USA > Oklahoma > A history of the state of Oklahoma, Volume I > Part 67
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have the right to construct and operate its line between any points in this state, and as such to connect at the state line with like lines; and every such company shall have the right with its own road or line, to intersect, connect with, or cross any railroad or such line.
SEC. 3. Every railroad, car, or express company, shall each, respectively, receive and transport with- out delay or discrimination each other's cars, loaded or empty, tonnage, and passengers, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by law or any commission created by the constitution or by act of the legislature, for that purpose.
SEC. 4. All oil pipe companies shall be subject to the reasonable control and regulation of the corporation commission, and shall receive and transport each other's tonnage or oils, or com- modities, under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by law, or such commission.
Szc. 5. All telephone and telegraph lines, oper- ated for hire, shall each, respectively, receive and transmit each other's messages without delay or discrimination, and make physical connections with each other's lines, under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by law, or by any commission created by this constitution, or any act of the legislature, for that purpose.
Szc. 6. Railroads heretofore constructed, or which may hereafter be constructed in this state, are hereby declared public highways. Every rail- road or other public service corporation organized or doing business in this state, under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and maintain a pub- lic office or place in this state, for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and where shall be kept, for inspection by the stockholders of such corporation, books, in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, the names of the owners of stock, the amounts owned by them, respectively; the amount of stock paid, and by whom; the transfer of said stock, with the date of transfer; the amount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and places of residence of its officers, and such other matters required by law or by order of the corporation commission. The directors of ev- ery railroad company, or other public service cor- poration shall hold at least one meeting annually in this state, public notice of which shall be given thirty days previously, and the president or super- intendent of every railroad company and other public service corporation organized or doing busi- ness in this state under the laws of this state or the authority thereof, shall report annually under oath, and make such other reports as may be re- quired by law or order of the corporation com- mission, to said commission, their acts and doings, which report shall include such matters relating to railroads and other public service corporations
as may be prescribed by law. The legislature shall pass all necessary laws enforcing, by suit- able penalties all the provisions of this section.
SEc. 7. The rolling stock and all other movable property belonging to any railroad, transportation, transmission, or other public service corporation in this state, shall be considered personal prop- erty, and its real . and personal property, or any part thereof, shall be liable to execu- tion and sale in the same manner as the prop- erty of individuals; and the legislature shall pass no laws exempting any such property from exe- cution and. sale.
SEC. 8. No public service corporation, or the lessees, purchasers, or managers thereof, shall con. solidate the stock, property, or franchise, of such corporation with, or lease or purchase the works or franchises of or in any way control, any other public service corporation owning or having under its control a parallel or competing line; except by enactment of the legislature upon the recom- mendation of the corporation commission: Pro- vided, however, That the legislature shall never enact any law permitting any public service cor- poration, the lessees, purchasers, or managers thereof when such public service corporation is organized under the laws of any other state, or of the United States, to consolidate the stock, property, or franchises, of such corporation with, or lease, or purchase, the works of, franchises of, or in any way control, any other public service corporation, organized under the laws of any other state, or of the United States, owning or having under its control in this state a parallel or competing line; nor shall any officer of such corporation act as an officer of any other corpora- tion owning or controlling a parallel or competing line.
SEC. 9. Neither shall any railroad company, transportation company, or transmission company, organized under the laws in this state, consolidate by private or judicial sale, or otherwise, with any railroad company, transportation company, or transmission company organized under the laws of any other state, or of the United States.
SEC. 10. No law shall be passed by the legis- lature granting the right to construct and operate a street railroad within any city, town, or village, or upon any public highway, without first acquir- ing the consent of the local authorities having control of the street or highway proposed to be occupied by such street railroad.
SEC. 11. No railroad, transportation, transmis- sion, or other public service corporation in exist- ence at the time of the adoption of this constitu- tion, shall have the benefit of any future legis- lation, except on condition of complete acceptance of all the provisions of the constitution, applicable to railroads, transportation companies, transmis-
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sion companies, and other public service corpora- tions: Provided, That nothing herein shall be con- strued as validating any charter which may be invalid, or waiving any of the conditions contained in any charter.
SEC. 12. No railroad company shall transport within this state, any article or commodity manu- factured, mined, or produced by it, or under its authority, or which it may own, in whole or in part, or in which it may have any interest, direct or indirect, except such articles or commodities as may be necessary and intended for its use in the conduct of its business as a common carrier.
