The morning call., 1891-02-22
NEWS FROM
THE RAILROADS.
The Los Angeles Terminal Com.
pany Seeking Trouble.
The Commissioners Say That They Are Exer-
cising Power Vested by the Constitution.
Big Excursion Business.

The State Board OF Railroad Commission
ers will soon have a case in the courts.
Though the power of this board has been
clearly defined by the Constitution, the
owners and operators of little scorpion
path connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena,
and known in railroad history as the Los
Angeles Terminal Company, are laughing
at recent ruling of the board ordering
them to lower passenger rates. The order
was given after a careful investigation of a
complaint from the people of Los Angeles
and Pasadena, showing that the
aforementioned corporation had CON-
bined with the Atlantic and Pacific
to increase passenger rates, which had been
reduced by competition. The Terminal
Company was competition for Los An
geles and Pasadena business with the At
lantic and Pacific and made strong bid for
traffic between those points by reducing the
rate TO % cents. The Atlantic and Pacific
met the cut. and afterward combined with
the little line to restore the original rate Of
90 cents. Then the people protested aud
filed complaint with the commission. The
latter ruled, and the railroad people laughed.
EX-Judge Bronson of Los Angeles, for many
years an attorney of Santa Fe, will endeavor
to show, when the case comes up for trial,
that the corporations had perfect right to
violate the constitution. 1t will be a COM
bination fight, and one of considerable inter-
est to the public, though it would seem that
more explicit definition of the authority of
the commission, as set forth by the constitu-
ton, would be impossible.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS.
Section 20, Article XII, of the constitu-
tional provision establishing the board and
ccnferring upon it its jurisdiction reads as
follows:
No railr DAD company or other common carrier
shall combine or make any contract with the
owners of any vessel that leaves port or makes
port in this State, or with any common carrier,
by which combination or contract the earnings
OF one doing the carrying are TO be shared by the
other NOT doing the carrying. And whenever a
railroad corporation shall, for the purpose OF
competing with any other c0umon carrier, lower
Its rates for transportation OF passengers or
freight from one point 10 another, such reduced
rates shall not be again raised or Increased from
such standard without the consent OF the gov
ernmental authority, IN which shall be vested
the power 10 regulate fares and freight.
Section % of the same article says:
Said Commissioners shall have the power, and
1t shall be their duty, 10 establish rates Of
charges for the transportation of passengers
and freight by railroad or other transportation
companies and publish the same from lime TO
lime, with such changes as they may make; to
examine The books, records and papers of all
railroad and other transportation companies,
and for this purpose they shall have power TO
to hear aud determine complaints against rail-
road ana other transportation companies, 10
send for persons and papers, 10 administer
oaths. take testimony ana punish for contempt
OF their orders and processes, In the same man
ner aud 10 the same extent as cou,ts OF record,
aad enforce their decisions and correct abuses
through the medium of the courts. Said
Commissioners shall prescribe uniform
| system of accounts TO be kept by all such
| corporations aud companies. Any railroad cor.
| poration or transportation company which shall
fail or refuse 10 conform 10 such rates as shall
| be established by such Commissioners, or shall
charge rates In excess thereof, or shall fall 10
| keep their accounts in accordance with the sys-
| TEN prescribed by the commission, shall be fined
| not exceeding $4,000 for each offense; and
] every officer, agent or employe OF any such cor
| poraiion or company who shall demand or re-
ceive rates IN excess thereof, or who shall In any
| manner violate the provisions OF this section,
| shall be fined not exceeding $4,000 or be ini-
! prisoned in the County Jail not exceeding one
year. In all controversies, civil or criminal, the
| iates of fares ana heights established by said
| commission shall be deemed conclusiyely Just
| and reasonable, and in any action against such
| corporation OF company for damages sustained
by charging excessive rates. the plaintlf, In ad-