The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1877-03-23
M Il Nj L. .

To Tie Honorable, the Members of The General As-
sembly Of the STATE cf South Carolina.
The undersigned citizens Of the State afore-
show unto your Honorable Body:
That under Section 6, of the Declaration of
Rights" in the Constitution of 1868, the right;
'to petition the government, or any department
thereof. shall never be abridged" to the citizens
of this State. Under this right, so guaranteed,
your Petitioners espectfully ask the attention Of
your Honorable Body to grievance to which
the people Of this County, and of other Sections
of our State, are subjected, and the most cffec-
tive remedy whereof, your Petitioners have been
advised, is in the power of your Honorable
Body.
Your Petitioners show, that from the earliest
adjudicaiions of cases involving the privileges
and responsibilities of Railroads, the Courts of
England and of this Country, have uniformly
held that Railroads arc Common Carriers, and
that there attaches to such Corporations all the
duties Of Common Carriers at common law. In
II late American decision it was held that "a
Railroad Company is chartered, and is chartered
solely for the purpose of exercising the func-
Carrier"
Your Petitioners further show, that Railroads
arc more than Common Can riers they are Cor
rorations to whom is delegated by the State II
portion OF her own Sovcreignty-the right
OF Eminent Domain-and farms or WOO Hands
dwelling houses, even the ancestral homes of
her citizens, the State gives these creatures of
hers the right to appropriate to their use, at
their own sole pleasure
Your Petitioners further show, as they have
been advised, that Railroads. being Common car
rlcrs, and having Ind conferred upo.s ,hsm these
high rights, so delegated for public purposes and
for the benefit her citizens, the Sovereign State
reserves 20 her Legislature, in exchange there
for, the right to regulate these corporations
to keep them strictly within their proper lin.
its.
When Lord ChiefJustice Holt said that ga Com
mon Carrier exercises a public employment
it was before steam had been applied to promote
locomotion but now, where the Common Car
rier has also accorded 10 him, for MI his needed
purposes, the right Of Eminent domain, it is
principle which cannot be questioned
Your Petitioners further show, that in late
we'll considered case, it was said by the Supreme
Court Of one Of our largest States-"Wc are Of
opinion tfAt the Legislature has the clearest
right TO pass an act for the purpose of prevent
ing an unjust discrimination in railway frcighis
whether Us between individuals or communities
and to enforce its observance by appropriate
penaltics;" and it was recognized as q ..perfect-
ly Well-settled rule of the Common law, in regard
to Common Carriers, that they shall not exercise
any unjust and injurious discrimination be-
tween individuals, in their rates of toll" or be-
tween Communities any moro than between In
diviluals.
Your Petitioners further show, that it has be-
come the practice of Railroad Companies
throughout this State, to disregard utterly their
Common law liabilities, aud to discriminate e
unjustly in favor of one community at the cx-
pcnse of another-to charge rates unrensonably y
high, and to act as if the only limit imposed
upon them was their own measure Of the people s
snferance. In proof of these facts, and as an
illustration of the length to which some of our
Railroads have gonc-others may not discrimi
nate so widely--we copy the Schedule of rates
agreed upon, and now being c1forced, by the
South Carolina Railroad Company, the Green
vile & Columbia Railroad Company, and the
Spartanburg Union Railroad Com pany-threc
Corporations chartered under the laws of this
State. TO this table we have added a column Of
distances: