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thereto, a fund of ten dollars ($10) will be paid, provided the cover is returned to L. P. Farmer, Commissioner, 143 Liberty St., New York, accompanied by the Refund Application Blank attached to cover, properly filled out, within eighteen (18) months from the date of issue stamped hereon."

That said Railroad Company by retaining on each purchase of a mileage book as aforesaid Ten Dollars ($10.00) in addition to the price of said mileage book and until the time that the cover of said mileage book is returned to said corporation is transcending its corporate functions and infringing upon the rights of the individual citizens of this State.

Your petitioner, therefore, prays that you will take such action in this matter as the law and constitution of the State of Pennsylvania provide.

"THE HOMELESS 26,"
By S. M. WILLIAMS,
Secretary.

State of Pennsylvania,
County of Dauphin,

SS:

Personally appeared before me a Notary Public residing in Harrisburg, County and State aforesaid, S. M. Williams, the petitioner above named, who being duly affirmed according to law depose and say, that the facts set forth in the above petition, so far as they are within his knowledge, are true, and so far as he has them from information and belief, he believes them to be true. Affirmed and subscribed to before me,

this sixteenth day of January, 1906.

(Seal) EUGENE SNYDER,

Notary Public.

My commission expires January 22, 1909.

S. M. WILLIAMS,

Upon receipt of this commplaint, the complainant and the Pennsylvania Railroad Company were notified of the time and place fixed for a hearing, as indicated in the notices sent them, copies of which follow:

THOS B. KLEIN,

ISAAC B. BROWN,

Secretary of Internal Affairs.

Superintendent of Bureau.

W. W. MORGARIDGE,

Assistant Superintendent of Bureau.

Pennsylvania

Department of Internal Affairs,

Bureau of Railways,

Harrisburg, January 18, 1906.

Mr. A. J. CASSATT, President Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

Dear Sir:-I inclose to you herewith a copy of a complaint filed in the office of the Secretary of Internal Affairs against .he Pennsylvania Railroad Company in relation to the mileage book now in use on a portion of the lines of your company.

I beg also to advise you that I will be at my office at two o'clock p. m., January 30, 1906, when your Company may appear by counsel or otherwise and file any answer you may desire to make in the premises.

Very truly yours,

ISAAC B. BROWN, Secretary of Internal Affairs.

January 18, 1906.

Mr. S. M. WILLIAMS, Secretary, etc., Pittsburg, Pa.

Dear Sir: I have received your complaint of January 15, made against the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for transcending its corporate functions and infringing upon the rights of individual citizens by the issuance of mileage books now in vogue upon the lines of that Company, and I beg to inform you that I have fixed two o'clock p. m., January 30, 1906, as the time for a hearing in the case, and have so notified the President of the Company, at which time both or either party may appear by counsel or otherwise.

Very truly yours, ISAAC B. BROWN, Secretary of Internal Affairs.

At the time fixed for a hearing there were also appearances by the Travelers' Protective Association and the Merchants' and Travelers' Association, through their representatives J. Mahlon Pickering and F. H. McIntyre, respectively, who are also entered as parties complainant.

Section 19, Article 4, of the Constitution, relating to the Secretary of Internal Affairs, is as follows:

"Sec. 19. The Secretary of Internal Affairs shall exercise all the powers and perform all the duties of the Surveyor General, subject to such changes as shall be made by law. His department shall embrace a bureau of industrial statistics, and he shall discharge such duties relating to corporations, to the charitable institutions, the agricultural, manufacturing, mining, mineral, timber and other material or business interests of the state as may be prescribed by law. He shall annually, and at such other times as may be required by law, make report to the General Assembly."

Section 11, Article 17, of the Constitution, is as follows:

"Sec. 11. The existing powers and duties of the Auditor General in regard to railroads, canals and other transportation companies, except as to their accounts, are hereby transferred to the Secretary of Internal Affairs, who shall have a general supervision over them, subject to such regulations and alterations as shall be provided by law; and, in addition to the annual reports now required to be made, said Secretary may require special reports at any time upon any subject relating to the business of said companies from any officer or officers thereof."

In Section 4 of the Act approved the 11th day of March, 1874, relating to the duties of the Secretary of Internal Affairs, which Act was passed in pursuance of the preceding sections of the Constitution, is the following:

"The Secretary of Internal Affairs shall discharge such duties relating to corporations, to the charitable institutions, the agricultural, manufacturing, mining, mineral, timber and other material or business interests of the state as may be prescribed by law. It shall be his especial duty to exercise a watchful supervision over the railroad, banking, mining, manufacturing and other business corporations of the state, and to see that they confine themselves strictly within their corporate limits; and in case any citizen or citizens shall charge, under oath, any corporation with transcending its corporate functions or infringing upon the rights of individual citizens, said Secretary shall carefully investigate such charges, and may require from said corporation a special report, as enjoined in the constitution of the state; and in case he believes the charges are just, and the matter complained of is beyond the ordinary province of individual redress, he shall certify his opinion to the Attorney General of the state, whose duty it shall be, by an appropriate legal remedy to redress the same by proceeding in the courts, at the expense of the state."

