CONVENTION OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS.

On the 3d and 4th of March, 1891, the regular annual convention of State commissioners of railroads was held at the rooms of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Commissioners and accredited representatives were present from the following States: Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Several gentlemen representing the executive committee of the Association of American Railway Accounting Officers were also present.

The Hon. Thomas M. Cooley was chosen chairman of the convention, Mr. George G. Crocker, of Massachusetts, vice-chairman, and Messrs. Edward A. Moseley and Martin S. Decker, secretary and assistant secretary, respectively.

On taking the chair, Judge Cooley made the following address:

"Gentlemen of the convention: Our purpose in coming together on this occasion is for consultation upon subjects of mutual interest, and for the discussion of questions which either pertain directly to the official duties we have severally taken upon ourselves, or which at least have some bearing upon the proper performance of those duties. We are not all clothed with the same powers; there has not been prescribed for all of us the like obligations; but in our official action we all have the same general purpose in contemplation, and it may justly be assumed that the views we may severally hold will be of common interest, and that in so far as there has been experience in dealing with practical questions, this experience will be not interesting merely, but of high value.

"It has been assumed by the people in creating the offices which are represented in this meeting that there are mischiefs of some considerable magnitude in the railroad service of the country; and the existence of these mischiefs is the justification for creating such offices. No class of persons in the country will admit more freely the existence of serious evils than those who are managers of the railroads or who are interested as stockholders or bondholders in the results of the management; but as this class look upon the existing evils from the standpoint of corporate interest, they are likely to see them as they exist mostly in the relations between the roads themselves, while the public, regarding them from a different standpoint, naturally see most distinctly the mischiefs which spring from the relations of the railroads to their customers or which affect the political society.

"When the legislation which was intended to bring the transportation business of the country under public control was first entered upon, there were persons interested as managers or otherwise in railroad property, and possibly some others, who denied that any such legislation was fairly warranted by just principles of constitutional law. This denial is not often heard now, but it is very generally conceded that, inasmuch as the railway is a public agency, its management is a public trust; and that as such it is as legitimately to be regulated by law as

is the management of any other trust in which the public are directly concerned. There are doubtless still some persons, however, who believe that in point of policy public regulation was uncalled for at the time it was entered upon, and that the results will not justify the expectations upon which the legislation hitherto adopted has been based. This last proposition I do not see that this convention need care to controvert. It is likely to be the case with all attempts at important reforms in public affairs that the results will not equal the antecedent expectations; and one of the consequences must be that those who are officially connected with the effort will be compelled to share among them, to some extent, the blame that inevitably follows the impossibility of giving complete satisfaction to extravagant hopes.

Whether the views of those who have not favored public regulation of railways are or are not justified by the situation, or by the prospects for the future, it seems to be taken for granted now that statutes for the purpose are likely to have a place among the laws for an indefinite period; though to what extent they shall go in regulation, and how far they may justly and properly subordinate the interests of stockholders and bondholders to the rights and convenience of the general public, are questions upon which the differences of opinion are not likely to be reconciled, and may be expected to be hereafter, as they are now, somewhat radical. There are many who believe that the Government should not regulate merely, but should manage the roads; that its hand should be felt continuously and everywhere; while others look upon the existing legislation as having gone quite as far as can be justified by the expectation of useful results. Others, holding views differing from both these classes might be mentioned, but it is not important; the future alone, after much more practical experience than the country has had as yet, will determine which of them, if indeed any, are right in their anticipations and prophecies. For our present purpose it is sufficient for us to say, that it is agreed on all hands by those who undertake to deal with the subject of railway regulation, that there are many evils here which ought to be remedied; and whoever speaks of these evils is likely in general terms to talk of a 'railroad problem' to be solved: those interested in the roads for the reason already mentioned appearing to look for it mainly in the relations between the roads themselves, while others regard it as existing somewhere in the defective performance by the roads of their public duties, and therefore, perhaps, to be solved through the exercise of such governmental power as shall compel proper performance.

"It is a noticeable fact that when this railroad problem is spoken of the mention is likely to be vague and indefinite, whether it is receiving attention at the hands of those representing the roads or from those who speak in the interests of political economy, or as representing the public authorities. If a legal discussion is being had, however narrow may be the point involved, the parties are not unlikely to make use of this phrase, "railroad problem," as if a decision upon the matter then in controversy was to solve the problem, or at least was to dispose of some portion or lead up to some final solution. This same phrase may be used in the very next controversy, though equally narrow but quite different, and the same expectation of the result may seem to be in the minds of those who represent the contestants. When, however, public authorities are making use of a phrase which pertains to their official duties, and which to the mind of the hearer may seem to indicate their understanding of what their jurisdiction is, in part or in whole, it is important that they employ the phrase with some degree of exacti

tude; and perhaps no better use can be made of the opening hour of our meeting than to devote it to an endeavor to ascertain precisely what it is that is meant by the 'railroad problem,' not merely when it is used by ourselves, but also when it is used by those who are connected directly with railroad management. In doing this, however, we shall be under the necessity of going beyond the terms employed in the several acts of legislation under which we are acting, for in none of them is this phrase defined; the laws point out the scope of our duties, and it is easy to see that many of these are of minor importance and stand by themselves, so that they can not be considered with reason as constituting a part of any great problem; while the evils at which others are aimed may possibly be traced to a common source, and the correction of one through the proper treatment of that common source may be a correction of the others also. Certainly nothing can fairly be dignified with the appellation of 'railroad problem' which does not concern the foundation cause or causes of the principal evils which in the railroad service beget injury or annoyance and excite complaint.

