CORPORATIONS. 831

An. Code, sec. 438A. 1914, ch. 445, sec. 26 1/2.

380. The provisions of the next preceding section forbidding the con-
struction by any common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad
corporation, of a railroad or street railroad or any extension thereof, or the
exercise by any such common carrier, railroad corporation, or street rail-
road corporation of any franchise or right under any provision of the rail-
road law or of any other law not lawfully exercised before the passage of
this act, without the permission and approval of the Commission first
obtained, and empowering the Commission to grant such permission and
approval whenever it shall after due hearing determine that such con-
struction or. such exercise of the franchise or privilege is necessary or con-
venient for the public service, shall likewise apply to the abandonment or
discontinuance in whole or in part by any common carrier, railroad cor-
poration, or street railroad corporation of the exercise of any such franchise
or right, in so far as it is then actually being exercised for the public
service; but every common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad
corporation shall have the right to discontinue the operation of any portion
or all of any of its existing lines whenever any franchise under which any
line or any portion of same is operated, shall have been repealed by Act of
the Legislature or any municipal corporation or other governing body;
provided said common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad
corporation can show that they are not earning, at the time of such repeal,
their operating expenses and other fixed charges upon the whole of such
line, or upon such part thereof where any existing franchise shall have been
repealed.

The commission has power to authorize the abandonment of a railroad line when
continued operation must result in serious financial loss and ultimate receivership—
see notes to sec. 379. Benson v. Public Service Commission, 141 Md. 400.

An. Code, sec. 439. 1910, ch. 180, sec. 27 (p. 369). 1918, ch. 408, sec. 27.
1920, ch. 474, sec. 439.

381. A common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corpora-
tion, or other corporation subject to the provisions of this sub-title, organized
or existing, or hereafter incorporated, under or by virtue of the laws of the
State of Maryland, may issue stock, bonds, notes or other evidence of indebt-
edness, payable at periods of more that twelve months after the date thereof,
when necessary for the acquisition of property, the construction, completion,
extension or improvements of its facilities, or for the improvement or main-
tenance of its service, or the discharge or lawful refunding of its obligation,
or for the reimbursement of moneys actually expended from income, or from
any other moneys in the treasury of the corporation not secured by or ob-
tained from the issue of stocks, bonds, notes or other evidence of indebted-
ness of such corporation, within five years next prior to the filing of an ap-
plication with the Commission for the required authorization for any of the
aforesaid purposes, except maintenance of service and except replacements,
in cases where the applicant shall have kept its accounts and vouchers of
such expenditures in such manner as to enable the Commission to ascertain
the amount of moneys expended and the purposes for which such expendi-
ture was made, or when necessary or desirable, in the discretion of the