Article X of the Texas Constitution
Encyclopedia
Article X of the Texas Constitution
of 1876 covers railroad companies. The federal government later created the Interstate Commerce Commission
to regulate railroads, and eight of the nine sections (all but section 2) of Article X were repealed in 1969 as "deadwood".
, transporting passengers and freight "without delay or discrimination".
Section 2 expands on the common-carrier provisions of section 1, and charges the legislature with passing laws to enforce this. It was amended in 1890 to allow the legislature to delegate this responsibility to an agency, leading to the creation of the Railroad Commission of Texas
in 1891. Section 2 is the only one to be successfully amended, and the only one that was not repealed in 1969 (notwithstanding that the Surface Transportation Board
has jurisdiction over all common-carrier railroads in the USA, even those physically located within only one state, and that the section has little force of law).
Section 3 required every railroad operating in Texas to maintain an office in the state.
Section 4 classified rolling stock
as personal property
.
Section 5 prohibited the consolidation or common control of parallel railroads for anti-competitive purposes. The Southern Pacific Company was required to give up control of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway due to this section.
Section 6 prohibited the consolidation of railroads organized in Texas with those organized outside the state.
Section 7 required the consent of local authorities before a street railway can be chartered.
Section 8 required pre-existing railroad companies to accept Article X in order to benefit from future legislation.
Section 9 required any railroad that passes within 3 miles (4.8 km) of a county seat
to pass through that seat if the citizens donated the right-of-way
and land for a depot, unless topography
prevented such a routing.
James S. Hogg against the railroads controlled by Jay Gould
(International and Great Northern Railroad, Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, and Texas and Pacific Railway
, all leased to the Missouri Pacific Railroad
).
These separate Texas companies sometimes took the name of the parent, but often retained their original names. Systems that entered Texas and their local companies included:
The Interstate Commerce Commission
approved a lease of the Texarkana and Fort Smith to the Kansas City Southern in 1933. Texas took the case to the Supreme Court but lost, and section 3 was effectively nullified. The Fort Worth and Denver, the last of the Texas subsidiaries, merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad
in 1982.
Texas Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that describes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. State of Texas.Texas has had seven constitutions: the constitution of Coahuila y Tejas, the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas, the state constitutions of 1845,...
of 1876 covers railroad companies. The federal government later created the Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
to regulate railroads, and eight of the nine sections (all but section 2) of Article X were repealed in 1969 as "deadwood".
Sections
Section 1 gave companies the right to build railroads in Texas and to connect with others at the state line, and the responsibility to act as a common carrierCommon carrier
A common carrier in common-law countries is a person or company that transports goods or people for any person or company and that is responsible for any possible loss of the goods during transport...
, transporting passengers and freight "without delay or discrimination".
Section 2 expands on the common-carrier provisions of section 1, and charges the legislature with passing laws to enforce this. It was amended in 1890 to allow the legislature to delegate this responsibility to an agency, leading to the creation of the Railroad Commission of Texas
Railroad Commission of Texas
The Railroad Commission of Texas is the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining .Established by the Texas Legislature in 1891, it is the state's oldest regulatory...
in 1891. Section 2 is the only one to be successfully amended, and the only one that was not repealed in 1969 (notwithstanding that the Surface Transportation Board
Surface Transportation Board
The Surface Transportation Board of the United States is a bipartisan, decisionally-independent adjudicatory body organizationally housed within the U.S. Department of Transportation. The STB was established in 1996 to assume some of the regulatory functions that had been administered by the...
has jurisdiction over all common-carrier railroads in the USA, even those physically located within only one state, and that the section has little force of law).
Section 3 required every railroad operating in Texas to maintain an office in the state.
Section 4 classified rolling stock
Rolling stock
Rolling stock comprises all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons...
as personal property
Personal property
Personal property, roughly speaking, is private property that is moveable, as opposed to real property or real estate. In the common law systems personal property may also be called chattels or personalty. In the civil law systems personal property is often called movable property or movables - any...
.
Section 5 prohibited the consolidation or common control of parallel railroads for anti-competitive purposes. The Southern Pacific Company was required to give up control of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway due to this section.
Section 6 prohibited the consolidation of railroads organized in Texas with those organized outside the state.
Section 7 required the consent of local authorities before a street railway can be chartered.
Section 8 required pre-existing railroad companies to accept Article X in order to benefit from future legislation.
