A bill for an act to limit the charges of railroad companies, for the transportation of passengers and freight within this State, and to prevent and punish extortion committed by railroad companies.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, That upon the taking effect of this act there shall be appointed by the Governor of this State, a board of railroad commissioners, whose successors shall be elected at the next general election, to consist of three disinterested citizens, whose duties shall be as hereinafter provided; who shall hold their office for two years and until their successors are elected and qualified, and who shall receive in full compensation for their services the sum of three thousand dollars per annum, to be paid out of the treasury in the same manner as the salaries of other State officers.

SEC. 2. No railroad corporation, company, or person now engaged or hereafter to be engaged in the business of carrying freight or passengers, or both, by railroad within this State, shall collect or receive more than a fair and reasonable rate of toll or compensation for the transportation of any such freight or passenger, or for the use and transportation of any railroad car upon its track within this State; such reasonable rate of toll or compensation shall be ascertained and fixed in the manner hereinafter provided, and for each and every violation of this act by charging, collecting, demanding, or receiving more than such reasonable rate, the company, corporation, or person so of fending, shall be liable for extortion as hereinafter provided, and where more than one corporation, company, or person are concerned in such extortion, they shall be liable both jointly and severally.

SEC. 3. For the purpose of ascertaining and fixing a reasonable rate of toll or compensation for the transportation of freight and passengers over railroads within this State as aforesaid, the said board of railroad commissioners shall make for each of the lines of railroads which may be operated within this State, a schedule of the maximum rates of charges for such transportation; such schedule shall be signed by said commissioners, shall show the rates that may be charged to and from each railroad station in the State, shall be published in at least one newspaper at the capital of the State, and shall also be printed and kept posted up in each of the depots and offices of the company, corporation, or person operating the line to which it applies. For the purpose of determining and fixing such reasonable maximum rates of charges, the said board shall at all times have power to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, to compel the attendance before them of witnesses, and the production of books and papers in the same manner and to the same extent as the courts of this State may do, and for any of these purposes they may issue process, which shall be served by any sheriff or deputy sheriff in this State, and may punish for contempt persons willfuly refusing to obey such process or answer proper questions. The schedules shall in all suits instituted under this act in the courts of this State, be deemed and taken as prima facie evidence that the rates therein fixed are reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of freight, passengers, and cars upon or over the lines of railroads for which said schedule may have been respectively provided. Said commissioners may from time to time, and so often as circumstances may require, change and revise said schedules, and shall

give notice of such changes or revisions in the same manner as hereinbefore provided. The schedule aforesaid shall not be deemed invalid on account of any failure of the commissioners preparing the same to include therein all and every article of freights, but shall be held to be good and valid as to all articles or clauses which are included or embraced therein, but it shall be the duty of the commissioners whenever it comes to their knowledge that any article or class of freight has been omitted from any such schedule to amend the same as soon as practicable by adding such omitted article or clause.

SEC. 4. Any corporation, company or person being engaged in the operation of any line of railroad, who shall be guilty of extortion by charging, collecting, demanding or receiving more than a reasonable rate of toll or compensation for the transportation of freight, passengers or cars over or upon any such line of railroad within this State, shall forfeit and pay for the first offense a sum of not less than one thousand nor more than five thousand dollars, and for the second and each subsequent offense, not less than five nor more than ten thousand dollars, to be recovered by action to be brought in the name of the State of Iowa, for the benefit of the school fund of the State, in any district or circuit court of this State, and in any county through which or through any part of which the road owned or operated by the party sued may extend; such action may be in the form of any ordinary proceeding for the recovery of money due on contract, and it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the proper district to institute and prosecute all suits for the recovery of the penalty aforesaid, and the corporation, company or person being guilty of such extortion shall also forfeit and pay to the party injured thereby a sum equal to three times his actual damages caused by such extortion, including a reasonable sum for attorneys fees to be fixed by the court trying the case, which such injured party may recover by action in his own name in either of the courts aforesaid, and the form and place of the action may be the same as in case of a suit to recover the penalty as hereinbefore provided.

