THE MCLEAN COUNTY TEST CASE. 293 



made. The act further provided that any willful violation 

 of its provisions should be deemed a forfeiture of the fran 

 chises of the corporation offending, and that, for such cause, 

 it might be proceeded against by information in the nature 

 of a quo ivarranto, to judgment of ouster and final execu 

 tion. 



Doubts having been expressed of the validity of this law, 

 it was determined to institute a test case. This was ac 

 cordingly done, information being laid by the railroad and 

 warehouse commissioners in the Circuit Court of McLean 

 County, in the name of the people of Illinois against the 

 Chicago and Alton Railroad Company. The information 

 charged that said company had repeatedly charged for trans 

 porting lumber from Chicago to Lexington, a distance of 

 one hundred and ten miles, the sum of five dollars and 

 sixty-five cents per one thousand feet, while, at the same 

 time, it had only charged for the transportation of like lum 

 ber from Chicago to Blooinington, a distance of one hundred 

 and twenty-six miles, the sum of five dollars per thousand 

 feet. These acts, the information alleged, had forfeited the 

 charter of the Company. 



The Company admitted the facts, and stated that the rates 

 to Blooming-ton were unreasonably low, but no one except the 

 Company was injured thereby; and that said charges were 

 adopted in order to compete with the Illinois Central Rail 

 road Company, and to protect the customers of appellant 

 from injury, by a reduction of rates from Chicago to Bloom- 

 ington on the Illinois Central Railroad. In short, the com 

 pany insisted that, although the acts charged against them 

 were in contravention of the act of April, 1871, still such 

 charges were lawful, for the reason that the said act was in 

 violation of the Constitution of the State, and also of that 

 of the United States, 



