more attention to contrivances for evading the spirit and intent of the law than they were to obeying it. Their ingenuity in this regard may almost be pronounced marvelous. The old mischiefs were reproduced under new guises just so far as plausible excuses could be invented for the purpose. (Address to Boston Merchants' Association, January 8, 1889.)

To ascertain whether such agreements will receive the sanction of the courts is the object sought in the proceeding commmenced against the Joint Traffic Association.

GENERAL, ORDERS OF THE COMMISSION.

Respecting general requirements of the law, the Commission has in some instances made general orders of uniform application to all carriers subject to the act. The authority as well as the necessity for making certain orders of this kind is indicated by various provisions of the statute, of which the following are examples.

Section 6 contains this provision:

The Commission may determine and prescribe the form in which the schedules

required by this section to be kept open to public inspection shall be prepared and arranged, and may change the form from time to time as shall be found expedient.

Section 20 in part reads:

The Commission is hereby authorized to require annual reports from all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act, to fix the time and prescribe the manner in which such reports shall be made.

And then proceeds to indicate what shall be included in such reports.

In the enforcement of these and similar provisions general orders have sometimes been made, after full and careful consideration, but without formal proceedings upon notice to each carrier and opportunity to be heard, as required in cases of complaint against a particular carrier or carriers which contemplates relief from some specified act or omission alleged to be in violation of law as provided in section 13.

Notwithstanding the propriety and necessity of such general orders in appropriate cases, some confusion and misunderstanding have arisen in regard thereto, not so much on account of the orders themselves as by reason of other matters in the circulars and letters relating to the Salile.

It has been claimed that the Commission was adjudged by the Supreme Court in the Import Rate Case (which is mentioned in another part of this report) to have assumed extraordinary powers of administration, without warrant of law, in the promulgation of several orders. The remarks of the Supreme Court in that case related to a document which had been issued and headed or entitled “Circular,” under date of March 23, 1889, by the Commission, which was then, as originally organized, composed of Thomas M. Cooley, Chairman, William R. Morrison, Augustus Schoonmaker, Aldace F. Walker, and Walter L. Bragg. This paper was sent out to notify carriers of the changes made in the law by the act of March 2, 1889, and of an order which had been made by the Commission under section 6, as then amended, in respect to notices of advances and reductions in joint rates.

The information contained in this circular was never intended or treated by the Commission as an order in the strict sense of that term, jor was it ever sought to be enforced as such against any carrier. But in reciting the history of the Import Rate Case, in its report of that investigation, the Commission inaccurately referred to this circular as an “order,” and it had been so designated by some of the defendants in their answers in that proceeding. The document itself shows that it was issued by direction of the Commission and included a general order of the character above described which had been previously made and entered of record. It also contained the following statement in relation to the amended law and in explanation of the duties of carriers under Such order:

Imported traffic transported to any place in the United States from a port of entry or place of reception, whether in this country or in an adjacent foreign country, is required to be taken on the inland tariff governing other freights.

This is the part of the circular to which the attention of the court was specially directed. As will be seen from the context, the language quoted had reference to the recent amendments and the added obligations of carriers in respect to advances or reductions in certain rates. There was a subsequent proceeding before the Commission in which import rates were investigated under specific complaint served upon the carriers and answered by them and after due notice and hearing upon all the evidence offered. It was to enforce the order of the Commission in that proceeding that the Import Rate Case was afterwards begun.

It may be further observed that the authority of the Commission to make general olders in proper cases seems to be substantially affirmed by the Supreme Court in the Import Rate Case, as the opinion delivered therein contains the following:

If the Commission, instead of confining its action to redressing, on complaint made by some particular person, firm, corporation, or locality, some specific disregard by common carriers of provisions of the act, proposes to promulgate general orders, which thereby become rules of action to the carrying companies, the spirit and letter of the act require that such orders should have in view the purpose of promoting and facilitating commerce, and the welfare of all to be affected, as well the carriers as the traders and consumers of the country.

