STATE OF VERMONT. To the General Assembly of the State of Vermont : SECTION 11 of Act No. 23 of the Laws of 1886, entitled "An Act to create a Board of Railroad Commissioners and to define and regulate its powers and duties," provides among other things that the Board shall make a biennial report to the Legislature, containing a record of all its proceedings under this Act; and shall include therein such statements, facts, and explanations as will disclose the actual working of the system of railroad transportation in its bearing upon the business and prosperity of the State; and such suggestions in respect thereto, or in respect to the condition, affairs, or conduct of any of said railroads; or in respect to the general railroad policy of the State, or the amendment of its laws, or any new legislation as may seem to the Board appropriate; and also statements showing the receipts and expenditures of each and every railroad in this State for the two preceding years, and from what source such receipts were derived, and for what such expenditures were made; also, the condition of such road and its equipment, and such other matters as the Commissioners may deem appropriate and important for the information of the Legislature. Pursuant to the requirements of this section, and in as complete compliance therewith as is found possible at this time, the Board respectfully submits its first biennial report. The Commission entered upon its duties Dec. 1, 1886, and at the time of placing this report in press, in sea son for use at this session of the General Assembly, but a year and eight months have elapsed; so that no complete comparative statement or tabulation of statistics for annual terms can now be presented. Indeed, so little time has elapsed since the Board set upon its duties, that it would determine cautiously upon conclusions and radical suggestions of innovations in railroad legislation and methods. The duties imposed under the Act are comprehensive and varied. With intelligent examination they grow in responsibility and importance. Every citizen in Vermont is concerned in the railway affairs of the State, directly or indirectly, and with a degree of intimacy that cannot be overestimated. It is almost wholly upon its system of carriage that the public rely to consign the surplus products of labor to market, and to bring home the products. of other communities in exchange therefor. There are few families whose surplus labor products are not sent abroad; and whose clothing, food, fuel, or other necessaries or luxuries do not come from outside their immediate neighborhood. Such exchange is now almost wholly made through railroad traffic. The navigation of the Connecticut, which once brought its freight of West-India goods or other staples of life up that valley for distribution, along the eastern half of the State; the turnpikes, over which the long trains of teams once hauled the commodities of the city, and returned freighted with the country product and manufacture; and the lake transportation of Champlain in this line of traffic, have all become practically superseded by the quicker, cheaper, and safer methods of exchange afforded by the railroad lines which form a net-work of access to almost every part of our State. The villager warms his house and mill and store from the coal fields of Pennsylvania, the railway system of the country making it possible for him to do so. The builder depends upon the same means for the delivery of his lumber and nails and brick and lime, the merchant for his goods, the farmer for his markets, and all for the facilities which have made of our country a great industrial and commercial people. The railroad has become a necessity to the convenience, the comfort, and the prosperity of the whole. The relations subsisting between them and the other principal industries of the State are absolutely interdependent. Without the continued operation of the former, the others must languish and die; without the prosperity of the latter, the former must soon cease to operate. The trunk and spur lines of our railways extend through, or up into, the valleys of our rivers and water-ways for nearly one thousand miles of track. This penetrates the most fertile lines of agriculture of our State, and opens up our best water-power facilities to the manufacturer, where factory villages rapidly develop, and return their products to market, contributing in turn business and prosperity to the railroad corporations. This close and mutual dependence subsisting between the railway interests and all the important industrial concerns of the State renders the duties of a commission, like this under which the Board is acting, delicate and important. Although equipped with only recommendatory powers in its general duties under the law, the Board has, nevertheless, endeavored to regard all complaints and questions which have been presented to it, with the same consideration that should attach to a hearing with powers to enforce a final judgment; and it has endeavored to avoid the mistakes which in some States have brought the Boards into disfavor, without substantial service to the interests of justice and fair dealing, but to the detriment of both. It seems almost amazing, in view of the close reciprocal interest of railroad and patron, that acts of injustice and oppression should ever have found place between them. While the rivalry between railroad companies may be |