CHAPTER 341-LAWS OF 1874,

AN ACT in relation to railroads.

The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. All railroads which have been heretofore or may be hereafter created by virtue of any general or special act within the limits of this State, are hereby declared to be public highways; and all railroad or other transportation companies heretofore or hereafter to be created, incorporated or organized by any law, general or special, of this State, are hereby declared common carriers, and shall receive and transport each other's passengers, tonnage and cars, loaded or empty, without unreasonable delay or unjust discrimination, and perishable property shall have the preference in transportation.

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SECTION 2. All individuals, associations, and corporations shal have equal right to have persons and property transported over railroads, and no undue or unreasonable discrimination shall be made in charges for or in facilities for transportation of freight or passengers within the State or coming from or going to any other State; but excursion and commutation tickets may be issued at special rates.

SECTION 3. No railroad or other corporation, or the lesees, purchasers or managers of any railroad corporation shall consolidate the stock, property or franchises of such corporation with, or lease or purchase the works or franchises of, or in any way control any other railroad corporation owning or having under its control a parallel or competing line, nor shall any officer of such railroad corporation act as an officer of any other railroad corporation, owning or having the control of parallel or competing lines, and the question whether railroads are parallel or competing lines shall, when demanded by the complainant, be decided by a jury as in other civil issues; provided, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to any contract now existing where one corporation has become responsible for the liabilities of another, either by advances theretofore made, or by guaranty of bonds previous to the passage of this act.

SECTION 4. No president, director, officer, agent, or employee of any railroad or transportation company shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the furnishing of material or supplies to such company, or in the business of transportation as a common carrier of freight or passengers over the works owned, leased, controlled, or worked by such company.

SECTION 5. No discrimination in charges or facilities for transportation shall be made between transportation companies and individuals, or in favor of either by abatement, drawback or otherwise, and no railroad company or any lessee, manager or employer thereof shall make any preference in furnishing cars or motive power.

SECTION 6. Railroad, railway and transportation companies are

hereby prohibited from granting free passes or passes at a discount to any State officer, judge of the supreme court, judge of the circuit court, or judge of any court of record, or member of the legislature, or to any such State officer, judge, or member of the legislature elect; provided, that this section shall not be construed to prohibit any one from purchasing one thonsand (1,000) mile tickets, or other commutation tickets at the regular established rates.

SECTION 7. Any officer, agent or employee of any railroad or transportation company violating any of the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, or by both fine and imprisonmont, such fine not to be less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000,) and such imprisonment to be not less than thirty days nor more than one

year.

SECTION 8. Any State officer, judge of the supreme court, judge of the circuit court, or judge of any court of record, or member of the legislature, or any State officer, judge, or member of the legislature elect, who shall accept any free pass or pass at a discount from any railroad, railway or transportation company, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, or by both fine and imprisonment, such fine not to be less than twenty-five ($25) nor to exceed one hundred dollars ($100,) and such imprisonment to be not less than ten days nor more than thirty days.

SECTION 9. If any railroad company organized or doing business within this State, or which may hereafter do business within this State, shall charge, collect, demand or recover [receive] more than a fair and reasonable rate of compensation upon any line or road within this State, which it has the right, license or permission to use, operate or control, the same shall be deemed guilty of extortion, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than two thousand dollars for each offense, with costs of suit, and reasonable attorney's fees, to be fixed by the court; provided, that in all cases under this act either party shall have the right of trial by jury.

SECTION 10. All acts and parts of acts contravening or conflicting with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 11. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and publication.

Approved March 12, 1874.

CHAPTER 6-LAWS OF 1875.

AN ACT relating to the Wisconsin Central Railroad, and amendatory of sections three and eight, of chapter three hundred and sixty-two. of the private and local laws of 1866, entitled, “An act to incorporate the Portage and Superior Railroad Company and to execute the trust created by an act of Congress, entitled 'An act granting lands to aid in the construction of certain railroads in the State of Wisconsin,' ,'" approved May 5, 1864—approved April 9, 1866.

The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

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SECTION 1. Section three (3), of chapter three hundred and sixtytwo (362), of the private and local laws of 1866, entitled "An act to incorporate the Portage and Superior Railroad Company, and to execute the trust created by an act of Congress, entitled, An act granting lands to aid in the construction of certain railroads in the State of Wisconsin'"-approved May 5, 1864-approved April 9, 1866-is hereby amended so as to read as follows: Section 3. The company hereby created is authorized and required to locate and construct the line of road authorized by this act to be constructed from the said city of Portage, in Columbia county, to Stevens Point, in Portage county, on the most direct feasible route, and thence to Bayfield and to Superior, on Lake Superior.

