ger and car service abuses.1 The full text of the law of 1873 is as follows, viz.:

$407. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, If any railroad corporation, organized or doing business in this state under any act of incorporation, or general law of this state, now in force or which may hereafter be enacted, or any railroad corporation organized or which may hereafter be organized under the laws of any other state, and doing business in this state, shall charge, collect, demand or receive more than a fair and reasonable rate of toll or compensation, for the transportation of passengers or freight, of any description, or for the use and transportation of any railroad car upon its track, or any of the branches thereof, or upon any railroad within this state which it has the right, license, or permission to use, operate, or control, the same shall be deemed guilty of extortion, and upon conviction thereof shall be dealt with as hereinafter provided.

2

§ 408. If any such railroad corporation aforesaid shall make any unjust discrimination in its rates or charges of toll, or compensation, for the transportation of passengers or freight of any description, or for the use and transportation of any railroad car upon its said. road, or upon any of the branches thereof, or upon any railroads connected therewith, which it has the

1 For the full text of the original statutes referred to see Gross, vol. ii, sections 146-157.

2 The only noticeable feature of this section and the one immediately following is the reference to car service. Previous legislation to prevent railway extortion and discrimination made no direct allusion to this feature of transportation business.

right, license, or permission to operate, control or use, within this state, the same shall be deemed guilty of having violated the provisions of this act, and upon conviction thereof shall be dealt with as hereinafter provided.

$409. If any such railroad corporation shall charge, collect, or receive, for the transportation of any passenger, or freight of any description, upon its railroad, for any distance, within this state, the same, or a greater amount of toll or compensation than is at the same time charged, collected, or received for the transportation, in the same direction, of any passenger, or like quantity of freight of the same class, over a greater distance of the same railroad; or if it shall charge, collect, or receive, at any point upon its railroad, a higher rate of toll or compensation for receiving, handling or delivering freight of the same class. and like quantity, than it shall, at the same time, charge, collect, or receive at any other point upon the same railroad; or if it shall charge, collect, or receive for the transportation of any passenger, or freight of any description, over its railroad, a greater amount as toll or compensation than shall, at the same time, be charged, collected, or received by it for the transportation of any passenger, or like quantity of freight of the same class, being transported in the same direction, over any portion of the same railroad, of equal distance; or if it shall charge, collect, or receive from any person or persons, a higher or greater amount of toll or compensation than it shall, at the same time, charge, collect, or receive from any other person or persons for receiving, handling, or delivering freight of the same class and like quantity, at the same point

upon its railroad; or if it shall charge, collect, or receive from any person or persons, for the transportation of any freight upon its railroad, a higher or greater rate of toll or compensation than it shall, at the same time, charge, collect, or receive from any other person or persons, for the transportation of the like quantity of freight of the same class, being transported from the same point, in the same direction, over equal distances of the same railroad; or if it shall charge, collect, or receive from any person or persons, for the use and transportation of any railroad car or cars upon its railroad, for any distance, the same or a greater amount of toll or compensation than is at the same time charged, collected, or received from any other person or persons, for the use and transportation of any railroad car of the same class or number, for a like purpose, being transported in the same direction, over a greater distance of the same railroad; or if it shall charge, collect, or receive from any person or persons, for the use and transportation of any railroad car or cars upon its railroad, a higher or greater rate of toll or compensation than it shall, at the same time, charge, collect, or receive from any other person or persons, for the use and transportation of any railroad car or cars of the same class or number, for a like purpose, being transported from the same point, in the same direction, over an equal distance of the same railroad; all such discriminating rates, charges, collections, or receipts, whether made directly, or by means of any rebate, drawback, or other shift or evasion, shall be deemed and taken, against such railroad corporation, as prima facie evidence of the unjust discriminations prohibited by the provisions of this act, and it shall

not be deemed a sufficient excuse or justification of such discriminations on the part of such railroad corporation, that the railway station or point at which it shall charge, collect, or receive the same or less rates of toll or compensation, for the transportation of such passengers or freight, or for the use and transportation of such railroad car the greater distance, than for the shorter distance, is a railway station or point at which there exists competition with any other railroad or means of transportation. This section shall not be construed so as to exclude other evidence tending to show any unjust discrimination in freight and passenger rates. The provisions of this section shall extend and apply to any railroad, the branches thereof, and any road or roads which any railroad corporation has the right, license, or permission to use, operate, or control, wholly or in part within this state: Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent railroad corporations from issuing commutation, excursion or thousand mile tickets, as the same are now issued by such corporations. 1

1 This elaborate section has one idea running through it, viz.: any discrimination in rates is unjust. Herein it joins issue with the Chicago and Alton decision. It is based upon the assumption that the difficulty of allowing any discrimination without practically abandoning the doctrine of uniformity, is such that the only way to render effective the constitutional provision against unjust discrimination is to forbid all discrimination. All legislation, whether state or municipal, to prevent extortion on street cars and in hacks is based on the same assumption. So are laws and regulations designed to prevent the spread of contagious disease. For instance, the state forbids the importation of Texas cattle in certain cases. That law cannot be executed without injustice in a few exceptional cases; neither could it be changed

410. Any such railroad corporation guilty of extortion, or of making any unjust discrimination as to passenger or freight rates, or the rates for the use and transportation of railroad cars, or in receiving, handling, or delivering freights, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in any sum not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000), nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000), for the first offense; and for the second offense not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000), nor more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), and for the third offense not less than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), nor more than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000); and for every subsequent offense and conviction thereof, shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000): Provided, that in all cases under this act either party shall have the right of trial by jury.1

411. The fines hereinbefore provided for may be recovered in an action of debt, in the name of the

so as to meet those exceptional cases without defeating the object of the statute. The legislature deems the evil of discrimination of such a nature as to call for a similar application of the uniformity doctrine. The power of the legislature over this subject is discussed in chap. x, div. iii.

1 Neither in this section nor in the act elsewhere is any allusion made to the forfeiture of franchise and property. The absence of legislation does not impair the force of the constitutional provision on that subject. If the penal remedies herein laid down should prove unavailing to secure the object sought, then the forfeiture penalty would be called into requisition. As the statute provides a fourfold grade of penalties, the reasonable presumption is that the general assembly intended the forfeiture penalty for the fifth offense. The passenger act previously referred to provided that extreme penalty for the fifth offense. Such an enforcement of that extreme penalty would be in harmony with the Chicago and Alton decision.