Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Railroad Commissioners respectfully submit their Second Annual Report. The subjects which the commissioners feel called upon to discuss in this, their second annual report, naturally divide themselves under two heads :: 1st. Those matters peculiar to this Commonwealth, or which by special order of the last legislature were referred to this board with instructions to report thereon, being rather of a local or temporary description; and 2d. The general questions of railroad development, which are now subjects of inquiry here, no less than elsewhere, and which arise out of the relations existing between the community and its railroad corporations. The commissioners propose therefore to divide their report into two parts, which will respectively treat of these divisions of their subject. PART I. Fifty-five Acts and two Resolves of special nature relating to railroads were passed by the last legislature. Among these were nine Acts of incorporation of railroad companies, and four of street railways; two lapsed railroad charters were revived, and one street railway charter. No information of any action had under the street railway charters has reached the commissioners. In Appendix B of this report will be found a condensed statement of the organizations effected and the work of construction done during the year. Seven of the companies chartered by the last legislature organized, and two of these have completed their roads. The whole amount of additional completed road reported this year over that reported last is 37.10 miles. The only event of any significance in the way of construction within this state during the last year has been the completion of Mansfield and Framingham road, which was opened in June last, forming the last link in the chain of roads connecting New Bedford with Fitchburg and the northern railroad system. Upon the nine roads chartered in 1870, but five miles have been constructed, in so far as the commissioners are advised. INCORPORATION BY SPECIAL CHARTER. In their first report the commissioners alluded at some length to the evils incident to the practice of authorizing all railroad construction under special charters, which has ever prevailed in this Commonwealth. They desire now to call attention to the criticisms they then made upon this subject. (First Annual Report, pp. 44-6.) The experience of the last legislature and the observations of another year, have more than confirmed them in the opinions then expressed. Every year that the existing system continues it greatly aggravates the labors of the session and needlessly adds to the confusion of a mass of legislation, the present condition of which is appreciated by very few. There might be a degree of compensation for these evils if the practice served to perpetuate any distinctive policy. This, however, is not the case. There are no recognized principles upon which charters for the construction of new railroads are now granted or withheld by the Massachusetts legislature. A system of special legislation is usually justified upon the assumption that certain public duties can best be performed by monopolists, who are to be protected and regulated in the enjoyment of their monopoly by law. The existing railroads of Massachusetts are not at present regulated by law, neither does the legislature protect them against injudicious competition. As instances in point, in 1868 a charter was granted authorizing the construction of a road parallel to a part of the Boston & Maine line, and not averaging more than a mile distance from it ; in 1869 three charters were granted for roads from Taunton to Providence; in 1870 the Lexington branch was transferred from the Fitchburg to the Boston & Lowell road. The present system might, therefore, more correctly be described as one of free construction under special laws. A negative decision as to any scheme has consequently ceased to be regarded as final. The same questions are yearly fought over in committee, and on the floors of the two houses with a uniform final result, any charter that is asked for is finally granted. The process necessary to procure success may be described as a mixed one, consisting of persistency, combined with log-rolling. It, however, rarely or never fails in the end, and the exceptions to the rule, if any occur, are where some opposing and existing corporation steps in and itself furnishes the desired accommodation, or a part of it, in order to prevent the organization of a competing line. These questions between proposed routes and between contending companies, as in the case of the Draper and Carpenter routes to Lowell, and the Lexington branch, in the session of 1870, occupy more than half of the time of committees, and are a fruitful source of delay in legislative business. In the opinion of the commissioners the evil is a wholly unnecessary one. Massachusetts is one of the few states in which these questions are not now regulated by general laws, and the commissioners have in vain sought elsewhere for indications of those evils, either of excessive competition or of unwillingness to construct under general laws, which special legislation is here supposed to obviate. So far as excessive competition is concerned, as causing injury to existing corporations, experience abundantly proves that under a general law, railroad corporations can protect themselves quite as efficiently as is desirable, without recourse to the lobbies of the legislature ;-as regards the supposed necessity of encouraging railroad construction by holding in check the undue formation of competing lines, the recent experience of Massachusetts distinctly indicates that the danger lies not in an excessive construction, but in the inability to construct what the community really needs. In their first annual report (Appendix G) the commissioners presented a draft of a general law authorizing the construction of certain branch railroads. This bill failed to recommend itself to the judgment of the committee on railways, and was never, except in parts, reported for legislative consideration. On more mature reflection the commissioners are of opinion that It was this bill did not meet the requirements of the case. much too limited in its operation,-too narrow in its scope. The commissioners have therefore prepared the draft of a new bill, embodying they believe all the provisions of a general law in relation to the organization of the companies and construction of railroads, which they would now recommend to the consideration of the present legislature. It will be found in Appendix C of the present report. Should it be enacted into a law, with such improvements as may be embodied into it by the committee on railways, and after undergoing the test of a thorough legislative discussion, the commissioners entertain a confident hope that it will remove one of the greatest sources of abuse and delay in the legislative business which now exists, and will put a stop to those discreditable, but constantly recurring struggles between corporations in the lobbies and upon the floors of the two houses, which have of late constituted regular features of every session. MUNICIPAL AID TO RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. Closely connected with railroad construction is the question of municipal aid in encouragement of it. It seems now to be generally conceded that some provision for the construction of a certain amount of railroad facilities is, in this country at any rate, a matter of public charge. The especial disposition made of the amount thus authorized to be appropriated is usually left to the discretion of the particular localities interested. A general law authorizing railroad construction should therefore be supplemented by some provision, generally applicable, regulating the public contribution to it. Until within the last year, this, also, has in this Commonwealth been provided for solely by special legislation, which practice has left many Acts upon the statute book based upon various and discordant principles. This much-vexed question was put to rest in the last legislature by the passage of a general law which authorized, under certain limitations and restrictions, any towns of the Commonwealth containing less than 12,000 inhabitants to subscribe in aid of railroad construction within their limits. The constitutionality of this class of Acts has, because of an adverse decision of the supreme court of Michigan, been a subject of much discussion during the last year. The question has not as yet |