b) if he has less than 30 years of creditable service, be totally and permanently disabled for regular employment for hire (under either (a) or (b), however, the monthly annuity is less than would be payable at age 65 by 180 for

each calendar month that the individual is under age 65 at the time his annuity begins to accrue). The amounts of the monthly annuities are computed by multiplying the number of "years of service" by the sum of the following percentages of the average monthly compensation: 2 percent of the first $50; 11⁄2 percent of the next $100, and 1 percent of the next $150. In computing the average monthly compensation, no part of any month's compensation in excess of $300 is recognized. The average monthly compensation used for years of creditable service prior to 1937 is the average earned by an individual in the calendar months included in his years of service in the years 1924-31 (except when in the judgment of the Board the service during 1924-31 is insufficient to constitute a fair and equitable basis). All service subsequent to December 31, 1936, is included and if the total number of years of such service is less than 30, then, for individuals who were on August 29, 1935, in the active service of, or in an employment relation to, an employer under the act, or who were on that date employee representatives, the years of service prior to January 1, 1937, may be included but not so as to make the total years of service exceed 30.

Provision is also made for minimum annuities to individuals who are employees under the act at age 65 and who have 20 years of service. The minimum annuity based on average compensation of $50 or more, is $40 a month; if the monthly compensation is less than $50, the annuity is 80 percent of such compensation except that if such 80 percent is less than $20, the annuity is $20 or the same amount as the monthly compensation, whichever is less. The act also provides that in no case shall the value of the annuity be less than the value of the additional old-age benefit that would be received were the individual's services as an employee after December 31, 1936, included in the term "employment" in title II of the Social Security Act.

Annuities are payable on the first of each month for each preceding month, but an annuity does not accrue for the calendar month in which an annuitant dies. Joint and survivor annuities.-Under certain prescribed conditions a joint and survivor annuity may be elected instead of a single-life annuity. A joint and survivor annuity involves a reduced annuity to the annuitant during life and, after the death of the annuitant, a survivor annuity to the surviving spouse during life. The amounts of the two annuities are such that their combined actuarial value is the same as the actuarial value of the single-life annuity that would otherwise be payable. An election of a joint and survivor annuity, once made, is irrevocable, except that it may become inoperative under certain circumstances, including the death of the employee or the spouse before the annuity begins to accrue. A survivor annuity accrues from the first day of the month in which the employee-annuitant dies.

Death benefits.-Provision is made for the payment of death benefits under certain conditions to designated survivors, or to the legal representatives of the deceased, with respect to the death of individuals who were employees after December 31, 1936. The amount payable as death benefit is an amount equal to 4 percent of the total compensation of the deceased earned as an employee (excluding earnings in excess of $300 in any one calendar month) after December 31, 1936, less the amount of annuities paid or accrued to the employee or to a surviving spouse, or to both.

Pensions. Section 6 of the act provides that beginning July 1, 1937, each individual then on the pension or gratuity roll of an employer by reason of his employment, who was also on such roll on March 1, 1937, shall be paid on July 1, 1937, and on the first day of each calendar month thereafter, a pension at the same rate as the pension or gratuity granted to him by the employer without diminution by reason of any general reduction or readjustment made subsequent to December 31, 1930, but such pension shall not exceed $120 a month. Persons on such pension rolls who were, on July 1, 1937, eligible for annuities, were not entitled to receive pensions after the pension payments due on October 1, 1937, but may receive annuities upon filing applications.

Source of annuities, pensions, and death benefits.-The act created an account in the Treasury of the United States known as the Railroad Retirement Account and authorized the appropriation to the account in each fiscal year of an amount actuarially determined by the Board to be sufficient as a premium to provide for the payment of all annuities, pensions, and death benefits under the Railroad Retirement Acts of 1935 and 1937. That part of the premium which is not immediately required for the payment of annuities, pensions, and death benefits is invested in obligations of or guaranteed by the United States to bear interest at the rate of 3 percent per annum.

The Carriers Taxing Act of 1937 (50 Stat. 435), approved June 29, 1937, levies an income tax on the covered employees and an excise tax on the covered employers, with respect to so much of the compensation paid by employers to employees as is not in excess of $300 for any calendar month. The rate of tax on employees, as well as that on employers, started at 24 percent in 1937 and is to increase by 4 percent every 3 years until it reaches the maximum of 34 percent, effective beginning in 1949. The taxes are collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and are paid into the Treasury of the United States as internal-revenue collections.

THE RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACT OF 1935

The claims of individuals (and the claims of spouses and next of kin of such individuals) who relinquished their rights to return to service and became eligible for annuities before the enactment of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 are adjudicated under the act of 1935; however, individuals who did not become eligible before June 24, 1937, for annuities under the act of 1935 (whether they relinquished rights before or after June 24, 1937), but who would have been eligible under the act of 1937 if that act had been in force from and after August 29, 1935, may receive annuities under the act of 1937, but their annuities may not begin before June 24, 1937. The death benefit under the 1935 act is a monthly payment for 12 months, each payment being equal to one-half the annuity which an individual was receiving or was entitled to receive at the time of his death. The benefit is payable to the widow or widower or, if there be neither, to the dependent next of kin; payments begin with the month in which death occurred.

RAILROAD UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACT

Effective date. The original act, as amended June 20, 1939, became effective on July 1, 1939, both with respect to the payment of benefits and the collection of contributions. The amendments to the act approved October 11, 1940, became effective, with minor exceptions, on November 1, 1940, and the following discussion covers the provisions of the act as thus amended.

Exclusive coverage. The act makes exclusive provision for the payment of unemployment benefits based upon the employment covered by the act. However, the Board may enter into agreements with State agencies for the payment of benefits to individuals who perform services covered by either or both the railroad and the respective State acts.

Benefit basis. Benefits within the uniform benefit year beginning July 1 of each year are payable on the basis of earnings (excluding that in excess of $300 in one month) in covered employment in the calendar year, termed the "base year," preceding the beginning of the benefit year. To be eligible for benefits in any benefit year, an individual must have earned at least $150 in covered employment in the corresponding base year. Benefits are payable with respect to days of unemployment in periods termed registration periods of 14 days, except that if an employee changes his place of registration, he begins a new registration period with the first day for which he registers at an employment office other than the one at which he last registered. Benefits are not payable in a benefit year until an individual has had a registration period of 7 or more days of unemployment. When he has had such registration period, benefits are payable therefor for all days of unemployment in excess of 7, and, thereafter, benefits are payable for each day of unemployment in excess of 4 in any registration period beginning in the same benefit year. A day of unemployment is a day on which an individual is able to work and is available for work and with respect to which (1) he has earned no "remuneration" as defined in the Act, and (2) he has registered at an employment office as required by regulations prescribed by the Board.

Disqualifications.-Days of unemployment of any individual do not include any day in any period with respect to which period the Board finds that he is receiving or has received payments under the Railroad Retirement Acts, insurance benefits under title II of the Social Security Act, or payments for similar purposes under any other act of Congress, or unemployment benefits under an unemployment compensation law of any State or of the United States other than this act except that, if the payments, other than unemployment benefits, under such other acts are less than the payments which would otherwise be payable under this act, this restriction does not apply to the payment of the difference under this act. Individuals are disqualified for varying numbers of days for several reasons, including leaving work voluntarily without good cause, refusing to accept suitable