II.

REVISION OF RAILROAD AND STREET RAILWAY LAWS.

The committee has undertaken to revise the existing railroad laws and street railway laws, for the purpose of bringing them up to date, by the elimination of obsolete or inconsistent sections, and also of making each statute self-explanatory. Some laws were found to be antiquated or even obsolete; others amended or repealed; and yet others ill-arranged. It has been the endeavor of the committee to prepare a more systematic body of legislation. With this object, it has drafted three bills to take the place of the existing statutes. In the first bill it has placed the provisions of law common to both railroad corporations and street railway companies; in the second bill the provisions of law relative to railroad corporations; and in the third bill the provisions of law relative to street railway companies. Some of the sections of chapters 111 and 112 of the Revised Laws have been omitted; some have been completely rewritten; some revised; some brought up to date; and some left in their original language. New sections also have been added from other chapters of the Revised Laws. The side-notes of each section have been made as explicit as possible, and all references to decisions or statutes have been brought up to date. In order to obtain unity and continuity of language in the statutes of the Commonwealth, the committee has adopted, wherever practicable, the phraseology of the "Business Corporation Act."

While, as has been said, this part of the work has been chiefly formal in character, consisting mainly either of a different arrangement of the statutes, or a perfecting of the phraseology thereof, the committee in several instances has made changes in substance as well as of form. For example: it has confined the appointment of commissions upon the abolition of grade crossings and crossings at grade to members of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, in order to secure greater uniformity of decision; it has omitted the statutes relative to State directors, mortgages to the Commonwealth, the Meigs system, connecting street railways, and city and town subscriptions to railroad corporations, as actually or practically obsolete;

it has specified more particularly the procedure before the Board of Railroad Commissioners upon applications by street railway companies for locations, extensions and alterations; it has defined more specifically the respective duties of cities and towns and street railway companies in the care of snow and ice; it has regulated the number of railroad and railway inspectors to be appointed by the Board of Railroad Commissioners by the number of miles of street railway track as well as those of railroad track; it has changed the date as of which stockholders of record are entitled to subscribe to newly issued stock; it has thrown the sections relative to railroad and street railway police into one; it has extended the right of railroad corporations and street railway companies to sue delinquent subscribers to their capital stock; it has conferred authority upon street railway companies to carry coal and other supplies for their own use; and in other details of the law it has made changes where the same seemed imperative and of indisputable propriety. The committee believes that this codification will be of no little assistance to all who have to do with practice under the railroad or street railway laws, and recommends the enactment thereof.

III.

ELECTRIC RAILROAD COMPANIES.

The history of street railways during the last fifteen years has been one of noticeable development. Previous to 1890, these railways were operated solely by horse power. The street car was but an omnibus running on tracks. The laws governing street railway companies were appropriate for this modern omnibus service. The installation of the electric street car to replace the horse car occurred between the years 1890 and 1895. As the electric car was at first but a horse car propelled by a new power, and as it was used for precisely the same purposes as a horse car, the transportation of passengers along city and suburban streets, it competed with the horse car alone, and promptly drove the horse car out of business. From the legislative standpoint, the advent of the electric car was regarded merely as a stage in the evolution of the street car, and the general laws relating to the horse car were but slightly amended

in order to meet the slightly altered conditions.

As one scientific achievement has followed another, however, the electric car has gradually grown longer and more formidable in appearance. Its capability for high speed has been greatly increased. Electric car tracks have been laid not only in city and suburban streets, but between one town or city and another. As these cars became used on longer routes, the desire to make quicker time than was possible on the highways has become very general. Although the Legislature hitherto has carefully adhered to the fundamental principle that these cars are street cars, and should, therefore, leave the highways only for good cause, yet by several special acts it has permitted street railway companies to lay their tracks on private land.

