ber of its trains, or of its motive power, or to change the time for starting its trains or cars, or to change the time schedule for the run of any train or car, or make any other suitable order that the commission may determine reasonably necessary to accommodate and transport the traffic, passenger or freight transported or offered for transportation.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 25.

437. The commission may, whenever it deems advisable, establish, upon due and reasonable notice to all such corpora tions, system of accounts to be used by railroad and street railroad corporations, or other common carriers which are subject to its supervision, or may classify the said corporations and other carriers and prescribe a system of accounts for each class, and may prescribe the manner in which such accounts shall be kept. It may also, in its discretion, prescribe the form of accounts, records and memoranda to be kept by common carriers, including the accounts, records and memoranda of the movement of traffic, as well as the receipts and expenditures of moneys. The system of accounts established by the commission and the form of accounts, records and memoranda prescribed by it as provided shall conform, as nearly as possible, to those from time to time established and prescribed by the Interstate Commerce Commission under the provisions of the Act of Congress entitled "An Act to Regulate Commerce," approved February fourth, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, as amended by the Act approved June twentyninth, one thousand nine hundred and six, and amendments thereto. The commission shall at all times have access to all accounts, records and memoranda kept by common carriers and other corporations subject to the provisions of this subtitle, and many prescribe the accounts in which particular outlays and receipts shall be entered, and may designate any of its officers or employees, who shall thereupon have authority under the order of the commission to inspect and examine any and all accounts, records and memoranda kept by such corporations. When the commission has prescribed the forms of ac counts, records and memoranda to be kept by such corporations, it shall be unlawful for them to keep any other accounts, rec

ords or memoranda than those so prescribed, or those prescribed under the authority of the United States. Any employee or agent of the commission who divulges any fact or information which may come to his knowledge during the course of any such inspection or examination except in so far as he may be directed by the commission, or by a court or judge thereof, or authorized by law, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 26.

438. No common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation, shall begin the construction of a railroad or street railroad, or any extension thereof, or exercise any franchise or right under any provision of the railroad law, or of any other law not heretofore lawfully exercised, without first having obtained the permission and approval of the commission. The commission shall have power to grant the permission and approval herein specified whenever it shall, after due hearing, determine that such construction or such exercise of the franchise or privilege is necessary or convenient for the public service.

No franchise, nor any right to or under any franchise to own or operate a railroad or street railroad, shall be assigned, tansferred or leased, nor shall any contract or agreement with reference to or affecting any such franchise or right be valid or of any force or effect whatsoever, unless the assignment, transfer, lease, contract or agreement shall have been approved by the commission. The permission and approval of the commission to the exercise of a franchise under this section, or to the assignment, transfer or lease of a franchise under this section, shall not be construed to revive or validate any lapsed or invalid franchise, or to enlarge or add to the powers and privileges contained in the grant of any franchise or to waive any forfeiture.

No railroad or street railroad corporation, domestic or foreign, shall hereafter purchase or acquire, take or hold, any part of the capital stock of any railroad corporation or street railroad corporation, or other common carrier organized or existing under or by virtue of the laws of this State, unless authorized so to do by the commission, and save where stock shall

be transferred or held for the purpose of collateral security only with the consent of the commission, no stock corporation of any description, domestic or foreign, other than a railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation, shall purchase or acquire, take or hold, more than ten per centum of the total capital stock issued by any railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation, or other common carrier organized or existing under or by virtue of the laws of this State. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the holding of stock heretofore lawfully acquired. Every contract, assignment, transfer or agreement for transfer of any stock by or through any person or corporation to any corporation, in violation of any provision of this sub-title, shall be void and of no effect, and no such transfer or assignment shall be made upon the books of any such railroad corporation or street railroad corporation, or shall be recognized as effective for any purpose.*

1914, ch. 445, sec. 262.

