shall be given to creditors in the manner indicated in section fiftyeight of this act; and (e) Where the business is conducted by trustees, marshals, or receivers, as provided in clause five of section two of this act, the court may allow such officers additional compensation for such services by way of commissions upon the moneys disbursed or turned over to any person, including lienholders, by them, and, in cases of receivers or marshals, also upon the moneys turned over by them or afterwards realized by the trustees from property turned over in kind by them to the trustees; such commissions not to exceed six per centum on the first five hundred dollars or less, four per centum on moneys in excess of five hundred dollars and less than one thousand five hundred dollars, two per centum on moneys in excess of one thousand five hundred dollars and less than ten thousand dollars, and one per centum on moneys in excess of ten thousand dollars: Provided, that in case of the confirmation of a composition such commissions shall not exceed one per centum of the amount to be paid creditors on such composition: Provided further, that before the allowance of compensation notice of application therefor, specifying the amount asked, shall be given to creditors in the manner indicated in section fifty-eight of this act. SEC. 57 (n) Claims shall not be proved against a bankrupt estate subsequent to six months after the adjudication; or if they are liquidated by ligation and the final judgment therein is rendered within thirty days before or after the expiration of such time, and then within sixty days after the rendition of such judgment: Provided, that the right of infants and insane persons without gardians, without notice of the proceedings, may continue six months longer. SEC. 64 (a) The Court shall order the trustee to pay all taxes legally due and owing by the bankrupt to the United States, state, county, district or municipality in advance of the payment of dividends to creditors, and upon filing the receipts of the proper public officers for such payment he shall be credited with the amount thereof, and in case any question arises as to the amount or legality of any such tax the same shall be heard and determined by the court, provided, that such payment shall not be made out of the general assets of the estate where the property against which the taxes are assessed or levied is not an asset for distribution among creditors, or the taxes can be satisfied from the property, or such taxes as were levied or assessed prior to the bankrupt acquiring title thereto, or is exempt from sale under execution, nor shall such payment be made to any purchaser, assignee or transferee of any claim for taxes unless it should appear to the court that such purchaser, assignee or transferee, because of the benefits derived by, or sought to be conferred upon, the estate by the payment of taxes or the purchase of tax claims by the claimant, is justly entitled to subrogation. SEC. 2. That no rights, actions, prosecutions or proceedings or causes thereof, under said act, approved July 1, 1898, and acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto shall be affected by this act and the same are fully preserved to all intents and purposes as if this act had not been passed. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force on and after the first day of January next after its passage. XV. IN CONCLUSION. This report may seem lengthy but same embodies the result of many years' work and reflection on the part of the committee and the many who have aided the committee in its labors. Respectfully submitted, FRANCIS B. JAMES, Chairman, JOSEPH F. O'CONNELL, JULIUS HENRY COHEN, June 1, 1921. Committee. DISSENT OF CHARLES R. BROCK TO PART OF REPORT OF COMMITTEE. The undersigned, Charles R. Brock, one of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Trade and Commercial Law, is "not willing to approve the amendments of Sections 14, 20, 21 and 22," of the bill to amend the Pomerene Bills of Lading Act in Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Denver, Colorado, June 15, 1921. CHARLES R. BROCK. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL LAW. To the American Bar Association: Your Standing Committee on International Law respectfully submits its annual report. It has tabulated chronologically the main international events of the year directly affecting the United States and has included a limited number of incidents in which the United States is not a direct participant but which profoundly affect its interests. This list schedules 175 separate entries, many of which are somewhat extended and include numerous items, but all pertaining to one topic. Your committee feels it must limit comment but desires to take note of a few of the matters observed. The first Assembly of the League of Nations was opened at Geneva, Switzerland, on November 15, 1920, and there held 30 sessions. A few days prior thereto the November elections may be deemed to have overwhelmingly committed the United States to a policy of abstention from membership therein and of refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, at least in unmodified form. The paramount achievement of the Assembly, however, cannot but prove of the highest interest to the American Bar since it was the practical completion of the scheme for the creation, institution and operation