ILLINOIS. 





declared aggregating $11, 058,030.00, or an av- 

 erage of 5*19 per oent. on the entire amount of 

 common and preferred stock reported as pay- 

 ing dividends. Forty-two roads, with 14,885'12 

 niili-s of track, report bonded indebtedness of 

 $328,799,590.68, an average of $21,531 per mile. 

 Thirty -three companies report floating debts 

 aggregating $11,838,802.79. The aggregate of 

 bonded and floating debt reported in 1879 is 

 $340,638,399.47, an increase of $65,680,859.34 

 over last year $60,635,866.26 of bonded and 

 $6,045,493.08 of floating. This increase may 

 be accounted for in some measure by the fact 

 that some of the roads have added to their 

 debts, but much the larger portion of it is duo 

 to the more perfect returns made by the com- 

 panies. The ordinary operating expenses of 

 1878 compared with those of 1877 show a de- 

 crease of $423,179.81, while the expenses called 

 extraordinary have been increased over those 

 of that year $7,862,621.26. The total number 

 of passengers carried during 1878 was 21,535,- 

 487. The number carried one mile was 880,- 

 817,698. The average receipts per passenger 

 per mile were 3' 18 cents. The total tons of 

 freight carried were 30,233,308. The total tons 

 carried one mile were 5,937,068,254. The av- 

 erage number of tons carried per train, twenty- 

 one roads reporting, was 107. The highest av- 

 erage number of tons carried per train was 320 ; 

 the lowest average was 28 tons. The average 

 number of tons carried per car was 7'54. The 

 increase in tonnage of 1878 over that of 1877 

 is 3,758,172, or 12-4 per cent. 



The Committee on Railroads in the Lower 

 House of the Legislature instructed its chair- 

 man to inquire of the State Attorney-General 

 " whether corporations operating sleeping-cars 

 in the State were subject to legislative control." 

 His reply was as follows : 



The same question was submitted to me by the 

 House Committee on Railroads two years ago. The 

 conclusion then reached was that persons or corpora- 

 tions operating sleeping-cars upon railroads, as that 

 business is now generally conducted, were subject to 

 legislative control in like manner as common carriers. 

 (9, " Chicago Legal News," \>. -211.) Subsequent re- 

 flection has confirmed me in tnat opinion. The recent 

 decisions of the Supreme Court of this State and of the 

 United States recognize the following as a sound legal 

 principle : Whenever any person pursues a public em- 

 ployment, and sustains such relations to the public 

 that the people must of necessity deal with him ( and 

 are under a moral duress to submit to his terms if ho 

 is unrestrained by law ; then, in order to prevent ex- 

 tortion and abuse of his position, the price he may 

 charge for his service may be regulated by law. (Scott 

 <fc Munn vs. The People, 69 Ills., 80 ; Munn & Scott 

 vs. The People, 40 Ills. (94 U. S.), 118; C. B. and Q. 

 R. R. Co. vs. Iowa, 4 Ills., 155 ; Peck vs. C. and N. W. 

 Ry. Co., id., 164 ; Stone vs. Wisconsin, id., 181.) Per- 

 sons or corporations operating sleeping-cars upon rail- 

 roads may not, in a strict sense, bo common carriers, 

 yet they participate in the carriage of passengers for 

 hire, and perform in part, at least, the duties which 

 would otherwise devolve upon the common carriers. 

 Upon the line of railroads upon which they operate, 

 they furnish all the sleeping-cars used. All compe- 

 tition, so far as that mode of travel is concerned, is 

 wholly excluded They pursue a "public employ- 

 ment " in the same sense that the vocation of common 



carriers, warehousemen, or ferrymen U held to be 

 iiuMio employment, as dintingu'mhed fr<m ordinary 

 business pursuits, and in my opinion are equally aub- 

 ject to legislative control aa common carrien. 



A sub-committee then proceeded to Chicago 

 to consider the propriety of legislating for the 

 reduction of sleeping-car rates. Ample facili- 

 ties were offered to them by the President of 

 the Pullman Palace Car Company (Mr. George 

 M. Pullman), who likewise made a statement 

 of the expenses and earnings of the company, 

 lie read the contract with the Chicago and Al- 

 ton Railroad, in accordance with which the 

 Pullman Company runs it scar* on the line 

 of that road, and then submitted statements 

 drawn from the books showing that the invest- 

 ment account of the Pullman Company witlvthe 

 Chicago and Alton road was $175,090 in eleven 

 sleepers, the number on that road The gross 

 earnings for 1878 of these eleven cars were $55,- 

 023, and the Pullman Company received $7,080 

 mileage from the Alton Company, making the 

 gross revenue $60, 1 04. The operating expenses, 

 on the other hand, for conductors, porters, etc., 

 were $12,940; repairs on cars were $18,287; 

 and the taxes and insurance on the eleven cars 

 were $1,210, making the net earnings $22,- 

 664.83, from which was to be deducted 5 per 

 cent, for annual depreciation on the cars. This 

 showed, as the result of the figures, that out of 

 about $60,000 gross earnings the company re- 

 alized $13,999.83, which were divided among 

 the stockholders. Similar statements were sub- 

 mitted, showing the state of affairs with regard 

 to the Illinois Central, the Chicago, Burlington, 

 and Quincy, the Northwestern, and other roads. 

 It was next shown from statements before the 

 committee that on the Chicago and Alton road, 

 taken as an example, the year's earnings per car 

 per trip were $21.34, and the expenses $16.40, 

 leaving the net earnings of each trip at $4.94 

 a oar ; further, that the gross earnings per pas- 

 senger were $1.73 and expenses $1.33, leav- 

 ing the net earnings at 40 cents per passenger. 

 Mr. Pullman explained that the reason the 

 gross earnings per passenger were $1.73 instead 

 of $2, the price per berth, was that many of 

 the passengers were not berth but merely seat 

 passengers. 



A most important military question was 

 raised by the action of the Legislature. The 

 Military Committee of the House were in- 

 structed to report "on the present necessity 

 for a State military organization." They re- 

 ported that, in the light of the events of the 

 last two years, and with that experience so 

 fresh in the minds of every member, they 

 were compelled to recognize the wisdom 

 which provided the State with a citizen sol- 

 diery in that hour of urgent need (referring to 

 the railroad riots). Therefore they concluded 

 that " it was an absolute necessity which the 

 representatives of the people could not safely 

 ignore." A bill was accordingly reported. 

 The object of this measure was brought out 

 in the following remarks by one of the mem- 