438A. The provisions of the next preceding section forbidding the construction by any common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation, of a railroad or street railroad or any extension thereof, or the exercise by any such common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation of any franchise or right under any provision of the railroad law or of any other law not lawfully exercised before the passage of this Act, without the permission and approval of the Commission first obtained, and empowering the commission to grant such permission and approval whenever it shall after due hearing determine that such construction or such exercise of the franchise or privilege is necessary or convenient for the public service, shall likewise apply to the abandonment or discontinu

* Under this section the Public Service Commission has the power, subject to the review of the proper courts, to determine whether a railroad shall cross a public highway at grade or not. Hyattsville vs. W. W. & G. R. R. Co., 122 Md. 660. In the Northern Central cases, 126 Md. 16, 25, the Court re-states the proposition that, under the Public Service Commission law, it is necessary to se cure the approval of the Commission to the settlement, terms and conditions of the Northern Central laws by the Pennsylvania Railroad. In City & Suburban Ry. Co. vs. Washington Elec. R. R., 122, Md. 655, the Court held that the Public Service Commission Act did not take away the right of a railway to condemn such property or rights of way as are necessary for their construction.

ance in whole or in part by any common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation of the exercise of any such franchise or right, in so far as it is then actually being exercised for the public service; but every common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation shall have the right to discontinue the operation of any portion or all of any of its existing lines whenever any franchise under which any line or any portion of same is operated, shall have been repealed by Act of the Legislature or any municipal corporation. or other governing body; provided said common carrier, railroad corporation, or street railroad corporation can show that they are not earning, at the time of such repeal, their operating expenses and other fixed charges upon the whole of such line, or upon such part thereof where any existing franchise shall have been repealed.

1910, ch. 180, sec. 27.

439. A common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation, or other corporation subject to the provisions of this sub-title, organized or existing, or hereafter incorporated, under or by virtue of the laws of the State of Maryland, may issue stocks, bonds, notes or other evidence of indebtedness, payable at periods of more than twelve months after the date thereof, when necessary for the acquisition of property, the construction, completion, extension or improvement of its facilities, or for the improvement or maintenance, extension or improvement of its facilities, or for the improvement or maintenance of its service, or the discharge or lawful refunding of its obligations; provided, and not otherwise, that there shall have been secured from the commission an order authorizing such issue, and the amount thereof, and stating that, in the opinion of the commission, the use of the capital to be secured by the issue of such stocks, bonds or other evidence of indebtedness is reasonably required for the said purpose of the common carrier, railroad corporation, street railroad corporation, or such corporations, but this provision shall not apply to any lawful issue of stock, to the lawful execution and delivery of any mortgage, or to the lawful issue of bonds thereunder, before the time when this sub-title becomes a law.

For the purpose of enabling it to determine whether it should issue such an order the commission shall make such inquiry or investigation, hold such hearings, and examine such witnesses, books, papers, documents or contracts as it may deem of importance in enabling it to reach a determination. Such common carrier may issue notes for proper corporate purposes, and not in violation of any provision of this sub-title or any other act, payable at periods of not more than twelve months, without such consent, but no such notes shall in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, be refunded by any issue of stock or bonds, or by any evidence of indebtedness running for more than twelve months, without the consent of the commission; provided, however, that the commission shall have no power to authorize the capitalization of any franchise to be a corporation or to authorize the capitalization of any franchise or right to own, operate or enjoy any franchise whatsoever in excess of the amount (exclusive of any tax or annual charge) actually paid to the State or to a political subdivision thereof as a consideration for the grant of such franchise or right; nor shall the capital stock of corporation, formed by the merger or consolidation of two or more other corporations, exceed the sum of the capital stock of the corporations so consolidated, at the par value thereof, or such sum and any additional sum actually paid in cash; nor shall any contract for consolidation or lease be capitalized in the stock of any corporation whatever; nor shall any corporation hereafter issue any bonds, against or as lien upon any contract for consolidation or merger.*

1914, ch. 445, sec. 27.

439A. Subject in every respect to the authority and supervision conferred upon the commission by the next preceding section, a common carrier, a railroad corporation, street railroad corporation, or other corporation subject to the provisions of this Act, organized or existing or hereafter incorporated under or by virtue of the laws of the State of Maryland, may issue stocks, bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness, payable at periods of more than twelve months after the date thereof, when necessary for the capitalization of its earnings

Laird vs. B. & O. R. R., 121 Md. 179, 185.