days be suspended, and it is hereby suspended, and this bill shall take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted. Approved April 15, 1907. Takes effect ninety days after adjournment. RAILROADS REQUIRING REPORT OF ROLLING STOCK. H. B. No. 327.] CHAPTER XCV. An Act to amend Article 5083, Chapter 2, Title CIV, of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1895, as to require railroads to report under oath rolling stock operated by them under rental, hire, lease or other form of contract, and to give name and address of true owner; and requiring county tax assessors to properly assess such property, and declaring an emergency. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: SECTION 1. That Article 5083, Chapter 2, Title CIV, of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1895, be and the same is hereby amended to hereafter read as follows: Art. 5083 (4687). It shall be the duty of every railroad corporation in this State, to deliver a sworn statement, on or before the first day of April in each year, to the assessor of the county in which its principal office is situated, setting forth the true and full value of the rolling stock of said railroad, together with the names of all the counties through which it runs, and the number of miles of roadbed in each of said counties, and said statement shall be submitted to the Board of Equalization. of the county, in which its principal office is situated, for review, as is provided by Article 5120, of this Code, and the other laws of this State, in respect to Boards of Equalization on the first Monday in June in each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and such board shall certify such final valuation, when made, without delay, to the Comptroller of Public Accounts, who shall proceed at once to apportion the amount of such valuation among the said counties in proportion to the distance such roads shall run, through any such county, and shall certify such apportionment to the assessors of such counties, and the same shall constitute part of the tax assets of such counties, and the assessor of each of said counties, shall list and enter the same upon the rolls for taxation, as other personal property situated in said county. And said Railroad Corporation shall also report in a separate sworn statement all rolling stock operated by it, under rental, hire, lease or other form of contract, which it does not render for taxation, giving the true and full value of such rolling stock and the amount paid or promised to be paid for rental, hire, lease, or use under other form of contract, together with the name of person, firm, corporation or association owning such rolling stock, and together with the postoffice address of such person or firm, or if it be a corporation or association, then the city, county and State of its principal office, and if from said statement it appear that said rolling stock belongs to any person residing in the State of Texas, or to any firm doing business in the State of Texas, or to any corporation or association organized under the laws of the State of Texas, then said statement shall be certified by the tax assessor to whom it is made to the tax assessor of the county in which such person lives or such firm does business, or such corporation or association has its principal office, and said statement shall be by the tax assessor, to whom it is certified, submitted to the Board of Equalization of the county for review and the same shall be equalized by the Board of Equalization of such county and certified to the Comptroller and apportioned by the Comptroller in the same manner as other rolling stock is certified and apportioned under the preceding provisions of this Article, and if it appears from said statement that the person, firm, corporation or association owning such rolling stock is a non-resident of the State of Texas, then said statement shall be submitted to the Board of Equalization of the county in which the principal office of the railroad company using the same under rental, hire, lease or other form of contract is situated, which statement shall be reviewed by said Board of Equalization and said property assessed against the owner, and certified to the Comptroller and the valuation apportioned against said owner by the Comptroller in the same manner as rolling stock belonging to the railroad corporation furnishing the list. SEC. 2. The fact that there is now no law which requires railroad companies to report for taxation rolling stock operated by them under rental, hire, lease, or other form of contract creates an emergency and an imperative public necessity requiring that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended and this Act go into effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted. [NOTE. The enrolled bill shows that the foregoing act passed the House of Representatives by the following vote, yeas 94, nays 0; and passed the Senate by the following vote, yeas 23, nays 0.] Approved April 15, 1907. Became a law April 15, 1907. AUTOMOBILES-REGULATING RUNNING OF SAME. H. B. No. 93.] CHAPTER XCVI. An Act to regulate the running of automobiles and motor vehicles, and the requiring of the owner of such machine to register his name and the number of his machine with the county clerk of the county in which he resides, for the violation of which a penalty is provided. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: All owners of automobiles or motor vehicles shall before using such vehicles or machines upon the public roads, streets or driveways, register with the county clerk of the county in which he resides, his name, which name shall be registered by the county clerk in consecutive order in a book to be kept for that purpose, and shall be numbered in the order of their registration, and it shall be the duty of such owner or owners to display in a conspicuous place on said machine the number so registered, which number shall be in figures not less than six inches in height. The county clerk shall be paid by such owner or owners a fee of fifty cents for each machine registered. SEC. 2. No automobile or motor vehicle shall be driven or operated upon any public road, street or driveway at a greater rate of speed than eighteen miles an hour, or upon any public road, street or driveway within the built up portions of any city, town or village, the limits of which shall be fixed by the municipal officers thereof, at a greater rate of speed than eight miles an hour, except where such city or town may by an ordinance or by-law allow a greater rate of speed, provided the speed limit shall not apply to race courses or speedways. SEC. 3. No person in charge of an automobile or motor vehicle on any public road, street or driveway shall drive the same at any speed greater than is reasonable and proper, having regard to the traffic and use of the public road, street or driveway by others, or so as to endanger the life or limb of any person thereon. SEC. 4. All drivers or operators of automobiles or motor vehicles are prohibited from racing upon any public road, street or driveway. SEC. 5. Any person driving or operating an automobile or motor vehicle shall at the request, or signal by putting up the hand, or by other visible signal from a person riding or driving a horse or horses or other domestic animal, cause such vehicle or machine to come to a standstill as quickly as possible and to remain stationary long enough to allow such animal to pass. SEC. 6. Every driver or operator of an automobile or motor vehicle shall have attached thereto a suitable bell or other appliance for giving notice of its approach, so that when such attachment is rung or otherwise operated it may be heard a distance of three hundred feet, and shall carry a lighted lamp between one hour after and one hour before sunrise. SEC. 7. Every one who violates any of these six sections shall be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars. SEC. 8. The near approach of the end of the session and the demand for immediate legislation on this subject constitutes an imperative public necessity that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read in each house of the Legislature on three several days be suspended, and this act take effect from and after its passage, and it is so enacted. Approved April 15, 1907. Takes effect ninety days after adjournment. ANTI-TRUST LAW-PROVIDING PUNISHMENT FOR An Act to amend Section 13, Chapter 94, of the Acts of the Twenty-eighth Legislature, defining and prohibiting trusts, monopolies and conspiracies, providing that any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be punished by imprisonment. