SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1893. STATE OF IOWA. PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. DES MOINES: G. H. RAGSDALE, STATE PRINTER. 1893. RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. STATE OF IOWA, OFFICE OF THE BOARD OF RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS, TO HON. HORACE BOIES, Governor of Iowa: As required by law we submit the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners, which includes information tabulated from the returns made by the several railroad companies doing business in the State from June 30, 1892, to June 30, 1893. The report gives the capital stock and indebtedness, the general traffic earnings, operating expenses and condition of the railroad companies, and the investigations and decisions made by the Board in cases where complaints were heard and determined, investigations of serious accidents, statements regarding cases decided by the courts during the year and litigation pending in suits instituted by the Board to enforce its decisions and orders, a digest of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Iowa made since the last report, in which the relations of the citizen and the common carrier are involved, a digest of the decisions of the Inter. State Commerce Commission for the past year, a topical index of the decisions of the Railroad Commissioners of Iowa from the organization of the system to the present time, together with matters of interest on the subject of transportation in relation to the public. The Board organized January 9, 1893, elected John W. Luke, Chairman, and W. W. Ainsworth, Secretary. George W. Perkins qualified to fill the vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of service of Spencer Smith. The statistics made from the reports of railroads doing business in the State give the capital, indebtedness, earnings and expenditures of the entire lines, and are generally full reports of the systems. It has been very difficult for the Commissioners to obtain such information from the companies as will disclose the working of the system of railroad transportation in this State, and their report, while it attempts to give detailed statements of the operation of the roads as limited by State lines, is little more than an approximation made from estimates, without any reliable, accurate, or uniform system of arriving at results. However, the Commissioners have given all the information that they could obtain from the data furnished. The report will first take up the general condition of the railroads as an entirety and follow this, as far as practical, with the information furnished, giving the statistics of state business. |