RAILWAY LEGISLATION 129 



County: " I say, if there is anything like unanimity in this 

 State upon any one thing, it is upon restricting these railroads." 1 

 On the other hand, the words of Mr. Parks expressed a senti- 

 ment which undoubtedly had considerable weight with the 

 members of the convention and with the people at large: " There 

 is another cry from the people, a cry for more railroads . . . 

 in trying to remedy these evils, we should consider whether we 

 may not run to the other extreme, and prevent the building of 

 any more railroads." 2 One of the delegates went so far as to 

 declare that if the courts had decided that a railroad charter 

 was an irrevocable and inviolable contract, that decision must 

 be overruled. " We must have a new deal and new decisions 

 on this subject, and we in this Convention must take the initia- 

 tive, and declare what the law should be in this regard." 3 There 

 were not wanting arguments against both the right and expe- 

 diency of state regulation of railroads, and especially against 

 the inclusion in the constitution of mandatory provisions making 

 it the duty of the legislature to enact certain laws; but the advo- 

 cates of regulation were in the majority, or the popular pressure 

 was effective, and the railroad sections of the new constitution 

 were adopted in the convention by votes ranging from 46 for 

 and 1 8 against to 32 for and 27 against. 4 



The railroad provisions of the Illinois constitution of 1870 

 are to be found in Article XI, headed " Corporations," 5 of which 

 sections 9 to 15 inclusive pertain wholly to railroad corporations. 

 The most important provisions relating to regulation are con- 

 tained in sections 12 and 15. 



Section 12. Railways . . . are hereby declared public highways, and 

 shall be free to all persons for the transportation of their persons and prop- 

 erty thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. And 

 the General Assembly shall, from time to time, pass laws establishing 

 reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of passengers 

 and freight on the different railroads in this state. 



1 Debates, ii. 1710. 2 Ibid. 1711. 8 Ibid. 1645. 



4 Ibid. 1637-1664, 1708-1723. Cf. Moses, Illinois, ii. 788; Gordon, Illinois 

 Railway Legislation, 23. 



6 The constitution can be found in Illinois, Revised Statutes, 1874, p. 79, in Illinois, 

 Bluebook, and in Thorpe, Constitutions. 



