SEC. 12. When jurisdiction is, by the Constitution, conferred on the Board of Railroad Commissioners, all the means necessary to carry it into effect are also conferred on said Board, and when in the exercise of jurisdiction within the purview of the authority conferred on said Board by the Constitution, the course of proceeding be not specifically pointed out, any suitable process or mode of proceeding may be adopted by the Board which may appear most conformable to the spirit of the Constitution. SEC. 13. The said Board shall, immediately after entering upon the performance of its duties, demand and receive from the Transportation Commissioner, appointed under an Act approved April first, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, section nine, chapter one, all public property belonging to the office of Transportation Commissioner, in his possession, or under his control, and it is hereby made his duty to deliver the same to the said Board. SEC. 14. The term "transportation companies" shall be deemed to mean and include: First-All companies owning and operating railroads (other than street railroads) within this State. Second-All companies owning and operating steamships eagaged in the transportation of freight or passengers from and to ports within this State. Third-All companies owning and operating steamboats used in transporting freight or passengers upon the rivers or inland waters of this State. The word "company," as used in this Act, shall be deemed to mean and include corporations, associations, partnerships, trustees, agents, assignees, and individuals. Whenever any railroad company owns and operates, in connection with its road and for the purpose of transporting its cars, freight, or passengers, any steamer or other water craft, such steamer or other water craft shall be deemed a part of its said road. Whenever any steamship or steamboat company owns and operates any barge, canal boat, steamer, tug, ferryboat, or lighter, in connection with its ships or boats, the things so owned and operated shall be deemed to be part of its main line. SEC. 15. The salaries of the Commissioners, Secretary, Bailiff, and all other officers and attachés in any manner employed by the Board of Commissioners, and all expenses of every kind created under this Act, shall be paid out of any money in the General Fund not otherwise appropriated, and the Controller of State is hereby authorized and directed to draw his warrants from time to time for such purposes, and the State Treasurer is hereby authorized and directed to pay the same. SEC. 16. This Act shall take effect immediately. REPORT. OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS SAN FRANCISCo, February 4, 1881. To his Excellency GEORGE C. PERKINS, Governor: SIR: We respectfully submit the following as our first report. A more elaborate and detailed account of our work is rendered impossible for the present, by reason of illness, resulting from attempted assassination on the night of December 12, 1880, of one of the Commissioners, causing an unavoidable delay in action upon important business before the Board, and, as a necessary consequence, limiting the amount of work done. The powers granted this Board are extraordinary in range and novel in composition. The Constitution divides the State Government into three coördinate departments: the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial, and inhibits persons charged with the exercise of powers belonging to one of these departments from the exercise of any functions appertaining to either of the others, thus dividing the powers, duties, and responsibilities. The Railroad Commission is made an exception in this general apportionment of the powers and obligations of government, neither constituted so as to belong to nor be under the direct control of either of the enumerated departments, yet granted powers in their nature appertaining to all three. Vested with the power of originating arbitrary rates for carriage of passengers and freight; the power to establish tariffs based on such rates, and the power to determine infractions, and cause punishment for violations of orders; with a jurisdiction thus extended, it is not a matter of surprise to encounter, from certain quarters, a clamor for hasty, inconsiderate action; a biased demand for execution of authority at random. Were it compatible with an honorable and intelligent discharge of our official duties to, at random, fix rates of charges for transportation, the duties of the Board would be the opposite of onerous; but reason and justice alike dictate that the actions of this Board be governed by a desire to do right. That its decisions be the result of investigation, and a thorough understanding of the subjects passed upon. Caprice and prejudice will but confound, never solve, the transportation problem. The acquirement of the knowledge necessary for rational action in a matter so complex and intricate, is not the labor of an hour or a day, or any fixed period; comes not by intuition, but only through patient investigation and study. The State, in assuming the supervision and control of railroads and other methods of transportation, when the property of private persons or corporations, does so under the plea of necessary regulation. To sustain this plea, and not transcend its scope, State interference under it must not become confiscation and spoliation, but limit itself to what, on investigation, appears as just and reasonable regulations. The difficulties attending a just and efficient administration of our office need but mention to be appreciated. Our office and its duties is new. We are without precedent to guide us. Sister States and foreign countries have labored for years to solve the railroad problem, and to this day their actions have been experimental. While the efforts of others, for a period of over forty years, are valuable aids, they are far from infallible guides. The transportation problem in each State and country is a matter peculiar to that State and country. In the exercise of its authority, the Board must_assume control over property whose ownership is private; the employment of private property in the various methods of transporting passengers and freights does not of itself divest private ownership in the thing so employed, and thereby constitute it public property. An erroneous idea prevails to quite an extent, that railroads built, owned, and operated by private corporations are nevertheless public property, and this in an unqualified sense. Were this true, we would be free of the main difficulties surrounding our work. However much theorists may claim, and loose constructionists argue, the fact remains, that railroads owned and operated by private corporations, are private property, and this, though subject to State supervision and control. Among the number of circumstances to be considered in determining the status of railroad ownership in this State, but one needs mention. Does the property in railroads in this State pay taxes to the State, etc.? Does property owned by the State pay taxes? To whom is the property in railroads assessed? There cannot be a correct understanding of the onerous position this Board occupies until the idea that the railroads constituted in California are public property, is thrown aside as false. Were the railroads in this State public property, our duties would be most easy and pleasant. It would be the case of management of property by its owner. Whereas, under existing circumstances, it is the management of the property of others. An unprejudiced admission of the true condition of affairs in this connection can in no wise jeopardize, or even in the slightest curtail, the right of the State to change existing property right in and to the railroads, and to make them public property; but this change has not been effected, and therefore is not the reason of the present supervision and control. The Hon. J. S. Black, in a letter to the Committee on Railroad Transportation of the New York Chamber of Commerce, dated November 16, 1880, uses the following language: * * Most of our western roads were built with the proceeds of public lands, granted mediately or immediately by the United States to the several companies which now have them in charge. They did not really cost the stockholders anything; and in some cases they got lands worth a great deal more than all expenses of making, stocking, and running the roads. Nevertheless, I think the claims of these companies to take reasonable tolls, stands upon the same foundation as that of companies whose roads were built by the stockholders themselves, at their own proper expense. That is to say, those companies which built the rail # 串 roads with capital donated by the public, have the same right as other companies to charge a reasonable toll; but their demands of excessive tolls, though not worse in law, seems in the eye of natural reason, a great outrage. If railroad companies possess the right to charge a reasonable toll, and to appropriate its benefits to themselves, whence this right, if not as an incident of existing ownership? |