RAILWAY LEGISLATION 12$ 



fraudulent discrimination by railroad companies." 1 Two years 

 later a bill for the appointment of railroad commissioners passed 

 the Senate but was not acted upon by the House. 2 In 1865, 

 however, the House passed a bill for the appointment of a 

 railroad commission, by a vote of 62 to i, and also a bill limit- 

 ing passenger fares to three cents per mile. The Senate had now 

 become conservative and both of these measures were buried 

 by its committee on railroads. 3 In the next general assembly, 

 which convened in 1867, a large number of bills and resolutions 

 were introduced, and the House finally passed, by a vote of 57 

 to 24, a bill for " An act to assert the control of the state over 

 railroad corporations, to fix the rates of freight, and to prevent 

 extortion." The Senate at this session went so far as to adopt 

 a resolution declaring that the legislature had full power to limit 

 fares or freights, and that the unreasonable, excessive, and 

 oppressive charges of the corporations made the exercise of that 

 power imperative; but the only railroad measure which got 

 so far as a third reading in that house was defeated by a tie 

 vote. 4 



The demand for the curbing of the power of railway corpora- 

 tions continued to grow throughout the state during the follow- 

 ing two years. When the twenty-sixth general assembly con- 

 vened in January, 1869, it was one of the principal subjects 

 confronting the legislature. 5 A number of restrictive bills were 

 introduced in both houses, but the first one passed a three 

 cent fare measure was vetoed by the governor, on the ground 

 that the railroad charters were contracts, and not subject to 



1 Illinois, Senate Journal, 1861, p. 583. 



2 Ibid., 1863, pp. 89, 193, 210; House Journal, 1863, pp. 117, 503, 681, 723-732. 



3 For legislative activity on the subject of railway regulation at this session, 

 see House Journal, 1865, pp. 113, 164, 439, 467, 506, 520, 594, 681, 701, 778, 833, 

 982; Senate Journal, 1865, pp. 548, 560, 675, 683, 711. 



4 House Journal, 1867, i. 45, 47, 82, 97, 107, 127, 162, 240, 301, 314, 356, 446, 

 626, ii. 436, 673; Senate Journal, 1867, pp. 93, 95, 134, 171, 173-176, 185, 200, 205, 

 222, 438, 446, 469, 507-512, 532, 550, 870-875, 1231; John Moses, Illinois, His- 

 torical and Statistical, ii. 769. 



6 Ibid. 777. For a characterization of this general assembly, see Davidson 

 and Stuve", History of Illinois, 933-935. Cf. Gordon, Illinois Railway Legisla- 

 tion, 21. 



