what railway companies would in ordinary circumstances be inclined to charge.

2

As a matter of interest, rather than of importance, it may be noted that in a few states several charters prescribe rates by reference to another charter previously granted by the same legislature. Thus a Michigan1 charter of 1848 refers to rates charged by the Michigan Central Railway; a Georgia3 charter of 1838 specifies that the company may charge as much as the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company; in 1831 Mississippi adopted a charter granted by Louisiana; and a Tennessee 1 charter of 1851 grants the same provisions which have previously been granted to the Nashville and Chattanooga road.

Publicity of Rates. - Publicity of rates is not generally provided for, although provisions on this subject are found in some of the charters granted by Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, Missouri, and in occasional charters granted in the Northwestern States, all of which are fairly well illustrated by the clause of an Indiana charter quoted above. A Louisiana 5 charter of 1831, after providing that such rates may be charged as shall have been previously fixed by the resolution of the board of directors, stipulates that "rates

1 Laws, 1848, no. 152.

2 Rates not to exceed those charged by the Michigan Central. 8 Laws, 1838, p. 174. 4 Laws, 1851-52, ch. 103.

5 Laws, 1831, ch. 55.

shall be published in some newspaper, . . . and it shall be unlawful to increase such rates, after the same shall have been established, during the period for which they have been established." The same charter further provides that every new board of directors shall publish a schedule of rates within ten days after its election. Another charter granted two years later specifies the number of newspapers in which the schedule of rates shall be published, and that such rates "shall not be changed during the year in which they are established." Publicity of a different kind, and quite unique in railway legislation, is provided for by joint resolution of the South Carolina1 legislature of 1836, "That no charter for the incorporation of railroad companies, or in extension thereof, shall be granted by the legislature unless three months' public notice of the application for same be previously given by advertising in one of the papers of the city of Charleston, and also in the paper of one of the counties in which said road may be situated, or, if there be no newspaper in such county, then by publication of such notice at the court-house or some conspicuous place in the county." The South Carolina resolution evidently aimed to accomplish the same thing as the declaration of utility in some of the other states, namely, to give interested parties an opportunity to be heard and to demonstrate to the public the necessity of incorporating the projected company.

1 Rev. Stat., 1873, ch. 65, p. 366.

Another, but a much more restricted, kind of publicity is that provided for in some charters granted in all parts of the country, by giving stockholders the right to inspect the books of the company at any time. This, however, is not publicity as we now understand it, for it simply gives the persons directly interested in the financial success of the enterprise access to the books, while the real and essential publicity suggested to-day is of a very different kind. It is therefore more a matter of curiosity than of vital importance that notice is taken of a New Hampshire1 charter of 1836, which provides that the books of the company shall be open for inspection by a committee of the legislature. Analogous provisions are occasionally met with in charters of Rhode Island and the Northwestern States, but to what extent legislative committees ever exercise this privilege does not appear.

Discriminations. Relatively few early charters contain any reference to the matter of discrimination, which figures so largely in later railway legislation. Among the states which granted charters containing clauses on discrimination are North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. A North Carolina 2 charter of 1837 says, "They shall give no undue preference to the property of one person over that of another, but as far as practicable shall carry each in the order of time in which it shall be delivered or offered for trans2 Laws, 1837, ch. 40.

1 Laws, 1836, ch. 66, § 6.

portation with the tolls paid or tendered." An early Wisconsin charter contains a much more elaborate provision on discriminations.

Administrative Agents. So far as internal evidence is concerned, early charters were granted upon the assumption that the companies organized under them would voluntarily fulfil the obligations imposed by the franchise. The assumption which underlies early as well as later railway charters is that they execute themselves. It is consequently doubly interesting to observe that the small state of Rhode Island apparently took the initiative in establishing commissions, for in 1836 the legislature of that state passed "An act to establish railroad commissioners." After providing for the appointment of three commissioners by the general assembly, the act specifies that "it shall be the duty of said board of commissioners, upon complaint or otherwise, whenever a majority of them shall deem it expedient, personally to examine into any or all of the transactions or proceedings of any railroad corporation that now is, or hereafter may be, authorized and established in this state, in order to secure to all the citizens and inhabitants of the same the full and equal privileges of the transportation of passengers and property at all times that may be granted, either directly or indirectly, by any such corporation to the citizens of any other state or states, and ratably in proportion to the distance any such persons or property may be 1 Laws, 1836, p. 1087.

transported on any railroad as aforesaid; and to inquire into any contract, understanding, or agreement by which any railroad company shall attempt to transfer or give to any steamboat company any favor or preference over any other such company or boat, either as to freight or passage, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act and the several acts hereafter passed in relation to railroads."

The commissioners in the Connecticut charter quoted before may here be recalled, together with the boards of internal improvement of Tennessee 1 and Florida,2 which had some, although much more restricted, administrative powers over certain railways. Analogous functions were performed under a Vermont3 charter of 1843, by which "the supreme court at any stated session thereof, upon application of ten freeholders in any town or towns through which said road may pass, may alter or establish the rates of toll upon said road for any term not exceeding ten years at any one time." It is evident that the Rhode Island commission is the only one of these bodies that could exercise, under the law, fairly comprehensive administrative functions. The Vermont court is here alluded to simply because it is an illustration of the introduction into the management of railway affairs of persons other than those directly interested in the corporation.

1 Laws, 1838.

2 Laws, 1855, ch. 610.

3 Laws, 1843, no. 56, § 9.