near La Crosse, to the bridge across the Mississippi River, near Winona. The Winona and St. Peter Railroad, from Winona, in the State of Minnesota, to the Big Sioux River, including the Winona & St. Peter Railroad in the Territory of Dakota, and the bridge across the Mississippi River, at Winona, with the branch to Mankato, known as the Winona, Mankato and New Ulm Railroad. The Iowa Midland Railway, from a point on the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska Railroad, near Clinton, to Anamosa, in the State of Iowa; and the Northwestern Union Railroad, from Milwaukee to Fond du Lac, in the State of Wisconsin, with a branch to Lodi and a branch to the iron mines in Dodge county, Wisconsin. The St. Charles Railroad, from the town of St. Charles to the town of Batavia, in the State of Illinois; and the branch from Stanwood to Tipton, in the State of Iowa, known as the Stanwood and Tipton Railroad; and that the said several railroad companies, whose stock is owned by the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, as aforesaid, have severally issued bonds, secured by trust deeds or mortgages upon their respective lines of railroad severally, with their equipment and appurtenances, and upon the franchises of said companies respectively; which said bonds now outstanding amount in the aggregate to the sum of $16,599,500, the payment of which has been assumed by the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, as follows:" First Mortgage bonds of the Milwaukee and Chicago Railroad Company, dated May 1, 1854, payable 1874, $397,000. Second mortgage bonds of the Milwaukee and Chicago Railroad Company, dated Feb. 1, 1854, payable 1874, $182,000. Third mortgage bonds of the Milwaukee and Chicago Railroad Company, dated August 1, 1863, payable 1898, $1,135,000. La Crosse, Trempeleau and Prescott Railroad Company's first mortgage bonds, dated April 1, 1868, payable 1878, $1,000,000. Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company's first mortgage bonds, dated January 1, 1867, payable 1887, $2,750,000. Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company's second mortgage bonds, dated November 1, 1867, payable 1907, $1,650,000. Winona and St. Peter Railroad Extension first mortgage sinking fund gold bonds, dated December 1, 1871; payable, 1916, $4,375, 000. Winona and St. Peter Railroad Company, of Dakota, same class, for completion of road in Dakota, $250,000, Iowa Midland Railway Company's first mortgage bonds, dated October 1, 1870, payable 1900, $1,350,000. Northwestern Union Railway Company's first mortgage sinking fund gold bonds, dated June 1, 1872, payable 1917, $3,500,000. The payment of all which bonds has been assumed by the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, and for which it is now liable. Your orators further show to your honor, that, as they are informed and believe, the total cost of all the railroads of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, to March 31, 1874, was the sum of $65,090,805.12. The total earnings of the said railways for the year ending Deccember 31, 1873, was the sum of $13,816,464.59. Your orators further show that the total earnings of said railway company, in the State of Wisconsin, for the year ending December 31, 1873, were the sum of $3,190,523,64. The total cost of the railway of said company, in the State of Wisconsin, was the sum of $28,074,317.35. The total operating expenses of the said railroad company, in the State of Wisconsin, for the year ending December 31, 1873, were the sum of $2,099,850.66. Your orators further show that more than seventy per cent. of the earnings of said company, in the State of Wisconsin, were necessarily required to pay the operating expenses of said railways in said State, and that the debt of said company applicable to the railroads in Wisconsin, was the sum of $17,247,770.00. Your orators further show to your honor, that the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company has been able to pay, and has paid the interest upon its outstanding obligations as the same have become due and payable, from the monies and revenues received from the operation of its lines of road, and that the roads. aforesaid, whether they are the roads of the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, or roads controlled and operated by said company, as aforesaid, are all operated as one connected line of road, extending through, or partly through, the States of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territory of Dakata, and that said lines of road can be much more profitably operated in such connection than if the same were operated as separate roads. Your orators further show to your honor that, as they are advised and believe, the managers of the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway have been from time to time reducing their rates of fare and freight upon the said railroads, and the reductions have been made according to the following table, shown in the annual report of the company, for 1873: Which are twenty per cent. reduction on passenger rates, and thirty-two per cent. on freight, since 1867. Your orators further show to your honor that the aforesaid reductions have been made in the rates of fare and freight of said railway, as your orators are informed and believe, for the purpose of *Records for 1869 were destroyed by Chicage fire and cannot be replaced. (Doc. 15) aiding in developing the resources of the country in which said road is located, with the view of increasing the business of the said road, and the consequent increase of its revenues, although it was not possible for said company, at such rates, to pay any dividends whatever to its stockholders since the month of December, 1872, on its common stock, and but three and one-half per cent. upon its preferred stock since that date. Your orators further show to your honor that the existing rates of fare and freight established by said railway company are reasonable and just, and are, in fact so low that, in operating its said railway under the rates of fare and freight established by the Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, it has not derived and does not derive from all its sources of revenue a sum sufficient to pay the necessary cost of operating said railways and maintaining the equipment and appurtenances in a proper state of efficiency and repair, and to pay the interest on the bonds for which said company is liable, and to pay the legal rate of interest in the State of Wisconsin upon the money actually invested by its stockholders in the construction and equipment of said road. And your orators further show to your honor that, in operating the said Madison Extension of the railroad of said company, and the said Menomonee Extension of the railroad of said company, which are the roads mentioned and described and conveyed severally in the trust deeds given to secure the bonds owned and held by your orators, Willem Frederik Piek and Henry R. Pierson, as aforesaid, as the same have been operated under the tariff of rates for the transportation of passengers and freight, fixed by said company as aforesaid, neither of said divisions of said company's railroad has afforded sufficient revenue to said company to pay the necessary operating expenses of the same and the sums necessary to be expended in maintaining said roads, with their equipment and appurtenances, in a proper state of efficiency and repair, the interest upon the bonds given by said company for moneys actually used in -the construction