A number of petitions to authorize interurban railroads of this character have been, and are now, before the Massachusetts Legislature. The petitioners desire to run over a private roadbed except at their terminals and in the principal towns through which they pass. They plan to carry light freight, express packages and produce, as well as passengers. The committee believes that this form of enterprise should be permitted in Massachusetts under proper restraints. The question before it has been how to give to the petitioners an opportunity to serve the public by developing a fast electric service between urban centres without injustice to the capital now invested in steam railroads and street railways. In this Commonwealth there are two general chapters of law governing transportation, a law governing steam railroads and a law governing street railways. The primary object of the steam railroad law is the conservative regulation of the transportation of passengers and freight at high speed over a private way. The fundamental principle underlying the street railway law is the control of transportation of passengers from house to house on public ways at a speed and in vehicles not inconsistent with the use of the same way by the travelling public. It seems that the fast electric cars which run over a private way partake more of the nature of cars operated by steam railroads than of cars operated by street railways. They compete not for a house-to-house traffic, but for a through traffic. Though one system is operated in long trains hauled by a locomotive, and the other by single cars which receive motive power from a central

station, both are designed to accomplish the same general purpose, and differ only in the nature of the service which they offer to the public. To the street car, on the other hand, the interurban has little similarity. For short distances it runs over street car tracks, but this is primarily to collect passengers for a longer run, and not to offer to them local accommodations. The interurban car to-day indeed is not even a variation of the old street car, but a totally new species of vehicle.

Heretofore, the companies asking for the privilege of operating interurban railroads have desired special charters. It seems to the committee that special legislation of this character should not be encouraged. The gift to a particular company of peculiar privileges has resulted in inconsistencies of policy which at times have worked great unfairness. It is also an inducement to excessive and unjustifiable lobbying, extending at times to the attempted election or defeat of members of the General Court. The Legislature should deal with the principles of transportation alone, and should leave to the Board of Railroad Commissioners the decision as to which corporation is best suited to operate cars on any particular route or location. If any legislation is to be enacted, it ought, in the opinion of the committee, to be a general bill. Such a bill, in order to be satisfactory, must be based on one fundamental principle. The interurban car must run mainly on a fenced private way and incidentally only on the highway, and not mainly on the highway and incidentally on a private way. An interurban car which does not make high speed between centres cannot create the new class of travelling public necessary for its successful operation. Our New England highways are usually crooked, and thus seldom the quickest available route between two cities; they seldom exceed sixty feet in width, and obviously were not designed for a railroad location. An interurban car, also, which makes high speed in a public highway, is a menace to all other travellers. Any law which may be devised, therefore, must be so framed as to encourage the building of straight tracks on private land. While it has been the policy of the Commonwealth to permit the street car to leave the highway only upon showing good cause, an interurban car should be permitted to enter the highway only for good cause, and that cause should be founded

always on the convenience of the public, and never upon the convenience of the company alone.

A bill has accordingly been drafted, which is based upon the theory that the interurban company is fundamentally a railroad company, but that when it turns off from its private way, and for the convenience of the public runs upon a highway, it should be subject to the duties and possess also the privileges of a street railway company. In the bill the committee has provided, that, upon that part of its line which is situated in the private way, the company shall be taxed as if it were a railroad corporation; and upon that part of its line which is upon the highway, it shall be taxed as if it were a street railway company. The committee has also provided, that, in all cases, a certificate of public exigency shall be obtained of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, as in the case of railroad corporations, before the road can be built.

IV.

INVESTMENTS BY RAILROAD CORPORATIONS IN STREET RAILWAY COMPANIES.

The policy of the Commonwealth towards its railroad corporations has changed radically since the first railroads were built seventy or more years ago.

The first era of railroad construction in Massachusetts was an era of competition, without State regulation. It was then regarded sound policy to encourage the construction of rival or parallel lines between important points, in order that the public might benefit by the low passenger fares and freight rates which free competition was expected to produce. The Commonwealth itself, in pursuance of this policy, contributed to aid in the construction of competing lines between Boston and the west. Experience showed, however, that competition did not accomplish the expected results, either in respect of accommodations or rates. Gradually it became apparent that the public interests would be more effectively protected and promoted by granting to a single corporation the monopoly of transportation along its natural route, provided that the State exercised a strict and intelligent supervision over such corporation. This the