1'KNNSVI.VAMA. 



611 



nnd industry in almost every branch of trado 

 iiinl maiuiliu hires, by exempting capital from 

 liabilities which la-ret of ore have acted as a 

 tint on investments. 



It provides "that from and after the pas- 

 sage of the act it shall bo lawful for any person 

 or persons to loan money to any individual, 

 lii-iii, association, 6*f corporation, doing business 

 in the State, upon agreement to receive a share 

 of the profits of such business as compensation 

 for the money so loaned in lieu of interest ; 

 and such agreement or the reception of profits 

 under such agreement shall not render the per- 

 son or persons making such loans liable as a 

 ( ^-partner in such business to other creditors 

 of such individual, firm, association, or cor- 

 poration, except as to the money so loaned." 



The civil code of this State was this year 

 revised by commissioners, and systematically 

 arranged in a volume of less than 800 pages. 

 It adheres in the main to the text of existing 

 laws, with occasional changes to meet present 

 demands, and additional provisions required 

 by the changes of the day. 



The Supreme Court, during its session in 

 Philadelphia, announced some important opin- 

 ions. One, exciting the most interest, was the 

 case of the Credit Mobilier of America vs. The 

 Commonwealth. 



The Credit Mobilier is said* to have been 

 incorporated a few years ago under the name 

 of the Pennsylvania Fiscal Agency. The Penn- 

 sylvania Fiscal Agency in reality was another 

 corporation which sold out its charter to the 

 Credit Mobilier, and the name was soon after 

 changed to that by which the Credit Mobilier 

 of America corporation is known. By the 

 law of Pennsylvania they were bound to pay 

 to the Commonwealth one-half a mill on every 

 dollar of capital stock for each one per cent, 

 of dividends ; which they did to within about 

 two years. Then they failed to make returns, 

 and the Commonwealth, as a last resort, was 

 compelled to make a settlement from the most 

 reliable data it could obtain. After this was 

 done, it was ascertained the Credit Mobilier 

 had made the enormous profit in one year of 

 over $9,600,000. The settlement was made out 

 on the information obtained, and the corpora- 

 tion clerk in the Auditor-General's office found 

 that the great corporation, which had failed 

 to make returns, was indebted to the Common- 

 wealth, on account of taxes and for violation of 

 law in not making returns in the sum of $529,- 

 546. Suit was brought for its recovery, when 

 the Credit Mobilier claimed that the profits were 

 not received by the corporation as a corporation. 

 By a queer transposition, however, they re- 

 ((.i \v<l them as stockholders. The Common- 

 wealth held in the trial that, if corporations 

 were allowed to thus change the method of re- 

 ceiving their profits at pleasure, all corporations 

 could thus act, and the result would be that after 

 a while the income of the State from this source 

 would be comparatively nothing. The de- 

 fendants, on the other hand, alleged that the 



course pursued by the corporation was made 

 necessary, not because they wanted to defraud 

 the Commonwealth, but on account of various 

 other matters, driving them to take the course 

 they did in order to save what the stockhold- 

 ers of the Credit Mobilier had already in\ . 

 The cause was argued with decided ability on 

 both sides, and judgment was entered in the 

 court below (Dauphin County) in favor of the 

 Commonwealth, the sum due, however, being 

 reduced a little over a hundred thousand dol- 

 lars. The Supreme Conrt reversed the de- 

 cision. 



After an investigation of fifteen months the 

 Supreme Court also decided that the Republi- 

 can candidates for county officers and District 

 Attorney for Philadelphia were legally elected 

 in 1868, by which decision these officials were 

 installed in their respective positions. 



It was announced in July that the opposi- 

 tion to the legal-tender decision of the Supreme 

 Court was at an end. All the railroad com- 

 panies, whose offices are in Philadelphia, paid 

 the half-year's interest, then maturing, on all 

 their debts created before the passage of the 

 Legal-tender Act in 1862, in coin or its equiva- 

 lent. This proper acquiescence in the decis- 

 ion of the court, at this time, upon the maturity 

 of the large July interest of strong corpora- 

 tions, well able to prolong a. contest, indicated 

 an abandonment of the threatened attempt to 

 procure a reversal. 



An important convention of delegates, from 

 the "minority Republican counties of Pennsyl- 

 vania," met at Reading in September. A large 

 number of counties were represented, and the 

 following resolutions relative to minority rep- 

 resentation in legislative bodies were adopted : 



Resolved, That the practice which has grown up in 

 the Legislature of Pennsylvania, of submitting all 

 matters of local legislation to the exclusive control 

 of local representatives, has practically placed the 

 local political and business interests of minority con- 

 stituencies, requiring legislation, at the mercy of ma- 

 jority local representatives, and has offered such a 

 continued series of wrongs and petty oppressions as 

 loudly calls for reform. 



Jiesolved, That we can conceive of no other remedy 

 for such wrong and oppression except a system which 

 will secure to each local minority, as near as can be, 

 its proportional share of local representation. 



lasolved, That such minority representation will 

 not only remedy the wrongs of which we more es- 

 pecially complain, but will also tend to lessen unjust 

 and illiberal partisanship, and to promote greater 

 purity in legislation. 



JKenolved, That a fair and proportionate represen- 

 tation of minorities by districts is not only just, but 

 is in accord with the spirit of all our State political 

 BystemSj which provide for the election of legislators 

 by districts, in order to protect the minority at large 

 from the unjust domination of the majority, as well 

 as to guard the interests of localities, and which we 

 propose to supplement by placing the local minority 

 beyond the reach of the unjust domination of the 

 local majority. 



fietolvtd, That in view of the taking of the census ? 

 and the approaching legislative reapportionment ot 

 the State, we recommend the passage of acts of As- 

 sembly by the next Legislature, embodying the prin- 

 ciples ot minority representation in reference to 

 boards of county commissioners, directors of tho 



