cial proceedings and investigations. Where contracts have been entered into prior to the act for free carriage of specified persons, in consideration of conveyance of rights of way or other property rights to companies, courts have held in some instances that they were enforceable, and rested upon lawful considerations. Employés of express companies and telegraph companies operating upon a line of railroad under agreements with the railroad company, and employés of the railway mail service, are clearly distinguishable from ordinary travelers.

With respect to nearly all the other classes to whom free transportation has been given, it would seem clear that no justification can be found for their carriage under the provisions of the act.

According to the returns made, the largest number of interstate passes issued of any class was designated "complimentary." Next in numbers were passes to steam-ship lines and transfer companies, United States, State, and municipal officers, palace car companies, newspapers, and for advertising. The several other classes were small in propor

tion.

Of State passes the largest numbers were issued to members of legislatures, and drovers, with "complimentaries" next, and United States, State, and municipal officers, newspapers, and shippers, next in numbers; the others being comparatively few.

The statute undoubtedly was framed to prohibit passes or free transportation of persons, as one of the forms of unjust discrimination, favoritism, and misuse of corporate powers that had grown into an abuse of large proportions and become demoralizing in its influence and detrimental to railroads, both in loss of revenue and in provoking public hostility. One of the minor and meaner phases of this abuse is the distinctive preference shown in various ways by employés, both in service and civility, to holders of passes, as if discrimination by free carriage includes discrimination in treatment of passengers.

It was well known that persons who were carried free were, to a large extent, precisely the persons who had no claim whatever to such favors. They were officials and others, from whom free passes might be expected to secure reciprocal favors, and men of wealth and prominence who rode at the expense of others less able to pay; or the passes were given to influence business. In nearly all cases not specially exempted by the act, the motive in demanding or in giving them was one deserving of no favor.

The law aims at the correction of the abuses of free transportation, and, in accomplishing this general purpose, some forms of free or reduced transportation that at first view might appear plausible, or even unobjectionable in themselves, have to fall under its general restrictions. The principle of equality, under like conditions, for the traveling public had been grossly violated by the railroads. Favored persons or classes of persons had been furnished free transportation at the expense of the general public by higher general charges to re

imburse for gratuitous carriage. The discrimination is equally unjust whether the free transportation be complimentary or to aid some person's business, or for some supposed indirect advantage to the carrier. The correction of the evil, and the equality of right to which all are entitled, required the restrictions to be general and sweeping to furnish any substantial assurance that the abuse should not be continued or new ones devised under cover of any discretion left to the carrier.

For reasons deemed adequate by the legislative body certain specified exceptions are made in the statute of classes of persons to whom reduced rates or free transportation may lawfully be given, in whose favor discrimination was not deemed unjust. The act provides that it shall not "be construed to prohibit any common carrier from giving reduced rates to ministers of religion, or to municipal governments for the transportation of indigent persons, or to inmates of the national homes or State homes for disabled volunteer soldiers, and of soldiers' and sailors' orphan homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge, under arrangements with the boards of managers of said homes." It further provides that it shall not "be construed to prevent railroads from giving free carriage to their own officers and employés, or to prevent the principal officers of any railroad company or companies from exchanging passes or tickets with other railroad companies for their officers and employés." The classes of persons that may have reduced rates or free carriage are thus carefully specified in the statute, and their enumeration necessarily excludes all others. Except as qualified by this section, the issuance and sale of passenger tickets must be in accordance with the general principles of the act.

The investigation developed one custom of railroads that seems to be general and to rest on considerations that have no little force. This is the custom of giving free transportation or reduced rates to families of subordinate employés. It is obvious, that for many forcible reasons, the most amicable relations should exist between the railroad companies and their employés, and that the latter should feel that the companies are disposed in all proper ways to manifest an interest in their general welfare. The compensation of these employés is low, the service exacting and often hazardous, their opportunities to give attention to domestic affairs are very limited, and as a rule they are dependent almost entirely on their compensation for the support of their families. It is clearly for the interest of these employés to reside at points on their roads convenient to their business, where homesteads can be acquired, and cost of rents and living expenses are moderate. Such locations may often be some distance from points required to be frequently reached by members of their families, such as schools and markets, and it would seem reasonable, and no more than an equitable part of their compensation, for the company to carry the wives and children of its employés free, or at low rates, for fairly necessary purposes. Provision, it would seem, might very properly be made to permit this to be done.

As the investigation of this subject has not been concluded, any fur ther report or action by the Commission is deferred until more complete information shall have been elicited.

PASSENGER TICKETS AT REDUCED RATES.

Among the reduced-rate tickets which were in use before the law to regulate commerce was passed, and which may be lawfully issued since its passage, are mileage, excursion, and commutation tickets.

After investigation of alleged abuses in the issuance and sale of these tickets, the Commission held, March 27, that they must be offered impartially to all who accept the conditions on which they are issued, that the rates at which they are issued must be published, and that a practice which had grown up of selling tickets for ten or more persons at party rates, or rates considerably below the rates for single passengers, was illegal.

The mileage ticket is one form of a reduced-rate ticket which had a well-understood meaning before the act. Besides mileage, commutation, and excursion tickets, there were various other forms in which tickets were sold at reduced rates. Special and reduced rates were obtainable without regard to the form of the ticket, and the meaning of commutation and excursion tickets was neither exact nor well defined.

