SOUTH DAKOTA.

I. CONSTITUTION.

The Legislature shall provide by general laws for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created.

The exercise of the right of eminent domain shall never be abridged or construed so as to prevent the Legislature from taking property and franchises of incorporated companies and subjecting them to public use the same as the property of individuals.

No foreign corporation shall do any business in the State without having one or more known places of business and an authorized agent in the same upon whom process may be served.

No corporation shall engage in any business other than that expressly authorized by its charter nor shall it take or hold any real estate except such as may be necessary and proper for its legitimate business. Neither the State nor any municipality shall loan or give its credit or make donations to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, except for the necessary support of the poor, nor subscribe to or become the owner of the capital stock of any association or corporation, nor pay or become responsible for the debt of any individual, association or corporation, nor shall the State enter into any work of internal improve

ment.

Any company organized for the purpose, or any individual. shall have the right to construct and maintain lines of telegraph in the State, and to connect the same with other lines and the Legislature shall by general law of uniform operation provide reasonable regulations to give full effect to this section. No telephone company shall consolidate with or hold a controlling interest in the stock or bonds of any other telegraph company owning a competing line or acquire by purchase or otherwise any other competing line of telegraph.

No telegraph or telephone line shall be constructed within the limits of any village, town or city without the consent of its local authorities.

Private property shall not be taken for public use or damaged without just compensation, to be determined by a jury, which shall be paid as soon as it can be ascertained and before possession is taken. No benefit which may accrue to the owner as the result of an improvement made by a private corporation, shall be construed in fixing a compensation for property taken or damaged. The fee of land taken for railroad tracks or other highways shall remain in such owners subject to the use for which it is taken.

The power to tax corporations and corporate property shall not be surrendered or suspended by any contract or grant to which the State shall be a party.

Monopolies and trusts shall not be allowed in this State. No corporation, partnership or association of persons in the State shall directly or indirectly combine or make any contract with any incorporated company, foreign or domestic, through their stockholders or the trustees or assigns of such stockholders or with any partnership or association or persons or in any manner whatever to fix prices, limit production or regulate the transportation of any product or commodity so as to prevent competition in such prices, production or transportation, or to establish excessive prices therefor.

The Legislature is prohibited from enacting any private or special laws granting to any individual, corporation or association any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchises whatever.

II. CORPORATIONS.

Any number of persons not less than five may form a corporation for the purpose of maintaining and operating lines of telegraph, and shall make articles of incorporation stating its name, place from which and to which the lines of telegraph are to be constructed, the estimated length thereof, and the name of each county in the State through or into which they are extended or intended to be constructed, the amount of its capital stock, the number of shares and the number and amount of each class of stock and the names and residences of the directors; the term for which the company shall exist, which shall not exceed thirty years; the place within the State where its principal office shall be mainVol. 2-18

tained and where its records and stock books shall be kept and there shall be attached to such certificate an affidavit of at least three of the company directors that it has intended in good faith to construct and maintain and operate the lines of telegraph mentioned in that certificate which affidavit and certificate shall be filed in the office of the Secretary of State whereupon the certificate of corporate existence shall be issued and if the whole of the capital stock shall not have then been subscribed, the directors may open the books of subscription to fill up the capital stock.

The right of way is granted to the owners of any telegraph or telephone lines over lands and real property belonging to the State, and the right to use public ground and highways subject to the control of the proper municipal authorities.

There shall be a board of not less than five directors; no one of whom shall be a director unless he shall be a stockholder owning stock absolutely in his own name, or as a trustee or personal representative. The capital stock may be increased to such amount as may by its stockholders be deemed necessary for the construction or operation of its line by a vote of the owners of at least twothirds of all its stock. Every corporation, domestic or foreign, owning or operating lines of telegraph within the State shall have the power to make examinations and survey for its proposed lines, to take and hold voluntary grants of real estate and other property as may be made to be an aid in the construction, maintenance and operation of its lines; to acquire by purchase such real estate and other property as may be necessary for the construction, maintenance and operation of its lines; to hold and use the same; to lease or otherwise dispose of any part or parcel thereof or sell the same when no longer necessary to its use; to construct its lines along or upon any stream of water, highway or road wherever, river front, steamboat, or other public landing or canal, which its road shall intersect or touch; to connect its lines with any lines of telegraph heretofore or hereafter constructed; to take and transmit messages over its lines by power or force of electricity and to receive compensation and to do all the business incidental to telegraph corporations; to erect and maintain all necessary and convenient buildings, fixtures and machinery;

and to acquire real property necessary for its construction and maintenance of its lines by condemnation.

The utmost care and diligence shall be used in the transmission and delivery of messages, and every person whose message is postponed is entitled to recover from such association his actual damages and $50 in addition thereto.

No company or individual organized for the purpose of owning, maintaining and operating lines of telegraph in the State shall consolidate with or hold a controlling interest in the stock or bonds of any telegraph companies owning competing lines or acquire by purchase or otherwise any competing line of telegraph.

The carrier of messages for reward must deliver them over at the place to which they are addressed, to the person for whom they are intended, and must use great care and diligence in the transmission and delivery of messages.

Everyone who offers to the public to carry persons, property or messages is a common carrier of whatever he thus offers to carry and must if able to do so carry whatever is offered to him at a reasonable time and place of a kind which he is accustomed to carry and must always give preference in time and may give preference in price to the United States and this State.

A common carrier must start at such time and place as he announces to the public unless detained by reason of accidents or the elements or in order to connect with carriers on other lines of travel.

A common carrier is entitled to a reasonable compensation which he may require to be paid in advance and if refused may refuse to carry. Obligations of a common carrier cannot be limited by general notice on his part, but may be limited by special contract, but a common carrier cannot be exonerated by any agreement made in anticipation thereof from liability for the gross neglect for or wilful wrong or fraud of himself or his servants.

A carrier of messages by contract must, if it is practicable, directly transmit such message immediately upon its receipt and must transmit them in the order in which he receives them except messages from agents of the United States or of this State on public business, to which he must always give priority, and every person whose message is refused or postponed contrary to the

provisions in this chapter is entitled to recover his actual damage and $50 in addition thereto.

No foreign corporation shall transact any business within the State, or acquire or dispose of real or personal property, or maintain any action at law in the State until it shall have filed in the office of the Secretary of State a duly certified copy of its articles of incorporation and shall have complied with the provisions of this section, except that the same shall not apply to corporations and associations created solely for religious and charitable purposes.

Such foreign corporation shall appoint an agent who shall reside at some accessible point in the State duly authorized to accept service of process and upon whom such service may be had in any action of which such company may be a party. A duly certified copy of such agent's appointment shall be filed and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State and also in the office of the register of deeds of the county where such agent resides. And any person acting as agent or officer of any foreign corporation unless it shall have appointed such agent as herein provided, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and can be punished by a penalty of not more than $100 and imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both.

The Legislature or either branch may examine into the affairs and conditions of any corporation in the State at all times.

III. TAXATION.

The State Board of Equalization shall consist of the Governor, Auditor, Secretary of State, Treasurer and Commissioner of Schools and Public Lands; and annually, the Auditor shall transmit to each county auditor a transcript of the proceedings of the board, specifying percentum added to or deducted from the valuation of each class of real and personal property in the several counties of the State.

It shall be the duty of every telephone or telegraph company doing business in the State to annually furnish to the State Auditor a statement under oath showing the total number of miles. owned, operated or leased by it within the State, the number of miles in each separate line or division thereof, with the number of separate wires therein, stating the counties through which the