SEC. 13. No railroad corporation or transporta- tion company, or transmission company shall, di- rectly or indirectly, issue or give any free frank or free ticket, free pass or other free transporta- tion, for any use, within this state, except to its employees and their families, its officers, agents, surgeons, physicians, and attorneys at law; to min- isters of religion, traveling secretaries for rail- road Young Men's Christian Associations, inmates of hospitals and charitable and eleemosynary in- stitutions and persons exclusively engaged in char- itable and eleemosynary work; to indigent, desti- tute, and homeless persons, and to such persons when transported by charitable societies or hos- pitals and the necessary agents employed in such transportations; to inmates of the National Homes, 'or State Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, and of Soldiers' and Sailors' Homes, including those about to enter and those returning home after discharge, and boards of managers of such Homes; to members of volunteer fire departments and their equipage, while traveling as such; to necessary care takers of live stock, poultry, and fruit; to employees of sleeping cars, of express cars, and to linemen of telegraph and telephone companies; to railway mail service employees, post- office inspectors, custom inspectors, and immigra- tion inspectors; to newsboys on trains, baggage agents, witnesses attending any legal investigation in which the railroad company or transportation company is interested, persons injured in wrecks, and physicians and nurses attending such persons: Provided, That this provision shall not be con- strued to prohibit the interchange of passes for the officers, agents, and employees of common car- riers and their families; nor to prohibit any com- mon carriers from carrying passengers free with the object of providing relief in cases of general epidemic, pestilence, or other calamitous visitation; nor to prevent them from transporting, free of charge to their places of employment persons en- tering their service, and the interchange of passes to that end; and any railroad, transportation, or transmission company or any person, other than the persons excepted in this provision, who grants or nses any such free frank, free ticket, free pass,
or free transportation within this state, shall be deemed guilty of a crime, and the legislature shall provide proper penalties for the violation of any provision of this section by the railroad or trans- portation or transmission company, or by any in- dividual: Provided, That nothing herein shall pre- vent the legislature from extending these provi- sions so as to exclude such free transportations or franks from other persons.
SEC. 14. No railroad hereafter constructed in this state shall pass within a distance of four miles of any county seat without passing through the same and establishing and maintaining a depot therein, unless prevented by natural obstacles such as streams, hills, or mountains: Provided, Such town, or its citizens, shall grant the right-of-way through its limits and sufficient ground for or- dinary depot purposes.
SEC. 15. A corporation commission is hereby created, to be composed of three persons, who shall be elected by the people at a general election for state officers, and their terms of office shall be six years: Provided, Corporation commission- ers first elected under this constitution shall hold office as follows: One shall serve until the seo- ond Monday in January, nineteen hundred and nine; one until the second Monday in January, nineteen hundred and eleven; and one until the seo- ond Monday in January, nineteen hundred and thirteen; their terms to be decided by lot imme- diately after they shall have qualified. In case of a vacancy in said office, the governor of the state shall fill such vacancy by appointment until the next general election, when a successor shall be elected to fill out any unexpired term.
SEC. 16. The qualifications of such commission- ers shall be as follows: To be resident citizens of this state for over two years next preceding the election, and qualified voters under the constitution and laws, and not less than thirty years of age; nor shall such commissioners, or either of them, be, directly or indirectly, interested in any rail- road, street railway, traction line, canal, steam boat, pipe line, car line, sleeping car line, car as- sociation, express line, telephone or telegraph line, operated for hire, in this state or out of it, or any stock, bond, mortgage, security, or earnings of any such railroad, street railway, traction line, canal, steam boat, pipe line, car line, sleeping car line, car association, express line, telephone or telegraph line, compress or elevator companies; and if such commissioner shall voluntarily become so interested, his office shall become vacant; and if any corporation commissioner shall become 80 interested otherwise than voluntarily, he shall, within a reasonable time, divest himself of such interest; and failing to do this, his office shall become vacant. Nor shall any such commissioner hold any other office under the government of
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the United States, or of this state, or any other state government, and shall not, while much com- missioner, engage in any occupation or business inconsistent with his duties as such commissioner.
Szo. 17. Before entering upon the duties of his office, each of said commissioners shall take and subscribe to the oath of office as prescribed in this constitution, and shall, in addition thereto, swear that he is not directly or indirectly, interested in any railroad, street railway, traction line, canal, steam boat, pipe line, car line, sleeping car line, car association, express line, telephone or tele- graph line, nor in the bonds, stocks, mortgages, securities, contract or earnings of any railroad, street railway, traction line, canal, steam boat, pipe line, car line, sleeping car line, car associa- tion, express line, telephone or telegraph line; and that he will, to the best of his ability, faithfully and, justly execute and enforce the provisions of this constitution, and all of the laws of this state concerning railroads, street railways, trao- tion lines, canals, steam boats, pipe lines, car lines, sleeping car lines, car associations, express lines, telephone and telegraph lines, compress and elevator companies, and all other corporations over which said commission has jurisdiction, which oath shall be filled with the secretary of state.
