[ No. 10. ] WHEREAS, The Hon. Edwin B. Winans, Governor of the State of Michigan, did, on the twenty-seventh day of May last, transmit to the Legislature, with a request for favorable consideration, the following communication from Charles R. Whitman, Commissioner of Railroads of this State: STATE OF MICHIGAN, OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF RAILROADS. Hon. Edwin B. Winans, Governor of the State of Michigan: } SIR-From the last published statistics of railways in the United States for the year ending June 30, 1889, it appears that 300 employés were killed and 6,557 injured in that year in coupling and uncoupling cars, being fifty-six per cent of all accidents happening to trainmen. I believe that nearly all these accidents would have been avoided by the adoption and use of uniform automatic couplers for freight cars. In the same year 551 employés were killed, and 2,307 injured by overhead obstructions, or by falling from trains and engines, being 23 per cent of all accidents happening to trainmen. A large proportion of these accidents would have been avoided by the adoption and use of the train brake on freight trains. At the national convention of railroad commissioners, held at Washington on the third and fourth of March last, a committee was appointed to urge upon Congress as soon as possible, after the opening of its next regular session, the imperative need for action by that body calculated to hasten and insure the equipment of freight cars throughout the country with uniform automatic couplers, and with train brakes, and the equipment of locomotives with driving-wheel brakes, and to present and urge the passage of a bill therefor. The committee was requested, before presenting the bill to the appropriate congressional committee, after published notice, to give a hearing to accredited representatives of such organizations of railroad officials or employés as might desire to be heard. In Michigan the importance of this subject, as to couplers, has been recognized by the passage of act number 147, laws of 1885, which provides for the introduction and use on all cars owned and operated by any railroad company, or other corporation doing business in this State, of some form of automatic car coupling, by means of which all cars may be coupled or uncoupled without the necessity of the brakeman, or any other person, passing between the cars. And it is further provided that no freight cars shall be run upon any of the railroads within this State, after the first of January, 1891, unless furnished with safety couplers, as provided by this act. Experience has demonstrated the utter inefficiency of state legislation to afford adequate protection to trainmen in the performance of their arduous duties. The trainman must work in blinding storms and in darkness. Frequently he cannot know with what sort of coupler the car is equipped, nor the height and position of the coupler. There may be dead-woods extending both above and below the drawheads. A foot slips; he miscalculates, or does not miscalculate, he is gone; or is a cripple for life. Cars are constructed of different heights; and this evil is increasing. The trainman must run over the unequal tops of these cars to set a brake in the darkness, with some bridge ahead, against which he may be dashed; his only protection some ropes dangling from a cross-bar over the track to notify him of the coming danger; and he may have mounted upon the car between the ropes and the bridge. State legislation is clearly inadequate. The railroads in Michigan must transport cars coming from other states and from other roads. To restrict this would be to paralyze commerce. The railroad companies are powerless to better the situation. It is not so important that a particular type of coupler shall be used, as it is that it shall be a uniform type which may be found upon every car, to whatever road it belongs, and from whatever State it may come. We may compel the railroad companies doing business in this State to use some approved safety coupler; we may enforce the employment upon their cars of a power brake; but we cannot control the construction and equipment of cars by companies without the State-cars which are necessarily handled by trainmen in Michigan. Statistics, under equal conditions, repeat themselves. There are lives to be lost; accidents to happen, till the evil shall be corrected an evil which can only be reached by a power which can insure uniformity, from one end of the land to the other, in coupling devices, and in train brakes for freight trains. I would most earnestly recommend the adoption of a concurrent resolution by the honorable Senate and House of Representatives of this State, urging upon Congress the grave importance of national legislation in the premises. Very respectfully yours, CHAS. R. WHITMAN, Therefore be it resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Congress of the United States is hereby earnestly requested to enact such legislation as may be necessary to insure the adoption on all railroads in the United States of automatic couplers and train brakes, or such other legislation as may be necessary to insure the making up and running of trains without compelling railroad employés to enter between or on the tops of cars while the same are in motion; Resolved further, That the clerks of the two branches of the Legislature forward certified copies of this resolution to all of our Representatives and Senators in Congress. Approved June 19, 1891. [ No. 11. ] WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States by act