SECTION 2. Section eight (8), of said chapter three hundred and sixty-two (362), is hereby amended so as to read as follows: Section 8. The company hereby created shall commence the construction of its railroad at the aforesaid city of Portage, and for the purpose of estimating the amount of lands to which said company may be entitled on account of building such road, the said city of Portage shall be deemed the point of commencement, and the company shall be entitled to land in the manner specified by the act of Congress, and as herein provided, as the road progresses from the said city of Portage, but in no other manner; provided, however, That when the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company, either by itself or its assigns, shall complete twenty consecutive miles of road south from Stevens Point, or twenty consecutive miles north from Portage, it shall be the duty of the Governor of this State to issue a certificate of that fact, and the company shall be entitled to the lands properly applicable to such section of twenty miles of road; and to receive the lands accruing on any other section of its road then completed north of Stevens Point, in accordance with the agreement or stipulation entered into between said Wisconsin Central Railroad Company and the Secretary of the Interior; and when it shall have built a second section of twenty consecutive miles of road, either south from Stevens Point, or twenty consecutive miles north from. Portage, it shall be entitled to receive the lands properly applicable to that section of twenty miles, and to receive the lands accruing on any other section of twenty miles then completed north of Stevens Point; and it shall be the duty of the Governor of this State to certify to the completion of this second section between Portage and Stevens Point, when it shall have been thus completed.

And when it shall have completed a third section of twenty consecutive miles between Stevens Point and Portage, so as aforesaid, it shall be entitled to the lands properly applicable to such section, and to receive the lands accruing on any other section of twenty miles north of Stevens Point then completed, and the Governor shall certify to the completion of this third section when so completed. And when it shall have completed a fourth section of twenty consecutive miles, or the remaining portion of the line between Stevens Point and Portage,it shall be entitled to the lands properly accruing to said fourth section, and to receive the lands accruing on all the sections of its road then completed or as they may be thereafter completed. And the Governor shall certify to the completion of this fourth section when so completed, and also to the completion of each and every section of twenty consecutive miles when completed and as provided by law.

SECTION 3. When the said railroad or any part thereof, between Portage City and Stevens Point, shall be constructed and the Chicago and Superior Railroad Company shall have constructed a road between Grand Rapids and some point intersecting said line between Portage City and Stevens Point, then the Chicago and Superior Railroad Company shall have the right to run its trains over said road between said point of intersection and Portage City; and the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company shall have the right to run its trains over the road between said point of intersection and Grand Rapids, under such reasonable regulations and upon paying such reasonable compensation as may be just and equitable. And if the said two railroad companies cannot agree as to the regulations under which each and both of said companies shall run its trains over the road of the other and as to the compensation which shall (shall) be paid therefor, then the Railroad Commissioners of the State or such other parties as may be mutually agreed upon, shall make such regulations and fix such compensation therefor, as they shall after hearing the proofs and allegations of said parties, deem just and reasonable, and both of said companies shall be bound by such regulations and compensation so fixed.

SECTION 4. It is hereby declared to be the true intent and meaning of this act to allow the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company to build its line of road between Portage and Stevens Point on the most direct and feasible route, and to receive the balance of the land grant conferred upon said company when it shall have earned it by so building the road between Portage and Stevens Point, and to ratify and confirm the stipulation entered into between the Secretary of the Interior and the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company by Gardner Colby, its President, on the 24th and 25th days of March, 1874, as far as possible.

SECTION 5. All acts and parts of acts conflicting with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

SECTION 6. This act shall take effect from and after its passage and publication.

Approved February 10, 1875.

CHAPTER 24-LAWS OF 1875.

AN ACT to require the several railroad companies in this State to provide for the safety of passengers.

The people of the State of Wisconsin. represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. All railroad companies in the State who run passenger or other cars for the conveyance of passengers therein, shall provide and have placed in some conspicuous place in each car so used for the conveyance of passengers, an axe with handle ready for use, together with a hand saw.

SECTION 2. Any railroad company failing or refusing to comply with the provisions of the foregoing section, shall be liable on conviction before any justice of the peace through whose county such road or any part thereof may run, to a fine of twenty-five dollars and costs of suit, for each and every day of failure or neglect to comply with said section, one-half of said fine to go to the informer being the complainant against such road, before any such justice of the peace, the other half into the school fund of the county in which such conviction may be had.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force thirty days. from and after its passage and publication. Approved February 17, 1875.

CHAPTER 25-LAWS OF 1875.

AN ACT to amend section 50, of chapter 119, of the general laws of 1872, entitled "An act in relation to railroads and the organization of railroad companies." The people of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. Section fifty (50,) of chapter one hundred and nineteen (119,) of the general laws of 1872, entitled, "An act in relation to railroads and the organization of railroad companies," is hereby amended so as to read as follows: Any railroad company incorporated by or under the laws of this State, may, by a majority vote of all its shareholders, change its corporate name and adopt such other corporate name as the shareholders shall designate in the vote or resolution. In the event of any railroad company changing its name as above authorized, the secretary of said railroad company shall file in the office of the Secretary of State, a copy of the resolution, certified under his hand and the seal of the company, changing the name as aforesaid, and shall publish the same for three successive weeks in the official State paper, and such change shall take effect from the time when the same is filed with