Appeals may be had from the commission to the Supreme Court of the state. Minnesota and Kansas have passed

similar acts.

In Missouri it is provided that in a suit to recover any loss to property transported by a common carrier, and one or more connecting carriers, the plaintiff may join as defendants the original carrier and all connecting carriers and shall be entitled to recover in such action from the common carrier through whose neglect any loss to such property was sustained.

All conductors, firemen, train dispatchers or other trainmen who are worked for sixteen hours within a day of twenty-four hours are prohibited by law of Missouri from going on duty again for such railroad until they have had at least eight hours rest.

The same state gives power to the railroad commissioners to require every train to stop at every station, when in their opinion, it is necessary in order to provide passengers with a reasonably adequate service, giving notice to the company, etc. They have power to require the railroads to deliver and receive freights at the crossing of other roads and to make all reasonable connections and terminal connections, to maintain freight agents and to keep depots warmed and lighted.

Kansas has passed an act quite similar to this.

Wisconsin, as a storm center, in the past year has passed an elaborate act to regulate railroads and other common carriers, providing for a railroad commission to be composed of three commissioners to be appointed by the governor, by and with the consent of the Senate.

The qualifications of the commissioners are that one shall have a general knowledge of railroad law and each of the others shall have a general understanding of matters relating to transportation, and the governor may at any time remove any commissioner for neglect of duty, malfeasance in office, upon notice, etc. In addition he shall not be personally interested in any railroad in that state or elsewhere, and if he

becomes so interested his office ipso facto becomes vacant, and he shall hold no other office or position of profit or serve on or under any committee of any political party, but shall devote his entire time to the duties of the office.

The railroads are required to publish and post at stations their rates and schedules, and they are prohibited from collecting or receiving any greater or less compensation for any service than is specified in such printed schedule; they are required to provide and maintain adequate depots-well lighted, cleaned and warmed, and to provide switches and side tracks, and upon reasonable notice they are required to furnish suitable cars for any and all persons for the transportation of any and all kinds of freight in carload lots without discrimination between shippers at competitive or non-competitive places. Upon complaint of any person, corporation or municipality that any rates are unreasonable, or that any service is inadequate, the commissioners may notify the railroad company and proceed to investigate the same, and if such rates or service shall be found to be unreasonable the commission shall have power to fix and order substituted rates and to make such orders respecting such regulation or service as it shall determine to be reasonable, and such revised rates and regulations after such investigation by the commission shall be adopted by the the railroad companies.

The same law provides that no railroad shall, directly or indirectly, by any rebate, drawback or any other device whatsoever, charge or collect from any person or corporation a greater or less compensation for any service rendered than that prescribed in published tariffs then in force; and further, that it shall be unlawful for any railroad to demand, charge or collect from any person or corporation a less compensation for the transportation of property, or for any service rendered in consideration of said person, firm or corporation furnishing any part of the facilities incident thereto.

This section was evidently intended to meet a method of discrimination pointed out by the Interstate Commerce Com

mission whereby manufacturers sought to evade the law against rebates by putting in a switch from their plant to some railroad and being allowed to share in the proceeds of the carrying of their freight as a connecting line with said railroad; and while the books of the railroad showed that they were charged the same rate of freight with other manufacturers they might not show that they were enjoying a dividend by reason of the switch as a connecting line in the traffic and not in proportion to the length of the switch.

Heavy penalties are prescribed in the law for the violation. of it, both as against the railroad and the officers.

Wisconsin prohibits the giving of free passes or franks by railroad or telegraph companies to any political committee or any candidate for or incumbent of any office.

TAXATION.

In New York a tax of two cents is to be collected on all sales on each $100 of the face value of any stock, or agreements to sell shares of said stock in any domestic or foreign corporation, association or company, whether made upon the books of the association or otherwise.

New Hampshire, South Dakota, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont and other states provide by law for taxation on collateral inheritances, gifts or legacies.

In Pennsylvania cultivation of forest and timber trees is encouraged, so that any person shall have a rebate on all taxes to the amount of eighty per cent. thereof for a period of thirtyfive years on all lands which shall be planted with forest or timber trees of not less than three hundred to the acre.

Vermont exempts all lands so planted from all taxes for a term of ten years.

North Dakota offers a bounty of three dollars per acre on from one to ten acres that may be planted in forest trees not more than eight feet apart each way, and any person who shall plant trees in rows as boundary lines along the public

highways shall be entitled to a bounty at the rate of two dollars for every eighty rods of each road.

New York provides for a bounty on sugar beets, with terms and limitations governing the same.

Vermont has passed quite an elaborate act providing for the taxation of foreign insurance companies, railroad companies, sleeping car companies, etc., and has adopted the method of taxation as to such public service corporations which has heretofore obtained in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and received the sanction of the Supreme Court.

With reference to a railroad partly within and partly without the state, a tax is levied upon that portion of the entire gross earnings of said road, both within and without the state, derived from all sources for each semi-annual period hereinafter referred to, which the total mileage within that state of all revenue-earning trains operated upon said railroad during said semi-annual period bears to the total mileage both within and without that state of all revenue-earning trains operated upon the entire line of said railroad, both within and without that state, during such semi-annual period.

Missouri has adopted the same principle in a law providing for the taxation of cars belonging to car trust companies.

Rhode Island, under a new law, provides that all real and personal property of residents, whether individuals or corporations, shall be taxed in the town of the owner's place of abode for the larger part of the preceding twelve months, and that all tangible personal property belonging to non-residents shall be taxed in the town where such property is situated.

On March 24, 1905, the House of Representatives of Massachusetts passed the following resolution, which has been passed by the Senate:

"Resolved, That the General Court of Massachusetts favors such action by the Congress of the United States as shall cause the removal of duty upon hides;

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to each of the representatives and senators in Congress from this commonwealth."

The same body on March 27, 1905, adopted resolutions favoring "freer trade relations between the United States and the Dominion of Canada and between the United States and Newfoundland, as soon as it is possible to secure such relations without injury to American agriculture, American labor or American industries, and without sacrificing the American policy of protection to American industries, upon which not only the manufacturing, but the agricultural and mercantile interest of the commonwealth have largely prospered.

"The test of protective legislation, however, should not be 'Is a duty demanded?' but 'Is a duty needed?'"

Missouri provides that the taxes assessed on shares of banking stock, whether such corporations are organized under the laws of Missouri or the United States, shall be paid by the corporations respectively as agents of each of its shareholders, which the bank may either recover from the owners of the hares or deduct the same from the dividends accruing on such Lares.

Texas provides by law for a franchise tax on all private and domestic corporations which have, or may hereafter be chartered under the laws of the state, of one dollar on each $2000 of the authorized capital stock of the corporation up to $100,000, and one dollar on each $10,000, or fractional part thereof, of such stock in excess of $100,000, etc., and on foreign corporations which have or may hereafter be authorized to do business in the state a tax of one dollar on each $1000, or fractional part thereof, of the authorized capital stock of the corporation up to and including $100,000, and one dollar on each $5000, or fractional part thereof, of such stock in excess of $10,000, etc.

Texas also provides for intangible assets of certain corporations to be taxed, and provides for the creation of a State Tax Board for the valuation of such intangible assets, and for the distribution of such values for local taxation and for the assessment of such assets and the levy and collection of taxes thereon. The corporations embraced are all railroad com