ILLINOIS. 



of the railroads to the State and the 



und their subjection to civil authority. Sonio 



points aro thus stated : 



the passage of tho law creating tho Rnilroiid 

 and Warehouse Commiatloo in 1871, Illinois 1m.- ma'K: 

 very important advances toward the solution of tho 

 railroad problem. The questions involved in this 

 problem have not only been before the people in this 

 State, but in other States and countries. In England, 

 aflor tho railroad was a fact, it was recognized as a 

 public highway. The right of Parliament to fix rates 

 for the transportation of passengers and freight- was 

 therefore asserted, and schedules of rates were put into 

 their charters. Those familiar with the subject need 

 not bo told that the attempt to establish rates in this 

 manner was a failure. Then it was asserted that com- 

 petition, if encouraged by the Government, would 

 prove a remedy for tho abuses with which railroads 

 were charged. The suggestion was acted upon ; the 

 Government encouraged the construction of competing 

 lines. As a result, rates fell. Competition, however, 

 finally began to entail disaster upon tho competitors, 

 and, compelled to become allies to escape destruction, 

 the competitors combined. Railroads were consoli- 

 dated, rival Hues wore united, and competition was 

 thus destroyed. The danger ot great commnations of 

 this kind, "not only to the business interests of tho 

 country, but also to the State, was at once suggested 

 and occasioned alarm. This alarm resulted in a pub- 

 he opinion that the Government should own the rail- 

 roads. But consolidation to the surprise of the proph- 

 ets of evil, did not result in higher rates ; on the con- 

 trary, lower rates and higher dividends resulted. Thus, 

 by a logical process of attempt and failure to control 

 railroaa corporations, tho conclusion was reached that 

 wise policy required permission to such corporations 

 to operate their railroads in their own way, upon or- 

 dinary business principles. But at tho same titno a 

 Board of Commissioners was wisely created and au- 

 thorized to hear and determine complaints against 

 railroad corporations and exorcise other important 

 powers. This Board in England was created about 

 five years ago, and the most noticeable feature in its 

 career, says Charles Francis Adams, Jr., "is tho very 

 trilling call which seems to have been made upon it. 

 So far as can bo judged from its annual reports, tho 

 cases which come before it aro neither numerous nor 

 of great importance. It would, however, be wholly 

 unsafe to concede tho fact that such a tribunal is un- 

 necessary. On the contrarv, it may bo confidently 

 asserted that no competent Board of Railroad Commis- 

 sioners, clothed with tho peculiar powers of tho Eng- 

 lish Hoard, will either there or anywhere elso have 

 many cases to dispose of. Tho mere fact that a tribu- 

 nal is there that a machinery does exist for the prompt 

 and final decision of that class of questions puts an 

 end to them. They no longer arise." 



The process through which tho public mind of 

 America has passed on tho railroad question is not 

 dissimilar to that through which the public mind of 

 England passed. But hero competition was relied on 

 from the first. To all who asked l'>r them railroad 

 charters were granted. Tho result has been tho con- 

 struction of railroads in every part of tho country 

 many of them through districts of country without 

 business or even population, as well as between all tho 

 business centers, and through populous^ tortile, and 

 well-cultivated regions. Free trade in railroad-build- 

 ing and the too liberal use of municipal credit in their 

 ui'l have induced the building of some linos which aro 

 wholly unnecessary, and which crowd t duplicate, and 

 embarrass lines previously built, which were fully 

 adequate to the needs of the community. In Illinois 

 railroad enterprises have been particularly numerous, 

 and have made the State renowned for having the most 

 miles of railroad track, the chief railroad State. Com- 

 petition did not result according to public anticipation. 

 The competing corporations worked without sufficient 

 remuneration at the competing points, and, to mako 

 good the losses resulting there, were often guilty of 



extortion at the non-competing points. Thy dU- 

 criminated again* t persons and place*. Citizen* pro- 

 tested against those abuses in vain. The railroad cor- 

 jHiratii'iw, when threatened with tho rower of the 

 Government, indulged in the language or defiance, and 

 a:t^n]>ted to control legislation to their own advantage. 

