Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/479

 472 FEDERAL REPORTBB. �business of the country, which, to say the least, is already sufficiently formidable. �It is enough to say that railroads were not created to do an express business, and possess no legal rights to engage in it, cannot be required to undertake and perform it, and, I may add, ought not to be permitted to engage in those branches of the express business ultra vires their corporate powers. And as they are not legally bound to render express facilities to the country themselves, can they, by excluding the express- men, deprive the public altogether of these necessary facili- ties, or else exact such concessions as the petty resentments or the cupidity of their managers might prompt them to exact ? We think not. On the contrary, if the express business, as we have hereinbefore asserted, has become a convenience to the general public, we think it the duty of ail railroad com- panies, through their managers, and in the exercise of the trusta coiifiàed to them for the public good, to make proper provision for everybody wishing to carry express matter over their re- spective roads, as, in doing so, they would be accommodating the public and fulfiUing to that extent the objecta and pur- poses of their creation. �The express business, -which had its inception as herein previously stated, now extends ail over the states, is carried on by numerous organizations which meet the requirements of the several localities in which they do business, and occu- pies every railroad lins in the country available for the pur- pose. They have an invested capital of over $30,000,000, and the Adams and Southern Express Companies are in daily use and occupation of 21,216 miles of railroad ; employ 4,297 persons; make 911 daily trips over 64,560 miles, aggregating 19,884,420 miles travel annually, and in the transportation of their freight they pay the railroad companies over $2,000,- 000 per year. It is farther alleged, as showing the extent and magnitude of the express business, that these companies car- ried for the government $1,200,000,000 in 1878, and $601,- 000,000 in 1879, and for private parties in the last-named year the enormous sum of $1,080,000,000 ; and that the Adams Express Company alone receives and disburses an average in ����