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Proceedings of the Senate, 1876
Volume 414, Page 425   View pdf image (33K)
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1876.] OF THE SENATE. 425

equity and justice, only ask "out of the profits," what the
Company was obliged to take.

We have deemed it right to set forth this claim of the
Company to your Honorable Body, and leave you to d«al
with it as you judge to be meet and proper.

We now ask your Honorable Body to consider the question
of the continuance of the imposition of the "Capitation Tax"
on the Washington Branch. Twenty per cent, of the gross
earnings from passenger transportation on the Washington
Branch, and from the Relay House to Baltimore on passen-
gers between Baltimore and Washington, which would be
equivalent to forty per cent, of the net earnings from that
source, must now be paid to the State Treasury.

By the Act of 1831, chapter 330, Section 8, a supplement
to the first Act authorizing the construction of the Washing-
ton Branch, it is expressly provided, namely, "And if said
Company shall not complete the said road, w;th at least one
set of tracks, so as to be used and traveled on from the com-
mencement of it, as authorized by this Act, to the line of the
District of Columbia, within three years after the commence-
ment of the actual construction, the Legislature hereby re-
serve the right to incorporate another Company, or to
authorize any other persons, in their discretion, to lay out and
make a railway on and over any ground, and in any direc-
tion between the City of Baltimoie and the Distiict of Co-
lumbia, anything in this Act, or any Act to which it is a
supplement, to the contrary notwithstanding."

What may be the legal interpretation of that clause or its
legal effect, we do not assume to determine. But here aie
two most important facts, by the subsequent Act. viz :

That the Company must pay practically forty per cent, of
its net earnings from passenger traffic to the State, and the
express reservation of the right on the part of the State to
authorize another Company to build a road between the two
cities, only in case this Company should fail in the construc-
tion of the Branch within a definite period after its commence-
ment.

Is it not clear that there is at least an implied contract on
the part of the State, that this Company should have the ex-
clusive right of transportation between the two cities ? When
the State ceases to observe this contract, and charters a Com-
pany to build another practically parallel road, the active
competition of which largely diminishes those earnings,
should the State still demand one-fifth of the gross receipts
from passenger transportation—especially when such con-
tinued requirement produces results practically ruinous to
this important »work ? .Is .it equitable for the Slate to pro-


 

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Proceedings of the Senate, 1876
Volume 414, Page 425   View pdf image (33K)
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