PENNSYLVANIA. 



than the average in the United States. During 



tin- year just closed, $31,000,000 were expended 

 fur pri-mam-nt improvements by the railroads of 



tin- Slate. 



The average cost of transportation per mile 

 :i is li-ss than '95 of a cent, and the passen- 

 ger rate i- 2-167 of a cent per mile. During the 

 year ret urns show that the lines in Pennsylvania 

 carried 138,070,156 passengers, an increase of 

 I','. 173,097 over the last year. 



The number of street railways reporting was 

 J(>7. The stock capitalization of these corpora- 

 tions is reported at $34,622,120.26, an increase of 

 $7.!)56,541.67 during the year. 



The "Coal Combine." The following ac- 

 ciiuut of the notorious "coal combine" is taken 

 from the Governor's message to the Legislature 

 of 1893 : 



During the past year an illustration of the especial- 

 ly flagrant manner in which the Constitution is defied 

 has been furnished by the lease or attempted lease 

 nnd consolidation of the Lehigh and Susquehanna 

 unil the Lehigh Valley Railroad Companies by the 

 Philadelphia and Reading. The first intimation 

 which came to the executive officers of the State of 

 any such scheme was the publication in the newspa- 

 pers that an arrangement hail been consummated be- 

 turtn the various parties to what is now known as the 

 Heading Combine," by which the Lehigh Valley 

 Railroad was leased to the Philadelphia and Reading 

 Railroad and the Central Railroad Company of New 

 .Jersey, whose system was represented in Pennsylva- 

 nia by the Lehigh and Susquehanna, passed under 

 the control of the Port Reading Railroad Company, a 

 New Jersey corporation, the creature of and con- 

 trolled entirely by the Philadelphia and Reading 

 Railroad Company. By the terms of this arrange- 

 ment it was manifested that three of the great coal- 

 transporting companies of the Commonwealth, prac- 

 tically controlling three or more of the great coal-pro- 

 ducing companies, were united into one. system, de- 

 stroying competition, which had previously existed 

 between them to the advantage of the people of this 

 and other Commonwealths, and erecting a consoli- 

 dated monopoly at onco violative of the Constitution 

 and threatening the interests of the public. Imme- 

 diately, the character of this transaction and its effect 

 upon the public interest and the welfare of the Com- 

 monwcaltn, and the application of the fourth section 

 of the seventeenth article of the Constitution to the 

 tart-- nt' the ease, became the subject of my attention 

 and of my conference with the Attorney-General. 

 Shortly afterward the complaints of private citizens 

 touching thin matter were received by me and were 

 referred t<> the Attorney-General, at whose instance 

 the representatives of the offending corporations were 

 notified that they would bo given a hearing and op- 

 portunity to show cause why the Commonwealth 

 should not intervene in the courts to have full dis- 

 covery made of all the leases, contracts, and agree- 

 ments involved in or collateral with the consummated 

 raihoad u combine," and to have the same declared 

 null and void, as being in violation of the Constitu- 

 tion, injurious to the public interest, against public 

 policy, illegal, and void. At the hearing thus fixed 

 representatives of the coqwrations complained against 

 appeared and ar.irucd that no occasion for such inter- 

 vention had arisen or existed. After a consideration 

 of the answers thus made, and an examination of the 

 leases submitted to him, it was the opinion of the law 

 officer of the Commonwealth that the combination 

 etl'crted was in violation of the Constitution and 

 against public policy, and he accordingly tiled bills 

 in equity in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin 

 County on March 14 for a perpetual injunction re- 

 straining the lessee and controlling power of the com- 

 bined companies from operating the corporations of 

 which it had secured control, and asking for a decree 



VOL. xxxn. 40 A 



to declare the agreements and leases null and void, 

 and for a restoration of the railroads, works, and other 

 property of the different corporations included in the 

 combination, each to its original owner, for separate 

 operation by it, and for a restoration of the conditions 

 which had' theretofore existed. Answers were duly 

 filed and examiners appointed to inquire into and re- 

 port the facto of the ease to the court. 



Two suite brought by private individuals in other 

 courts of the Commonwealth, touching the same mat- 

 ters, have progressed so far that in the one case a pre- 

 liminary injunction was refused, and in the other the 

 finding of the masters was adverse to the complaint 

 and in favor of the legality of the " combine." The 

 ease of the Commonwealth, which is believed to be 

 stronger than either of these elsewhere instituted, 

 and which seeks to secure a permanent dissolution of 

 the combination, is about ready to be argued in the 

 Dauphin Countv Court of Common Pleas, and can be 

 readily disposed" of in time for final adjudication at 

 the next term of the Supreme Court. It need only be 

 stated, in addition, that, by reason of the legal Pro- 

 ceedings in this and other Commonwealths, the Cen- 

 tral Railroad Company of New Jersey, upon the 31st 

 day of August, 1891, re-entered upon and resumed 

 possession of the lines of railroad owned, leased, and 

 operated by it in this State, including the Lehigh and 

 Susquehanmv, and is now alleged to be in exclusive 

 possession and operation of the same. This step was 

 not taken before the Chancellor of New Jersey had 

 made a decree that the agreement and leases between 

 these railroad companies should be set aside, and 

 from this decree the Port Reading and Philadelphia 

 and Reading Railroad Companies nave entered an ap- 

 peal, which nas not yet been finally disposed of. 



State Suits. The report of the Attorney- 

 General for 1891 and 1892 gives the following 

 summary : Besides a half dozen suits instituted 

 of his own motion, and about a score of quo irar- 

 ranto proceedings, 254 cases ar.ose in the depart- 

 ment upon appeals by corporations, officials, and 

 others from settlements made in the Auditor- 

 General's office, and 112 other claims, not ap- 

 pealed from, were placed in his hands for col- 

 lection. He has collected and paid into the 

 State treasury $874,506.70, and has suits ready 

 for trial involving nearly a million more. 



In the capital stock cases about $325,000 was 

 recovered for the State of taxes due many years 

 ago but not claimed at the time. 



The Mercantile Taxes. These are imposed 

 by the State law upon merchants, brokers, bil- 

 liard tables, and the like, and special officers are 

 appointed for assessing and collecting them. 

 Under an act of April 20, 1887, five mercantile 

 appraisers were appointed for Philadelphia, and 

 one for each of the other counties in the State, 

 with lavish allowances for advertising. Expos- 

 ures made during the year showed that in Phila- 

 delphia the office of mercantile appraiser was 

 made the means of shameful barter and corrup- 

 tion. " The assessments," says the Governor, in 

 his message, " were a burlesque ; exemptions and 

 reductions were made for corrupt consideration ; 

 lists were swelled with improper names for im- 

 proper purposes : thousands of delinquents were 

 reported to the police magistrates, and the pro- 

 ceedings against them for the recovery of taxes 

 due the Commonwealth were farcical, resulting 

 only in mulcting the Commonwealth in hundreds 

 of thousands of dollars of costs without any re- 

 turn: tin 1 public advertising was let to news- 

 papers for the consideration of 40 per cent. 

 divided among the officials intrusted by the 

 State with its allotment ; until the entire board 