Szo. 18. The commission shall have the power and authority and be charged with the duty of su- pervising, regulating, and controlling all trans- portation and transmission companies doing busi- ness in this state, in all matters relating to the performance of their public duties and their charges therefor, and of correcting abuses and preventing unjust discrimination and extortion by such companies; and to that end the commission shall, from time to time, prescribe and enforce against such companies, in the manner hereinafter authorized, such rates, charges, classifications of traffic, and rules and regulations, and shall re- quire them to establish and maintain all such pub- lic service, facilities, and conveniences as may be reasonable and just, which said rates, charges, classifications, rules, regulations, and requirements, the commission may, from time to time, alter and amend. All rates, charges, classifications, rules and regulations adopted, or acted upon, by any such company, inconsistent with those prescribed by the commission, within the scope of its author- ity, shall be unlawful and void. The commission shall also have the right, at all times, to inspect the books and papers of all transportation and transmission companies doing business in this state, and to require from such companies, from time to time, special reports and statements, under oath, concerning their business; it shall keep itself fully informed of the physical condition of all the railroads of the state, as to the manner in
which they are operated, with reference to the security and accommodation of the public; and shall, from time to time, make and enforce such requirements, rules, and regulations as may be necessary to prevent unjust or unreasonable dis- crimination and extortion by any transportation or transmission company in favor of, or against any person, locality, community, connecting line, or kind of traffic, in the matter of car service, train or boat schedule, efficiency of transporta- tion, or transmission, or otherwise, in connection with the public duties of such company. Before the commission shall prescribe or fix any rate, charge, or classification of traffic, and before it shall make any order, rule, regulation, or require- ment directed against any one or more companies by name, the company or companies to be affected by such rate, charge, classification, order, rule, regulation, requirement, shall first be given, by the commission at least ten days' notice of the time and place, when and where the contemplated action in the premises will be considered and dis- posed of, and shall be afforded a reasonable op- portunity to introduce evidence and to be heard thereon, to the end that justice may be done, and shall have process to enforce the attendance of witnesses; and before said commission shall make or prescribe any general order, rule, regulation, or requirement, not directed against any specific company or companies by name, the contemplated general order, rule, regulation, or requirement shall first be published in substance, not less than once a week for four consecutive weeks, in one or more of the newspapers of general circulation published in the county in which the capital of the state may be located, together with the notice of the time and place when and where the commission will hear any objections which may be urged by any person interested, against the proposed order, rule, regulation, or requirement; and every such general order, rule, regulation, or requirement, made by the commission, shall be published at length, for the time and in the manner above spee- ifled, before it shall go into effect, and shall also, so long as it remains in force, be published in each subsequent annual report of the commis- sion. The authority of the commission (subject to review on appeal as hereinafter provided) to prescribe rates, charges, and classifications of traf- fic, for transportation and transmission companies, shall, subject to regulation by law, be paramount; but its authority to prescribe any other rules, regu- lations or requirements for corporations or other persons shall be subject to the superior authority of the legislature to legislate thereon by general laws: Provided, however, That nothing in this section shall impair the rights which have here- tofore been, or may hereafter be conferred by law upon the authorities of any city, town, or
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county to prescribe rules, regulations, or rates of charges to be observed by any public service cor- poration in connection with any services performed by it under a municipal or county franchise granted by such city, town, or county, so far as such services may be wholly within the limits of the city, town, or county granting the franchise. Upon the request of the parties interested, it shall be the duty of the commission, as far as possible, to effect, by mediation, the adjustment of claims and the settlement of controversies, between transportation or transmission companies and their patrons or employees.
SEC. 18a. The corporation commission shall or- ganize by electing one of its members chairman and appointing a secretary, whose salary shall be fixed by the legislature. A majority of said com- mission shall constitute a quorum, and the con- currence of the majority of said commission shall be necessary to decide any question.
SEC. 18b. As used in this article, the term "com- pany" shall include associations and joint stock companies having any power or privileges not possessed by individuals, and include all corpo- rations except municipal corporations and public institutions owned or controlled by the state.