of September twenty-eight, one thousand eight hundred fifty, granted to the State of Michigan, among other lands, the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section twenty, township seven north, range one west, the same being shown to be swamp land and certified as such by the Surveyor General under date of March twenty-nine, one thousand eight hundred fifty-two, but not approved and patented to the State until one thousand eight hundred ninety-one; and WHEREAS, No disposition ever has been made of said tract by the State of Michigan, or could be made until the receipt of patent therefor from the United States; and WHEREAS, It appears from satisfactory evidence on file in the State Land Office that William Hecht, on the fourteenth day of February, one thousand eight hundred sixty-two, located said tract of land, under a military bounty warrant, at the United States Land Office, and received therefor a certificate of such location; that said Hecht conveyed said described land to Perry St. Clair, by deed dated December twenty-five, one thousand eight hundred sixty-five, and that said St. Clair remained in the quiet possession of said tract and believed that his title was secure until the twenty-fourth day of December, one thousand eight hundred eighty-four, when application was made to the general government for patent, under the terms of the certificate issued to his grantor, Hecht; that upon this application he was notified by the commissioner of the general land office that the tract in question had inured to the State of Michigan, under the swamp land grant, and that the location made by said Hecht was erroneous and thereupon the same was canceled; and WHEREAS, The said Perry St. Clair has made valuable improvements upon the said tract of land, and has paid taxes and assessments against it for the past twenty-five years, including about five hundred dollars assessed for the purpose of drainage and reclamation; therefore Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Governor be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered upon certificate of the Commissioner of the State Land Office in the usual form, including the payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre therefor, to issue patent to the said Perry St. Clair for the said northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section twenty, township seven north, range one west. This resolution is ordered to take immediate effect. [ No. 12. ] Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives be and they are hereby directed to compile and prepare for publication, make indexes and superintend the publication of the journals and documents of the present Legislature, and when completed and certified to by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Senate shall be entitled to receive the sum of five hundred dollars, and the Clerk of the House of Representatives shall be entitled to and receive the sum of six hundred dollars, the same to be paid on the certificate of the Secretary of State. Approved June 29, 1891. [ No. 13. ] Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That in the volume of the public acts of eighteen hundred ninetyone an explanatory note be attached to the act* which was passed by the Legislature as House file number four hundred twenty-eight stating that said bill was accidentally imperfect when presented to the Governor for his signature, and that the second act with the same title is the act legally enacted. Approved June 30, 1891. [ No. 14. ] Resolved by the House (the Senate concurring), That the board of State auditors are hereby authorized to audit and allow such claims for stenographic and clerical assistance as may be certified by the justices of the Supreme Court as having been rendered to said justices during the present year prior to the taking effect of the act authorizing the employment of such assistance and appropriating moneys for the payment therefor. Such sums so audited and allowed to be charged against said fund so appropriated for the year eighteen hundred ninety-one. Approved July 3, 1891. NOTE-The words and sentences inclosed in brackets in the foregoing acts and resolutions were in the bills and resolutions as passed by the Legislature, but not in the enrolled copy as approved by the Governor. It should, however, be borne in mind that under a decision of the Supreme Court, 57 Mich., 128, "Bracketed words, which were not in the law as approved by the Governor, have no proper place in the statute." *See Act No. 152, p. 193. AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. Amendment to the constitution proposed by the Legislature of eighteen hundred and ninety-one, and ratified and approved by the people at the April election of eighteen hundred and ninety-one. ARTICLE IX. SECTION 1. The Governor shall receive an annual salary of four thousand dollars; the judges of the circuit court shall each receive an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars; the Attorney General shall receive an annual salary of two thousand five hundred dollars; the Secretary of State shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars; the State Treasurer shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall receive an annual salary of one thousand dollars; the Commissioner of the Land Office shall receive an annual salary of eight hundred dollars. They shall receive no fees or perquisites whatever for the performance of any duties connected with their office. It shall not be competent for the Legislature to increase the salaries herein provided. 43 |