B. J. Semel Associates, Inc., and B. J. Semel D/B/A South East Fire-Works v. United Fireworks Manufacturing Co., Inc.

. In the case of appellant, the affidavit recites that “deliveries of merchandise have been made to [appellant] at United’s factory in Dayton, with transportation arranged entirely by [appellant].” If this is thought somehow to take these deliveries outside of what are customarily referred to as F.O.B. shipments, then that would be an essential element in a claim that appellee had so tailored and restricted its operations as not to be in interstate commerce at all, thereby being beyond the reach of the federal antitrust laws. But appellee’s counsel, whose knowledge of the true nature of appel-lee’s operations may reasonably be inferred to be as realistic as it is complete, has made no such claim. It is still possible, by careful restriction of one's activities, to do business solely in intrastate commerce if one wants to, even with buyers who come from out of the state. But if the business choice is to seek the benefits of the greater latitude provided by operations within the contemplation of the Commerce Clause, then one of the burdens is amenability to federal antitrust sanctions, including the liberalized venue requirements of Section 12.

. “During the entire period of the relationship between plaintiffs and defendant, defendant and I were in continual communications. Sometimes these communications were made through my visiting defendant’s plan in Dayton, Ohio. Usually, they were made by long distance telephone conversations between Dayton and my office in Washington. There would be as many as twenty-two telephone conversations a month between defendant and plaintiffs. Most significant!y, these communications have taken place in the District of Columbia. Mr. Martin in Paragraph 6 of his affidavit, admits that on three different occasions in 1963, he visited the District of Columbia. He dismissed these trips, however, as made solely in connection with hearings held by the United States Senate Sub-Committee on Juvenile Delinquency. Everything else he did during his visits was brushed aside as ‘incidental good will contacts with customers.’ What he calls ‘incidental good will contacts’ were, in fact, important business sessions lasting approximately 3 to 4 hours at least. These sessions handled the major problems that had to be dealt with on a person to person basis rather than over the telephone, the problems which arise particularly in preparation for a new season in the fireworks industry. As a result of these sessions, I was able to avoid making at least one trip to Dayton, which I normally would have had to make.”

“The constant communications between defendant and myself concerned every aspect of plaintiff’s business. Defendant insisted that it obtain an assignment of my accounts from my customers, most of whom were located in the District of Columbia, in order to secure my own account with defendant. Likewise, I was in constant touch with defendant about such things as advertising, promotion, defective merchandise, deliveries, customers’ complaints, and all the other numerous matters that would naturally arise out of almost a $100,000 worth of business a year.”

. The District Judge did not address himself in any manner to this apparent conflict, nor purport to make findings of fact generally as, indeed, he is not required to do in deciding motions under Rule 12. See Rule 52(a), Fed.R.Civ.P. Appellee has cast its argument here largely in terms of a claim that we are bound by Rule 52(a) not to disregard the trial court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous. We find this approach wholly unpersuasive. The raising of the defense of improper venue by a motion to dismiss in advance of trial is expressly made optional with the pleader by Rule 12(b). If deferred to the answer, evidence relevant to venue will be heard by the trier of fact and findings made, if the judge is the trier, which would presumably resolve conflicts. In this posture Rule 52(a) would be relevant.

. See note 6, infra.

. It is significant, on the one hand, that Section 12, in addition to laying venue in the districts where a corporation is “an inhabitant” or “may be found,” does the same for any district wherein it “transacts business”; and, on the other, that the concluding clause authorizes service of process only in a district where the corporation is “an inhabitant” or “may be found.” Because the omission of “transacts business” from the last clause suggests that the content of that phrase differs from that of the other two categories, it' has been recognized that venue might exist in one district with process required to be served in another. See Eastman Kodak Co. of New York v. Southern Photo Materials Co., 273 U.S. 359, 373, 47 S.Ct. 400, 71 L.Ed. 684 *831(1927); 1 Moore, Federal Practice IT 0.144 [15] at 1668-70 (2d ed. 1964). See also, 51 Cong.Rec. 9608. Thus, considerations resting upon the likelihood of actual notice (i.e. the presence of employees or agents), which are relevant to the requirements for service of process, need not control here.

