portation with the tolls paid or tendered." An early Wisconsin charter contains a much more elaborate provision on discriminations.

Administrative Agents. So far as internal evidence is concerned, early charters were granted upon the assumption that the companies organized under them would voluntarily fulfil the obligations imposed by the franchise. The assumption which underlies early as well as later railway charters is that they execute themselves. It is consequently doubly interesting to observe that the small state of Rhode Island apparently took the initiative in establishing commissions, for in 1836 the legislature of that state passed "An act to establish railroad commissioners." After providing for the appointment of three commissioners by the general assembly, the act specifies that "it shall be the duty of said board of commissioners, upon complaint or otherwise, whenever a majority of them shall deem it expedient, personally to examine into any or all of the transactions or proceedings of any railroad corporation that now is, or hereafter may be, authorized and established in this state, in order to secure to all the citizens and inhabitants of the same the full and equal privileges of the transportation of passengers and property at all times that may be granted, either directly or indirectly, by any such corporation to the citizens of any other state or states, and ratably in proportion to the distance any such persons or property may be Laws, 1836, p. 1087.

1

transported on any railroad as aforesaid; and to inquire into any contract, understanding, or agreement by which any railroad company shall attempt to transfer or give to any steamboat company any favor or preference over any other such company or boat, either as to freight or passage, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act and the several acts hereafter passed in relation to railroads."

The commissioners in the Connecticut charter quoted before may here be recalled, together with the boards of internal improvement of Tennessee 1 and Florida,2 which had some, although much more restricted, administrative powers over certain railways. Analogous functions were performed under a Vermont charter of 1843, by which "the supreme court at any stated session thereof, upon application of ten freeholders in any town. or towns through which said road may pass, may alter or establish the rates of toll upon said road for any term not exceeding ten years at any one time." It is evident that the Rhode Island commission is the only one of these bodies that could exercise, under the law, fairly comprehensive administrative functions. The Vermont court is here alluded to simply because it is an illustration of the introduction into the management of railway affairs of persons other than those directly interested in the corporation.

1 Laws, 1838.

2 Laws, 1855, ch. 610.

3 Laws, 1843, no. 56, § 9.

Powers reserved to the Legislature. Considered numerically, a majority of the charters granted in the different states do not reserve to the legislature either specified or general powers. It is very common, however, for charters to contain provisions reserving to the legislature the right to regulate, with more or less latitude, the charges of transportation. In the New England States this power could generally be exercised under charter rights as long as the net income of the railway in question exceeded a certain per cent, usually ten. Thus a Massachusetts 1 charter of 1829 reserves to the legislature the right to revise the schedule of rates every four years if the net income exceeds ten per cent. A contemporary New Hampshire 2 charter gives the board of directors full power over rates, and permits the legislature to reduce them after ten per cent net on the investment has been realized. A clause typical of provisions of this kind is found in an early Maryland3 charter, "That nothing in this act shall be construed so as to prevent the legislature of this state from legislating upon the subject of the tolls reserved in this act at any time after the expiration of twenty years after the passage of the act: Provided, That at no time shall the toll be so regulated or reduced as to yield less than six per cent per annum." Other Maryland as well as Pennsylvania charters embody analogous provisions. Ten per cent net income is 2 Laws, 1844, ch. 128, § 11. 3 Laws, 1831, ch. 104, § 24.

1 Laws, 1829, ch. 93, § 10.

by far the most common limit placed upon the discretionary powers of legislatures over railway rates in all the states in which such chartered provisions are found. In a few instances the rate of net profits permitted under the law is very much larger. For instance, in Indiana1 charters were granted permitting the legislature to regulate rates whenever the profits exceeded fifteen per cent, and any excess above fifteen per cent was to be paid into the common school fund.

Another right reserved to the state in a considerable number of charters is the power to purchase the railway after a certain number of years. This power was frequently reserved in the charters of the New England States, the significance of which was perhaps illustrated in the agitation accompanying the recent leasing of the Boston and Albany Railway. A number of early Massachusetts charters reserved to the state the power to purchase after a period of twenty years. In Vermont this period of discretionary power of the state varied from twenty to fifty years. New Hampshire followed Massachusetts, fixing it at twenty. An Illinois 2 charter of 1850 gives the state the right to purchase, after twenty-five years, by refunding to the company the cost of the entire plant, with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum. In New Jersey 3 similar right was reserved after thirty years. An early Michigan * 8 Laws, 1832, p. 376, § 17. 4 Laws, 1836, p. 267, § 19.

1 Laws, 1832, ch. 144, § 24. 2 Laws, 1850, p. 150.

charter contains a provision which is typical of isolated charters in all of the Northwestern States, "The state shall have the right, at any time after the expiration of fifteen years from the completion of said road, to purchase and hold the same for the use of the state at a price not exceeding the original cost of said road, exclusive of repairs thereof, and fourteen per cent thereon, of which cost an accurate account shall be kept and submitted annually, on the first Monday in January, to the legislature, duly attested by the oath of the officers of said company, and at such other times as the legislature shall require the same." In Missouri1 a charter granted in 1837 reserved to the general assembly the right to purchase the railway by giving notice in writing four years in advance. This charter also provided for the appointment of valuers whose function it was to fix the price of the transfer.

Limitations on the Life of Charters. The preceding paragraph illustrates one class of limitations placed upon some charters in all parts of the United States. While a majority of the charters are silent upon this point, now and then charters were granted which were limited in their existence to a certain period of years, varying all the way from ten and twenty to ninety-nine or more years. One of the powers granted in the charters which do not contain provisions directly limiting their life was that which gave to the board of directors “perpetual succession," which means, of course, a fran1 Laws, 1837, p. 253, § 22.