COMMON CARRIERS. 727

law or by order of the commission, conformably with the law, is unlaw-
ful and prohibited.

The public service commission herein created and established shall
have the general supervision of all common carriers, railroads, street
railroads, railroad corporations and street railroad corporations, trans-
porting passengers, freight or property from one point to another within
the State of Maryland, and shall have power to and shall examine the
same or cause the same to be examined and keep informed as to their
general condition, their capitalization, their franchises and the manner
in which their lines, owned, leased, controlled or operated and managed,
are conducted or operated within this State both with respect to the
adequacy, security and accommodation afforded by their service, and
also with respect to their compliance with all provisions of law and
orders of the commission.

The commissioner shall have power and authority to administer oaths
in all parts of the State to witnesses summoned to testify in any inquiry,
investigation, hearing or proceeding, and also to administer oaths in
all parts of the State whenever the exercise of such power is incidentally
necessary or proper to enable the commission or a commissioner to
perform a duty or to exercise a power committed to it by this sub-title.
The commission and each commissioner shall have power to examine
all books, contracts, records, documents and papers of any corporation,
company, association, person or partnership subject to its supervision,
in so far as they relate to the matters over which said commission hag
jurisdiction and control, and by subpoena duces tecum to compel produc-
tion thereof. In lieu of requiring production of originals by subpoena
duces tecum, the commission, or any commissioner, may require sworn
copies of any such books, records, contracts, documents and papers, or
parts thereof, to be filed with it.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 14 (p. 355).

426. A railroad corporation, upon the application of any shipper
tendering traffic for transportation, shall construct, maintain and oper-
ate upon reasonable terms a switch connection or connections with a
lateral line of railroad or private side-track owned, operated or con-
trolled by such shipper, and shall, upon the application of any shipper,
provide upon its own property a side-track and switch connection with
its line of railroad, whenever such side-track and switch connection is
reasonably practicable, can be put in with safety and the business
therefor is sufficient to justify the same.

If any railroad corporation shall fail to install or operate any such
switch connection with a lateral line or railroad, or any such side-
track and switch connection as aforesaid, after written application
therefor has been made to it, any corporation or person interested may
present the facts to the commission by written petition, and the com-
mission shall investigate the matter stated in such petition, and give
such hearings therein as it may deem necessary or proper. If the com-