. As originally proposed, the provision which is now Section 12 of the Clayton Act merely repeated the language of Section 7 of the Sherman Act, which provided that suits against a corporation could be brought only in the district where the corporation is an “inhabitant” or “may be found.” H.R.Rep. No. 627, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. 20 (1914). Fearful that this provision was too restrictive and placed plaintiffs at an undue disadvantage, see 51 Cong.Rec. 9414-9417, 9466-9467, 9607-9608, the House, in a deliberate effort to ease the difficulties of bringing suit, amended the provision by adding “or has an agent.” 51 Cong.Rec. 9466, 9607. The Senate Judiciary Committee discarded the House version and proposed amending that section to it present form. S.Rep. No. 698, 63d Cong., 2d Sess. 73 (1914). The Senate accepted the change without comment, see 51 Cong.Rec. 14,214, 14,324, 14,597, 14,609-6910, and it attracted little attention until the Bill finally returned to the House from the Conference Committee. In the House, Congressman Webb, the manager of the Bill in the Conference Committee, pointed to Section 12 as part of his defense against criticism that the compromise Bill was too weak. After emphasizing the civil remedies provided by the Bill, he stated that by this section “we are liberalizing the procedure in the courts in order to give the individual who is damaged the right to get his damages anywhere — anywhere you can catch the offender * * 51 Cong.Rec. 16274. And he added, immediately before approval of the Conference report, “we have thrown the doors of the court wide open for the first time to every man who is injured. He can enter the court at his home and sue a man or corporation who injures Mm or enter suit in the man’s or corporation’s home * * 51 Cong.Rec. 16342. Thus, although Congress perhaps did not adopt the most liberal version of the section proposed, see United States v. National City Lines, Inc., 334 U.S. 573, 68 S.Ct. 1169, 92 L.Ed. 1584 (1948), there is no doubt that the version enacted represented a conscious attempt to liberalize the venue requirements. See also, Eastman Kodak Co. of New York v. Southern Photo Materials Co., 273 U.S. 359, 372-374, 47 S.Ct. 400, 71 L.Ed. 684 (1927); 1 Moore, Federal Practice ¶ 0.144 [15] at 1667 (2d ed. 1964); Note, 58 Yale L.J. 482 (1949).

. See Sunbury Wire Rope Mfg. Co. v. United States Steel Corp., 129 F.Supp. 425 (E.D.Pa.1955). There the court first found venue to exist on a showing that the seller had in two years sold and delivered some $600,000 worth of its products in the jurisdiction. On petition for rehearing it was pointed out that the shipments were on an F.O.B. basis, with title having passed from seller to buyer before the goods entered the jurisdiction allegedly having venue. The court adhered to its original decision, stating that passage-of-title concepts and consequences were not comprehended within the practical concept of transacting business embodied in Section 12. We agree.

Intermountain Ford Tractor Sales Co. v. Massey-Ferguson Ltd., 210 F.Supp. 930 (D.Utah 1962), involved a claim of venue in respect of a Canadian parent corporation by reason of its relationships with an American subsidiary. The court appeared to think that the claim turned upon a proper reading of Cannon Mfg. Co. v. Cudahy Packing Co., 267 U.S. 333, 45 S.Ct. 250, 69 L.Ed. 634 (1925). But Cudahy did not involve either the antitrust laws generally or Section 12 in particular. It was an action for breach of contract, and the question was whether a foreign corporation parent was doing business in North Carolina through its subsidiary so as to be subject to suit there. Judge Christensen’s preoccupation with Cudahy is evidenced by the fact that he closed the paragraph quoted in the dissent with the sentence: “And besides, as I read the Cudahy ease a similar argument was rejected there.” The significance of F.O.B. sales in measuring due process limitations on state jurisdiction is surely not to be equated with their relevance to defining a venue created by Congress as an incident to the assertion, in the form of the antitrust laws, of its plenary Commerce Clause power. The so-called “ ‘long-arm’ concept,” since it relates to the reach of state jurisdiction, is not normally to be thought of as extended by a construction of a Congressional venue statute deriving from the Commerce Clause. In any event, it is interesting that Judge Christensen eventually found Section 12 venue to exist in the Intermountain case, because he thought the parent-subsidiary problem of Cudahy, where it was held that North Carolina did not have jurisdiction over the defendant’s person, should be broadly viewed in the light of what the Supreme Court had later said in Soophony about the liberalized scope of Section 12.

. Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Federal Pacific Electric Co., 208 F.Supp. 936 (N.D.Ill., 1962). And see Ohio-Midland Light & Power Co. v. Ohio Brass Co., 221 F.Supp. 405 (S.D.Ohio 1962); Public Service Co. v. Federal Pacific Electric Co., 210 F.Supp. 1 (D.N.M.1962); Reid v. University of Minnesota, 107 F. Supp. 439 (N.D.Ohio 1952). What number of dollars is necessary to found venue is, obviously, a highly relative concept which takes shape from other factors in the particular setting. Cf. Donlan v. Carvel, 193 F.Supp. 246 (D.Md.1961).

. This is not to say that Congress intended that every case must be tried where it is first brought. The district courts have been expressly empowered to transfer civil cases for “the convenience of parties and witnesses, in the interests of justice.” 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). This has been held to apply to civil antitrust cases, whether instituted by the Government or by a private party. United States v. National City Lines, Inc., 337 U.S. 78, 69 S.Ct. 955, 93 L.Ed. 1226 (1949); Paramount Pictures, Inc., v. Rodney, 186 F.2d 111 (3d Cir.) cert. denied, 340 U.S. 953, 71 S.Ct. 572, 95 L.Ed. 687 (1951). Thus a determination that venue exists under Section 12 does not conclude the disposition of a motion to transfer under Section 1404(a).