act-1939-0-51•Pennsylvania Act 1939-51 — COMMERCE LAW
Act text
"COMMERCE LAW"
Act of May 10, 1939, P.L. 111, No. 51 Cl. 12
AN ACT
Relating to, and providing for, the promotion and development of
business, industry and commerce in the Commonwealth;
conferring powers and duties upon the Department of Commerce
and other agencies of the Commonwealth; abolishing the
Pennsylvania State Publicity Commission, terminating the
terms of its members and conferring its powers upon, and
transferring and appropriating the balance of its current
appropriation to, the Department of Commerce; and repealing
certain laws.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"Commerce Law."
Section 2. For several years an acute economic emergency has
existed in certain parts of this Commonwealth, threatening the
health, public safety, welfare and future prosperity of the
people. Thousands of our citizens are without employment through
no fault of their own, and appropriations required for their
assistance are a heavy burden on the Commonwealth and her
people. Such economic conditions demand the adoption of a public
policy and an administrative program to alleviate these
conditions and prevent their recurrence, which can be remedied
only as business, industry, and commerce are encouraged,
rehabilitated, developed, and expanded, and only as the
Commonwealth's communities and regions solve their physical
development problems and make themselves attractive, convenient
and economical areas in which to live and work. It is necessary
that a department be empowered to effectuate such a program.
Accordingly, the powers and duties hereinafter enumerated in
this act are vested in the Department of Commerce.
(2 amended Dec. 22, 1955, P.L.887, No.270)
Compiler's Note: The Department of Commerce, referred to in
this section, was renamed the Department of Community and
Economic Development by Act 58 of 1996.
Section 3. The Department of Commerce shall have the power,
and its duty shall be:
(1) To investigate, study and undertake ways and means of
promoting and encouraging the prosperous development and
protecting the legitimate interests and welfare of Pennsylvania
business, industry and commerce, within and without the
Commonwealth.
(2) To investigate, study and undertake ways and means of
expanding markets and promoting and developing new markets for
Pennsylvania products.
(3) To promote and encourage the location and development of
new business, industries and commerce within the Commonwealth.
(4) To investigate and study conditions affecting
Pennsylvania business, industry and commerce, and to collect and
disseminate information, and engage in technical studies,
scientific investigations and statistical research, and
educational activities necessary or useful for the proper
execution of its duties in promoting and developing Pennsylvania
business, industry and commerce, within and without the
Commonwealth.
(5) To cooperate with and assist persons, firms,
associations, corporations, cooperative associations and other
organizations, and the political subdivisions of the
Commonwealth, in the execution of its duties and functions under
this act.
(6) To make to the General Assembly, from time to time,
recommendations for the remedy or improvement of any conditions,
and the elimination of any restrictions and burdens imposed by
law, or otherwise existing, which adversely affect or retard the
development and expansion of business, industry or commerce.
(7) To initiate, promote and conduct, or cause to be
conducted, research designed to further new and more extensive
uses and consumption of natural and other resources and their
by-products; and, for such purposes, to enter into contracts and
agreements with research laboratories maintained by educational
or endowed institutions in this Commonwealth, and to expend
appropriations made to the department for such purposes.
(8) To investigate and study conditions of unemployment, and
to recommend specific remedies for the alleviation of such
conditions, and aid in restoring employment in communities
affected thereby, in order that the burden of public relief may
be lessened.
(9) To aid and promote the elimination of unfair competition
and trade practices tending to impair price stability and which
are harmful to the financial soundness of business, industry and
commerce, and to the wages and working conditions of employes.
(10) To encourage and develop commerce with other states and
foreign countries, and to devise ways and means of removing
trade barriers hampering the free flow of commerce between this
and other states.
(11) To cooperate with interstate commissions engaged in
formulating and promoting the adoption of interstate compacts
and agreements helpful to business, industry and commerce.
(12) (a) To promulgate a "Production Control" plan or
plans, or amendments thereof, upon written petition, and with
the approval of Pennsylvania producers of seventy-five per
centum of the Pennsylvania output of any United States mineral
resource industry located preponderantly within the
Commonwealth, or to adopt and promulgate any such plan or plans
in operation at the time of the enactment of this act with the
sanction of Pennsylvania producers of seventy-five per centum of
the Pennsylvania output of such industry, and to administer or
secure the cooperation of others, including State officers,
producers' representatives or employes' representatives in any
industry where there are general collective bargaining
arrangements, in administering such plan or plans or amendments
thereof upon a voluntary basis: Provided, however, That no
production control plan or rules or regulations relating thereto
shall apply to producers who are not petitioning producers or
who do not otherwise assent to the production control plan
promulgated and adopted.
