companies whose lines extend beyond the horders of the state, the laws bearing upon the subject are here inserted:

SEC. 4. The said Railroad Commissioners shall on or before the first Monday in December in each year make a report to the Governor of their doings for the preceding year, containing such facts, statements and explanations as will disclose the working of the system of railroad transportation in this state, and its relation to the general business and prosperity of the citizens of the state, and such suggestions and recommendations in respect thereto as may to them seem appropriate. Said report shall also contain as to every railroad corporation doing business in this state:

First-The amount of its capital stock.

Second-The amount of its preferred stock, if any, and the condition of its preferment.

Third-The amount of its funded debt and the rate of interest.

Fourth-The amount of its floating debt.

Fifth-The cost and actual present cash value of its road and equipment, including permanent way buildings and rolling stock, all real estate used exclusively in operating the road, and all fixtures and conveniencies for transacting its business.

Sixth-The estimated value of all other property owned by such corporation, with a schedule of the same, not including lands granted in aid of its construction.

Seventh-The number of acres originally granted in aid of construction of its road by the United States or by this state.

Eighth-Number of acres of such land remaining unsold.

Ninth-A list of its officers and directors, with their respective places of residence.

Tenth-Such statistics of the road, and of its transportacion business for the year, as may in the judgment of the Commissioners be necessary and proper for the information of the General Assembly, or as may be required by the Governor. Such report shall exhibit and refer to the condition of such corporation on the first day of July of each year, and the details of its transportation business transacted during the year ending June 30.

Eleventh-The average amount of tonnage than can be carried over each road in the state with an engine of given power.

SEC. 5. To enable said Commissioners to make such a report, the president or managing officer of each railroad corporation doing business in this state, shall annually make to the said Commissioners, on the fifteenth day of the month of September, such returns in the form in which they may prescribe, as will afford the information required for their said official report; such returns shall be verified by the oath of the officer making them; and any railroad corporation whose returns shall not be made as herein prescribed by the fifteenth day of September, shall be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every day after the sixteenth day of September, that such returns shall be wilfully delayed or refused.

The Twenty-second General Assembly took up the subjects of reports and without repealing, as the Board understand, any of the provisions of the sections above quoted, enacted the following:

Chap. 28, Sec. 22. The said board of railroad commissioners 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 to require from such carriers specific answers to all questions upon which the said commissisners may need information. Such annual reports shall show in detail the amount of the capital stock issued, the amounts paid therefor, and the manner of the payment of the same: the dividends paid, the surplus fund, if any, and the number of stockholders; the funded and floating debts and the interest paid thereon: the costs and the value of the carrier's property, franchises and equipment; the number of employes, and the salaries paid each class; the amounts expended for improvements each year, how and where expended and the character of such improvements; the earnings and receipts from each branch of business, and from all sources; the operating and other expenses; the balances of profit and loss; and a complete exhibit of the financial operations of the carrier each year, including an annual balance sheet. Such reports shall also contain such information in relation to rates and regulations, concerning fares or freights, or agreements, arrangements, or contracts with other common carriers as the commissioners may require; and the said board of commissioners may, within its discretion, for the purpose of enabling it the better to carry out the purpose of this act (if in the opinion of the commissioners it is practicable to prescribe such uniformity and methods of keeping accounts) prescribe a period of time within which all common carriers subject to the provisions of this act, shall have, as near as may be, a uniform system of accounts and the manner in which such accounts shall be kept.

Chapter 27 of the Acts of the 24th General Assembly amends the foregoing and would seem to furnish the authority needed :

REPORT TO RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS.

AN ACT to Amend Section No. 22, of Chapter No. 28, of the Acts of the Twenty-second General Assembly, relating to reports to be made to the board of railroad commissioners.

That Section No. twenty-two (22), of Chapter No. twenty-eight (23), of the acts of the Twentysecond General Assembly be amended by adding thereto, at the end thereof, the following words:

Such reports shall also contain such other statistics of the road and of its transportation business for the year ending upon the 30th day of June of each year as the commissioners shall require, and all such reports shall be made to said board of railroad commissioners, on or before the 15th day of September of each year.

