complaint and application, and they decline so to do, they shall indorse upon the petition the reason of such non-compliance and return it to the petitioners, who may within ten days thereafter present it to said board; and the board may thereupon proceed to make such examination in the same manner as if called upon by the mayor and aldermen or the selectmen, first giving to the petitioners and to the corporation reasonable notice in writing of the time and place of entering upon the same. If upon such examination it appears to the board that the complaint is well founded, it shall so adjudge, and shall inform the corporation operating such railroad of its adjudication in the same manner as is provided in the preceding section.

SECTION 18. The board shall investigate the causes of any accident on a railroad resulting in loss of life; and of any accident, not so resulting, which it may deem to require investigation.

SECTION 19. Every railroad corporation shall at all times, on request, furnish to the board any information required by it concerning the condition, management, and operation of the road of such corporation, and particularly copies of all leases, contracts, and agreements for transportation with express companies or otherwise to which it is a party, and also with the rates for transporting freight and passengers upon its road and other roads with which its business is connected.

SECTION 20. No request or advice of the board shall impair in any manner the legal duties and obligations of a railroad corporation, or its legal liability for the consequences of its acts, or of the neglect or mismanagement of any of its agents or servants.

SECTION 21. The board shall from time to time in each year examine the books and accounts of all corporations operating railroads or street railways, to see that they are kept in a uniform manner and upon the system prescribed by the board. Statements of the doings and financial condition of the several corporations shall be prepared and published at such times as the board shall deem expedient.

SECTION 22. On the application in writing of a director, or of any person or persons owning one-fiftieth part of the paid-in capital stock of a corporation operating a railroad or street railway, or owning the bonds or other evidences of indebtedness of such corporation equal in amount to one-fiftieth part of its paid-in capital stock, the board shall examine the books and the financial condition of said corporation, and shall cause the result of such examination to be published in one or more daily papers in the city of Boston.

SECTION 23. The board shall at all times have access to the list of stockholders of every corporation operating a railroad or street railway, and may at any time cause the same to be copied, in whole or in part, for the information of the board or of persons owning stock in such corporation.

SECTION 24. A corporation refusing to submit its books to the examination of the board, or neglecting to keep its accounts in the method prescribed by the board, shall be liable to the penalties provided in section eighty-four, in the case of the neglect or refusal to make a report or return.

SECTION 25. Either of the said commissioners, in all cases investigated by the board, may summon witnesses in behalf of the commonwealth, and may administer oaths and take testimony. The fees of such witnesses for attendance and travel shall be the same as for witnesses before the superior court, and shall be paid from the treasury of the commonwealth, and a certificate of the board shall be filed with the auditor; and any justice of the superior court, either in term time or vacation, upon application of the board, may in his discretion compel the attendance of such witnesses and the giving of testimony before the board in the same manner and to the same extent as before said court.

For additional Powers and Duties of the Board affecting Street Railways, see

APPENDIX IV

THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE LAW

THE ACT TO REGULATE COMMERCE

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of this act shall apply to any common carrier or carriers engaged in the transportation of passengers or property wholly by railroad, or partly by railroad and partly by water when both are used, under a common control, management, or arrangement, for a continuous carriage or shipment, from one State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, to any other State or Territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, or from any place in the United States to an adjacent foreign country, or from any place in the United States through a foreign country to any other place in the United States, and also to the transportation in like manner of property shipped from any place in the United States to a foreign country and carried from such place to a port of transshipment, or shipped from a foreign country to any place in the United States and carried to such place from a port of entry either in the United States or an adjacent foreign country: Provided, however, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to the transportation of passengers or property, or to the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of property, wholly within one State, and not shipped to or from a foreign country from or to any State or Territory as aforesaid.

The term "railroad" as used in this act shall include all bridges and ferries used or operated in connection with any railroad, and also all the road in use by any corporation operating a railroad, whether owned or operated under a contract, agreement, or lease; and the term "transportation" shall include all instrumentalities of shipment or carriage.

All charges made for any service rendered or to be rendered in the transportation of passengers or property as aforesaid, or in connection therewith, or for the receiving, delivering, storage, or handling of such property, shall be reasonable and just; and every unjust and unreasonable charge for such service is prohibited and declared to be unlawful.

SEC. 2. That if any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall, directly or indirectly, by any special rate, rebate, drawback, or other device, charge, demand, collect, or receive from any person or persons a greater or less compensation for any service rendered, or to be rendered, in the transportation of passengers or property, subject to the provisions of this act, than it charges, demands, collects, or receives from any other person or persons for doing for him or them a like and contemporaneous service in the transportation of a like kind of traffic under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, such common carrier shall be deemed guilty of unjust discrimination, which is hereby prohibited and declared to be unlawful.

SEC. 3. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, in any respect whatsoever, or to subject any particular person, company, firm, corporation, or locality, or any particular description of traffic, to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect whatsoever.

Every common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall, according to their respective powers, afford all reasonable, proper, and equal facilities for the interchange of traffic

between their respective lines, and for the receiving, forwarding, and delivering of passengers and property to and from their several lines and those connecting therewith, and shall not discriminate in their rates and charges between such connecting lines; but this shall not be construed as requiring any such common carrier to give the use of its tracks or terminal facilities to another carrier engaged in like business.

SEC. 4. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to charge or receive any greater compensation in the aggregate for the transportation of passengers or of like kind of property, under substantially similar circumstances and conditions, for a shorter than for a longer distance over the same line, in the same direction, the shorter being included within the longer distance; but this shall not be construed as authorizing any common carrier within the terms of this act to charge and receive as great compensation for a shorter as for a longer distance: Provided, however, That upon application to the Commission appointed under the provisions of this act, such common carrier may, in special cases, after investigation by the Commission, be authorized to charge less for longer than for shorter distances for the transportation of passengers or property; and the Commission may from time to time prescribe the extent to which such designated common carrier may be relieved from the operation of this section of this act.

SEC. 5. That it shall be unlawful for any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act to enter into any contract, agreement, or combination with any other common carrier or carriers for the pooling of freights of different and competing railroads, or to divide between them the aggregate or net proceeds of the earnings of such railroads, or any portion thereof; and in any case of an agreement for the pooling of freights as aforesaid, each day of its continuance shall be deemed a separate offence.

SEC. 6. (As amended March 2, 1889.) That every common carrier subject to the provisions of this act shall print and keep open to public inspection schedules showing the rates