(b) A "Production Control" within the meaning of this act is
any system of regulated production in any industry as above
defined which currently controls the daily, weekly or monthly
volume of allowable production of said industry in Pennsylvania
for the purpose of adequately supplying market demand, avoiding
waste of mineral resources or the exploitation thereof without
adequate return to the Commonwealth, her political subdivisions
and people, protecting capital invested therein from unwise
depletion and dissipation, promoting employment and security for
the payment of wages and benefits to those employed in such
industry and achieving other express purposes of the Commerce
Law (1) by allocating or apportioning to each producer in the
industry a fair and equitable distributive portion of the total
allowable production; (2) by providing for the adjustment of
inequities in assigned distributive portions and for fair and
equitable adjustments of distributive portions whenever
transfers of mineral properties or facilities take place between
or among producers based upon the position in the industry
fairly and equitably attributable to such properties or
facilities; (3) by providing for the admission under such plan
of new operations and for the assignment of a fair and equitable
distributive portion of the total allowable production to such
operations; (4) by providing, where applicable, for the
establishment of fair and equitable standards of preparation to
ensure purity and proper sizing and grading of the product in
order to protect consumers and to prevent unfair trade
practices; (5) and also by establishing and providing for
reasonable rules and regulations to effectuate such control
plan.
(c) The department or any other agency administering any
production control plan may inspect the production of any
producer under such plan, and of such other producers as may
desire such inspection, to determine whether any standards of
purity, sizing and grading established under any plan are being
complied with.
(d) The department on its own initiative, or at the request
of any agency administering a production control plan, and in
such case at the expense of such agency, may, through its own
staff, or through a recognized accounting agency, gather and
compile composite statistics of volume, value and geographical
distribution of sales, both within and outside the Commonwealth;
realization on sales, production costs, employment and wages
relating to any industry functioning under a production control
plan, and such other statistics as may be deemed appropriate by
any such administering agency. Such statistics shall be
available for inspection only in composite form. Any other
department of the Commonwealth collecting any of such statistics
shall make them available to the department.
(e) The department or agency administering any such
production control plan, including the Production Control Plan
for the Anthracite Industry heretofore promulgated and now
functioning under the provisions of this act, shall make a
report to each regular session of the General Assembly, showing,
inter alia, the percentage of the output of the industry under
such plan and the experience of the industry thereunder, and
shall include therein any recommendations such agency may have
with respect to further legislation which will be helpful in
carrying out the purposes of this act.
(f) No production control plan promulgated by the department
under the authority of this act shall be continued, whenever the
department, if it administers the plan, or the officers of the
State, or a majority of such officers administering or assisting
in the administration of any such plan, shall report to the
Governor, and the Governor shall find that such plan no longer
accomplishes the purposes of this act or nor longer is in the
public interest.
((12) amended May 5, 1945, P.L.432, No.176)
(13) To provide planning assistance and to do planning work,
including surveys, land use studies, urban renewal plans,
technical services and other elements of comprehensive planning
programs, in and for any counties, cities, boroughs, townships,
towns or regions and, for this purpose, to accept and utilize
any funds, personnel or other assistance made available by the
Federal government or any of its agencies, or made available
from any other source, public or private, and, notwithstanding
the provisions of any other law and for the purposes of
receiving and using Federal planning grants for provision of
urban planning assistance, to serve as the official State
planning agency of the Commonwealth and, to these ends, to enter
into agreements or contracts regarding the acceptance or
utilization of such funds or assistance for any of the purposes
authorized by this act. ((13) added Dec. 22, 1955, P.L.887,
No.270 and Functions transferred, July 11, 1966, Sp. Sess.,
Reorg. Pl. No.2, P.L.8)
(3 amended July 7, 1941, P.L.275, No.125)
Compiler's Note: The Department of Commerce, referred to in
this section, was renamed the Department of Community and
Economic Development by Act 58 of 1996.