"In an attempt to ascertain what the railroad problem (treating the designation in the sense indicated) must be held to be, it may be well at first to point out what it is not; and this I shall now proceed to do. "It is certainly not to be found in the legislation authorizing the building of railroads, or in that which prescribes the terms and conditions under which the building shall be carried on and completed. It is unfortunate no doubt that the laws for this purpose are so wanting in homogeneity, and in provisions for the protection against the mischiefs with which the exercise of such important powers, when they may be assumed by anyone at discretion, are likely to be attended. The authority comes in the main from the legislation of the States and Territories; and if we examine these we shall find that apparently the most important object in the minds of the lawmakers in granting charters of incorporation for railroads, or in passing general laws which shall stand in the place of such charters, has been to invite and secure the construction; to invite capitalists, or others who can secure capital by whatever means for the purpose, to expend it to that end; and that with this object in view they have been far more anxious to make their legislation satisfactory to the promoters of roads than they have been to take care to satisfy themselves that the building of a particular road is important on public grounds, or that the road when constructed will, in the service it will perform, meet a public demand. In every section of the country instances may be pointed out of roads which have been built without any legitimate demand for them whatever, so that the money invested in them has for the most part been as completely wasted as if it had been sunk in the sea. Either there has been no sufficient traffic that at fair rates would support them when built and keep them in suitable condition, or the traffic of the region which must support them was already so far provided for that a new road could only come in as a disturbing factor, to render those already in existence unprofitable, or to force itself upon them as a marketable commodity under circumstances which could be considered as little less than the levying of blackmail. There is reason for saying that, when the interest of the whole country is considered, it would be better if the necessity or propriety of every proposed new road were required to be passed upon by competent public authority before the State should delegate to anyone the eminent domain to be employed for its construction; but this is not now required, and under existing laws a new railway project is in very many cases little more than a mere demand by mercenary

speculators upon the credulity of the public, who, understanding very little about the elements that must constitute railroad prosperity, are ready enough to believe that riches are to be found in any plausible scheme that projectors put before them. In some instances we feel warranted in saying that the building of a road is entered upon with a full understanding, by those who plan and manage the construction, that the road itself, when complete, can have no value to stockholders except as a means of forcing the owners of roads already in existence and performing valuable service to the country to pay for that which has no intrinsic value a price measured by its power to do mischief.

"There is an evil here which is of no small magnitude; it may be measured in part by the millions which credulous people, often people of very small means, have invested in worthless roads, but in part also by other millions which have been paid for roads which even those who built them knew were not called for. Nevertheless, the great mass of the people of the country are only indirectly injured by the construction of such roads. The roads do not go out of existence even though it be fully demonstrated they ought never to have been built; every one of them has local communities more or less numerous for which it performs convenient service; they come into business relations with the other roads of the country; their operations are likely to be conducted in the same methods as those of other roads; and the great railway questions which concern and disturb the public, as well as those which trouble the railroad world, are likely to remain the same and to require the same discussion and demand the same final settlement as would have been essential if these needless roads had never been constructed. "The railroad problem' is also not to be found in the condition in which the roads may be put by their projectors or managers, or the manner in which they are equipped for the purposes of operation. A road in bad condition is likely, for that reason, to cause great annoyance to the general public and to its customers. It may result in great delays and possibly in the loss of life as well as of property; a road badly equipped may also, for that cause, be of little or no service to the community; it may possibly be even detrimental, as standing in the way of something better. But commonly the difficulties which are found to arise from these deficiencies in construction or equipment are of a minor character, and do not to any great extent affect the general public. They certainly do not rise to the dignity of being considered the railroad problem' of the age. Neither are they likely to any very great extent to affect the relations of the roads with each other, and we must therefore assume that the problem which we are endeavoring to indicate and define would exist in nearly the same force as now were these deficiencies entirely cured; if, in other words, every road was in perfect condition and was fully equipped for any business likely to be offered to it. In point of fact, if we examine the roads of the country, we are not unlikely to be led to the conclusion that the equipment of roads may also go beyond any just demand that business makes upon it, as well as fall short of the proper business necessity. This is especially the case with the preparation made for passenger service, since the earnest and somewhat bitter competition that has existed between the leading lines of the country has begotten an extravagance in equipment which presents us the spectacle of palaces moving on wheels across the continent and inviting the traveling public, when upon journeys which but a few years ago could only be made under circumstances of great hardship and privation, to a participation now in comforts and even luxuries which in the case of most. of them are