Page:St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Berry (41 Ark. 509).pdf/7

41 Ark.] are hereby extended to and shall form a part of this incorporation, as fully as if the same was inserted herein."

Sec. 25 of the charter of the "Mississippi Valley Railroad Company" reads as follows: "The capital stock of said company, with all its immunities and franchises herein specified, and all machines, cars, engines, or carriages belonging to said company, together with all their works and property, and all profits which shall arise from the same, shall be vested in the respective stockholders of the company forever, in proportion to their respective shares. And the capital stock of said company and the dividends shall be exempted from taxation until a dividend of six per cent. is realized upon the capital stock, and the road, with all its fixtures and appurtenances, including workshops, ware houses and vehicles of transportation, shall be exempted from taxation for the period of twenty-five years from the completion of the road, and no tax shall ever be levied on said road or its fixtures, which will reduce the dividends below ten per cent. per annum. Said stockholders shall not be bound or liable for any greater amount than the respective shares or stock which they or either of them own."

The complaint states that plaintiff's road was completed on the fifth day of December, 1873. Also, that under the "tenth section of its charter it consolidated with the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad Company, a corporation organized and created under the laws of Missouri, whose road connected with the said Cairo and Fulton Railroad at the line between said States, and assumed the corporate name of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Company, and on the second day of June, 1874, filed articles of consolidation in the office of the secretary of state, and that its road had never paid an interest of ten per cent. per annum, and had never made nor declared any dividend on its capital stock. Nevertheless, the legislature of this State had, by a statute approved March 31, 1883,