SEC. 5. In any action instituted under the provisions of this act, whether it be a suit to recover the penalty aforesaid or a suit by the party injured to recover damages as aforesaid, any number of separate and distinct violations of the provisions of this act, may be stated separately in separate counts or divisions of the petition, and a recovery may be had upon each.

SEC. 6. Each of the schedules herein provided for shall take effect and become prima facie evidence as aforesaid from and after thirty (30) days from the date of the first publication in a newspaper as herein provided. That it shall be the duty of said railroad commissioners to prepare such schedules for all the lines of railroads within the State and publish the same as nearly as practicable at one and the same time. All such schedules purporting to be printed and published as aforesaid, shall be received and held in all suits brought under the provisions of this act as prima facie. The schedules of said commissioners, without further proof than the production of the paper in which they were published together with the affidavit of one or more of the publishers or business managers of such paper that the schedule therein contained is a true copy of the schedule furnished for publication by said commissioners.

SEC. 7. In all cases when two or more corporations, companies or persons unite together for the purpose of transporting freight or passengers over several lines of railroads by consolidating or connecting such lines, the several lines which are thus operated together shall, for all the purposes of this act, be treated as one line, and each and every such corporations, companies or persons shall be bound by the provisions of this act and liable for violation thereof.

SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of said railroad commissioners to personally investigate and ascertain whether the provisions of this act are violated, and for the purpose of making such investigation they shall have all the power conferred upon them by section three of this act, and whenever the facts in any manner ascertained shall in their judgment warrant a prosecution, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to cause suits to be commenced and prosecuted against the offending party or parties to recover the penalty provided by this act in such

cases.

SEC. 9. The provisions of this act shall apply to all persons, firms, corporations or associations, whether incorporated or not, who are or may be engaged as common carriers of freight and passengers, or of both, or of freight only, or of passengers only, by railroad within this State.

SEC. 10. Each member of said board of railroad commissioners shall, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, take and subscribe an oath honestly, impartially and faithfully to discharge all the . duties of said office. In case of any disagreement among the members of said board, the decision of two members thereof shall be the decision of the board. The said board shall once a year or oftener report all their doings to the Governor, who shall lay the same before the General Assembly at its regular sessions.

SEC. 11. In fixing or changing rates under this act, it shall be the duty of said commissioners to allow for carrying freights a reasonable compensation, and no more, to and from each railroad station in the State, and to duly observe the principle that long hauls on railroad lines can be made at a cheaper rate per ton per mile than short hauls. And in fixing or changing rates for such long hauls said commissioners shall take into consideration shipments from points in this State to points in another State, and from points in another State to points in this State--when such shipments are over railroads having continuous lines in another State.

SEC. 12. The extortion named in this act is hereby defined to be the demanding and receiving for services rendered a greater sum than is reasonable and just.

SEC. 13. Any commissioner appointed or elected under this act who shall be guilty of being bribed or of corruption in office, shall, on conviction be punished by fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars and by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding ten years.

SEC. 14. This act being deemed by the General Assembly of immediate importance, shall take effect and be in force from and after its publication in the Daily State Register and Daily State Journal, newspapers published at Des Moines, Iowa.

On the adoption of this substitute, the yeas and nays were demanded, and the yeas were-

Senators Bemis, Fairall, Fitch, Howland, Larrabee, Merrell of Clin

ton, Merrill of Wapello, Murphy, Perkins, Rothert, Russell, Stone, Wonn, and Young of Mahaska-14.

The nays were—

Senators Bailey, Boomer, Campbell, Chambers, Conaway, Converse, Cooley, Crary, Dague, Dashiell, Gault, Jessup, Kephart, Kinne, Lovell, Maxwell, McCoid, McCormack, McIntyre, Miles, Miller, Newton, Pease, Rumple, Shane, Smith, Stuart, Taylor, Thornburg, West, Willett, Williams, Wood, and Young of Cass-34.

Absent or not voting

Senators Mitchell and Selby -2.

So the Senate refused to adopt the substitute.

Senator McCoid offered the following substitute for the one reported by the committee.

A bill for an act to regulate transportation by railways within this State:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, That each and every corporation, company, or person owning or operating any line of railroad within this State, shall be subject to control in their operation of the same in rates of freight and passenger tariff exclusively within this State and in all matters affecting such companies and the public, all stipulations, agreements, laws, or rights in any manner by them secured, created, or assigned to the contrary notwithstanding, and every such railway, corporation, company, or person shall be liable for any violation of the provisions of this act.

