2,032, of an aggregate assessed value of $31,547,299.23. Their average value per mile was $15,521.42; increase of mileage over last report of nine and a fraction miles; increase of value over last report $4,531,199.11.

was

On July 17, 1884, the assessors returned the total number of miles of railroad in the State at 2,094, of an aggregate assessed value of $34,350,170.84. Their average value per mile for this year $16,400.17; increase of mileage, over assessment of 1883, sixty-two miles; increase of value, over assessment of 1883, $2,802,871.61; increase of mileage over last Comptroller's report, seventy-one miles; increase of value over last Comptroller's report (made in 1882), $7,334,070.72.

Now, if to the total value of taxable property in the State in 1884 ($226,844,184.00), we add the aggregate assessed value of railroad property in the State in 1884 ($34,350,170.84), it brings up the total valuation of property in the State to $261,194,354.84, which largely exceeds any other year since 1876, thus showing that our State, after her long travail from social, political and financial trouble, is passing from under the clouds of depression into the sunlight. The general tendency of this increase, I am happy to conclude, will in time act as a relief to the burden of taxation.

RAILROAD COMMISSION.

The problem of railway transportation is everywhere receiving marked public attention. As a commercial factor, the railroad is a modern growth, and through its far-reaching development, has wrought a revolution in business methods. In all countries where it has been established, and where it has become an essential element in the carrying trade, its operations are the subject of formal legislative action and judicial review. The questions involved in the creation and practical workings of this system do not arise from the railroad merely as a common carrier, but from its combination with a piece of legal machinery known as the corporation. And the concurrent wisdom of legislatures and courts, both State and Federal, after mature and exhaustive consideration of the principle underlying the incorporation of railroads, has formulated the authorative judgment that corporations, owning and operating the highways of commerce, are legally and constitutionally amenable to the law-making power. No one disputes the inestimable value of railroads under a just administration of their affairs, and while content to act as the servants of the people; but they are built under charters conferred by the Government, and should be subordinated to its authority and the welfare of the people.

In Great Britain, where the railway system had its origin, and where it has reached vast proportions, the Parliament has in successful and unchallenged operation a Board of Railroad Commissioners, through whose efforts the people are afforded an equitable interchange of traffic over the railroad lines and practical relief from the unjust discriminations that had previously existed.

Lord Chief Justice Hale, in an exposition of the common rights of property, held, that where private property is affected with a public interest, it ceases to be juris priviti only. Chief Justice Waite says: When one devotes his property to a use in which the public has an interest, he, in effect, grants the public an interest in that use and must submit to be controlled by the public." Theophilus Parsons, a recognized legal authority throughout the United States, says: "They (the railroads) are the creatures of the State and to the State alone

must belong the power of determining what shall be paid to them by those who make use of the facilities they offer.

*

*

Judge John Baxter, in the cases of the Louisville & Nashville and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad Companies, says: "Railroads have been created mainly for the accommodation of the public and to facilitate the business of the country. * If unrestrained by wholesome legislation, the public would be very much at their mercy. They could, by unjust discriminations, made under the name of drawbacks, rebates, or disingenuous pretenses, favor friends and oppress opponents, and so adjust and graduate their rates according to the exigence of fluctuating markets, as to secure to themselves or those who operate them, an undue proportion of advancing prices. It would, therefore, in view of these obvious possibilities, be a humiliating confession that there was no reserved power in the Court or the Legislature to protect the public against such possible abuses. We do not hesitate to affirm the existence of such a power."

The right of railway control by the Legislature being conceded by such eminent English and American authority, the question of supreme moment with the people of Tennessee, is the expediency of exercising that right in the form and manner of a Board of Railroad Commissioners, properly constituted, through legislative enactment, and operating within just and constitutional limits, as to the execution of this trust. As evidence that such commission is not deemed offensive or detrimental to railroad interests by those best fitted to speak, allow me to reproduce the statement of Hon. Albert Fink, acknowledged the greatest railroad traffic manager in the country, made before the United States Senate Committee on labor and statistics, in September, 1883. Asking his judgment as to the wisdom of railroad supervision by State Boards of Commissioners, he said: As a rule the commissioners are only advisory, and I think that it is a most excellent feature, and a very good thing to have these commissions, because you can explain to commissions a good many things that you cannot explain to the people at large. It is desirable that the people should have some tribunal to which they could go and make their complaints and get them investigated. They make their complaints to these commissioners, and the commissioners confer with the railroad companies. That is a very excellent plan, and if the commissioners are the proper kind of men, they will do a great deal of good." Certainly, as shown by Mr. Fink, commissioners simplify the machinery of adjustments, and hence expedite and economize settlements between shippers and railroad companies, and yet do not affect the right of appeal to higher tribunals by either party who may feel aggrieved by any action of the commissioners. The fact that the national platforms of the great political parties emphasised the principle of railroad supervision by Governmental authority; that President Arthur and President-elect Cleveland are on record in official capacity in its favor; that 24 States, conspicuously New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, Missouri and Georgia, and every State contiguous to Tennessee (but one), have in successful operation efficient Commissions; that the Reagan bill and its substitute now before Congress, both recognizing the constitutionality and practical expediency of railroad regulation; that according to Poor's Railroad Manual, 3,271 miles of railroad were built in 1882 in seven named States with Commissions, and 1,694 miles built in seven States without Commissions; these are significant facts, and unmistakably voice a volume of evidence showing that railroad regulation is not violative of constitutional or charter rights; that such institutions, with which the rights of the public are intimately blended, cannot be placed altogether beyond the reach of the public; and that the commercial and material interests of the

