REPORT. BOARD OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, OFFICE, PHELAN BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO, December 31, 1888.) To his Excellency R. W. WATERMAN, Governor of the State of California: SIR: In compliance with the requirements of the Constitution of the State, this Commission has the honor to present to you herewith, its ninth (9) annual report, for the year 1888. The Constitutional provision establishing this Board, and conferring upon it its jurisdiction; and the Statute to organize and define its powers; and the rules of procedure adopted and now in force for its government, are as follows: [From the Constitution of the State of California.] ARTICLE XII. CORPORATIONS. SECTION 17. All railroad, canal, and other transportation companies are declared to be common carriers, and subject to legislative control. Any association or corporation organized for the purpose, under the laws of this State, shall have the right to connect at the State line with railroads of other States. Every railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with, or cross any other railroad, and shall receive and transport each the other's passengers, tonnage, and cars, without delay or discrimination. SEC. 18. No President, Director, officer, agent, or employé of any railroad or canal company shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing of material or supplies to such company, nor in the business of transportation as a common carrier of freight or passengers over the works owned, leased, controlled, or worked by such company, except such interest in 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 freight. 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 be 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 Act approved April first, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, section nine, chapter one, all public property belonging to the office of said 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 engaged 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 watercraft, such steamer or other watercraft 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. RULES OF PROCEDURE OF THE BOARD. RULE I. To regulate, establish, or change the rates of charges and schedules of fares or freights of any transportation company in this State, said Commissioners will proceed upon their own motion, or upon the complaint of any person or persons demanding relief, and having an interest therein. RULE II.—In any case of alleged extortion, discrimination, or other abuse, by any transportation company in this State, subject to the cognizance and control of said Commissioners, they will proceed, upon the complaint of the person or persons injured thereby, to hear and determine the cause of such complaint, and will exercise the remedial and judicial powers conferred by the Constitution, as required thereby, to wit: "In the same manner and to the same extent as Courts of record, and to enforce their decisions and correct abuses through the medium of the Courts." RULE III. Such complaint as aforesaid, when presented at the office. of said Commissioners, shall be filed by the Secretary, who shall, at the request of the complainant, issue a summons thereon. RULE IV.-The summons must be directed to the defendant, must be signed by the Secretary, and attested by the seal of the Commissioners, and must contain: 1. The names of the parties to the proceeding. 2. A statement of the nature of the complaint. 3. A direction that the defendant appear and answer it within fifteen days after service hereof. RULE V.-The summons may be served by the Bailiff of the Commissioners, or by any citizen of the State, and shall be served by delivering a copy thereof, together with a copy of the complaint, to the defendant, or if the defendant is a corporation, to the President, Secretary, Treasurer, or Managing Agent thereof. Proof of service of summons and complaint must be as follows: 1. If made by the Bailiff, his certificate thereof. 2. If by any other person, his affidavit thereof. RULE VI. From the time of the service of the summons and the copy of complaint, the Commissioners shall be deemed to have acquired juris |