The Commission's view as to its authority under the law in this respect is further indicated by its repeated announcement that it “will not express opinions on abstract questions; nor on questions presented by ea parte statements of fact; nor on questions of the construction of the statute when no controversy is pending.” (In re Order of Railway Conductors; In re Traders and Travelers' Union; In re Iowa Barb Steel Wire Company; In re St. Louis Millers' Association; In re Disabled Soldiers and Sailors; Bishop v. Duval, receiver, etc.; Harris v. Duval, receiver, etc., et al.; Lincoln Board of Trade v. Union Pacific Railway Company et al.; Pennsylvania Company v. Louisville, New Albany and Chicago Railroad Company; Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburg Railroad Company v. Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company.)

MILEAGE PAID FOR CARS OWNED BY SHIPPERS AND CAR COMPANIES.

An order was issued on April 9, 1896, to all common carriers, requiring them to report to the Commission the amounts paid by them to private car companies, individuals, or firms for the use of private cars other than those owned and operated by railroad companies for the year ending June 30, 1895. Replies have been received from 1,498 railroad companies, of which 350 report that they have paid 2,517,302.88 dollars for the use of cars in passenger service, and 8,744,025.73 dollars for the use of cars in freight service, to 854 different companies, individuals, or firms; leaving 1,148 of the reporting companies that disclaim having paid anything for the use of private cars. Some of these roads, however, are included in the operations of the 350 companies above mentioned. In Appendix D will be found a detailed statement of the car mileage paid for the use of private cars and to whom paid. The Commission is now engaged in securing statistics for the purpose of compiling a statement of the number of cars owned by private individuals, companies, and corporations. Until this is obtained, the average amount earned per car can not be ascertained.

SAFETY APPLIANCES ON RAILWAY EQUIPMENT.

Sections 1 and 2 of the safety-appliance act, approved March 2, 1893, will become effective on the 1st day of January, 1898. On April 9, 1896, the Commission issued an order to all common carriers engaged in interstate commerce, requesting them to state to what extent they had brought their equipment into conformity with the requirements of these sections prior to April 1, 1896. In compliance with this order, replies have been received from 1,690 companies. Of this number, 727 report that they own or operate 33,323 passenger cars, 1,217,064 freight cars, and 35,898 locomotives; and 963 roads, most of which are operated by other companies, have no equipment. As shown by these reports, 32,962 passenger cars, or 98.91 per cent, are fitted with train brakes; 32,331 passenger cars are equipped with automatic couplers, or 97.02 per cent of the total number; 16,454 of the passenger cars so equipped are fitted with couplers of the Miller type; 15,426 have the vertical plane or master car builders' type; 173 passenger cars are equipped with various other described automatic types, and 278 with automatic couplers of which no description has been given. Of the 35,898 locomotives, 28,906, or 80.53 per cent of the total number, are equipped with drivingwheel brakes.

Of the 1,217,064 freight cars reported, 360,079 freight cars, or 29.58 per cent, are equipped with train brakes; 448,014 are equipped with master car builders' vertical plane automatic couplers; 2,082 are equipped with other types of automatic couplers; while 5,236 freight

cars are equipped with automatic couplers the type of which is not

given; 455,332, or 37.41 per cent, of the total number of freight cars are equipped with automatic couplers. Statistical tables on this subject will be found in Appendix E. Many of the couplers claimed to be automatic only couple automatically with those of the same pattern or type, and not with the couplers in more general use. Equipment of cars with this class of couplers will apparently compel the owning carriers to confine their use to roads using similar types and to trains entirely composed of cars so equipped. It is also indicated by the figures given in the returns that the rate of progress toward compliance with the coupler feature of the law which obtained prior to April 1 must be greatly increased if the equipment of the roads is to be brought into conformity with this statute on January 1, 1898.

STANDARD HEIGHT OF DRAWBARS FOR FREIGHT CARS.

