SUBJECT INDEX. PAGE. Powers and duties of Railroad Commissioners, as defined by the Constitution.. 7 7 7 Orders, correspondence, and proceedings of the Commission for the year 1886... -10-23 23 The governing principle that men shall mind their own business. 23 Bureaucratic and corporate control in British India; a contrast- 31 Constituents of service illustrated in connection with train, ton, and passenger miles. 33 Equal mileage rates; short and long hauls. 34 False theories tested by known conditions, and inevitable results 34 Self-executing laws of trade and commerce.. 35 Results of their operation brought home.. Conditions of operation as inducements to construction.... Reproduction of railroad plant not enough.. A condition of arrested development; its cause--- Hopes deferred more than realized.. Manifest destiny of Northern California-- "The mills of the gods" Some apparent disrespect for shammers and pretenders.. 35 36 36 36 37 37 38 38 39 Exhibit C-Detailed statement of miles of trunk and branch lines operated by the Southern Pacific Company in California............ 46-48 Exhibit D-Synopsis of returns, showing volume of business, charges for fare and freight, etc... -48-51 Exhibit E-Reprint of correspondence and orders relating to continuing controversy with Atlantic and Pacific Railroad Company. 51-60 Annual reports of railroad companies in State, in extenso.. 1-385 REPORT OF COMMISSION. BOARD OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA, AT OFFICE IN THE CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO, December 31, 1886. To his Excellency GEORGE STONEMAN, Governor of the State of California: SIR: The Constitution creates a Railroad Commission, consisting of three members. It prescribes the number competent to do or sanction any act, as follows: "And the act of a majority of said Commission shall be deemed the act of said Commission.' (Constitution, Art. 12, Sec. 22.) Again, in the same section, and referring to the said clause, is the requirement to "report to the Governor, annually, their proceedings, and such other facts as may be deemed important.' This section of the Constitution declares and defines the powers and duties of Railroad Commissioners in the State, and what it says is so, and will continue to be as prescribed, unless revised or repealed, time without end. From the clauses cited, it is clear that acts done and sanctioned by the requisite number of Commissioners, in their collective capacity, as the Commission, are to be reported. As the requirement is expressly limited to "their proceedings and such other facts as may be deemed important," we are left to do our own deeming, and do not deem our individual records to be the proper subject-matters of a report, or of the slightest official importance. STANDING ORDERS AND RULES OF EVIDENCE AND DECISION. That this report may subserve its proper uses and purposes, we have compiled the standing orders and rules of evidence and decision, which are scattered through the records of our administration. They relate almost entirely to the organization, modes of procedure, and systematic working methods of the office, and without regard to their individual authorship, are the acts of the Commission. We found the office without them, and leave them for what they are worth to our successors, in the order of their adoption, and in a convenient form for reference. In this connection and for the purpose stated, Article 12 of the Constitution, and the organic Act of 1880, are introduced, with due precedence, as follows: [From the Constitution of the State of California.] CORPORATIONS. SECTION 17. All railroad, canal, and other transportation companies are declared to be common carriers, and subject to legislative control. Any association or corporation, organized for the purpose, under the laws of this State, shall have the right to connect at the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with, or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport each the other's passengers, tonnage, and cars, without delay or discrimi nation. SEC. 18. No President, Director, officer, agent, or employé of any railroad or canal company shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing of material or supplies to such company, nor in the business of transportation as a common carrier of freight or passengers over the works owned, leased, controlled, or worked by such company, except such interest in the business of transportation as lawfully flows from the ownership of stock therein. SEC. 19. No railroad or other transportation company shall grant free passes, or passes or tickets at a discount, to any person holding any office of honor, trust, or profit in this State; and the acceptance of any such pass or ticket, by a member of the Legislature or any public officer, other than Railroad Commissioner, shall work a forfeiture of his office. SEC. 20. No railroad company or other common carrier shall combine or make any contract with the owners of any vessel that leaves port or makes port in this State, or with any common carrier, by which combination or contract the earnings of one doing the carrying are to be shared by the other not doing the carrying. And whenever a railroad corporation shall, for the purpose of competing with any other common carrier, lower its rates for transportation of passengers or freight from one point to another, such reduced rates shall not be again raised or increased from such standard without the consent of the governmental authority in which shall be vested the power to regulate fares and freights. SEC. 21. No discrimination in charges or facilities for transportation shall be made by any railroad or other transportation company between places or persons, or in the facilities for the transportation of the same classes of freight or passengers within this State, or coming from or going to any other State. Persons and property transported over any railroad, or by any other transportation company or individual, shall be delivered at any station, landing, or port, at charges not exceeding the charges for the transportation of persons and property of the same class, in the same direction, to any more distant station, port, or landing. Excursion and commutation tickets may be issued at special rates. SEC. 22. The State shall be divided into three districts as nearly equal in population as practicable, in each of which one Railroad Commissioner shall be elected by the qualified electors thereof at the regular gubernatorial elections, whose salary shall be fixed by law, and whose term of office shall be four years, commencing on the first Monday after the first day of January next succeeding their election. Said Commissioners shall be qualified electors of this State and of the district from which they are elected, and shall not be interested in any railroad corporation, or other transportation company, as stockholder, creditor, agent, attorney, or employé; and the act of a majority of said Commissioners shall be deemed the act of said Commission. Said Commissioners shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to establish rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight by railroad or other transportation companies, and publish the same from time to time, with such changes as they may make; to examine the books, records, and papers of all railroad and other transportation companies, and for this purpose they shall have power to issue subpoenas and all other necessary process; to hear and determine complaints against railroad and other transportation companies, to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, take testimony, and punish for contempt of their orders and processes, in the same manner and to the same extent as Courts of record, and enforce their decisions and correct abuses through the medium of the Courts. Said Commissioners shall prescribe a uniform system of accounts to be kept by all such corporations and companies. Any railroad corporation or transportation company which shall fail or refuse to conform to such rates as shall be established by such Commissioners, or shall charge rates in excess thereof, or shall fail to keep their accounts in accordance with the system prescribed by the Commission, shall be fined not exceeding twenty thousand dollars for each offense; and every officer, agent, or employé of any such corporation or company, who shall demand or receive rates in excess thereof, or who shall in any manner violate the provisions of this section, shall be fined not exceeding five thousand dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding one year. In all controversies, civil or criminal, the rates of fares and freights established by said Commission shall be deemed conclusively just and reasonable, and in any action against such corporation or company for damages sustained by charging excessive rates, the plaintiff, in addition to the actual damage, may, in the discretion of the Judge or jury, recover exemplary damages. Said Commission shall report to the Governor, annually, their proceedings, and such other facts as may be deemed important. Nothing in this section shall prevent individuals from maintaining actions against any of such companies. The Legislature may, in addition to any penalties herein prescribed, enforce this article by forfeiture of charter or otherwise, and may confer such further powers on the Commissioners as shall be necessary to enable them to perform the duties enjoined on them in this and the foregoing section. The Legislature shall have power, by a two-thirds vote of all the members elected to each house, to remove any one or more of said Commissioners from office, for dereliction of duty, or corruption, or incompetency; and whenever, from any cause, a vacancy in office shall occur in said Commission, the Governor shall fill the same by the appointment of a qualified person thereto, who shall hold office for the residue of the unexpired term, and until his successor shall have been elected and qualified. |