PENNSYLVANIA. 



631 



ties and disabilities provided for such offense. 

 The same penalties are extended to any per- 

 son who shall offer or give a bribe to any ex- 

 ecutive or judicial officer or member of the 

 Legislature. 



A member who has a personal or private 

 interest in any measure pending before the 

 Legislature shall disclose the fact, and shall not 

 have a right to vote on the subject. 



In the article on revenue, taxation, and 

 finance, it is provided that all laws exempting 

 property from taxation, except public property 

 used for public purposes, actual places of re- 

 ligions worship, places of burial not used or 

 held for private or corporate profit, and insti- 

 tutions of purely public charity, shall be void. 



No debt created for the purposes of revenue 

 shall ever exceed in the aggregate at any one 

 time one million dollars. 



The debt of no city, county, borough, or 

 other municipality, shall exceed seven per cent, 

 upon the assessed value thereof, nor shall any 

 such municipality incur any new debt or in- 

 crease its debt to an amount exceeding two 

 per cent, upon such assessed valuation of prop- 

 erty, without the assent of the electors at a pub- 

 lic election held in such manner as shall be pro- 

 vided by law. 



By the article on education the Legislature 

 is require to provide for the maintenance of a 

 thorough and efficient system of public schools, 

 and to appropriate at leust one million dollars 

 every year for this purpose. 



No money raised for the support of the pub- 

 lic schools shall be used for the support of any 

 sectarian school. 



The article on railroads and canals provides 

 that any association or corporation organized 

 for the purpose, may construct and operate 

 a railroad or canal between any two points 

 in the State. Any railroad may intersect with 

 any other railroad, and may pass its cars, 

 empty or loaded, over such other railroad. 

 No undue discrimination shall be made in 

 charges or freights passing from one railroad to 

 another, and no unnecessary delay shall be in- 

 terposed in forwarding such passengers and 

 property to their destination. The Legislature 

 is required by general law to give full effect to 

 these powers and rights. 



Every railroad or canal company doing 

 business in this State is required to maintain 

 an office in the State where the transfers of 

 its stock shall be made, and books kept for in- 

 spection by any person having a pecuniary in- 

 terest in such corporation. In these books 

 shall be recorded the amount of stock sub- 

 scribed or paid in, and by whom, the names of 

 the owners of its stock, the transfers of stock, 

 and the names and residences of its officers. 



The property of railroad companies, and of 

 all other joint-stock companies, doing business 

 in the State, shall forever bo subject to taxa- 

 tion, and the power to tax the same shall not 

 be gnrrendered or suspended by any grant or 

 contract to which the State shall be a party. 



No railroad or canal company, nor the les- 

 sees or managers of any railroad or canal com- 

 pany, shall consolidate the stock, property, or 

 franchises of such corporation with, nor lease, 

 purchase, or in any way control, any other 

 railroad or canal corporation, owning or con- 

 trolling a parallel or competing line. The 

 officers of such railroad or canal company are 

 prohibited from acting as officers of any other 

 railroad or canal company owning or controll- 

 ing a parallel or competing line. Whether 

 railroads or canals are parallel or competing 

 lines shall always be decided by a jury in a 

 trial according to the course of the common 

 law. 



No incorporated company doing the business of a 

 common carrier shall, directly or indirectly, prose- 

 cute or engage in mining or manufacturing articles 

 for transportation over the works of said company ; 

 nor shall such company, directly or indirectly, en- 

 gage in any other business than that of common car- 

 riers, or hold or acquire lands, freehold or leasehold, 

 directly or indirectly, except such as shall be neces- 

 sary for carrying on its business; but any mining 

 or manufacturing company may carry the products 

 of its mines and manufactories on its railroad or ca- 

 nal not exceeding fifty miles in length. 



Presidents, directors, officers, agents, and other 

 employes, of railroad and canal companies, shall not 

 engage, or be interested, directly or indirectly, oth- 

 erwise than as stockholders in such railroad or canal 

 companies, in the transportation of freight or pas- 

 sengers, as common carriers, over the works of any 

 company of which they are presidents, directors, 

 agents, or employe's, and they shall not so engage or 

 be interested in the transportation of freight or pas- 

 sengers over the works or any other such company, 

 except as stockholders in such company which may 

 be leased, or the majority of the capital stock of 

 which may be owned or controlled by the company 

 of which they are presidents, directors, officers, 

 agents, or employe's. 



No transportation company in this State 

 shall make any discrimination in charges for 

 either freight or passengers between or against 

 the people of the State, nor make a higher 

 charge for a shorter than for a longer distance, 

 including such shorter distance, and no special 

 rates or drawbacks shall, either directly or in- 

 directly, be allowed excepting excursion and 

 commutation tickets. Reasonable extra rates, 

 within the limits of the charter of a company, 

 may be made for any distance not exceeding 

 fifty miles. 



All discriminations by railroad companies 

 in their rates of freight or passage over their 

 roads in form of transportation companies, or 

 others engaged in transportation, by abate- 

 ment, drawback, or otherwise, are prohibited. 



Railroad companies shall not grant free 

 passes, or passes at a discount, to any person 

 except officers and employed of the company. 



No street passenger-railway shall be constructed 

 within the limits of any city, borough, or township, 

 without the consent of its local authorities. 



No railroad, canal, or other transportation com- 

 pany, in existence at the time of the adoption of this 

 article, shall have any beneficial legislation by gen- 

 eral or special laws, except on condition of complete 

 acceptance of all the provisions of this article. 



The power of eminent domain shall never be 