of a Permanent Court of International Justice. The plan evolved by the Congress of Jurists at The Hague, and known as the Root-Phillemore Plan, was modified by the Council of the League and, thus altered, was recommended to the Assembly. The latter body still further modified the original scheme and then, with such modifications, adopted it by a unanimous vote, referring it to the several nations for final ratification. The modifications took away the power of adjudication as to nations without the consent of all parties, though a protocol was adopted by which states desiring might adopt the scheme with or without such original powers. The assembly also decided that ratification by the individual states was necessary and that the court should come into being on ratification by a majority of the members of the league. It was reported June 11, 1921 (New York Evening Post) that the statutes of the court had been signed by 33 states and that they were in process of ratification by the members of the league. The court is to be composed of 15 members, namely, eleven judges and four deputy judges. These members are to be elected by the assembly of the league and by the council of the league from candidates nominated by the national groups in the Court of Arbitration. Those who receive an absolute majority of votes in the assembly and also in the council, the two bodies voting separately, are deemed elected. As the great powers predominate in the council and the lesser ones in the assembly, the successful candidate must have the support of a majority of each type. If more than one of those thus chosen come from any state only the oldest is to be considered elected. On June 2 of this year the Secretary-General of the league sent circulars to the members of the league asking them to nominate candidates for membership in the court. The statutes provide that "only states or members of the League of Nations can be parties in cases before the court," and that "The conditions under which the court shall be open of right or accessible to states which are not members of the League of Nations shall be determined by the council." The Department of State of the United States has entered into correspondence with the council of the league and the principal Allied powers as to the allocation under mandate to various nations of the territories acquired by the victory of the Allied and Associated powers and which the other powers have assumed to dispose of under mandates without the consent or participation therein of the United States. The position of the United States is that territories ceded by or acquired by conquest from the Central powers in the late war enure and belong jointly to the victors therein, namely, to the Allied and Associated powers, and can only be disposed of by their unanimous action. That, in the absence of participation in such action by the United States, her rights and title remain unimpaired and unaffected. She has claimed, however, no exclusive or individual rights but merely that all nations be permitted to fairly share the special advantages of these territories. The Department of State has further conducted a correspondence with the Netherlands government earnestly protesting against the denial to American capitalists and corporations of the right to participate fairly in the exploitation of Sumatra oil lands while such exploitation is permitted to the British trust. Earnest efforts have been also made by the Department of State to prevent the forfeiture or confiscation of the rights of citizens of the United States in Mexican lands, including mining and oil lands, acquired prior to the adoption of the constitutional provisions under which such hostile procedure is threatened or attempted. Your committee would also note as one of many projects pressed upon the League of Nations or the subsidiary congresses and organizations provided, for and already active under its authority, that designed to operate together: (1) For the control of all international transport; (2) for the so-called equitable distribution among the nations of all raw materials. The scheme has been strongly supported by the more barren or exhausted nations and with difficulty, so far at least, postponed by the efforts of the more well-endowed nations, like Great Britain and her Dominions of Canada and South Africa. As the committee to which the first steps in shaping the matter would fall appeared to be composed of delegates about 80 per cent of whom were from Europe and about 20 per cent from the rest of the world, it might be thought that European interests would be more adequately served by the steps to be taken than those of the rest of the world. Your committee expresses the hope that the policy of generous regard for the common rights of all nations in access to regions and opportunity for equal exploitation of natural resources may be successfully maintained without unfair trespass on the sovereignty of any nation and without the surrender through lack of sagacious consideration or through indolence or weakness, of any essential rights of our own people. Your committee expresses its regret that many matters of the highest international significance and importance are now pending and at such a state that comment upon them seems to be inadvisable. All of which is respectfully submitted. CHAS. NOBLE GREGORY, THEODORE S. WOOLSEY, WILLIAM D. GUTHRIE. |