the business of transportation as lawfully flows from the ownership of stock therein.

SEC. 19. No railroad or other transportation company shall grant free passes, or passes or tickets at a discount, to any person holding any office of honor, trust, or profit in this State; and the acceptance of any such pass or ticket by a member of the Legislature, or any public officer, other than Railroad Commissioner, shall work a forfeiture of his office.

SEC. 20. No railroad company, or other common carrier, shall combine or make any contract with the owners of any vessel that leaves port or makes port in this State, or with any common carrier, by which combination or contract the earnings of one doing the carrying are to be shared by the other not doing the carrying. And whenever a railroad corporation shall, for the purpose of competing with any other common carrier, lower its rates for transportation of passengers or freight from one point to another, such reduced rates shall not be again raised or increased from such standard without the consent of the governmental authority in which shall be vested the power to regulate fares and freights.

SEC. 21. No discrimination in charges or facilities for transportation shall be made by any railroad or other transportation company between places or persons, or in the facilities for the transportation of the same classes of freight or passengers within this State, or coming from or going to any other State. Persons and property transported over any railroad, or by any other transportation company, or individual, shall be delivered at any station, landing, or port, at charges not exceeding the charges for the transportation of persons and property of the same class, in the same direction, to any more distant station, port, or landing. Excursion and commutation tickets may he issued at special rates.

SEC. 22. The State shall be divided into three districts as nearly equal in population as practicable, in each of which one Railroad Commissioner shall be elected by the qualified electors thereof at the regular gubernatorial elections, whose salary shall be fixed by law, and whose term of office shall be four years, commencing on the first Monday after the first day of January next succeeding their election. Said Commissioners shall be qualified electors of this State and of the district from which they are elected, and shall not be interested in any rail

road corporation, or other transportation company, as stockholder, creditor, agent, attorney, or employé; and the act of a majority of said Commissioners shall be deemed the act of said Commission. Said Commissioners shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to establish rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight by railroad or other transportation companies, and publish the same from time to time, with such changes as they may make; to examine the books, records, and papers of all railroad and other transportation companies, and for this purpose they shall have power to issue subpoenas and all other necessary process; to hear and determine complaints against railroad and other transportation companies, to send for persons and papers, to administer oaths, take testimony, and punish for contempt of their orders and processes, in the same manner and to the same extent as courts of record, and enforce their decisions and correct abuses through the medium of the courts. Said Commissioners shall prescribe a uniform system of accounts to be kept by all such corporations and companies. Any railroad corporation or transportation company which shall fail or refuse to conform to such rates as shall be established by such Commissioners, or shall charge rates in excess thereof, or shall fail to keep their accounts in accordance with the system prescribed by the Commission, shall be fined not exceeding twenty thousand dollars for each offense; and every officer, agent, or employé, of any such corporation or company, who shall demand or receive rates in excess thereof, or who shall in any manner violate the provisions of this section, shall be fined not exceeding five thousand dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding one year. In all controversies, civil or criminal, the rates of fares and freights established by said Commission shall be deemed conclusively just and reasonable, and in any action against such corporation or company for damages sustained by charging excessive rates, the plaintiff, in addition to the actual damage, may, in the discretion of the judge or jury, recover exemplary damages. Said Commission shall report to the Governor, annually, their proceedings, and such other facts as may be deemed important. Nothing in this section shall prevent individuals from maintaining actions against any of such companies. The Legislature may, in addition to any penalties herein prescribed, enforce this article by forfeiture of charter or otherwise, and may confer such further powers on the Commissioners as shall be neces

sary to enable them to perform the duties enjoined on them in this and the foregoing section. The Legislature shall have power, by a two-thirds vote of all the members elected to each house, to remove any one or more of said Commissioners from office, for dereliction of duty, or corruption, or incompetency; and whenever, from any cause, a vacancy in office shall occur in said Commission, the Governor shall fill the same by the appointment of a qualified person thereto, who shall hold office for the residue of the unexpired term, and until his successor shall have been elected and qualified.

An Act to organize and define the powers of the Board of Railroad Commissioners.

[Approved April 15, 1880.]

The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The three persons elected Railroad Commissioners pursuant to the provisions of section twenty-two of article twelve of the Constitution of this State, constitute, and shall be known and designated as the "Board of Railroad Commissioners of the State of California." They shall have power to elect one of their number president of said board, to appoint a secretary, to appoint a bailiff, who shall perform the duties of janitor; also to employ a stenographer, whenever they may deem it expedient.

