court directed the sale of said bonds for the said judgment and cost. To prevent said sale with accumulated cost and issuance of execution, upon consultation with the Attorney-General of the State, Treasurer and Comptroller, it was thought best for the State that the Treasurer should pay the judgment and take up the 127 bonds. This was done, and said bonds are in the hands of the Treasurer, awaiting your action. It is hoped our course meets with your approval. I suggest the said 127 bonds for $1,000 each be cancelled and filed away as other cancelled bonds are.

RESOURCES OF THE STATE.

In the general recapitulation of taxable property in Tennessee the Comptroller's report shows the total value of taxable property in the State for 1883, not including railroad property, amounted to $222,637,873.00-a total net increase for the year of $708,060.00.

For 1884 the total value of taxable property in the State, not including railroad property, amounted to $226,844,184.00-a total net in. crease over the previous year of $4,206,311.00. This is largely attributable not only to the increased value of property, but also to the superior vigilance in assessing, which is to be commended. It, however, also indicates that Tennessee is on rising ground. The period of the highest valuation of property in the State was reached in 1873, when it amounted to $308,089,738.00. This was the year in which the great financial panic came. Property, everywhere, immediately began to dwindle, business in all branches was prostrated, and this down-grade journey continued without abatement until 1880, when the total taxable property of the State had dropped to only $211,768,438.00-a loss to the State in taxable values, as assessed between those periods, of $96,321,300.00, or nearly one-third. A slight advance in property values was made in 1881, but this was only temporary, for in 1882 the amount again lessened in assessed value. The two years just past, however, show another and seemingly healthier reaction. Values have improved and are again advancing. The total valuation for the year 1884 exceeds that of any other year since 1877. Not only does property, in general, indicate enhanced values, but a vast deal of capital is coming into the State seeking investment, New mines are being opened, new manufac tories are being erected, and much attention is being directed to hitherto unoccupied and neglected localities. Tennessee once more is on the line of progress. Brighter, happier, more prosperous days

are dawning on our State. And now, if freed from politcal turmoil and excitement for the next four years, if distracting sectional questions in national politics be relegated to the rear; with ineasures of the wisest economy alone engaging the attention of the people, the State of Tennessee cannot fail to go forward on the road that leads to increased wealth, prosperity and contentment, Happily situated in the very heart of the most promising sectionstretching her full length along the border of our Southland, the eye of industry has turned in this direction, and the natural and unavoidable highways of commerce must, to a great extent, traverse her territory. Thus, her geographical placement, her immeasureable resources and her favorable climatic considerations, if directed by prudent, yet liberal and enlightened, policy, will combine in attract, ing thrifty and industrious immigrants to a participation in her enrichment as well as continue the elevation of her own citizen

ship.

RAILROAD PROPERTY.

Compiled from the returns of the railroad assessors, the Comptroller presents a tabular statement showing the length of the several railroads in Tennessee; also the assessed value per mile; the aggregate assessed valuation of each road, and the aggregate value of all the railroads in the State. This statement shows that on September 19, 1883, the total miles of railroad in the State were 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.

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 was $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 clouls of depresion into the sunlight. The general tendency of this increase, I am happy to conclude, will in time act as a relief to the budea 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 pretences, favor friends and oppress opponents, and so adjust and graduate their rates according to the exigences 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,

after her long travail from social, political and financial trouble, is passing from under the cloals 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 budea 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