. Electric railway journal . year afterthe State Board of Railroad Commissioners had been estab-lished, by substituting the Board of Railroad Commissionersfor the State Engineer and Surveyor. Then the second ofthe two provisions was added—namely, that the rates chargedshould not be reduced unless on an examination of the amountsreceived and expended during the preceding year it wasshown that the company had earned upon all income from allsources and upon a comparison of expenditures from allsources during that preceding year 10 per cent upon the capi-tal actually expended. The fourth repetitio
. Electric railway journal . year afterthe State Board of Railroad Commissioners had been estab-lished, by substituting the Board of Railroad Commissionersfor the State Engineer and Surveyor. Then the second ofthe two provisions was added—namely, that the rates chargedshould not be reduced unless on an examination of the amountsreceived and expended during the preceding year it wasshown that the company had earned upon all income from allsources and upon a comparison of expenditures from allsources during that preceding year 10 per cent upon the capi-tal actually expended. The fourth repetition by the Legis-lature of this limitation upon its own powers was made in1901, when the act of 1883 was repeated without a change ofa word so far as these two provisions were concerned, butwith the addition of some extra matter as to sales of ticketsby unauthorized agents. So during the last 60 years, on anaverage of every 15 years, the Legislature has solemnly repealed this declaration. And what was the reason? It was -no. 666 ELECTRIC RAILWAY JOURNAL. [Vol. XXXV. No. 15. because our forefathers in 1848, in their wisdom looked for-ward to the inevitable result of the building of these greatpublic highways and of the development of the great indus-tries which would be dependent upon them. They could notguarantee to private investors in the construction of theseroads a profit, or even that they would not lose their originalinvestment, as many of them did. But it could assure themon the word of the State, as a gentlemans agreement if nomore, that if they did invest their money in these great publicenterprises they should be allowed such profit as they couldmake up to 10 per cent. I do not pretend to say that the Legislature of 1848 couldbind all subsequent Legislatures, as though they were enact-ing a constitution. I am not undertaking to say whether ornot this was in the nature of a contract or the grant of avested right. Probably none of us know what is the consti-tutional imp
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