SEC. 2. The salary of each Commissioner shall be four thousand dollars per annum; the salary of the secretary shall be twenty-four hundred dollars per annum; the salary of the bailiff shall be twelve hundred dollars per annum; such salaries to be paid by the State of California in the same manner as the salaries of State officers are paid. The stenographer shall receive a reasonable compensation for his services, the amount to be fixed by the State Board of Examiners, and paid by the State. Said Commissioners, and the persons in their official employment, when traveling in the performance of their official duties, shall have their traveling expenses other than transportation paid, the amount to be passed on by the State Board of Examiners, and paid by the State. Said Board of Railroad Commissioners shall be allowed one hundred dollars

1 per month for office rent, and fifty dollars per month for fuel, lights, postage, expressage, subscriptions to publications upon the subject of transportation, and other incidental expenses, to be paid by the State; provided, that all moneys remaining unexpended at the expiration of each fiscal year shall be returned to the State treasury. Said board is further authorized to expend not to exceed four hundred dollars for office furniture and fixtures, to be paid by the State. The State shall furnish said board with all necessary stationery and printing, upon requisitions signed by the president of said board.

SEC. 3. Said Commissioners, and the persons in their official employment, shall, when in the performance of their official duties, have the right to pass free of charge on all railroads, steamers, ships, vessels, and boats, and on all vehicles employed in or by any railroad or other transportation company engaged in the transportation of freight and passengers within the State.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Attorney-General and the District Attorney in every county, on request of said board, to institute and prosecute, and to appear and to defend, for said board, in any and all suits and proceedings which they or either of them shall be requested by said board to institute and prosecute, and to appear in all suits and proceedings to which the board is a party, shall have precedence over all other business, except criminal business; provided, that said board shall have the power to employ additional counsel to assist said Attorney-General, or said District Attorney, or otherwise, when in their judgment the exigencies of the case may so require, the fees and expenses of said additional counsel to be determined by the State Board of Examiners, and paid by the State.

SEC. 5. The office of said board shall be in the City of San Francisco. Said office shall always be open (legal holidays and non-judicial days excepted). The board shall hold its sessions at least once a month in said City of San Francisco, and at such other times and such other places within this State as may be expedient. The sessions of said board shall be public, and when held at a place other than the office in the City of San Francisco, notice thereof shall be published once a week for two successive weeks before the commencement of such session, in a newspaper published in the county where

such session is to be held; and if no newspaper is published in such county, then in a newspaper published in an adjacent county, such publication to be paid by the State in the manner as other publications authorized by law are paid.

SEC. 6. The board shall have a seal to be devised by its members, or a majority thereof. Such seal shall have the following inscription surrounding it: "Railroad Commission. State of California." The seal shall be affixed only to, first, writs; second, authentications of a copy of a record or other proceedings, or copy of a document on file in the office of said Commission.

SEC. 7. The process issued by said board shall extend to all parts of the State. The board shall have power to issue writs of summons and of subpoena in like manner as courts of record. The summons shall direct the defendant to appear and answer within fifteen days from the day of service. The necessary process issued by the board may be served in any county in this State by the bailiff of the board, or by any person authorized to serve process of courts of record.

SEC. 8. The secretary of said board shall issue all process and notices required to be issued, and do and perform such other duties as the board may prescribe. The wailiff shall preserve order during the sessions of said board, and shall have authority to make arrests for disturbances. He shall also have authority, and it shall be his duty, to serve all process, orders, and notices issued by said board when directed by the president, and make return of the same.

SEC. 9. All complaints before said board shall be in writing and under oath. All decisions of said board shall be given in writing, and the grounds of the decisions shall be stated. A record of the proceedings of said board shall be kept, and the evidence of persons appearing before said board shall be preserved.

SEC. 10. Whenever the board shall render any decision within the purview and pursuant to the authority vested in said board by section twenty-two of article twelve of the Constitution, said board, or the person, co-partnership, company, or corporation making the complaint upon which such decision was rendered, is authorized to sue upon such decision in any court of competent jurisdiction in this State.

SEC. 11. Whenever said board, in the discharge of its duties, shall establish or adopt rates of charges for the trans