Commutation tickets are commonly understood to be tickets sold for a gross sum at reduced rates for a number of rides between given points. Ordinarily, excursion tickets are understood to be round-trip tickets sold at reduced rates issued for one trip and on special occasions sometimes for health or recreation, and sometimes for army or industrial reunions and assemblages for political, religious, or benevolent purposes. It is sometimes urged that the only characteristic feature of these two tickets before the act was their sale at reduced rates, and that, substantially, all forms of reduced-rate tickets come within the description of commutation or excursion tickets, and may be lawfully issued. Various practices are in use by which they may be made available for a journey of any description, and frequently for ordinary travel, and are good alike for picnics and prize fights.

In view of evil practices in the use of these tickets ascertained on investigation, the Commission, in January, felt constrained to recommend that the act to regulate commerce be so amended as "to define what shall be considered excursion and commutation tickets, and to so restrict their issue in interstate commerce as to prevent the abuses now so common."

COMMISSIONS ON THE SALE OF TICKETS.

Another investigation was held at Washington on the 7th of May, in respect to commissions on the sale of tickets, to which twenty-seven companies were summoned and which was attended by representatives

from the different companies. The subject of commissions to ticket agents has heretofore been reported upon by the Commission, and its bearings and the evils supposed to be connected with it discussed. The object of the investigation was to ascertain the extent of the practice, the conditions under which it is carried on, and the carriers that engage in it. The roads summoned were principally those of the West and Northwest that operate in the territory reached from Chicago, where the practice was supposed most generally to prevail.

Nearly all the roads operating south and west and southwest of Chicago, it appeared by the returns made, pay commissions upon passenger tickets to ticket agents of other lines. The commissions paid to agents of connecting lines on competitive business were represented to be those fixed by the Western States Passenger Association, in effect from February 1, 1889, and the amounts paid ranged from 25 cents to $1 a ticket, depending upon the cost of the ticket and distance traveled. The maximum paid in any case was represented to be $1 for certain distances and more for longer distances. Other roads, operating eastward from Chicago, it was shown, pay no commissions to agents of other lines. Some roads, it was shown, pay some of their own agents by commissions upon sales of tickets, instead of salaries.

Commissions, however, may be, and, as the Commission has learned, sometimes are cumulative, as, for example, $1 from New England points to Chicago, $1 from Chicago to the Missouri River, and $1 from the Missouri River to Denver. In addition to these sums some roads may pay 10 per cent. commission on their earnings for a passage, to a traveling passenger agent of, say, $1.20, making a total for the sale of a single ticket of $4.20. In cases of commissions of only $1 for short distances there may be no inducement for the agent to divide with the passenger, but in cases of cumulative commissions for long distances the tempta tion to divide is stronger, and the probability of abuse is so great that the impropriety of putting the opportunity before an agent is manifest.

Viewed in another aspect, the amount of money paid annually by the larger companies is vast; it is not unusual for a single company to pay a sum approaching $100,000, or even more, in a year, and the aggregate undoubtedly reaches millions of dollars. This money is illegitimately spent; it is paid in excess of salaries to agents for the purpose of diverting business from competitors, and when competitors all do it, it is dif ficult to see how any benefit can accrue from it to any company. The money so spent of right belongs to the stockholders, or should be remitted to the public in reduced fares; if the rates are not in fact too high, the money wasted for commissions should be expended for im proved service, or toward the safety of passengers and employés,

This practice has frequently been condemned by this Commission as one of very doubtful benefit in any case, and of positive injury in others; as one that affords opportunities, too often improved, for discriminations and fraud in the sale of tickets, and as, generally, a source of de moralization.

CAR MILEAGE.

On the 8th of May an investigation was held at Washington in respect to car mileage, or compensation paid by railroads for the use of cars belonging to other railroad companies or to private companies or individuals. Information had been received giving reason to believe that the payment of car mileage for cars owned by private shippers had in some instances been made use of as a cover for discrimination in rates, and the Commission deemed the subject of enough importance for an investigation.

Twenty-six railroad companies operating in the territory extending in different directions from Chicago, and engaged in the business in which discriminations by allowance of car mileage were supposed to exist, were summoned to make a showing of the allowances paid by each of them for car mileage for the different classes of cars furnished by shippers, car companies, and individuals, or connecting lines; how the business was conducted; and what sum was, in their opinion, a fair and just allowance for the different classes of cars. The companies appeared by their representatives, and produced their statements and testimony relating to the subjects of inquiry. The facts elicited were substantially as follows:

The mileage paid for different classes of cars, and for the same class of cars, is not uniform by different companies, nor by the same companies, except for ordinary freight cars exchanged between companies in the course of transportation. The rates allowed for car mileage were shown to be as follows: For ordinary freight cars, a uniform rate of threefourths of a cent a mile; for Pullman palace cars, 3 cents a mile; for Pullman palace tourist sleepers, 1 cent a mile; for ordinary passenger cars exchanged with other companies, 3 cents a mile; for baggage, mail, and express cars exchanged with other companies, 14 cents a mile by some roads and 3 cents a mile by others; for refrigerator cars used for carrying dressed beef, 1 cent a mile in some cases and in other cases three-fourths of a cent a mile; for furniture cars, oil-tank cars, palace live-stock cars, and other cars owned by private individuals and com. panies, three-fourths of a cent a mile. Some companies pay mileage on tank cars both loaded and empty, and some only when loaded. For palace horse cars no mileage is allowed on some roads, shippers in such cars paying for the car. Since May 1, 1889, the roads running east and southeast of Chicago, with the exception of one company, have allowed three-fourths of a cent a mile for refrigerator cars. The one road referred to allows 1 cent a mile.

It appeared by the evidence adduced that one of the roads west of Chicago had entered into a contract with one private company owning a large number of refrigerator cars, and who are also shippers, to pay 1 cent a mile on such cars for a period of five years, the private company agreeing to furnish sufficient cars for their own business and for all other like business requiring that class of cars. This was naturally