NEW RAILROAD LEGISLATION. 153 



The following officers were then elected for the ensuing year: 

 A. R. Fulton — President. 

 R. S. Miller— Vice President. 

 H. L. Chaffee — Recording Secretary. 

 Dr. W. M. Thomas — Corresponding Secretary. 

 O. P. Pence — Treasurer. 

 W. Bailey — Curator. 

 A. M. Forster — Librarian. 



Directors— Geo. C. Baker, T. G. Orwig, R. S. Miller, A. R Fulton, H. L. 

 Chaffee. 



The Academy adjourned to meet on the second Tuesday in July. 



NEW RAILROAD LEGISLATION IN ENGLAND. 



HON. GEO. C. PRATT, R. R. COMMISSIONER OF MISSOURI. 



Editor Kansas City Review: — If you include "transportation" among the 

 industries coming within the scope of your Review, you may possibly think this 

 article from the Railroad Gazette worth re-publication; as being calculated to 

 awaken the attention of thinking men to this subject. There is a similarity be- 

 tween Missouri and English legislation in that the same hesitancy to give the 

 Commissioners entire control over rates has been exhibited in both. 

 Respectfully yours, 



Geo. C. Pratt. 



A bill has recently been introduced into Parliament making important changes 

 in the powers of the English Railway Commission. It is by no means certain to 

 pass at this session; but whether it passes or not, it foreshadows the course which 

 English railroad legislation is likely to take in the immediate future. It is no 

 mere haphazard proposal, like so many of the bills brought before Congress. It 

 is officially introduced by Mr. Chamberlain, President of the Board of Trade, 

 and is based upon the report of a strong Parliamentary Committee which had 

 spent two years in studying the questions at issue. It may be taken as express- 

 ing the deliberate views of a number of leading Englishmen of both parties. 



It is now eleven years since the English Railway Commission was estab- 

 lished. It was a new piece of machinery for carrying out an old law. The act 

 of 1854 defined the relations between the railroads and the public. But it had 

 remained to a great extent a dead letter. Cases constantly arose under it of 

 which the courts would not and could not take cognizance. Others involved 

 great delay and expense to the, complainants ; so great as to deter men from hav- 

 ing recourse to the courts when the law was plainly on their side. To meet 

 these difficulties the Railway Commission was established. It was intended to 

 enforce those parts of the act of 1854 which the courts could not enforce, and to 