Section 4. The Department of Commerce, in order to promote
and develop business, industry and commerce in the Commonwealth,
shall have the power, and its duty shall be, to plan and conduct
a program of information, advertising and publicity relating to
the business, industrial, commercial, agricultural, educational,
recreational, scenic, historic, highway and residential
facilities, advantages and attractions of the Commonwealth,
including any political subdivisions thereof, which may include
newspaper, magazine, outdoor and radio advertising, both within
and without the limits of the Commonwealth. The department shall
encourage and, so far as it is practicable to do so, coordinate
the activities of persons, firms, associations, corporations and
other organizations engaged in publicizing and promoting such
facilities, advantages and attractions of the Commonwealth, or
any political subdivision thereof.
Compiler's Note: The Department of Commerce, referred to in
this section, was renamed the Department of Community and
Economic Development by Act 58 of 1996.
Section 5. The Department of Commerce, in order to promote
and develop business, industry and commerce, shall have the
power, either acting alone or in cooperation with other
administrative departments, boards and commissions of the
Commonwealth, to advertise the facilities, advantages and
attractions of the Commonwealth, referred to in the preceding
section, at fairs, expositions and other celebrations within and
without the Commonwealth, and, for such purposes, shall have
power to obtain space, land or buildings, by lease or otherwise,
including the erection and construction of booths, exhibits and
buildings, through the Department of Property and Supplies.
Compiler's Note: The Department of Commerce, referred to in
this section, was renamed the Department of Community and
Economic Development by Act 58 of 1996.
Section 6. Except as otherwise provided in this act, the
provisions of this act shall not be deemed to repeal or impair
any law now in effect, and shall not curtail the powers and
functions of any administrative department, board or commission
of the Commonwealth. The several administrative departments,
boards and commissions, in conjunction with the Department of
Commerce, shall devise a practical and working basis for
cooperation and coordination of their powers and duties, to the
extent that such powers and duties have any bearing on the
powers and duties of the Department of Commerce, in order that
there will be no duplicating and overlapping of such powers and
duties. It shall be the duty of every administrative department,
board or commission to cooperate with the Department of Commerce
to the extent that the work of the Department of Commerce may
require such cooperation.
Compiler's Note: The Department of Commerce, referred to in
this section, was renamed the Department of Community and
Economic Development by Act 58 of 1996.
Section 7. (a) The Pennsylvania State Publicity Commission
is hereby abolished, as of the effective date of this act, and
the terms of the members of such commission now holding office,
and the employment of all officers and employes of the
commission, shall expire and terminate upon that date.
(b) All books, papers, maps, charts, plans, literature and
other records, and all equipment in the possession of the
Pennsylvania State Publicity Commission upon the effective date
of this act, or of any member of the commission or any officer
or employe of the commission, shall be delivered or turned over
to the Department of Commerce.
(c) All existing contracts and obligations of the
Pennsylvania State Publicity Commission shall remain in full
force and effect and shall be performed by the Department of
Commerce.
(d) The unexpended balance existing on the effective date of
this act in any appropriation made to the Pennsylvania State
Publicity Commission is hereby transferred and appropriated to
the Department of Commerce, for the biennial period ending the
thirty-first day of May, one thousand nine hundred thirty-nine,
for the purpose of carrying out the powers and duties of the
Pennsylvania State Publicity Commission transferred to the
Department of Commerce by this act, and for the payment of any
bills or encumbrances incurred by the Pennsylvania State
Publicity Commission prior to, and remaining unpaid on, the
effective date of this act.
Compiler's Note: The Department of Commerce, referred to in
this section, was renamed the Department of Community and
Economic Development by Act 58 of 1996.
Section 7.1. (7.1 repealed July 7, 1989, P.L.241, No.42)
Section 8. The act, approved the nineteenth day of July, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-five (Pamphlet Laws, one thousand
three hundred forty-eight), entitled "An act creating a
commission to compile, edit, publish, and distribute pamphlets
descriptive of scenic and historic interest; and making an
appropriation," and the act amendatory thereto, approved the
twentieth day of May, one thousand nine hundred thirty-seven
(Pamphlet Laws, seven hundred thirty-seven), are hereby
repealed.
Section 9. This act shall become effective immediately upon
its final enactment.
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