country are conserved and not imperilled by legislative control of railways, when constitutionally and justly exercised. The interests of the people of this State are not different, but identical with those of many of the States where legislation recognizes and enforces the constitutional right of railroad regulation; and hence the legislation they have enacted has been considered no unsafe guide in shaping the legislative railway policy of Tennessee, and although (it being the first of the kind in our State) it may be subject to judicial pruning, it is a step in the right direction.

Thus it was that in obedience to the well-known will of the people of the State, as formally expressed through regularly constituted political conventions, and through popular elections held to choose Senators and Representatives to the General Assembly, the Legislature met in 1883, contemplating no unfriendly or unjust legislation towards railroads operating in Tennessee, and only claiming a constitutional. right to enact a judicious system of railway control, and to create a board of competent Railroad Commissioners, who would sit in just and intelligent judgment on all alleged grievances that might arise between the people and the railroads as common carriers, and to frame, in conference with the railway companies, a uniform and equitable tariff of freight rates; and did, on the 29th of March, 1883, pass a bill providing for the regulation of railroads, which received the approval of the Executive, and in pursuance of the requirements, three Commissioners-John H. Savage, of Warren county, J. A. Turley, of McMinn county, and George W. Gordon, of Shelby county-were appointed and duly qualified. On entering on the discharge of their duties, the authorities of certain railroads, conceiving that their rights. and interests were aggrieved through the provisions of the bill, caused legal proceedings to be instituted in the Federal Court, whereby to restrain the Commissioners from further alleged interference with them, until judgment of the court, on the same, should be given. Thus, that which is deemed an indefeasible right to control, within the limits of constitutional and just legislation, the railroads of the State, was put in peril by those whose very existence was originally made possible only through the creative will of those whose supervising authority over them is now challenged and denied.

The railroads have been and are valuable allies in developing the resources of Tennessee, and the people rightly esteem them fitted to become still more helpful factors in her future progress. Any breach of good faith and good will between them and the people is to be deprecated. While the railroads have done, and are doing, much for the State, the people of the State, in return, have likewise done and are doing much for them. According to Poor's Railroad Manual, the people of Tennessee paid the railroads in 1883, $9,517,406.00 for freight and passengers; of this sum $3,000,000.00 going as dividends to stockholders, mostly non-residents, which on the basis of assessed value of this species of property that year ($31,197,200.00) is about ten per cent. profit. Moreover, the people are paying $150,000.00-and when the bonds are all funded will pay nearly $100,000.00-annual interest on bonds issued for the benefit of the roads, and will have to pay at some future time the principal, amounting to some $13,000,000.

The Hon. John Baxter, in the decision rendered in these cases, recited wherein the Commission Bill is defective. Having been appealed, the matter in contest must await final action by the Federal Supreme Court. As the result of judicial proceedings the Commissioners have necessarily been restrained in their work, and their official influence and usefulness correspondingly impaired. It is therefore suggested that the Commission Bill of 1883 be not repealed, but

purged of its defects, if such there be, and that the system it instituted be recognized upon a constitutional basis, equitable in its provisions and fitted to promote the joint interests of the people and the railroads.