In order to ascertain whether the provisions of the act of March 2, 1893, fixing the height of drawbars on freight cars are being complied with, an employee of the Commission has recently been sent to car shops and freight yards at Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Chicago. It appears from his inspection that the law in this respect is fairly well observed. Where variations from the standard height were found—and these were comparatively few—they were brought to the attention of the railroad managers, and the needed alterations were promptly undertaken. Attention was called in our last annual report to an apparent misunderstanding among some of the carriers as to the precise meaning of language used by the American Railway Association, acting under authority conferred by section 5 of the act, in fixing the standard height of drawbars and the variation to be allowed therefrom as between empty and loaded cars. This association has since stated its understanding in regard to the standard height of drawbar required for freight cars on standard gauge roads to be as follows: The standard height of drawbars for freight cars measured perpendicular from the level of the tops of rails to center of drawbars is 34% inches, with no greater variation allowable than 3 inches; minimum height, 31} inches. By center of drawbar is meant the horizontal line through the center of the drawbar shank. Thirty-four and one-half inches is the standard maximum height, from which there can only be a variation of 3 inches downward. This accords with the interpretation hitherto announced by the Com

mission.
STATISTICS OF RAILWAYS.

FINAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1895.

The report of the statistician to the Commission for the year ending June 30, 1895, contained in Appendix G, was submitted to the Commission on June 30, 1896. MILEAGE. This report shows that the total railway mileage in the United States on June 30, 1895, was 180,057.47 miles, an increase of 1,948.92 miles, or 1.09 per cent, being shown. The increase in 1894 was 2,247.48 miles, or 1.27 per cent, which was less than for any preceding year during the period for which reports have been made to the Commission. The Territory and States in which the increase in mileage exceeds 100 miles are Arizona, 247.41 miles; Illinois, 188.70 miles; Pennsylvania, 157 miles; Maine, 132.86 miles; Texas, 110.41 miles; and Montana, 105.79 miles. The aggregate length of all tracks in the United States on June 30, 1895, was 236,894.26 miles. Included in this total track mileage were 10,639.96 miles of second track, 975.25 miles of third track, 733.12 miles of fourth track, and 43,888.46 miles of yard track and sidings.

CLASSIFICATION OF RAILWAYS.

The number of railway corporations on June 30, 1895, was 1,965, of which 1,013 maintained operating accounts and 800 financial accounts. During the year 14 roads were abandoned, 9 merged, 32 reorganized, and 28 consolidated. The classification of railways on the basis of operated mileage shows that 43 companies, each operating more than 1,000 miles, operate 100,714.71 miles of line, or 55.67 per cent of the total railway mileage; 24 roads, with an operated mileage ranging from 600 to 1,000 miles, operate 18,896.40 miles, or 10.45 per cent; 22 roads, with an operated mileage ranging from 400 to 600 miles, operate 11,177.07 miles, or 6.18 per cent; 45 roads, with an operated mileage ranging from 250 to 400 miles, operate 14,366.95 miles, or 7.94 per cent, and 970 roads, with an operated mileage under 250 miles, operate 35,770.53 miles, or 19.77 per cent. It thus appears that 134 roads, or 12.14 per cent of operating companies, operate 145,155.13 miles, or 80.24 per cent of total mileage in operation. From an inspection of the comparative summary from which these figures are obtained, however, no very great changes in classification are noticeable.

EQUIPMENT.

Trom the summaries given pertaining to the equipment of railways it appears that the increase in number of locomotives in service was 207, the total number on June 30, 1895, being 35,699. Of this number 9,999 were passenger locomotives, 20,012 were freight locomotives, 5,100 Were switching locomotives, and 588 were unclassified. The number of cars of all classes reported, being those owned by railways, was 1,270,561, which indicates a decrease of 7,517 as compared with the previous year. Of the total cars reported, 33,112 were in passenger service, 1,196,119 were in freight service, and the remainder, 41,330, were cars used by the reporting companies in their own service. There was an increase of 94 in the number of passenger cars and an increase of 1,439 in cars assigned to company's service, but cars in freight service decreased 9,050. The explanation of this decrease is not wholly to be found in an effort on the part of the railway companies to economize in equipment, but rather in the increased use made of private cars.