SEC. 2. That no such corporation, company, or person shall consolidate their line of railway, stock franchises, property, or effects with any other corporation, company, or person of like character, whether organized under the laws of this or any other State, when such consolidation would in any manner hinder or prevent competition, or when by such consolidation two lines of railway, having a common terminus, or having two common stations or points of junction, shall become the property or under the control of one such consolidated corporation, and wherever such consolidation shall be unlawful, as herein provided, it shall be unlawful for any such corporations, companies, or persons to lease or in any manner procure control of such lines.

SEC. 3. All articles of consolidation heretofore made of corporations, companies, or persons, as are made unlawful in the preceding section, shall expire, and all rights thereunder shall revert to the several corporations which originally existed previous to such consolidation on the first day of January, A. D. 1876.

SEC. 4. Every corporation, company, or person operating a line of railway in this State, whether organized under the laws of this State or under the laws of another State, whether consolidated from two companies, one in this and one in another State, or existing solely under the laws of this State, shall keep and maintain general offices and headquarters of such corporation, company, or person, in this State, with full and complete records, inventories, schedules of all property and all stock issued, all dividends made by said road, which said records shall be open to inspection by any citizen of the State, at all reasonable hours and times, and shall be produced in evidence upon subpoena therefor from any court of record of the State, and all general officers of such companies shall be residents of the State of Iowa.

SEC. 5. It shall be unlawful for any such corporation, company, or person to combine, or agree, or conspire together with any other such corporation owning or operating a line of railway in or through this State to form a joint tariff, or pool, or by any other conspiracy or pretense to defeat, hinder, or prevent competition between independent roads through or into this State, and every such act, agreement, or pretense shall be deemed a conspiracy under section 4087 of the Code of 1873, and every such rate so agreed upon, demanded, charged, collected, or received, shall be deemed as an extortion as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 6. That no such corporation, company or person shall charge, demand, collect, or receive more than a fair and reasonable rate of toll or compensation for carriage of freight or passengers or for the use or transportation of any car between any two points or stations within this State; such reasonable rate of toll or compensation shall be ascertained and fixed as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 7. Every corporation, company, or individual operating a line of railway within or through this State shall make out as now required by law a schedule of rates of freight and passenger tariff of their whole line of railway, any part of which may be in this State, and shall report a copy thereof to the Governor of the State six (6) months previous to the regular session of each General Assembly, and the Governor shall submit the same to the General Assembly with his biennial message, with such suggestions as he may see proper to make, and the General Assembly shall review, revise, correct, or approve such schedule of rates and shall by act establish such schedule so approved as the reasonable rate to be charged, demanded, collected or received, and such schedule of rates so ascertained and fixed shall be and continue the maximum rates of freight and passenger tariff for such road for and during the two succeeding years and until changed by any succeeding General Assembly: Provided, That the Governor of the State may extend or relieve from any manifest wrong thereby suffered, under the same restrictions and under like circumstances so far as applicable as he may pardon, commute, or remit, fines, penalties, and forfeitures.

SEC. 8. Any corporation, company or person, whether such person be acting for himself or others, or as agents of any such corporation, demanding, charging, collecting or receiving more than a reasonable rate of toll or compensation for the transportation of freight, passengers or cars over or upon any line of railway as herein before provided, shall be deemed guilty of extortion under section 3950 of the Code of 1873, and shall forfeit and pay for each offense a sum not less than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, to be recovered by action in the name of the State of Iowa, in any district or circuit court of this State in the form of an ordinary action at law for money due on contracts; and it shall be the duty of the district attorney for the proper district to institute and prosecute all suits for the recovery of the penalty aforesaid. And the corporation, company or person being guilty of such extortion, shall also be liable to the party injured thereby for the damages caused by such extortion, including a reasonable sum for attorney's fees to be fixed by the court trying the case, which such injured party may recover by action in his own name in either of the courts aforesaid, and by the same form of action as provided to recover the penalty; and in said action any number of distinct and separate