 At lost, public indignation became excited against 

 them. They did not heed it; they believed that th 

 courts would be their refuge from )>opular fury. 



In Illinois the feeling <>i the j -topic expressed itself 

 in many ways, and finally found utterance in tho Con- 

 stitution of 1870. In this Constitution may be found 

 ull the phases of opinion on the railroaa question 

 through which tho English mind bus run. The rail- 

 way is declared to bo a public highway. The estab- 

 lishment of reasonable maximun rates of charges is 

 recognized as necessary to tho public welfare, and tho 

 General Assembly w required to pass laws to correct 

 abuses and prevent unjust discriminations and extor- 

 tion in the rates of foreign passenger tariffs on tho 

 different railroads in the State, and enforce such laws 

 by adequate penalties, to tho extent, if necessary for 

 that purpose, of forfeiture of their property and fran- 

 chises. The Constitution did more than this. To cor- 

 rect abuses of the interests of tho farmers, from whose 

 fields warehousemen, in combination with corporate 

 common carriers, had been drawing riches, it declared 

 all elevators or structures where grain or other prop- 

 erty was stored for a compensation, public warehouses, 

 nnu expressly directed the General Assembly to pass 

 laws for the government of warehouses, for the inspec- 

 tion of grain, and for the protection of producers, ship- 

 pers, and receivers of grain and produce. 



Promptly after the adoption of tho Constitution 

 containing these affirmative provisions in 1871, the 

 Legislature attempted to give them vitality by tho 

 enactment of laws to carry them out. One of these 

 created the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, and 

 imposed upon it certain important duties. Another 

 was an act to regulate public warehouses and ware- 

 housing and tho inspection of grain, and to give effect 

 to Article XIII. of the Constitution. By this act other 

 important duties were imposed upon tho Railroad and 

 Warehouse Commissioners. A grain-inspection de- 

 partment was created and placed under their charge. ' 

 Another statute divided tho railroads of the State into 

 classes and fixed maximum passenger rates. Another 

 prohibited unjust discrimination and extortion in 

 freight rates, and fixed severe penalties for disobe- 

 dience of law. Under tho warehouse laws the Com- 

 ini.-sioners commenced a suit against Ira Y. Munn and 

 Georgo T. Scott, warehousemen, to compel them to 

 recognize tho right of tho General Assembly to regu- 

 late their business in tho interest of the people. The 

 case was made a test one. It was decided by both the 

 State and Federal Supremo Courts in favor of tho 

 people, and in iu decision tho Supreme Court of the 

 United States declared a doctrine of tho greatest im- 

 portance to the people of the whole country tho doc- 

 trine that, under the powers inherent in every sov- 

 ereignty, a government mav regulate the conduct of 

 its citizens toward each other, and, when necessary 

 for tho public good, the manner in which each shall 

 use his own property. The value of this decision to 

 tho fanners ana groin-consumers of the country can 

 not Ixj wholly estimated in money. 



Under tho law to establish reasonable passenger 

 rates on railroads, a suit was commenced and taken to 

 tho Supreme Court. Tho Court decided that it was 

 necessary to prove tliat tho rate charged by a railroad 

 in excess of the maximum rote fixed by law was un- 

 reasonable. 



The law against unjust discrimination and extortion 

 by railroad corporations was passed upon by the Su- 

 preme Court in tho effort of the Commissioners to en- 

 force its provisions ; and the Supreme Court decided 

 that tho act could not bo enforced until so amended as 

 to make tho charging of a greater compensation for a 

 le-s ui-tance, or lor tho nanip distance., merely prtma 

 facie evidence of unjust discrimination, instead of 

 conclusive evidence, and in dictum expressed the 