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: SECTION 1. That Section 13, Chapter 94, of the Acts of the Twentyeighth Legislature be amended so as to hereafter read as follows: Sec. 13. And in addition to all other penalties and forfeitures herein provided for, every person violating the provisions of this act shall be further punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than two nor more than ten years. SEC. 2. The large number of bills now pending before the Legislature creates an imperative public necessity and an emergency that the constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several days be suspended, and that this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and it is so enacted. An Act to provide for a board to calculate the ad valorem rate of taxes for State purposes each year, and to prescribe the duties of such board, and certain duties of the tax assessors of the various counties in this State. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas: SECTION 1. That the Governor, Comptroller of Public Accounts and Treasurer of this State be and the same are hereby constituted a board to calculate the ad valorem taxes to be levied and collected each year for State purposes. SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the tax assessor of each county in this State to make the Comproller of Public Accounts a certified statement showing the total amount of property in such county subject to taxation on or before the 1st day of August of the year 1908 and each year thereafter; provided, that the taxes for State purposes, other than for the public school fund shall not be calculated and carried upon. said rolls. SEC. 3. Within five days after the Comptroller of Public Accounts has received such tax rolls from every assessor within this State the said board shall meet for the purpose of calculating said ad valorem rate for taxes to be levied and collected for State purposes. In calculating the said rate the said board shall calculate said rate by the following rules and in no other manner: They shall find, by adding together all the property subject to taxation in all the counties, as shown by the tax rolls returned by the assessors the total valuation of all property within this State subject to ad valorem taxes. They shall find, by adding together the sums appropriated by the Legislature, which will, or which may become due by the State during the following fiscal year, the total sum which will, or which may become due by the State during said following fiscal year. They shall find, by adding all sums paid into the State Treasury as taxes for State purposes from all sources other than as ad valorem taxes, and except those going into the available school fund, during the first half of the current calendar year and the latter half of the last preceding calendar year, the total sum paid into the said Treasury from said sources during the said time. They shall find by subtracting from the total sum which will, or which may, become due by the State during the next succeeding fiscal year, the total sum which was paid into the State Treasury as taxes for State purposes during the first half of the current calendar year and the latter half of the last preceding calendar year, the total sum for State purposes, which must be collected by ad valorem taxes. They shall add to such remainder twenty per cent of said remainder. They shall divide the total sum for State purposes which must be collected by ad valorem taxes added to twenty per cent of such total sum by the quotient of the total valuation of all property within this State divided by one hundred. The quotient shall be the number of cents on the one hundred dollars valuation to be levied and collected for the current year for State purposes; provided, that said quotient shall not be run to more than three decimals. Provided, the rate, exclusive of the tax necessary to pay the public debt and of the taxes provided for the benefit of the public free schools, shall never exceed the rate fixed by law on the one hundred dollars valuation of property. And there shall be levied and collected for the year 1908 and annually thereafter, and there hereby is levied and ordered assessed and collected for the year 1908 and annually thereafter an ad valorem tax on all real property situated in and all property owned in the State on the first day of January in each and every year, and on all property sent out of the State prior to the first day of January for the purpose of evading the payment of taxes thereon and afterwards returned to the State, except so much thereof as may be exempted by the Constitution and laws of this State or the United States, a tax of, and at the rate of the number of cents and fractional part of a cent, to be ascertained each year by the calculation hereinbefore prescribed, on the one hundred dollars cash value thereof, estimated in lawful currency of the United States, which cash value shall be estimated in the manner prescribed by law. SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the Comptroller of Public Accounts to certify to the assessor of taxes of each county in this State, through registered letter, the rate of taxes for State purposes for the current vear, and shall also publish immediately such rate for thirty days in some newspaper published in the State and having a general circulation therein, and as soon as such tax assessor has received notice of such rate he shall calculate the taxes due the State for State purposes other than for the public school fund on all taxable property within his county, as set out in Section 3 above, and carry same out upon the copies of the tax rolls of the county, to be delivered to the tax collector and to the clerk of the county court, and to be returned to the Comptroller of Public Accounts, as provided in Articles 5127 and 5128, Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1895. After he has so completed the said copies of the tax rolls he shall return to the Comptroller of Public Accounts the copy of the tax rolls which were originally in his hands. SEC. 5. The near approach of the end of the session and the crowded condition of the calendar, and the immediate necessity of the passage of a law providing an adequate tax rate for State purposes to pay existing deficiency and to provide sufficient funds for the proper maintenance of the State government, creates an imperative public necessity |