150 Ga. 41 | Ga. | 1920
The Court of Appeals has propounded certain questions to which the following are answers: On August 29, 1916, (39 Stat. 645), Congress gave the President power “in time of war . . to take possession and assume control of any system or systems of transportation, or any part thereof,- and to utilize the same, to the exclusion, as far as may be necessary, of all other traffic thereon, for the transfer or transportation of troops, war material and equipment, as may be needful or desirable.” After war had been declared with Germany and Austria, the President, on December 26, 1917, referring to the existing state of war and the power with which he had been invested by Congress, proclaimed: “Under and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the foregoing resolutions and statute, and by virtue of all other powers thereto me enabling, [I] do here take possession and assume. control at 12 o’clock noon on the twenty-eighth of December, 1917, of each and every system of transportation and the appurtenances thereof located wholly or in part within the boundaries of the continental United States, and consisting of railroads and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and inland transportation engaged in general transportation, whether operated by steam or by electric power, including also terminals, terminal companies, and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars, private cars and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraph and telephone lines, and all other equipment and appurtenances commonly used upon or operated as a part of such rail’or combined rail and water systems of transportation; to the end that such systems of transportation be utilized for the transfer and transportation of troops, war material and equipment, to the exclusion, so far as may be necessary, of all other traffic thereon; and that so far as such exclusive use be not necessary or desirable, such systems of transportation be operated and utilized in the performance of such other services as the national interest may require, and of the usual and ordinary