Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/824

 808 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

public interests and close supervision of quasi-public enterprises. As a matter of fact, for more than half a century Massachusetts communities have held the power of life and death over street- railway corporations, at short notice. The franchises of any such company are nominally perpetual, but they are subject to revocation at will in and by the communities through which its lines pass, the only appeal being to the State Railroad Commis- sion. The commission may nullify the revocation, or sustain it if in its judgment the public interests so require, whatever the cause of complaint against the offending corporation.

In other words, a street-railway franchise in Massachusetts is what the investigating committee of 1897 termed a "tenure during good behavior;" the sole exception to this indefinite-term principle being in the case of the Boston Elevated Railway. In view of the extraordinary investment required for permanent plant, the Boston corporation holds perpetual franchises for the right of way of its elevated structures, subject only to revoca- tion of its charter; and, by virtue of taking over the West End Street Railway, the Elevated Co. operates under a twenty-year lease of the subway, originally granted to the former corporation. The surface-line franchises, however, are revocable by the munici- pal authorities.

The State Railroad Commission is not only the final arbiter of life and death for street-railway companies, but it determines in the first instance, by careful inspection of the proposed routes, plans, etc., whether the capital stock to be issued corresponds with a fair estimate of the actual expense of construction to be incurred ; and no corporation may issue stock in excess of that decision. All increases of stock must be authorized, and the price per share at which it may be sold to those already owning stock must be fixed, by the commission. The price so fixed must represent as nearly as possible the market value of the stock at the time. No certificate of original stock may be issued until the par value thereof has been paid in, in cash ; and no stock or scrip dividends may be declared, or proceeds from the sale of stock divided among the stockholders; these restrictions apply to all public-service corporations. Bonds may not be issued by street-