Based upon the authority given and the duties imposed by the Constitution of Pennsylvania and the Act of 1874, quoted in part above the complaint, a copy of which appears herein, was filed.

In the consideration of the law relating to the affairs of railroad companies, as brought to the attention of the Secretary in the complaint filed, it is proper to say that the present Secretary for many years has edited the report of the Bureau of Railways, and in connection with this publication has given utterance to opinions in general on questions of the organization, the management, the capitalization, operation and public duties of common carrier corporations. Public interests seem to demand that in some official way the public services of common carrrier corporations that are satisfactory to the public should be commmended, while those that seem to be against

the law or against public policy should be criticized. Much has been said in commendation of American railways in general, and especially of the railways of Pennsylvania.

In the report for the year ending June 30, 1903, reference was made to the new features of the mileage book as offered for sale to the public by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and other carriers in the Trunk Line Association. It then seemed to the Secretary that the restrictive and exacting features of that mileage book then offered were annoying to the public, and were unjustifiable, and it was so characterized in the annual report referred to. These expressions were made merely in the discharge of what seemed to be a public duty, without any expectancy or thought that, under the above provisions of the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth a complaint would be filed calling upon the Secretary of Internal Affairs to exercise judicial powers, as has been done in the complaint above quoted.

The criticisms then given were not based upon extended researches through our fundamental or statute laws, but were in line with what was conceived to be public policy and propriety. These expressions, however, under ordinary circumstances, would seem to preclude the Secretary of Internal Affairs from subsequently passing upon the question from a judicial standpoint, and were it possible, under our Constitution and law, to dispose of this subject now brought to his attention, by any other authority, it would certainly be in line with propriety for the Secretary of Internal Affairs to refuse to act. No such provision, however, is made by the Constitution or the law, by which another official may be called in to sit in judgment under such circumstances, and there is no other course left but for the Secretary to carefully and conscientiously consider the matters complained of in connection with the facts as they exist, and to appply the laws as he understands them.

Under the laws of the Commonwealth, the Pennsylvania Railroad was incorporated and brought into existence, and in these laws there was conferred upon this organization the power to fix reasonable rates of transportation within certain specified limitations, for persons and commodities. These powers were conferred before the adoption of the present Constitution, which instrument with the laws passed since its adoption, have somewhat qualified, restricted and enlarged its powers. No restrictions have been made to limit the authority of this corporation to fix rates of transportation, and that right remains inviolate, restricted only so far as that rates shall be reasonable and that in no circumstances shall they exceed certain prescribed maximum rates. However, with the changes that have come under the new Constitution and

the laws passed in pursuance thereof, there must be freedom from discrimination, directly or indirectly, with all abatements, rebates, drawbacks, or secret considerations to passengers and shippers absolutely prohibited.

The phraseology of the 17th Article of the Constitution in regard to railways is clear, concise and comprehensive. While in Section 3, Article 17, undue or unreasonable discriminations are prohibited, yet in Section 7, of the same Article, it is declared that there must be freedom from all discriminations, abatements, drawbacks, etc.

The laws enforcing the 17th Article of the Constitution have not been so expressive and comprehensive as the importance of the subject would warrant and demand, and although wholesome qualities are somewhat wanting in these statute laws, yet the Constitution itself with such laws as existed before its adoption and those statute laws since passed, must be accepted as "the rule of action” for the carrier, the shipper, the passenger and the State in its exercise of certain powers over the transportation affairs of the common carrier corporations of Pennsylvania.

It is now more than thirty years since the present Constitution became effectual, and while in some particulars its provisions were not made immediately applicable to corporations then existing until they had accepted its provisions, yet the enjoyment of the advantages given under the enactment and the legislation passed in pursuance thereof affecting caitalization, consolidations, mergers, managements and operation of these railway corporations, leaves no room to doubt the applicability to-day of the Constitution of Pennsylvania to all railway corporations and their accountability to the fundamental law of the State. Immunity from the mandates and obligations of the Constitution cannot be justified or tolerated in any citizen, firm, association, or corporation, or in the conduct of business by any individual or corporate enterprise, or in the affairs of local, municipal or State government. There may have been a period immediately following the adoption of the Constitution, when carriers were not subject to some of its provisions, but so far as concerns the matters at issue here all doubt is eliminated in that there was a formal acceptance in 1901 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, through certificate filed in the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

If these premises are correct then the Pennsylvania Railroad, as well as all other railroad corporations, is amenable to the Constitution and subject to all the laws that relate to common carrier corporations in Pennsylvania.

The functions of a common carrier are performed with a view to conserving commerce and public interests in general, and without

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