The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-23
LEGISLATORS ARE BUSY
WITH THE RAILROADS.
Over LOO Bills Introduced In
Congress and Legislatures.
OF These $50 Bills Have Be
come Laws in Forty
two States.

In forty-two State Legislatures. in
session since January OF the present
year. there were introduced 1885 bills
affecting the operation of railroads.
This is almost five times as many as
were introduced in the legislatures of
1912 and three times as many as those
introduced in the year 1911.
In 1912 only nineteen State Leg1s-
latl1res met, which partly accounts for
the lessened activity. of the legislators
that year But, as an indication of
how rapidly the tide of railway 1eg1s-
Iation Is riSing-in 1911 there were
fourteen bills introduced per Ieglsla-
tive session; in 1912, fifteen. while in
the present year there have been thir-
ty-three such measures. per .1egisla-i
tive session.
OF the 1895 bills introduced in the
present year affecting railroad opera
practically the same proportion as IN
the previous year when forty-eight
out of 292 bills were enacted.
A survey Of the figures collected by
the special committee on the rela-
lions of railway operation to legisia-
ton shows that the activities OF the
legislators in fathering such meas
ures in some States far exceeds that
in others. For example, in Indiana
this year ninety-nine bills were intro
6uced, of which eighteen were enact
ed. In Kansas q such bills were in
troduced and of these eleven were en-
acted while in West Virginia eighty
were introduced and seventeen passed.
Illinois, California, Minnesota and
Nebraska followed these States in the
order named.
IN the six New England States this
year ninety-nine bills affecting the
operation of the railroads were in
troduced IN the Legislatures and sew
enteen became laws. In Massachu-
setts there were thirty-dve bills in
troduced and one enacteds in Maine
twenty lone introduced and ten enact
ed; in Connecticut sixteen introduce
ed and one enacted; in Rhode Island
thirteen introduced and one enacted,
and in Vermont five introduced and
four enacted:
The interest of legislators in. mat
tiers affecting railway operation would
appear to be decidedly varied. For
instance, railroad employees have
come in for the most consideration,
there having been introduced a total
of 426 measures regarding them, of
which forty-eight were enacted. OF
these LOT were ful1-crew bills, four
teen of which were passed. Other
bills pumped into the legislative grist
mill in the present year covered such
matters as hospital and relief depart
ments, burning of weeds, speed of
dead freight trains, make up of
freight and passenger trains, signals,
crossings and locomotive headlights.
On the last subject alone there were
thirty-six bills introduced in the forty
two legislatures.
Notwithstanding that there is now
such a tangle of laws on this subject
that Federal legislation is being urg-
ed, fourteen headlight bils were en-
acted this year by State legislatures.
On he of raj n fra
ing. for which the railroads have been
asking relief in order to reduce the
evil, out of sixty-f1ve such bills intro
duced only. six became laws.
The activity of State legislators can
In no wise be equalled by the national
lawmakers for the reason that only
general bills covering the railroads as
interstate carriers can be introduced.
However, in the first six weeks of the
present session of Congress exactly
twenty-one bills covering railway OPP
Grafton alone were introduced and
four other measures affecting the
railroads in other respects were also
put in.
The bills introduced in Congress
have likewise covered a variety of
matters, but among them is one call
ing for. all Interstate roads to adopt a
block system within six months after
it's passage and another prohibiting
the use of wooden passenger cars on
any such road after next year. It was
recently estimated by special com
mittee that to replace all wooden cars
with steel, as called for by the latter
bill, would cost the railroads $780,
489 400. Also to equip every road
with automatic block signals would
cost the railroads 1886, 402,976 with
an annual maintenance, interest and
depreciation charge amounting to
$73,751,012.
In the period which has seen this
flood of legislation in Congress and in
the different State CapitoIs some Of
the largest railroads of this country
have reduced their dividends, while at
the same time some railroads have
been forced to pay for new capital, ur-
gently needed, as high as per cent.
condition almost without precedent.
The figures here given would appar-
emily show that little attention, how
ever, had been paid by legislators to
these conditions and that their inf1u-
ence in stemfning the rising tide of
this kind of legislation has been all
but negligible
To the activity of the legislatures
there also must be added the rulings
poade>during a year by the Public Ut1I-