Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-01-13

exceed those limits. : charter that
roes bcvoad this is void.
Those companies will oppose any
cTortto bring them down to a reasona-
bic rate with the argument that such
reduction is ayiolatioa Of the contract
between them and the State. But on
the principle laid down by Judge
Baldwin il the case above mentioned a
charter is inopcraive which authorizes
maximum Of toll OF fare so hi2h that
/ the company Is able, without exceeding
il, to exclude the people from using
their own road In the granger cases
from Iowa and Wisconsin the bargain
vas that the companies might fix their
own rates. But the Supreme Court Of
! the United States held that 4 subsc-
quent law to restrain them within re-
{ sonable limits vas no violation of the
original contract This principle APP
plies 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 reasona-
bic AID just charges is merely drawn
from the fact that
RAILROADS ARE PUBLIC HIGHWAYS
! IF they owned the corpus of the road
and used it in the business Of a com
mon carrier, they might be compelled
to behave themselves justly to all their
customers and submit to any regulation
Tor the public good. The unanswablc
opinion Of Chief Justice Waite in
Mum agt. Illinois lotto 1, p ll3)
settles that.
The reasonableness of the freight
tolls or taxes that may be charged up
on any railway will depend on the
expenses Of running and repairing it
and on the cost of construction. The
latter will. of course, be the principal
clement in the calculation, for the tolls
ought to be high enough to give cor
porators a fair profit on the capital
they have actually invested. But
many Of these corporations have issued
large amounts of stock aud mortgage
bonds, for which the holders have
paid nothing or much less than their
nominal value. Another way of en-
larging their apparent dimensions is to
water their stock, under the pretense
Of increasing their capital, while in
fact the additional shares are divided
among themselves without putting
new dollar into the business. Of
course nobody thinks that the real cost
of the road is to be measurSd by the
nominal amount Of these bonds and
shares. 1t is easy for competent
engineer to tell how much any road
ought to cost, surprising the work to
be honestly done and literally paid
for. That being ascertained, you have
the true basis of calculation which
will show 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 several COM
panies which now have them in charge.
They did not really cost the stockhold-
ers anything, and in some cases they
got lands worth great deal more than
all the expenses of making, stocking
ana 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 OF five times
as much as they necessarily expended
upon the roads. The stockholders,
without paying anything, pnt the
enormous surplus into their pockets.
These roads thus built at the public
expense, and in some cases
PAID FOR BY THE PUBLIC FIVE TINES
OVER,
are now claimed as the private proper
ty of the companies, and tho right Of
the public to use them as highways is
utterly denied Nevertheless, [ think
the claim Of these companies to take
reasonable tolls stands upon the same
foundation as that Of companies whose
roads were built by the stockholders
themselves, at their own proper ex-
pense, The grant Of the lands invest
ed the grantees with title which
could not be evoked if tie conditions
of it were performed If they sold or
mortgaged the lands and invested the
proceeds in the construction of rail
road under charter from State Or
General Government which authorizes
them to take fair profit in the shape
of tolls, they have as good right to
the tolls as if the capital to build the
road had been raised by themselves;
that is to say. those companies
which built the railroads with
capital donated by the public have the
same RIGHT as other companies to charge
a reasonable toll; but their demand Of
excessive tolls. though not worse in
law, seems in the eye of natural reason
a greater outrage.
If railroads corporation have the
unlimited power which they claim,
then all business is at their mercy;