and equipment of said Madison Extension and of said Menomonee Extension severally, and the legal rate of interest in said State to the stockholders of said company, upon the sums of money actually paid by them, and applied in the construction and equipment of said Madison Extension, and Menomonee Extension, severally. Your orators further show to your honor that an act was passed by the legislature of the State of Wisconsin, approved March 11, 1874, entitled, "An act relating to railroads, express and telegraph companies in the State of Wisconsin," which is as follows: [See page 1 of Appendix "A" of this report.] And afterward, to-wit, on the 12th day of March, A. D. 1874, the following joint resolution was passed by the legislature of Wis consin: JOINT RESOLUTION directing the Secretary of State not to publish bill No. 466, Assembly, regulating tariff on railroads, until April 28, 1874. Resolved by the Senate, the Assembly concurring, That the Secretary of State be, and he hereby is, instructed not to publish or cause to be published, until April 28, 1874, Assembly bill No. 466, an act passed during the present session of the legislature, regulating the tariff for the transportation of passengers, approved March 12, 1874, which act mentioned in said joint resolution is the act last above set forth, (towit, the act approved March 11, 1874). Your orators further show to your honor that the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company operates its roads under rules established by said company, which fix the rates to be charged for the transportation of passengers and freight upon all the roads of said company and the roads operated by it; that said rates of fare and freight have been established by said company, after a careful examination of all the facts and circumstances bearing upon the question which it was in the power of the officers of said corporation to procure, as your orators are advised and verily believe, and said rates are reasonable and just; and your orators further state, upon their best information and belief, that said company will not derive from all its sources of revenue a sufficient sum of money to pay the operating expenses of said railway and to pay the interest upon its bonds, as aforesaid, and maintain the said railroad and its equipment in a proper state of efficiency, without paying any dividends whatever to its stockholders or making provisions for a sinking fund to retire the bonds which are becoming due at the several times therein specified, if its said roads are conducted and operated under and in accordance with the provisions of said act of March 11, 1874; that the sole security for the payment of the bonds holden by your orators is the said road mentioned in the trust deed securing said bonds, the equipment and appurtenances of the same and the revenues to be derived from operating said road; that, if said roads are required to be operated for the rates of fare and freight specified in said act, instead of returning any compensation whatever to the owners of said roads, the same will be run at a loss, and consequently the value of said roads will be entirely destroyed, and the security which your orators hold for the, bonds held and owned by them, as aforesaid, will be entirely destroyed; that the said bonds were issued and the contract between said railway company and your orators, contained in said bonds, was made under and in pursuance of the then existing laws of the State of Wisconsin; that, when your orators became the owners of the bonds aforesaid, they had a right to presume and did presume that the property mortgaged in the trust deed to secure said bonds would be employed by said corporation for reasonable rates of compensation in transacting their business. Your orators further show to your honor that the result of the enforcement of the act last aforesaid will be either the failure of the said company to pay its bonded debts heretofore set forth, and the interest thereupon as the same accrues, or the suspension by said company of the operation of said railways in the State of Wisconsin and the consequent destruction of the security held by your orators for the payment of the bonds held by them as aforesaid, as they are infomed and verily believe. Your orators further show to your honor that the classes of freight established by section three of said act is different from the classes of freight established by the law of the State of Illinois for the transportation of freight upon the same road, and different from the classes of freight established by the State of Iowa for the transportation of freight upon the road of said company, and different from the classes of freight established by the laws of the State of Minnesota for the transportation of freight upon the railroads of said company, and that it is practically impossible to carry on the business of transportation of freight from the State of Wisconsin into either one of the other states above named, in accordance with the laws of the State of Wisconsin and such other states, and that, in relation to freight transported from the said State of Wisconsin to either of the states of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota. it is impossible that the same shall be transported in pursuance of the provisions of the acts of the said several States. Your orators charge that, as they are advised by counsel and believe, the enforcement of the act above named, or compliance with the same by the said railroad company, would impair the obligations of the contract entered into between the said railway company and your orators, and, for that reason, the act aforesaid is in contravention of the constitution of the United States, for that the said act would compel the said railway company to employ the property mortgaged to secure the bond holden by your orators and the other creditors of the said company in such manner as to deprive such creditors of the security which lawfully belongs to them under such contract. Your orators further charge that the act aforesaid is in violation of the thirteenth article of the bill of rights of the constitution of the of State Wisconsin, which is as follows: "The property of no person shall be taken for public use without just compensation thereof." And your orators further charge that the legislature of Wisconsin had no constitutional power or authority to pass the act above recited, and that the said act is without any binding force upon the said company. Your orators further charge that the enforcement of the act above recited would impair the obligation of the contract entered into between the stockholders of the said Galena and Chicago Union Railroad Company and the stockholders of the said Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company, contained in the consolidation of said companies above set forth, and thereby greatly impair the security of your orators for the payment of the bonds held by them as aforesaid, and is in violation of the constitution of the United States, which provides that no State shall pass any law inpairing the obligation of coutract. Your orators further show that, when the several railroads consolidated in the one above set forth in this bill were thus consolidated, the holders of the stock in said several roads surrendered said stock and received in exchange therefor what was termed consolidated stock, or stock representing the property and franchises of all the roads thus consolidated. Your orators further show that the holders of said consolidated |