COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE 1514 



COMMON CARRIER 



to any city of 10.000 population or over will 



disclose whether or not It has adopted the plan. 



In addition, see the following articles: 



City Initiative and Referen- 



Clty Manager dum 



City Planning Recall 



COMMITTEES OF CORRESPONDENCE, 

 committees of patriots appointed during the 

 American Revolutionary period, first by the 

 towns of New England, then by the legislatures 

 of the colonies, to prepare and circulate state- 

 ments of American grievances and to secure 

 protection against the claims of England. In 

 November, 1772, Samuel Adams moved before 

 the town meeting in Boston that a Committee 

 of Correspondence be appointed to act in 

 keeping in touch with other New England dis- 

 tricts and to state the rights of the colony, the 

 proceedings to be kept secret. The plan was 

 a great success, a large number of towns re- 

 sponding at once. A permanent committee 

 was later appointed to maintain correspondence 

 with the sister colonies. Committees of a sim- 

 ilar nature were afterward appointed by Con- 

 necticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and 

 South Carolina. 



COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE, any or- 

 ganized body deliberating as a group. It is 

 usual for legislative or other bodies to appoint 

 Certain committees, to which specific matters 

 are referred. The committees investigate the 

 subject and determine whether it is of suffi- 

 cient importance to come before the larger 

 body, and if so, in what form it should be pre- 

 sented. Occasionally, however, the whole body, 

 sitting as a committee and with no more power 

 than any other committee, debates the matter. 

 Its action is deliberative rather than legisla- 

 tive; that is, it discusses the question in all its 

 details. When its work is concluded it ad- 

 journs, or "rises from the committee"; the 

 body then assumes its ordinary functions and 

 formally receives the report of what it ac- 

 complished in committee of the whole. 



When either branch of the Congress of the 

 United States so sits, any member may be 

 chosen to preside; in the British House of 

 Commons a regularly-chosen chairman, other 

 than the Speaker, presides over the committee 

 of the whole. The Canadian House of Com- 

 mons, when sitting as a committee of the 

 whole, is presided over by the Deputy-speaker, 

 the official assistant of the Speaker. 



COM'MODORE, formerly the title of an offi- 

 cer in the United States navy ranking above 

 captain and below rear-admiral. The rank was 

 abolished by act of Congress in 1899, and all 



the commodores then in the navy were pro- 

 moted to the rank of rear-admiral. Formerly 

 when the fleet was divided into divisions, the 

 commodore commanded a division. 



COMMON CARRIER, a person or corpora- 

 tion whose business it is to transport passen- 

 gers and goods, either by water or by land, for 

 a price. The term, therefore, includes team- 

 sters and omnibus lines, expressmen, street rail- 

 ways, railroads, steamboat companies and pipe 

 lines; in recent years telephone and telegraph 

 companies have been included by law, although 

 they do not, strictly speaking, transport goods. 

 Storekeepers and shop-owners who maintain a 

 delivery service solely for the benefit of their 

 customers are not common carriers. 



The common carrier stands in intimate rela- 

 tion to the public, whose lives and property 

 are in its care. Because of this confidential 

 relation, the common law placed the carrier 

 under two great obligations; first, its service is 

 compulsory, for it must serve everybody who 

 is able to pay; second, it is liable for loss or 

 injury to goods or passengers carried. These 

 general obligations have been regulated by stat- 

 ute in Great Britain, Canada and the United 

 States. Interprovincial and interstate com- 

 merce are under the control of the national 

 government, but the states and provinces also 

 have individual jurisdiction. For this reason 

 it is impossible to do more than summarize 

 the responsibilities of common carriers. 



Carriers of Goods. It is generally stated that 

 common carriers are responsible for any loss 

 or accident except those due to an "act of 

 God or of the public enemy." In this sense 

 an "act of God" means any unavoidable acci- 

 dent which occurs through no fault of a human 

 being. The term "public enemy" includes 

 pirates and any government which is at war 

 with the government of the common carrier. 

 Robbers, bandits and rebels are not regarded 

 as public enemies. A carrier, moreover, is not 

 liable for damages which arise from natural 

 causes, such as fermentation, evaporation or 

 decay unless by his neglect perishable articles, 

 as fruit and vegetables, have been delayed in 

 transit. If the shipper or the government 

 authorities are in any way responsible for the 

 loss or accident, the carrier is not liable. The 

 liability of a carrier may also be limited by a 

 special contract or agreement. Express and 

 freight receipts, baggage checks and railroad 

 tickets are not only receipts but are contracts 

 in which the carrier invariably limits his lia- 

 bility. 



