The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-08-15
CHARTER IN DANGER.
Legal Proceedings Brought Against
the Pullman Company
ny the Attorney General Of Ininois-He
Asks that tho Charter Of the Com
pany be Declared Void Because
Its Provisions Have Been
Violated.


Maloney, the fighting law officer OF the
state of Illinois, opened the batteries
of the law Saturday against the Pull
man Palace Car Company. The pro-
ceedings were as sudden as they were
sensational and are in line with the at
torney generals aggressive policy
against the Chicago gas trust, whisky
trust and school book trust
The proceedings were in the form OF
an exhaustive petition filed in the cir
cult court Of Cook county for leave to
file an information against the Pull
man Palace Car Company for a quo
warranto-that is proceeding requir-
ing the company to make an appearances
and show cause why its charter should
not be forfeited.
The charges in the petition filed by
Attorney General Maloney are that
Pullman's Palace Car Company has as
sumed to exercise powers and privileges
which the law or its charter never in
tended it should exercise. 1t is charged
that the company has no power under
its charter to run hotels, school houses,
to own churches and theaters, water
works, gas and light plants, to own,
conduct and rent tenements and dwell
ling houses or to own ornamental, un-
occupied and vacant lands not used for
the transaction Of its business.
All the powers which the state has
conferred upon the Pullman Palace
Car Company are expressed in section
4 Of its charter, granted February 20,
1867, by act of the legislature, which
as set out in the attorney generals pc
tition, reads as follows:
The said corporation shall have pow
er to manufacture, construct and pur-
chase railway cars with all convenient
appendages, and supplies for persons
travelling therein, and the same may
sell or use, or permit to be used, in such
manner and upon such terms as the
said company may think itand proper.
The restraints upon its powers are
contained in section 6 of the charter,
which is as follows: 1t may be lawful
for the company hereby Incorporated
to purchase, acquire and hold such real
estate as may be deemed necessary for
the successful prosecution of their bus
mess, and may have power to sell and
convey the same. Relating backto the
section defining its powers, the words,
"As may be necessary for the success
full prosecution of their business" are
limited to the business as defined in
section 6.
The attorney general recites that un-
der the limitations Of the charter the
very act of establishing and conduct
ing such town as Pullman is an in
fraction of the law.
/ The company, he says, practically
has usurped all the powers and funo-
tions of a municipality. The making
and selling of gas, the establishment
of water works, and all the powers
usually attached to cities, have been
assumed, it is charged, without war
rant or authority of law. Another
thing is the ownership Of stock in the
/ Union foundry and Pullman car wheel
works, its charter giving 1t no power
to own stock in other corporations. 1t
is charged also that the Pullman COM
pany furnishes power to the Allen
! paper car wheel works, which is no
part of the business of company in
corporated for the purpose of construct
ing and running railway cars.
1t is alleged that the company owns
175 acres of vacant land south of Lake
Calumet and ffty-five acres of vacant
land north of the company's shops
without warrant of law. 1t is also set
forth that the company illegally holds
about sixteen acres of lots and blocks
which are vacant and held for specula-
tive purposes. The petitioner further
declares that the said real estate so held
by it, and which it owns and rents, was
acquired in open defiance of the act
which created it, and by persistent
disregard of the laws of the state of
Illinois,"