LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

MADISON, Wis., December 2, 1907.

To his Excellency, HON. JAMES O. DAVIDSON,

Governor.

As required by law, we have the honor to submit our An

nual Report containing an account of all matters pertaining to

this office, from December 1, 1906, to July 1, 1907.

RAILROAD COMMISSION OF WISCONSIN,

By J. M. WINTERBOTHAM,

Secretary.

ERRATA.

Page 61, line 8, for is read are.

Pag e180, No. 812, for sec. 1082 read sec. 1802.

Page 200, No. 866, complainant H. C. Prange Co.

Page 206, No. 881, last line, for to read is.

Page 256, transfer $578.77 from colmun 4 to column 3. Page 282, insert Chicago before St. Paul in title.

Page 336, column 3, for Telephone read Telegraph.

PART I.

A General Account of the Work of the
Commission.

On December 1, 1906, this Commission submitted to the governor its first biennial report. That report covered a period of seventeen months and contained in full the text of all decisions rendered up to December 1, as well as a discussion of the methods followed in handling complaints and investigations which it had undertaken. The present report contains a period of but seven months, extending from December 1, 1906, to June 30, 1907, and some of the features of the former are here omitted.

The legislature, by chapter 582, Laws of 1907, authorized the printing and publishing for distribution, in bound volumes of convenient size, the opinions and decisions of the Commission, in editions of not to exceed 2,500 copies of any one volume so published; therefore, to avoid duplication, there is omitted from the present report the text of the decisions rendered, but there will be found herein the syllabus of each formal decision made by the Commission during the period covered, also the substance of each formal complaint filed which was disposed of without a formal order. The substance and disposition of each informal complaint and other informal matters is given together with tabulations showing in full all reports made to the Commission, including those covered by the calendar year ending December 31, 1906, and

the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907. It also includes tabulations showing the summary of accident and other reports made monthly to the Commission, as well as other data made to the Commission relating to the operation and control of railways.

The omission of the text of the formal orders, and the short period covered by it, restricts the size of the present volume vory materially as compared with the preceding report.

RAILWAY REPORTS.

For the years ending December 31, 1906, and June 30, 1907, there were in all fifty-one railway companies reporting to this Commission. This, it is believed, includes every company in the state doing business as a common carrier, but it does not include those logging railways which are not acting as common carriers, such companies being exempt from the provisions of the law.

In Part IV of this report will be found tabulations showing in detail the statistics furnished the Commission by street and interurban railways doing business in the state.

Under the Railroad Commission Law as originally enacted the Commission had no jurisdiction over street railway companies whose lines did not extend beyond the limits of the municipalities in which such companies were operating. The last legislature has, under the provisions of chapter 582, placed all such companies under the direct jurisdiction of the Commission.

RAILWAY MILEAGE.

The number of miles operated by these fifty-one companies within the state is 7,292.38 miles, as shown by their reports for the year ending June 30, 1907, while the mileage shown by their reports for the year ending June 30, 1906, was 7,014.16, an increase during the year of 278.22 miles. This increase is largely due to the extensions of the Chicago &