The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1881-02-17
YORK, PA,
November IS, 1880.
cOanioe Railroad Tcar,,o,ta,5os OF the Nstr Iork
Czaa5er 81 Commerce:

VIII answer your questions as Ill
rcctly as possible, but without observ-
ing the order in which you put them.
You desire above all things to be
just. rhe legally vested rights of
railway companies, ike other rights of
property, are sacred, and no violation
of them comes within the scope OF
your design.
But on this question railroad men
misunderstood ii cir situation. They
believe, or pretend to believe, that
railways are the property of the COM
panies authorized to run them, which
is cardinal error, and the ar mt Of
much false argument.
A public high oay cannot be private
property, and railroad laid out and
built by the authority of the State for
the purposes of commerce, is as much
opuhlic highway as a turnpike road
canal or navigable river
1t is the duty of the State to pro
mote intercourse and trade, by making
highways of the best sort through her
territory. To this end she may take
land and materials, which is an exer-
else of the power Of eminent CONAN.
She can build a railway at her own
expense, using the direct agency OF
her own officers, and after it is built
she can make it free to all corners, or
reimburse the cost by special tax on
individuals who have occasion to use
it. She can delegate the taking and
the taxing powers to corporation or
natural person; and that is what she
always does when she grants a rail
road charter. But in either OF any
case the road belongs to the State,
and all the people have a right to use
it upon compliance with necessary
regulations and payment of the proper
tax.
The corporations who have got into
the habit of calling themselves the
owners Of the railroads have no pro-
prietary right, title, or claim to the
roads themselves, but mere franchise
annexed to and exercisable thereon.
They are the agents of the State for
the performance of Il public duty. If
the franchise be forfeited or surren-
dered, or if it expire by eflux Of tin e,
the State takes possession of the road
and runs it herself, or employs a new
agent. The company cannot keep
the road any more than an outgoing
collector Of a port can appropriate to
himself the custom house where he
did his official work.
The State, having need for pub
lie highway at particular place,
makes contract5with a corporation
to open and put it in condition to be
used; and by way of reimbursing the
builders and operators, she authorizes
a tax upon those who travel or carry
merchandise over it.
But this tax must be reasonable,
just, uniform, prescribed and fixed, so
that every citizen may know before
hand exactly how much he must pay,
and SO that when he pays or tenders
the proper amount he will acquire an
absolute and perfect right to the use
of the road. The amount of the tax,
toll, or freight in any case is not a
subject of bargain between the shipper
and the corporation, but thing to be
settled, fixed and prescribed by pub
lie authority. If the company may
charge what it pleases, then the road
is not a public highway; the public
mas no right in it at all, and the char
ter which authorizes the taking of land
to build it is unconstitutional and
void.
These principles were stated by
Judge Baldwin in Bonaparte against
the Camden and Amboy railroad COM
pany q Bald. Rep, 252). You will
find more extended discussion of
them by the Supreme Court of Penn
sylvahia, in Casey against the Erie
and Northeast railroad company q
Casey's Rep, 287. I do not think
they are opposed by any high au-
thority, but no doubt they have often
been overlooked in judicial decisions
and forensic arguments.
The railroads being public property
in which all the people have equal
rights, and the companies that run
them being public agents, it is absurd
to say that the State has no right to
regulate and control them in the per-
Torrance of their functions by such
laws as will prevent Partially, plum
der and extortion. This is a power of
which
NO FREE STATE CAN PIsARM ITSELF
by any act of its judicial, legislative
d. executive officers.
They could as lawfully sell the State
,ut and out, and deliver up the en-
ire population to sack and pillaCe.
But are not the franchises property
Il which the company has vested