to and from school shall have free passage," be and the same is hereby further amended to read as follows, namely: When the said corporation shall have erected and completed a bridge over any creek or river, under the authority of this act, the property thereof shall be vested in the said corporation, and it shall have the power to erect gates and to demand and receive tolls for crossing said bridge, at such rate as the president and directors thereof shall, from time to time, determine, not exceeding the rates following, namely: For every score of sheep or swine, eight cents; for every score of horned or miley cattle, twenty-five cents; for every mule or horse, driven or led, five cents; for every horse or mule, ladened or unladened, with rider, five cents; for every two-wheeled vehicle and one horse, six cents; the same, with two horses, ten cents; for every four-wheeled vehicle, with one horse, ten cents; for every four-wheeled vehicle, with two horses, fifteen cents; for either of the last named vehicles, with four horses, twenty cents; for every foot passenger, two cents: Provided, That where any bridge, erected over any creek or river exceeding two thousand feet in width, under a special charter authorizing such rate of tolls as the managers or board of directors may, without restriction, from time to time, determine, shall have been or may hereafter be destroyed by fire, flood, or any other casualty, and shall not have been rebuilt under said charter for a period of five years, any corporation, created under existing laws for the purpose of erecting a bridge on or near the same site, may demand and receive tolls as may, from time to time, be fixed by the directors; such tolls, however, in any one year, not, however, to exceed six per centum upon the actual cost of said bridge; and if the sum total of such tolls in any one year be in excess of six per centum upon the actual cost of said bridge, then such excess is to be credited upon the succeeding year, and calculated in making up such six per centum; and the corporation is hereby required each year, at the end thereof, to publish in two county newspapers, pub lished in the counties adjoining such bridge, for three successive weeks, once each week, an annual statement of its receipts for toll; a schedule of such tolls to be put up and kept in some conspicuous place at the gate or gates of said bridge: And provided further, That any bridge not, wholly or in part, within the limits of any city of the first or second class within this Commonwealth, that shall hereafter be constructed or reconstructed, and the cost whereof shall be increased beyond the minimum by reason of the demands and requirements of navigation, the corporation owning the same may demand and receive tolls, not exceeding fifty per centum, in excess of the above rates, in any case where such increased rates do not produce a net revenue of six per centum per annum upon the capital stock of such corporation; but no such increased tolls shall be charged, in any case, until the same shall have been authorized by the court of quarter session of the proper county, or, if the bridge be located over a stream dividing the counties, then by the court of quarter session of the county wherein the office of the company may be situated; and in all cases said corporation shall cause to be put up and kept in some conspicuous place at the gate of said bridge, a list of the rates of said toll: And provided further, That all children going to and from school shall have free passage. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Executive Department, Harrisburg, April 7, 1905. To the Honorable, the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Gentlemen: I return herewith, without my approval, Senate bill No. 18, entitled "An act to amend an act, entitled 'An act to amend clause two of section thirty-one of an act, entitled 'An act to provide for the incorporation and regulation of certain corporations,' approved the twenty-ninth day of April, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four; providing for increased rates of toll upon bridges in certain cases,' approved the sixth day of May, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven; authorizing an increase of said tolls in certain other cases.' There are a number of fatal objections to this bill. Its purpose is to amend an act, and in the enacting part of the bill there is no description of the act which it is intended to amend. While purporting to be a general bill, it is plain that it is an instance of special legislation. The amendment applies only to a case where there is a bridge over a creek or river more than two thousand feet in width, where a charter had been granted by the Legislature to a bridge. company authorizing them to fix tolls as the board of directors may determine, where the bridge has been destroyed by some casualty, where for a period of five years the bridge had not been rebuilt, and where another company has obtained a charter for the erection of a bridge near the same site. It is extremely unlikely that this combination of circumstances could have occurred in more than one instance. The important part of the proposed amendment is a provision, "that where any bridge, erected over any creek or river exceeding two thousand feet in width, under a special charter authorizing such rate of tolls as the managers or board of directors may, without restriction, from time to time, determine, shall have been or may hereafter be destroyed by fire, flood, or any other casualty, and shall not have been rebuilt under said charter for a period of five years, any corporation, created under existing laws for the purpose of erecting a bridge on or near the same site, may demand and receive tolls as may, from time to time, be fixed by the directors; such tolls, however, in any one year, not, however, to exceed six per centum upon the actual cost of said bridge; and if the sum total of such tolls in any one year be in excess of six per centum upon the actual cost of said bridge, then such excess is to be credited upon the succeeding year." This language gives the second corporation the right to erect a bridge near the same site and take tolls. There is nothing in the title to the proposed act to call attention to this grant of power. Since a charter has been held to be a contract with the State, which the State cannot set aside, no such grant of power can be made unless in some way the preceding corporation has forfeited or surrendered its rights. The bill provides that the tolls shall not in any one year exceed six per centum upon the actual cost of the bridge. This language prohibits the directors from taking such tolls. The prohibition, however, is at once abrogated by the direction that such tolls may be taken, but the excess is to be cred ited to the succeeding year. The two provisions are incongruous. It is also plain that while there is an apparent effort to restrict the taking of tolls, in reality there is no restriction whatever. The excess over six per centum is to be credited to the succeeding year. When that year arrives, the excess is again to be credited to the next succeeding year, and so on ad infinitum. For these reasons the bill is not approved. SAML. W. PENNYPACKER. No. 27. AN ACT To prevent the interruption of the public schools by canvassing, soliciting, selling or offering for sale any article or articles whatsoever, or by seeking the enrollment or signatures of teachers. Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That on and after the passage of this act, it shall be unlawful for any person or persons to enter upon the public school grounds of any school district in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for the purpose of canvassing, soliciting, selling or offering for sale any article or articles whatsoever, or for the purpose of securing the signature or signatures of any teacher or teachers therein, for any purpose whatsoever, during school hours. Section 2. Any person violating the provisions of section one of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Executive Department, Harrisburg, April 7, 1905. To the Honorable, the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Gentlemen: I return herewith, without my approval, House bill No. 266, entitled "An act to prevent the interruption of the public schools by canvassing, soliciting, selling or offering for sale any article or articles whatsoever, or by seeking the enrollment or signature of teachers." This bill makes it a misdemeanor, punishable with a fine of from one hundred to five hundred dollars, for any person to enter upon the public school-grounds of any school-district in the Commonwealth, "for the purpose of securing the signature or signatures of any teacher or teachers therein, for any purpose whatsoever, during school hours." If then a school director should enter the school to ask a teacher to sign the discharge of a pupil, or if a parent should go there to get an excuse written for a necessary absence of a child, it would be punishable with a fine of five hundred dollars. The evil which the bill seeks to prevent is not one of very serious importance. For these reasons the bill is not approved. SAML. W. PENNYPACKER. No. 28. AN ACT Making an appropriation to Carroll R. Williams, J. H. Shoemaker, and A. Morton Cooper, of Philadelphia, for services as attorneys for the Dairy and Food Commissioner, and to A. K. Cassel, of said city, for services as special agent of the Dairy and Food Commissioner. Whereas, Eastburn Reeder was Dairy and Food Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from June, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, to June, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, and was empowered to employ agents and attorneys necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of his office, and, being without funds to defray his official expenses, the Dairymen's Protective Association raised a fund by contributions from its members, and issued to the contributors certificates of indebtedness, in amounts of fifty dollars each, payable out of an appropropriation thereafter to be made by the Legislature for their payment, and turned over the said fund to the said Commissioner, to be used by him in the performance of his official duties, and he expended the said fund for that purpose; and, subsequently, when the said Commissioner was again without funds, certain contributors to said fund assigned their said certificates to the said Commissioner, to be used by him in payment of his official attorneys and agents for their services; and the said Commissioner employed as his official attorneys Carroll R. Williams, J. H. Shoemaker and A. Morton Cooper, as his special official agent A. K. Cassel, and assigned to Carroll R. Williams ten of said certificates, to J. H. Shoemaker and A. Morton Cooper, jointly, five of the said certificates, in payment for services performed by them as such attor neys, and to A. K. Cassel eight of the said certificates, in payment for services performed by him as such agent; and the said Carroll R. Williams, J. H. Shoemaker, A. Morton Cooper and A. K. Cassel have not been paid for the services for which the said certificates were respectively assigned to them, except by the said certificates, and said certificates have not been paid nor has any appropriation been made for the payment thereof, and the full amount due thereon, namely eleven hundred and fifty dollars, is still due and payable with interest; therefore, Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That the sum of five hundred dollars be appropriated to Carrol R. Williams, of Philadelphia, in payment for services performed by him as official attorney for Eastburn Reeder, Dairy and Food Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from June, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, to June, eighteen hundred and ninety-five; that the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars be appropriated to J. H. Shoemaker and A. Morton Cooper, of said city, jointly, for services performed by them as official attorneys for the Dairy and Food Commissioner, and that the sum of four hundred dollars be appropriated to A. K. Cassel, for services performed by him as official special agent for the said Dairy and Food Commissioner. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Executive Department, Harrisburg, April 7, 1905. To the Honorable, the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Gentlemen: I return herewith, without my approval, House bill No. 348, entitled "An act making an appropriation to Carrol R. Williams, J. H. Shoemaker and A. Morton Cooper, of Philadelphia, for services as attorneys for the Dairy and Food Commissioner, and to A. K. Cassel, of said city, for services as special agent of the Dairy and Food Commissioner." This bill sets forth, in the preamble, a statement of facts the accuracy of which there is no means of ascertaining, and which, therefore, ought not to be made a part of a law. The claim for which recovery is sought is about twelve years old. It is alleged that the claimants rendered certain services to the Dairy and Food Commissioner, for which they received compensation in the shape of certain certificates issued by the Dairymen's Protective Association. It is further alleged that the certificates have not been paid, and that the claimants have not been paid for their services. The bill makes an appropriation, not for redeeming the certificates, but as a payment for the services. The nature and extent of the services alleged to have been rendered nowhere appears. If the claimants were to secure the moneys appropriated and still retain the certificates, they might, perchance, by a recovery on the certificates, receive double compensation. In a matter of this kind, the proper plan would be to authorize the claimants to bring suit against the Commonwealth to recover such sums as may be due to them. For these reasons the bill is not approved. SAML. W. PENNYPACKER. No. 29. AN ACT To amend section two of an act, entitled "An act to amend section two of an act, entitled 'An act to prevent fraud and deception in the manufacture and sale of cheese, and defining what shall constitute the various grades of cheese, providing rules and regulations for marking and branding the same, providing for the enforcement of this act, prescribing penalties for its violation,' approved the twenty-third day of June, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven," said amendment approved the second day of May, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and one. Section 1. Be it enacted, &c., That section two of an act, entitled "An act to amend section two of an act, entitled 'An act to prevent fraud and deception in the manufacture and sale of cheese, and defining what shall constitute the various grades of cheese, providing rules and regulations for marking and branding the same, providing for the enforcement of this act, prescribing penalties for its vic lation,' approved the twenty-third day of June, Anno Domini one |