If the railroad companies in operating their roads are guilty of extortion and unjust discrimination in their charges for transportation, it ought to be corrected. If they are not guilty of it there will be nothing to correct. The people are entitled to nothing less, and the railroads can require nothing more. If, in your wisdom, this cannot be successfully done, then it is suggested that the existing enactment of 1883 remain in such shape as not to deprive the parties interested of the benefit of the opinion of the Federal Appellate Court. As to the questions involved, such enunciation from the highest judicial triCombunal might guide future legislation on this vexed question. merce within the State, and not inter-State commerce, is regarded as the legitimate range of the Commissioners, and within that sphere, may it not be hoped that such methods may be devised and put in practical and efficient operation as will, in the language of my inaugural address to the last General Assembly, do justice to both the people and the railroads. I then said to the Forty-third General Assembly, and here repeat it with emphasis, that

"While corporations (railroads) should have all just rights maintained, and proper encouragement to make their work useful and profitable, ye', as they grow mighty in their strength and strain for unjust power, as they are prone to do, they should be checked by lines of legal limit, and told The in unmistakable terms, Thus far shalt thou go and no farther' spirit of resentment or intolerance, however, should not stir the storm of passion, nor ride on the wave of prejudice, but give way to that calmer reason which respects the rights of all.”

I desire to call your attention to the reports of said Commissioners for the history of its operations. They are herewith transmitted.

PENITENTIARY.

According to provisions of Act of the General Assembly, passed March 28, 1883, providing for the lease and management of the State Penitentiary, and in due observance of the requirements of said act, the Secretary of State under the instructions of the Governor, advertised for sixty days in three newspapers, one published in each division of the State, and in one newspaper in each of the cities of New York, Louisville and New Orleans, that said penitentiary and property thereto belonging would, on the 6th day of July, 1883, at 12 o'clock of said day, at the capitol of Tennessee, be leased to the highest bidder for the term of six years, from the 1st of January, 1884. At the above named day and place, the Governor and Inspectors offered said property to lease at public outcry, and required bidders for the same to file with them satisfactory evidence that in case the property and labor should be struck off to them as bidders, that he or they would fully comply with and execute the boud required by said act; and as an additional security, likewise provided, such bidder was required and did deposit with me as Governor a certified check for $10,000, payable to my order on a solvent bank in this State, to be forfeited to the State in the event said bid was not complied with. Agreeably therewith said property and labor were leased for a term of six years, from the 1st of January, 1884, to the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company as lessees, for the sum of $101,000 per annum, payable quarterly into the State Treasury; said lessees filed with the Gov. ernor and Inspectors, an approved bond covering the sum of $101,

The

000, and conditioned for a strict performance of all the requirements of said act in regard to lease of said property and labor. lessees have promptly and fully complied with the terms and conditions of said lease, and by reference to the official reports of the Superintendent, Warden and Surgeon it will be seen that the interests of the State in said property and labor have been carefully subserved.

NUMBER OF PRISONERS AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION.

There were 1,324 names on the prison rolls Dec. 1, 1884, distributed as follows: Main Prison, 530; Tracy City, 487; Coal Creek, 159; Inman, 126; Spence's farm, 22.

By reason of insufficient accommodations at the main prison, it was a wise provision to limit the number of convicts to be confined there to 550. The buildings are covered by ample insurance in solvent companies, and all in reasonably good condition, considering their age and necessary usage. A fire occurred on Saturday night, January 12, 1884, in a building used jointly as a blacksmith and paint shop, which was damaged to the amount of $3,300, fully protected by insurance, and in ten days was rebuilt and in use.

A comfortable and well-constructed cell-building has been erected in addition for females, and also a laundry. In conjunction with the Prison Inspectors and Superintendent, steps have been taken to remedy defective ventilation of cells and corridors, and now these apartments have full supply of fresh air, which, according to the Surgeon's report, has contributed to add much to the general health of the inmates. Commodious buildings have been erected at all the prison branches.

CONDITION OF PRISONERS.

Dr. Roberts, Surgeon in charge of main prison, reports improvement in general health of prisoners. I am glad to state the rate of mortality has steadily decreased. The prisoners are well provided in clothing, food and medical attendance, and not overworked, but worked according to the requirements of law. The water supply has been greatly increased, to meet any daily demand or any extraordinary demand in the event of fire.

DISCIPLINE.

The harsh, punative methods originally in use have been abolished, and the punishment now inflicted upon the refractory is directed to their obedience and reformation and the less hardened, as far as possible, are kept from association with the more vicious. Tennessee was the pioneer in instituting the "Good Time Act," and other States having adopted it, have enlarged its beneficiary provisions.

THE LEASE.

The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company, the lessees, headquarters at Tracy City, control sixty per cent. of the entire prison force, and work them at the four branch prisons, and sub-lease the remainder to Cherry, Morrow & Co., for work in the main prison. From official records the following facts appear: From the date when the Penitentiary went into operation, January 1, 1831, to July 16, 1866, during which time the State itself conducted the institution, the expense attending the same was as follows: Amount of appropriation to support Penitentiary from January 1, 1831, to close of 1865, $136,407.67. Not including the period of civil war,