The board of railroad commissioners is also hereby authorized to require of any and all common carriers, subject to the provisions of this chapter, such other reports, besides the annual reports hereby required, as in the judgment of such board of commissioners shall be deemed necessary and reasonable. Such reports shall be in such form, and concerning such subjects, and be from such sources as the commissioners shall require, except as otherwise provided herein.

The time when such reports shall be filed shall be fixed by the board of railroad commissioners. Any corporation, company, or individual owning or operating a railway within this state which shall fail, neglect or refuse to make any of the reports provided for herein by the date fixed herein, or that fixed by the board of railroad commissioners, shall be subject to, and pay a penalty in the sum of one hundred dollars for each and every day of delay in making such reports after the date fixed.

Under the authority conferred by the foregoing legislation the Commissioners have attempted to get information which to them seemed absolutely necessary in order to enable them to comply with the law and perform the duties imposed on them by the statutes of the state in relation to fixing a schedule of freight rates for the various railroads doing business therein.

It is still claimed on the part of many of the railroads that the rates heretofore fixed by the Board for local business are not remunerative, but the question comes with special significance, how is this to be determined if the railways persist in a refusal to answer, or, if what amounts to nearly the same thing, they claim that they are unable to answer many material questions bearing upon the question of the reasonableness of such rates.

To give an idea of of some of the embarassments with which the Commissioners are surrounded, some of the questions submitted by them, and the replies thereto on the part of some of the roads, which latter probably state quite fully the positions of those that are largely interested in their lines and character are here given. Some have answered the questions, but always with the saving clause that this is "proportioned to distance," or estimated."

Some of the replies are in answer to repeated requests for more full and specific answers than those furnished in the first report submitted to the Board.

Page 3, Question 11.-Amount of stock representing the road in Iowa.

Capital stock from its very nature is like a man's word, which when given binds him as a whole and holds every part of his body alike. It cannot be said one part of the man's word binds his head, another part his hand. Thus the capital stock of a railroad covers all the property and cannot be apportioned to different parts thereof or to different states. For this reason it seems to us to be mpossible to devise an answer to your question No. 11 on page 3.

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Page 7, Question 8.-Amount of debt representing the road in Iowa.

Some bonds cover specific pieces of road. Of these we can easily state how many are secured on the road in Iowa. The amount on June 30, 1893, was $14,960,550. There are other bonds which cannot be apportioned to any particular part of the property. It is as impracticable as in the case of capital stock.

Page 7, Question 11.-Amount of interest paid representing the road in Iowa.

The conditions which prevent ascertaining the "amount of debt representing the road in Iowa', (question 8 supra) prevent us answering this question in full. The interest paid on the class of bonds specifically covering the road in Iowa is $755,629.75. (See letter.)

As we have already advised you it is impossible to apportion to the road in Iowa any part of the entire capital stock of the company, because it is impossible to ascertain a correct basis for the apportionment. If a division of the stock must be made it must be an arbitrary one and there can be no assurance that the figures approximate the actual amount of stock "representing the road in Iowa". Your Commission has not furnished a basis for apportionment nor does the law intimate how the apportionment will be made. The Interstate Commerce Commission has adopted an arbitrary rule for apportioning and without asking the roads to follow this does itself make the apportionment for territorial statistics on the basis of mileage. This is misleading and the results arrived at are startling. If, however, the interstate rule be applied in answering your questions, number 11 on page 3, and number 8 on page 7, the answer to the former will be $10,601,403.83 and to the latter $17,149,278.98. DEAR SIR:-Yours of 10th inst requesting additional information is received.

Regarding amount or stock, amount of debt, interest on debt, cost of road and equipment and present cash value of road and other property representing road in Iowa.

For some years past these questions have been discussed with your Honorable Board and an attempt made on the part of this company to show the unreliability of any estimate which might be given. I know of no change in conditions which would enable me at this time to give the desired information.

Page 7, Questions 8 and 11.

We replied to question 8, that we knew of no basis of division between Iowa and Missouri which appeared equitable, for the reason that our bonds were a blanket issue to take up bonds and notes of consolidated companies. I do not see how we can change this answer. Bonds of the *

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* are secured by blanket mortgage covering all the property of the road. We have no basis for determining what proportion of the bonds cover the road in Iowa, and any division of the bonds as between the property in Iowa and the property in Missouri would be purely arbitrary. We have no class of bonds which represent nothing but the road in Iowa. The same thing is true of the floating debt, which represents the current operations of the railroad as a whole, and could only be arbitrarily divided between the property in the two states. We do not see how we can make any different answer to question 11. If the debt cannot be divided between the road in Iowa and the road in Missouri, certainly the interest paid upon the debt cannot be divided.

