The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-02-17

reasonable rate of toll from all per
sons alike, according to tn. use they
make of the road, is a power that the
State may bestow upon any person,
natural or artificial. But no lawful
franchise to take toll on a public high
way can exceed those limits. 4 char
ter that goes beyond this is void.
Those companies viii oppose any
effort to bring them down to a reason
able rate with the argument that such
reduction Is a violation of the cont ract
between them and the State. But on
the principle laid down by Judge
Baldwin Ia the case above mentioned
a charter is imperative which author
ICES maximum Of toll or fare so high
that the company is able, without ex-
ceeding it, to exclude the people from
using their own road. In the granger
cases from Iowa and Wisconsin the
bargain was that the companies might
fix their OWN rates. But the Supreme
Court of the United States held that
Il subsequent law to restrain them
within reasonable limits was no viola
titn Of the original contract. This
principle applies to a company whose
maximum rate is practically the same
thing as no limitation at all.
The conclusion that all the railroad
corporations in the country may be
constitutionally restrained to reason
able and just charges is merely drawn
from the fact that
RAILROADS ARE PUBLIC HIGHWAYS.
If they owned the corpus of the
road and used it i'll the business of a
common carrier, they might be com
PEELED to behave themselves justly to
I'll their customers and submit to any
regulation for the public good. The
unanswerable opinion of Chief Justice
Waite in Mum agt. Illinois lotto 1,
p. 115) settles that.
The reasonableuess of the freight
tolls or taxes that may be charged
upon any railway will depend on the
expenses of running and repairing it
and on the cost of construction. Tie
latter will, of course, be the principal
Eelement in the calculation, for the
tolls ought to be high enough to give
corporators fair profit on the capital
they have actually invested. But
many Of these corporations have is
sued large amounts of stock and mort
gage bonds, for which the holders
have paid nothing or much less THAI
their nominal value. Another way Of
enlarging their apparent dimensions is
to water their stock, under the pre-
tense ofincreasing their capital, while
in fact the additional shares are di-
vided among themselves without put
ting Il new dollar into the business. OF
course nobody thinks that the real
cost Of the road is to be measured by
the nominal amount of these bonds
and shares. Ii Is easy for competent
engineer to tell how much any road
ought TO cost, supposing the work to
be honestly done and literally paid
for. That being ascertained, you
have the true basis of a calculation
which will show you how much the
tolls ought to be.
Most of our Western roads were
built with the proceeds of public lands
granted mediately or Immediately by
the United States to the severrl COM
panies which now have them in charge.
They did not really cost the stock
holders anything, and in some cases
they got lands worth great deal more
than all the expenses Of making, stock
ing and running the roads. The two
companies between Omaha and San
Francisco raised in cash out of gov
ernment bonds, lands and mortgages
of their franchises four or five times as
much as they necessarily expended
upon the roads. The stockholders,
without paying anything, put the
enormous surplus into their pockets.
These roads thus built at the public
expense, and in some cases
PAID FOR BY THE PUBLIC FIVE TIMES
OVER,
are now claimed as the private prop
erty of the companies, and the right
of the public to use them as highways
is utterly denied.
If railroad corporations have the
unlimited power which they claim,
the nall business is at their mercy;
agriculture, commerce, manufactures,
must suffer what they choose to in
Rict. We know that they make their
exactions with an eye single to their
own advantage, without considering
ANY RIGHT OR INTEREST OF THE
PUBLIC.
They boldly-express their determi-
nation to charge as much as the traffic
will bear; that is to say, they will take
from the profits of every mans bust
ness as much as can be taken without
compelling him to quit it. Men go
into business which may thrive at