Complaints have not been numerous, yet the periods have been short when no case has been before the board. In every case the complainant and respondent have been patiently and impartially heard, the decision of the board has been unanimous, and the finding or recommendation has been accepted in every instance but one. In the exceptional case, where a question of divided jurisdiction arose, the recommendation and authority of the board within the state were finally accepted. The experience of this board in the matter of complaints has been similar to that of railroad commissions in other states. At the outset of their existence the public are unfamiliar with their methods, and there is a hesitancy to appeal to an untried tribunal for redress. Gradually the public come to see that a railroad commission is a board of arbitration between the railroads and themselves, with no province or purpose except to arrive at the facts and the law by the most direct and inexpensive methods, and then to reach a conclusion that the facts and the law will alone warrant. It is unnecessary to say that this has been the rule of action of this board. It would be impossible for any board to adopt a different rule without losing its own self-respect and the confidence of the people at the same time. With a commission adhering inflexibly to this rule, the conclusion is inevitable, if complaints are few, that the railroads as well as the commission are fulfilling their duties to the public. That community is fortunate not where justice is dealt out most frequently, but where there is least occasion that it should be dealt out at all. SAFETY FREIGHT-CAR COUPLER. The chief need of employés on freight trains, as a preventive of accidents in coupling cars, is a safety car-coupler which will not require the employés to go between the cars to effect a connection. The risks of this service are very great; not necessarily fatal, but often attended with serious consequences. Within the year wide attention has been directed to this subject. Legislatures have acted, many public tests of inventions have been made, and several of our own roads are experimenting with appliances. Experiments made this season on the Boston & Maine, the Eastern, and the Boston & Lowell roads have been tolerably successful. A continuance of the experiments will soon demonstrate the utility or worthlessness of the mechanism. Such experiments are better than any that the state can institute. In the nature of the case they must be thorough and conclusive; and when an appliance has passed this test and that of the trained mechanics in charge of it, the state will be prepared and warranted in providing by law for the general adoption of the appliance. During the progress of the experiments, until a success is practically and conclusively demonstrated, it seems to be neither the part of duty nor of prudence for a board of railroad commissioners to recommend a particular invention. Experimental tests of all reasonable and needed appliances may well be recommended: and no enterprising and competent management, unless deterred by financial inability, will fail to devote some time and money to practical tests of the improvements that our mechanics and inventors are constantly making in the entire field of railway appliances. The most advanced position on this question was taken by the legislature of Connecticut in 1882, by the passage of an act requiring every railroad corporation owning or operating railroads in that state to attach safety couplers to all freight cars thereafter built or purchased for use on its road. The law has been complied with generally by the railroads of that state, and a safety coupler is now in use upon some seven hundred cars. The test is not conclusive, but one road reports no failure in a year's use. The railroads of New York are required to use coupling-sticks, but this method is clumsy and in general disuse. A statute requiring new cars to be provided with an automatic coupler, approved by the commissioners upon sufficient test and investigation, is demanded by a proper regard for the safety of railroad employés. By the adoption and enforcement of similar legislation in all the states, a uniform system would soon prevail, and the cause of many accidents be almost wholly removed. The method of coupling freight cars by hand has little more to commend it on the score of safety and enterprise than the swinging doors of freight cars, which were long since displaced by slide doors. 2 DISPUTED JURISDICTION. The necessity for the creation of a national commission on inter-state commerce is gradually becoming greater. In the period, considerably less than a year, that this board has been in existence, two important cases have engaged its attention, that involved questions and principles of disputed jurisdiction. These cases will be found given at length in their appropriate place in this report. In the one case the decision was acquiesced in as equitable and expedient. In the other case it is still a matter of contest, having been transferred by this board to the attorney-general. A national commission of three or five persons would be burdened with business, or it would be necessarily restricted in its jurisdiction. The railroads of the country are of vast extent and complicated relations. Their length at the close of 1883 was 121,592 miles, and the share capital was $3,708,060,583. The number of passengers carried on the railroads of the country in 1883 was 312,686,641. The freight transported by rail in the same year was 400,453,439 tons. A large number of the questions of an inter-state character that arise are necessarily confined to contiguous states. Much might be gained in a speedy and direct decision of such cases, could they be determined by the existing state boards sitting together. Unless some such provision is incorporated in the national law, it may be found difficult for a national board to attend to the duties in so vast a field as the United States. It would be nearly as easy for the already burdened supreme court of the United States to attend to its own proper duties and those of the United States circuit and district courts combined. Bills for the establishment of a board of commissioners of inter-state commerce have been reported in each branch of congress. These bills are alike in many respects, but the house bill gives to the commissioners much larger powers than are found in the senate bill. The latter measure much resembles the state commission laws that rely on equity and public opinion to give effect to the commission's decisions and recommendations. National legislation on this subject is not likely to be much longer deferred. |