Page 11, Questions 5 and 6.

The actual present cash value of road and equipment, including permanent way, buildings and rolling stock, all real estate used exclusively in operating the road and all fixtures and conveniencies for transacting business.

Actual cash value of all property owned.

We are at loss how to answer these questions.

If the intrinsic value is wanted, i. e. a measure of the adaptability of the property to satisfy the wants of man, we must at once conclude that the sum is fabulous. Running, as the road does, through one of the fairest portions of the state; cities and towns have been built relying upon the road for accommodation; farms have been developed relying upon the road to transport the crops to market; live stock has been improved-the owners relying upon the road to carry the products, milk, butter and cheese to the market centers. If then your Commission wishes us to state the intrinsic value of the property to the owners of these farms and to the dwellers in these cities, we must write the word fabulous.

If it is the exchangeable value that is wanted, we know that the greatest figure that the property will bring is the one measured by its earning capacity. It is impossible to compute this on the road in Iowa alone; taken as a whole we find that for the year ending June 30, 1893, the road earned five and one-half per cent on its cost. As this per cent is below the rate required by investors in railroad stock, it is proper to conclude that the cost of the road more than represents the exchangeable value today and that the excess has gone to the benefit of the citizen and the farmer whose property has been enhanced in value by the building of the road.

If an attempt is made to apply the exchangeable value item by item we will find that such value can be put upon cars and engines, and even upon stations and rails, but the baliasted road bed (for example) which it has cost millions to bring to its present excellent condition, will have to be thrown in as of no value.

You ask for present cash value on page 11; we stated in our report very fully why it was impossible to give an answer to this question. You insist upon one. Supposing the net earnings of the company to be five per cent of the value of the property, and using a mileage basis for apportioning the value of the company's property, we arrive at the following figure as the value for Iowa$30,446,763.43.

Pages 28 and 29.--Surplus.

We have given a great deal of thought to the question. How can we give a detailed statement of our surplus? For our own information we would like to be able to answer it. There is hardly a part of the road which does not contain some of it.

Some forms of business are so simple that it is easy to point out just what constitutes the surplus. The store-keeper invests $1,000 in his stock and at the end of the year finds that after replenishing his stock and paying his current expenses he has $500 left; he buys a city lot with the money. Some one asks him what he has to show as surplus from his business. He points to the lot.

With a large industry, as a manufactory or a railroad, a surplus is not so readily shown. The undivided profits of one period are put with cash raised by sale of stock or bonds and the whole is used to build extensions, new shops, to buy new tools, to ballast road-bed, etc. The payment for these improvements comes out of the lump sum of cash. Perhaps a shop so built burns down. More bonds are sold, the insurance collected, and the cash all goes into one lump sum for the erection of shops more extensive than the old ones. So we see that the surplus flows as a stream of water, mingling with cash flowing in from all other sources, and loses its identity so completely that is impossible to say that so much of the surplus is in this building, so much in that tool, so much in that piece of track, etc. The surplus is the balance between the two sides of the account. (See letter.)

So.

You ask us to give the surplus asked for on page 28. It was an unintentional omission not to do The answer to question one (1), surplus at the commencement of the year, is $22,592,038.28. The answer to question 2, surplus at the close of the year, is $25,303,582.31.

Page 42, Question 11-Cost of carrying each passenger one mile.

Page 43, Question 11-Average cost per ton per mile for hauling freight.

The cost per passenger and per ton-mile can only be determined by assigning all operating expenses to either freight or passenger traffic. The impossibility of properly doing this is we believe, thoroughly appreciated by your Commission.

The Commissioners have always considered it quite important to obtain reliable statistics as to the freight traffic movement in the state of the different commodities that compose the principal part of that traffic, such as grain, flour and other mill products, live stock, dressed meat and other packing house products, coal, lumber, salt, stone and other like articles, butter, eggs, cheese, manufactures of various kinds, and merchandise generally. Also, as to the quantity and character of the freight originating on each particular road and that received from connecting roads and other carriers. For some years after this Board was organized information so called for was quite freely furnished but owing, as it is claimed, to necessary retrenchment as to expenses in the last few years, or other causes, the same has been withheld by some of the roads, or it has been impracticable for some of the roads to furnish the same, as shown by the following questions calling for the same and answers thereto.

