ILLINOIS. 



377 



ties submitting the case on the agreed state- 

 ment of facts under that single count of the 

 declaration. The Supreme Court decided that 

 the count was sufficient to sustain the judg- 

 ment. Judge Dickey in the written opinion 

 said that the proofs clearly show a violation of 

 the statute, and the only question as to the pro- 

 priety of the judgment depends upon the con- 

 stitutional power of the General Assembly to 

 pass the law. He then discussed the claim 

 that the act is a violation of a contract between 

 the State and the corporation, the company 

 having been granted a charter authorizing the 

 directors to establish rates of tolls for the con- 

 veyance of persons and property, concluding 

 the opinion as follows : 



The charter of this corporation is, beyond a doubt, 

 a contract under the adjudged cases in this and other 

 States, by which the corporation acquires the powers 

 and functions to transact such business in the mode 



Frescribcd, but it is the opinion of a majority of the 

 ourt that all^ this is, by necessary implication, sub- 

 ject, as all citizens are, to the legislative power of the 

 State to define, prohibit, and punish extortion. The 

 reasons and authorities leading to this conclusion are 

 presented and discussed in the case of Ruggles vs. the 

 People, 91 Illinois, 255, 256, and the case must be gov- 

 erned by that. 



The railroads of group first, after holding 

 out a long time, have all accepted the maxi- 

 mum passenger rate fixed by the Commission- 

 ers, charging three cents a mile, and many of 

 the railroads have changed their freight rates 

 to make them conform to the schedules of the 

 Commissioners. A revision of the schedules 

 of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission- 

 ers is in progress, to which they hope all the 

 railroads in the State will be disposed to con- 

 form, and cease their long contention. The 

 Commissioners state in their report that they 

 have avoided entering into litigation with rail- 

 road companies, among other reasons because 

 it is difficult to find parties directly interested 

 to make charges against the railroads, while 

 those who do complain are seldom willing to 

 support the prosecution with the necessary 

 evidence. In accordance with the usage in 

 other States, the Commissioners have made it a 

 practice to examine into complaints brought 

 to them against railroads, and seek to obtain an 

 amicable settlement between the parties. Their 

 decisions in that capacity as a court of refer- 

 ence have established precedents for future ac- 

 tion in similar premises, and have actuated the 

 roads to adjust their rules and tariffs in accord- 

 ance with them. 



The evils which result to shippers from sud- 

 den changes in the freight tariffs, the Commis- 

 sioners recommend, should be averted by an act 

 of the Legislature requiring sixty days' notice 

 to be published by the railroads before any rise 

 in their tariffs can go into effect. The prohibi- 

 tion contained in the Constitution and laws of 

 the State against the issuance of fictitious stock, 

 declaring that "all stock dividends and other 

 fictitious increase of the capital stock or in- 

 debtedness of any such corporation shall be 



void," has not been effective. As shown in 

 the statistics given above, the stock of nearly 

 every road is largely in excess of the cost of 

 construction. The original amount of stock 

 first issued has in some instances been doubled, 

 and in many largely increased. The principal 

 way in which this is accomplished is by con- 

 verting accumulated earnings, and issuing stock 

 dividends to represent them. The effect of 

 this is to enlarge the basis on which future 

 dividends are to be earned at the expense of 

 the public. The Commissioners sum up the 

 results of their past work in the following 

 terms : 



When the present law of this State, to prevent ex- 

 tortion and unjust discrimination, was passed in 1873, 

 but few States had ventured to thus respond to a popu- 

 lar and just demand of the people. Now, fourteen 

 States have established Commissions with powers 

 similar to those of this State, or have conferred like 

 powers upon other State officers. 



Since that time most of the questions at issue between 

 the railroad corporations and the people, growing out 

 of the doctrine of supervision and control, have been 

 decided by our highest courts in favor of the latter. 



The work thus far accomplished on behalf of the 

 people is as remarkable as it is satisfactory, and, as 

 hereinbefore stated, passenger rates have been reduced 

 from three and a half and five cents per mile, to a uni- 

 form rate of three cents per mile on all the leading 

 roads in this State. Although the returns for 1880 

 show a gratifying diminution of passenger rates, the 

 saving to the people will more fully appear next year, 

 as the reduction above mentioned was not made gener- 

 ally until after the time for making the returns for 

 1880 had expired. The amount saved to the people by 

 the reduction of freight rates in 1880 over 1870 was 

 $12,580,673. 



When this Commission was first organized, it was 

 difficult to procure returns from the railroads. Many 

 of them refused outright to make returns, or to ac- 

 knowledge the right of the Commission to require 

 them. Those that were made were meager and un- 

 satisfactory. Now, nearly every road in the State, par- 

 ticularly the leading ones, readily and cheerfully re- 

 spond to the calls or the board in this respect. 



The railroads and their patrons are nearer arriving 

 at an agreement as to the basis upon which rates shall 

 be established than ever before. But, while great ad- 

 vancement has been thus made toward solving the 

 question of restrictive legislation, consistent with the 

 rights of owners and low tariffs, complicated questions, 

 relating to rebates, poolings, through, local, and com- 

 petitive rateSj are constantly arising for settlement, 

 and will continue to demand our attention and inves- 

 tigation. 



In 1859, the first year of the official inspec- 

 tion of grain in Chicago, the total number of 

 bushels inspected was 29,222,225 ; in 1872 the 

 total inspection covered 139,625,887 bushels; 

 in 1880 there were 138,896,368 bushels in- 

 spected in and 103,154,466 out, the total inspec- 

 tion amounting to 242,050,834 bushels. The 

 storage capacity of the Chicago warehouses has 

 increased from 4,090,000 bushels in 1858 to 

 20,000,000 bushels in 1880. There was an ad- 

 dition of elevator-room for 2,000,000 bushels 

 made in 1880. The aggregate quantity of grain 

 handled is estimated at 161,000,000 bushels in 

 1880, against 138,000,000 bushels in 1879, and 

 68,000,000 bushels in 1870. The increased re- 

 ceipts were in corn and oats, other cereals 

 showing a falling off, the old stocks having 



