746 



PENNSYLYANIA. 



of divorce, consist of actual violence to the 

 person, endangering the life or affecting the 

 health of the party. 7. By making those mat- 

 ters of practice which are now regulated by 

 rules of court a subject of legislative enact- 

 ment, and by providing additional safeguards 

 against collusion." 



Civil Service. The Governor again recom- 

 mends that a law be enacted regulating the 

 appointments in the civil service of the State. 

 " It is not to be doubted," he remarks, "that 

 one of the greatest evils affecting our political 

 life is the practice of making appointments to 

 public employment the spoils of party success. 

 The law should require all officers below a 

 given grade to be appointed because of tested 

 fitness and competency, and they should only 

 be removable for reasons affecting these quali- 

 fications." 



Soldiers' Orphans' Homes. During the year, the 

 attention of the Governor was called to cer- 

 tain allegations made by a responsible news- 

 paper, of neglect, inhumanity, and corruption 

 in the care and maintenance of the soldiers' or- 

 phans supported in the various orphan-schools 

 at the expense of the State. As the result of 

 an exhaustive examination, he was entirely 

 convinced of the truth of the charges made. 

 " It is impossible, with the evidence procured," 

 he says, "to doubt that for many years the 

 generous bounty of the State has been sys- 

 tematically and deliberately wasted and per- 

 verted ; the orphans in many cases defrauded 

 of the commonest comforts of life ; cruelty and 

 inhumanity of the most repulsive character 

 practiced, and the schools conducted by a com- 

 bination of mercenary contractors in the most 

 corrupt, unlawful, and heartless manner. To 

 do this the laws governing the institutions 

 have been disregarded and persistently vio- 

 lated; the public officers charged with their 

 superintendence and government have been 

 negligent, incompetent, and studiously dere- 

 lict; and, while the investigation was being 

 made, either abstained from assistance or em- 

 barrassed the discovery of the facts. I, there- 

 fore, deemed the first step needed to reform 

 the abuses unearthed to be the discharge of 

 the officials through whose gross incompetence 

 and dereliction they were made possible, and 

 the substitution of more faithful and compe- 

 tent incumbents. The disclosures made by the 

 investigation have compelled a marked im- 

 provement in the condition of the children as 

 to their food, clothing, education, and general 

 accommodations, as well as in the sanitary ar- 

 rangements of the buildings." 



Railroad Litigation. The Attorney-General 

 has instituted two important judicial proceed- 

 ings to enforce the provisions of the Constitu- 

 tion governing railroad corporations. One of 

 these proceedings was begun for the purpose of 

 preventing the Pennsylvania Railroad from 

 discontinuing the construction of the projected 

 competing line between Harrisburg and Pitts- 

 burg, known as the South Pennsylvania Rail- 



road, by the purchase and control of the prop- 

 erty and franchises of the latter road and its 

 substantial consolidation with the former, and 

 the control and purchase of the Beech Creek 

 Railroad, an important coal-carrying line. The 

 citizens in the portions of the State benefited 

 by the competition existing or projected, in 

 public meeting and by private communication, 

 protested to the Executive against the wrong 

 and injury to business and trade that would 

 result from the intended suppression of railroad 

 facilities, and petitioned the intervention of 

 the State to prevent this plain violation of the 

 Constitution and its consequent evils. The 

 Attorney - General, though beset with many 

 difficulties in obtaining testimony, succeeded in 

 fully and clearly establishing the facts of the 

 intended, and partially effected, scheme by 

 which the competing lines were to be consoli- 

 dated with, and controlled by, their rival, the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad ; and, upon the facts 

 thus proved, the Court of Dauphin County, 

 where the suit was begun, continued the pre- 

 liminary injunctions against all the parties to 

 the arrangement, forbidding its consummation. 

 The Supreme Court, to which the proceedings 

 were removed by appeal, affirmed the decision 

 of the lower court. The injunctions are, there- 

 fore, now in force, and will so continue until 

 the determination of the litigation. 



The other proceeding begun by the Attor- 

 ney-General is aimed at the combination en- 

 tered into by the several great trunk-lines and 

 their auxiliaries, and certain coal-mining com- 

 panies, to control, fix, and raise the rates of 

 transportation of persons and commodities, and 

 the price and amount of coal to be mined and 

 sold. "This combination," argues the Gov- 

 ernor, " variously known as the ' Trunk-Line 

 Pool ' and the ' Coal Pool,' is a manifest viola- 

 tion of law, as well of the principles of com- 

 mon law as of the plain provisions of the 

 State Constitution. Its purpose is to raise the 

 price and the amount of a necessary of life, 

 and arbitrarily and at the will of the repre- 

 sentatives of a few capitalists, and for their 

 profit, to raise the cost of living of the people 

 of a whole State, to interfere with their busi- 

 ness and comfort, and to oblige an entire 

 Commonwealth to pay tribute to the cupidity 

 and speculating purposes of a few men. It is 

 time that the people should have a clear decla- 

 ration from the courts of the legality or ille- 

 gality of such high-handed proceedings by the 

 creatures of the law ; it is time that all citizens 

 should know whether the Constitution, while 

 strong enough to govern a private person, is a 

 nullity as to corporations. If combination by 

 individuals to raise the price of a necessary 

 of life, or restrict its production, is unlawful, 

 and an offense indictable and punishable at 

 common law as a crime, it is time to know 

 from the courts whether the same acts, though 

 more injurious and wider spread in their ef- 

 fects when done by corporations, render their 

 perpetrators amenable to no law, and can not 



