Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/667

 TILLEY V. SAVA-NNAH, FLOKIDA & WESTERN E. CO. 656 �expenses; second, prior liens; third, interest and principal of the bonds ; and, fourth, the residue to the corporation ; but uhtil default the company was to manage the property in- stead of the trustees. And he claims that the reserved right of modification or repeal does not apply when such modifica- tion will iinpair a contract like this made by the state her- self. To this there are two answers. In the first place, the' state made nb contract -when the Atlantic t& Gulf Eailroad Company issued its bonds and executed its mof tgage to secure this. The bonds and mortgage were the contracts of the Company, and not of its stockholders. Secondly, the pur- ehasers of the bonds took them subject to the power bf the state to regulate the rates of freight and fares. The state hever, either by express or implied contract, agreed that this power should not be exercised. The purchasers of bonds took the risk of the validity of the company to do business enough' under the provisions and restrictions of its charter; and sub- ject to the right of the legislative revision topay the prinei-- pal and interest oii the bonds. �The eomplainani next insists that paragraph 1, § 2, art. 4, of the constitution of Georgia, requires the general assembly itself to regulate railroad freights and passenger tariffs, and prohibit unjust discriminations on the railroads of the state,- and prohibit them from charging other than jiist and reason- able rates, and that the delegation of this duty to these fail-i road commissioners is not warranted by the constitution. The argument is that the act of October 14, 18T9, delegates to the railroad commission legislative power which by the constitution is conferred exclusively upon the legislature. The paragraph of the constitution which authorizes and re- quires the action of the general assembly on this subject does not, in terms, require that body to presoribe the rates of freights and fares. It is required "to pass lawsto regulate freight and passenger tariffs." It has, in performance of this duty, declared that the rates charged by the railroad com- panies should' be just and reasonable, and appointed a com- mission to fix the maximum of ' just and reasoiiable rates, beyond which the railroad companiea shall not go. This ����