Pages 44 and 45.

COMMODITY STATISTICS.

The great expense of keeping the commodity statistics compelled us to give them up some years ago and therefore we cannot give the figures called for on these pages. To do so would require the handling of and drawing figures from nearly three million way-bills each year. This will at once show that we would have to go to large expense to complete these commodity statements. Pages 44 and 45.

We regret that it is impossible for us to fill in these pages, but our records are not kept in such shape as to enable us to determine the amount of different classes of freight moved, or whether originating on this road or received from connecting roads.

Some questions and answers relating to some other subjects are as follows: Page 9, question 15.

We replied to this question that our records do not enable us to give the information requested. We shall have to still make this reply. In recent years our books have been kept so that the construction account can be divided between Iowa and Missouri. Previous to that time we are unable to determine how much was expended for construction of the road in Iowa and how much for the construction of the road in Missouri.

Page 10, question 9.

To this question we replied that we had never allotted any equipment especially to the state o Iowa, and consequently could not give an answer in figures. We must still repeat this reply. Our

equipment runs interchangeably over the whole road, and no proportion of it is definitely and specifically set aside for use in the state of Iowa; consequently we know of no equitable basis upon which to divide the cost of equipment between the two states.

Page 42, questions 6 and 7.

Under "

cars and weight of trains"--we are unable to give any figures in answer to these questions, for the reason that we do not keep any statistics from which we could obtain them.

Page 43, questions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Under "car mileage"-we are unable to subdivide our answers to these questions to show the number of miles run north and the number of miles run south, for the reason that we keep no statistics from which we can obtain such figures. "Mileage of loaded freight cars," for instance, is kept on our books as a single item and not divided into that made northbound and that made southbound." Page 46.

We were under the necessity of making statement on this page cover the whole road or leave the page blank. We keep no separate record of consumption of fuel by locomotives in Iowa and in Missouri, nor are our records in such shape that a division between the two states can readily be made. We regret exceedingly that we are unable to more fully answer the questions in this report, but have given the matter very careful attention, and have made our answers as full and complete as our records will permit.

The principal reason why many of these questions are unanswered definitely, is that owing to adverse legislation in many of the states, depressed business conditions, and generally unremunerative and unsatisfactory business, we have been obliged to cut off every avenue of expense where it could be done without actual damage to the property. As a result of this enforced economy we have cut our statistical work to the actual needs of the corporation showing briefly the results of operation.

The Interstate Commerce Commission deals with the railway systems of the entire country; the lowa Commission was directed by law to report on the working of the system of railroad transportation in the state and its relation to the general business and prosperity of the citizens of the state. To do this with any degree of certainty a report of a whole railway system has little in it that is of special value. There is scarcely anything in the condition or the expenses and management of a road in Wyoming and Colorado or Oklahoma and Indian Territory that bears upon the operation of roads in Iowa. In the former an average rate of five cents per ton per mile on all freight hauled might not be a burden upon the traffic or even full compensation for the service, while at the same time a cent per ton per mile might be more than the traffic could bear or more than the shipper could pay in Illinois or Iowa, and yet the statistical reports from which information is to be obtained that will furnish the means of reaching an intelligent conclusion as to the value of services rendered as made to the Board includes the operation of these states and territories, the railway companies having large mileage in them which they report with other states, and are inclined to insist upon as about all that is necessary.

It will readily be understood from what has been above set forth, that the information necessary for the Commissioners to make the reports called for by law, is still not easily obtainable. As to some portion of the same it is no doubt now absolutely impracticable for the railroad companies to furnish. As to other portions, it is simply a question as to the expediency of requiring the companies to be at the necessary expense to keep their books and accounts in such a way as to be able to furnish the same so far as relates to matters strictly within the lines of the state. It is not the wish of the Board to embarrass the companies or add unnecessarily to their expenses, but it is clear that either the law should be amended, and the Commissioners relieved of this special duty, or the company be, by law, required to keep their books and accounts in such manner that the information required may be furnished or obtained.