Szc. 19. In all matters pertaining to the public visitation, regulation, or control of corporations, and within the jurisdiction of the commission, it shall have the powers and authority of a court of record, to administer oaths, to compel the at- tendance of witnesses, and the production of pa- pers, to punish for contempt any person guilty of disrespectful or disorderly conduct in the pres- ence of the commission while in session, and to enforce compliance with any of its lawful orders or requirements by adjudging, and by enforcing its own appropriate process, against the delinquent or offending party or company (after it shall have been first duly cited, proceeded against by due process of law before the commission sitting as a court, and afforded opportunity to introduce evidence and to be heard, as well against the validity, justness, or reasonableness of the order or requirement alleged to have been violated as against the liability of the company for the al- leged violation), such fines or other penalties as may be prescribed or authorized by this constitu- tion or by law. The commission may be vested with such additional powers, and charged with such other duties (not inconsistent with this con- stitution) as may be prescribed by law, in con- nection with the visitation, regulation, or control of corporations, or with the prescribing and en- forcing of rates and charges to be observed in the conduct of any business where the state has the right to prescribe the rates and charges in con- nection therewith, or with the assessment of the property of corporations, or the appraisement of
their franchises, for taxation, or with the investi- gation of the subject of taxation generally. Any corporation failing or refusing to obey any valid order or requirement of the commission, within reasonable time, not less than ten days, as shall be fixed in the order, may be fined by the com- mission (proceeding by due process of law as aforesaid) such sum, not exceeding five hundred dollars, as the commission may deem proper, or such sum, in excess of five hundred dollars, as may be prescribed or authorized by law; and each day's continuance of such failure or refusal, after due service upon such corporation of the order or requirement of the commission, shall be a separate offense: Provided, That should the operation of such order or requirement be suspended, pending any appeal therefrom, the period of such suspen- sion shall not be computed against the company in the matter of its liability to fines or penalties.
Szo. 20. From any action of the commission prescribing rates, charges, or classifications of traffic, or affecting the train schedule of any trans- portation company, or requiring additional facili- ties, conveniences, or public service of any trans- mission and transportation company or refusing to approve a suspending bond, or requiring addi- tional security thereon or an increase thereof, as hereinafter provided for, an appeal (subject to such reasonable limitations as to time, regulations as to procedure and provisions as to costs, as may be prescribed by law) may be taken by the cor- poration whose rates, charges or classification of traffic, schedule, facilities, conveniences, or service, are affected, or by any person deeming himself aggrieved by such action, or (if allowed by law) by the state. Until otherwise provided by law, such appeal shall be taken in the manner in which appeal may be taken to the supreme court from the district courts except that such an appeal shall be of right, and the supreme court may provide by rule for proceedings in the matter of appeals in any particular in which existing rules of law are inapplicable. If such appeal be taken by the corporation whose rates, charges or classifications of traffic, schedules, facilities, conveniences, or service are affected, the state shall be made the appellee; but, in the other cases mentioned the corporation so affected shall be made the appellee. The legislature may also by general laws provide for appeals from any other action of the com- mission, by the state, or by any person interested, irrespective of the amount involved. All appeals from the commission shall be to the Supreme Court only, and in all appeals to which the state is a party, it shall be represented by the attorney general or his legally appointed rep- resentative. No court of this state (except the Supreme Court, by way of appeals as herein au- thorized) shall have jurisdiction to review, reverse,
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correct, or annul any action of the commission with the scope of its authority, or to suspend or delay the execution or operation thereof, or to enjoin, restrain, or interfere with the commis- sion in the performance of its official duties: Pro- vided, however, That the writs of mandamus and prohibition shall lie from the Supreme Court to the commission in all cases where such writs, re spectively, would lie to any inferior court or officer.
SEC. 21. Upon the granting of an appeal, a writ of supersedeas may be awarded by the su preme court, suspending the operation of the ac- tion appealed from until the final disposition of the appeal; but, prior to the final reversal thereof by the supreme court, no action of the commis- sion prescribing or affecting the rates, charges, or classifications of traffic of any transportation or transmission company shall be delayed, or sus- pended, in its operation by reason of any appeal by such corporation, or by reason of any proceed- ing resulting from such appeal, until a suspending bond shall first have been executed and filed with, and approved by the commission (or approved on review, by the supreme court), payable to the state and sufficient in amount and security to in- sure the prompt refunding, by the appealing cor- poration to the parties entitled thereto, of all charges which such company may collect or receive pending the appeal in excess of those fixed or au- thorized, by the final decision of the court on appeal. The commission, upon the execution of such bond, shall forthwith require the appealing company, under penalty of the immediate enforce- ment (pending the appeal and notwithstanding any supersedeas), of the order or requirement ap pealed from to keep such accounts, and to make to the commission from time to time, such reports verified by oath, as may, in the judgment of the commission, suffice to show the amounts being charged or received by the company, pending the appeal, in excess of the charge allowed by the action of the commission appealed from, together with the names and addresses of the persons to whom such overcharges will be refundable in case the charges made by the company pending the ap- peal be not sustained on such appeal; and the commission shall also, from time to time, require such company, under like penalty, to give addi- tional security on, or to increase the said sus- pending bond, whenever, in the opinion of the commission, the same may be necessary to insure the prompt refunding of the overcharges afore- said. Upon the final decision of such appeal, all amounts which the appealing company may have collected, pending the appeal, in excess of that authorized by such final decision, shall be promptly refunded by the company to the parties entitled thereto, in such manner and through such methods
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