Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 9.djvu/352

324 324 HARVARD LAW REVIEW, FEDERAL RESTRAINTS UPON STATE REGU- LATION OF RAILROAD RATES OF FARE AND FREIGHT. Introduction. "IVrOTHING in the industrial history of the United States ■*■ ^ within the present century, phenomenal in many respects as that history has been, surpasses in extent or rapidity the growth of the railroads. When the Constitution of 1789 was adopted, there was no such thing known in the country as a railroad cor- poration ; and, indeed, four decades more were yet to pass before the invention of the steam locomotive. In 1830 there were in the United States 23 miles of track; in 1840,2,818; in 1850,9,021; in i860, 30,626; in 1870, 52,922; in 1880, 93,296; in 1890, 166,690; while in 1894 there were 179,279. In this last year, the number of locomotives employed was 36,293 ; the number of pas- senger cars, 27,909; the number of baggage, mail, and express cars, 7,937; and the number of freight cars, 1,191,884; making in all (locomotives and cars included) 1,264,023 pieces of rolling stock. The capital represented by this vast investment amounted to $11,124,930,551, or the sum, on the average, of $62,053 per mile, made up as follows: share capital, $5,075,629,070; bonded debt, $5,665,734,249; and other unfunded debt, $383,567,232. Litigation over matters relating to railroads, therefore, has not only naturally involved immense sums of money, and the interests of many thousands of investors, but also given rise, oftentimes, to most important questions of constitutional law. Among such questions are those of Federal and State legislative control, and the exact extent of each, and the vested rights of corporations. Many efforts, at different times, have been made by the several States to subject the railroads within their borders to a strict governmental su- pervision, and to regulate the rates of fare and freight to be charged thereon, while at times the legislation has proceeded so far, that, if constitutional, it would have absolutely wrecked the railroads which it affected. It has been therefore necessary, both for the