SECTION 1. Corporations established by law for the construction and maintenance of railroads have the general powers given by law to other corporations, and those granted by their charters so far as they have not been subsequently changed by law.

SECT. 2. Such corporations are bound by all the laws of the State affecting the proprietors of railroads.

SECT. 3. Any railroad corporation may purchase, hold, and convey real estate lying near to or adjoining their road, not exceeding in value five per cent of its capital stock.

SECT. 4. No railroad corporation shall be exonerated from the payment of any bond or obligation issued by the directors in pursuance of authority given at any legal meeting, by reason of any

discount made to the purchaser thereof in accordance with the unanimous vote of the corporation.

SECT. 5. Every railroad corporation shall keep exact accounts of its receipts and expenditures; and in every year when its net receipts exceed the average of ten per cent on its expenditures from the commencement of its operations, the excess shall be paid into the treasury of the State, until otherwise directed by the Legislature.

SECT. 6. Every railroad corporation not having its treasurer resident in this State, and keeping his office therein, shall appoint an assistant treasurer, who shall reside in this State, and keep his office at the principal place of business of such corporation therein. All dividends due to stockholders resident in this State, of any railroad wholly or partially in this State, shall be payable at the office of the treasurer or assistant treasurer in this State, unless otherwise requested by them; and attachments of stock shall be made by leaving copies at the same office, and transfers shall be there filed; and such attachments and transfers shall have priority according to priority of filing in the office of either of said officers.

SECT. 7. The provisions of the preceding section shall not apply to any railroad corporation existing in any other State, but owning and operating a portion of its road in this State, unless that portion of its road in this State is represented by capital stock made and issued under the authority of this State.

SECT. 8. No railroad corporation shall increase the amount of its capital stock without the consent of the Legislature first had and obtained, and any officer thereof who shall aid and abet therein shall be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

SECT. 9. No certificate of shares in the capital stock of any railroad corporation shall be issued after the number of shares specifically limited in and by the charter of such railroad shall have been issued at the par value thereof limited in said charter, unless such issue beyond the number so limited shall have been authorized by enactment of the Legislature subsequent to the charter, and previous to such issue; and all provisions contained in railroad charters authorizing an increase of the capital stock of said railroads, respectively, beyond the number of shares specifically limited therein, shall be void and of no effect as to any increase of capital hereafter made. SECT. 10. If any president, treasurer, or other officer of a railroad corporation shall issue a certificate of any share or shares in the capital stock of said corporation contrary to the provisions of the preceding section of this act, he shall be imprisoned not exceed

ing one year and fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding three years; and any such certificate, so issued by the president, treasurer, or other officer of said corporation, shall be void.

SECT. 11. Two or more railroad corporations, chartered by the Legislature of this State, constituting the whole or part of different lines of route for public travel and transportation between any two cities or towns, or between any city and town, either within or without this State, forming rival and competing lines of route between such points, shall not be allowed to consolidate such roads or lines; and neither of said lines, or any road or roads composing the same, shall be run or operated by any such rival and competing line, or any road or roads, portion thereof, under any business contract, lease, or other arrangement, but each and every railroad corporation so situated shall be run, managed, and operated separately by its own officers and agents, and be dependent for its support on its own earnings from its local and through business in connection with other roads, and the facilities and accommodations it shall afford the public for travel and transportation under fair and open competition, unless such lease, contract, or arrangement be first authorized by the Legislature and approved by the Governor and Council.

SECT. 12. In all cases where any road, its directors, officers, or agents, shall hereafter enforce, or attempt to enforce, or exercise any authority over any other road, situated as is provided in the preceding section, or do any act in conflict with said section, such officers or agents shall severally be subject to a fine or liability not exceeding five hundred dollars for each offence, to be recovered by action of debt, or by information or indictment, for the use of the county within which said suit shall be instituted. And it shall be further lawful for any citizen to apply to the supreme court, or to any one or more of the justices thereof, not interested in said road or roads, whose duty it shall be to issue an injunction to restrain, under heavy liabilities and penalties, any board of directors, its officers or agents, or either of them, from attempting to interfere with or control in any way or manner the operation, management, or direction of such road or roads, or violate any of the provisions of said section; and said directors, officers, and agents shall be liable on such application to examination, under oath, touching any infringement of the provisions of said section, and be subject to all expense of every kind whatsoever necessarily incurred in enforcing the same.

SECT. 13. The two preceding sections shall apply solely to the operation and control of any roads by rival lines, or parts thereof, and not to contracts or leases for the running and operation of any

road constructed as an extension or continuation of a separate and independent line, or as parts and parcels of the same, or to any side branches tributary or secondary to such line, all which are specially exempted from the provisions of said section.

SECTION 1. The term proprietors of a railroad shall include the corporation to which any railroad was originally granted, or into whose hands it has subsequently passed, the assignees or trustees to whom any railroad has been mortgaged for the security of debts, and any company or persons to whom it may have been conveyed.

SECT. 2. No sale, lease, mortgage, or contract for the use of any railroad shall be valid unless it shall be in writing, filed in the office of the secretary of state, and authorized by the Legislature.

SECT. 3. The proprietors of every railroad shall in all things conform to the requirements of the laws, shall not discontinue their road, nor any part of it, shall keep it all in good repair, and discharge their duties in carrying passengers and freight agreeably to the proper object and purpose of such railroad.

SECT. 4. Such proprietors shall, in time of war, insurrection, or invasion, transport soldiers, munitions of war, and other property of the State over such roads, when required by its officers and agents, at such rates as the Governor and Council shall impose, if the parties do not agree.

SECT. 5. They shall transport soldiers, munitions of war, and other property of the United States, and the mails of the United States, when required by the proper officers and agents, at such rates as the Governor and Council shall impose, if the parties do not agree, and the United States shall submit the matter to their decision.

SECT. 6. All proprietors of railroads shall keep a full record of