REPORT. OFFICE OF THE RAILROAD COMMISSION, His Excellency, Henry D. McDaniel, Governor, Etc.: } SIR: We have the honor of presenting the following report of the work of the Railroad Commissioners, since the date of our last semi-annual report. We do not deem it necessary or proper to burden the text of the report with a minute and detailed statement of all the labors of the Board during the period mentioned. The office of the Commission has always been open to the railroad companies, and to the general public, and our records and correspondence show, in minute detail, all the work which our official duties have required us to perform. We attach hereto, in the form of an appendix, official copies of circulars issued to railroad companies since our last report. These orders are in themselves sufficiently explicit to show the objects which the Commissioners had in view in issuing them. The appendix also contains other matter, to which we respectfully invite your Excellency's attention. Much dissatisfaction has been expressed by the railroad companies of the State in reference to the powers conferred upon the Commissioners by the Act of 1879. An attempt will be made at the approaching session of the General Assembly, we learn, to have the law so amended as to make it more consistent with the views and wishes of the railway corporations. In view of this, we deem it not improper to give expression to our opinions upon this very important subject, through the medium of this report. The constitutionality of the law of 1879, under which the Railroad Commissioners were appointed, has been settled by the highest Judicial authority of the State. The Supreme Court of the State, in the case of the Georgia Railroad et al., vs. Smith et al., Commissioners, after referring to the provisions of the Constitution of 1877, which confers power and authority to regulate rates on the various railroads of the State, upon the General Assembly, and to the legislation intended to carry that provision into effect, used the following language: "Thus it appears that the Constitution provided that the Legislature should have power to regulate railroad freight and passenger tariffs, and to require reasonable and just rates for both; that it also made it the duty of the Legislature to pass laws necessary for its execution, and that in pursuance of that duty, the law complained of was passed." "It was not expected that the Legislature should do more than pass laws to accomplish the end in view. When this was done, its duty had been discharged." The Circuit Court of the United States used the following language in the Tilley case: "Under the Constitution of Georgia, power and authority is conferred upon the Legis |