Section 9 required any railroad that passes within 3 miles (4.8 km) of a county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
to pass through that seat if the citizens donated the right-of-way
Right-of-way (railroad)
A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...
and land for a depot, unless topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
prevented such a routing.
Requirement for a Texas office
The legislature decided in 1853 that all railroads operating in Texas should be headquartered in the state, and that was included in the 1876 constitution as section 3 of Article X. When outside companies began acquiring control of Texas railroads in the 1880s, they were required to retain the Texas corporations. Since only Texas companies could operate in the state, the outside companies could not lease the Texas companies, as decided by the courts in an 1888 lawsuit brought by Attorney GeneralTexas Attorney General
The Texas Attorney General is the chief legal officer of the State of Texas.The department has offices at the William P. Clements State Office Building at 300 West 15th Street in Austin.-History:...
James S. Hogg against the railroads controlled by Jay Gould
Jay Gould
Jason "Jay" Gould was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He has long been vilified as an archetypal robber baron, whose successes made him the ninth richest American in history. Condé Nast Portfolio ranked Gould as the 8th worst American CEO of all time...
(International and Great Northern Railroad, Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway, and Texas and Pacific Railway
Texas and Pacific Railway
The Texas and Pacific Railway Company was created by federal charter in 1871 with the purpose of building a southern transcontinental railroad between Marshall, Texas, and San Diego, California....
, all leased to the Missouri Pacific Railroad
Missouri Pacific Railroad
The Missouri Pacific Railroad , also known as the MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers, including the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway , Texas and Pacific...
).
These separate Texas companies sometimes took the name of the parent, but often retained their original names. Systems that entered Texas and their local companies included:
- Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe RailwayAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe RailwayThe Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The company was first chartered in February 1859...
: Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe RailwayGulf, Colorado and Santa Fe RailwayThe Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in eastern Texas and to Purcell, Oklahoma.- Nineteenth Century :...
, Panhandle and Santa Fe RailwayPanhandle and Santa Fe RailwayThe Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway is a now-defunct railroad company that was a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.It was originally named the Southern Kansas Railway but in 1914 was renamed the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway.... - Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway: Chicago, Rock Island and Gulf Railway
- Colorado and Southern RailwayColorado and Southern RailwayThe Colorado and Southern Railway was a railroad company in the western United States that operated independently from 1898 to 1908, then as part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad until it was absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad in 1981.The railway began as the...
: Fort Worth and Denver City Railway - El Paso and Southwestern Company: El Paso and Southwestern Railroad of Texas
- Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railroad: Kansas City, Mexico and Orient Railway of Texas
- Kansas City Southern RailwayKansas City Southern RailwayThe Kansas City Southern Railway , owned by Kansas City Southern Industries, is the smallest and second-oldest Class I railroad company still in operation. KCS was founded in 1887 and is currently operating in a region consisting of ten central U.S. states...
: Texarkana and Fort Smith RailwayTexarkana and Fort Smith RailwayThe Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway was the Texas subsidiary of the Kansas City Southern Railway, operating railroad lines in the states of Arkansas and Texas, with headquarters at Texarkana, Texas.... - Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company: Louisiana Railway and Navigation Company of Texas
- Louisiana and Arkansas RailwayLouisiana and Arkansas RailwayThe Louisiana and Arkansas Railway was a railroad that operated in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The railroad's main line extended 332 miles, from Hope, Arkansas to Shreveport and New Orleans...
: Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas Railway - Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway: Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway of Texas
- Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway: Missouri, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway of Texas
- New Orleans, Texas and Mexico Railroad: Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western RailwayBeaumont, Sour Lake and Western RailwayThe Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western Railway was an railroad that ran from Beaumont, Texas to Gulf Coast Junction in Houston. It passed through small southeast Texas communities such as Hull, Kenefick, and Huffman...
, St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico RailwaySt. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico RailwayThe St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway was a 200-mile railroad that operated from Brownsville, Texas to Gulf Coast Junction in Houston. It passed through small southeast Texas communities such as Robstown, Corpus Christi, Bay City, and Harlingen as well as the Rio Grande Valley.-History:Uriah... - St. Louis-San Francisco RailwaySt. Louis-San Francisco RailwayThe St. Louis – San Francisco Railway , also known as the Frisco, was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central U.S. from 1876 to 1980.-History:...
: St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas Railway, Fort Worth and Rio Grande RailwayFort Worth and Rio Grande RailwayThe Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, chartered under the laws of Texas on June 1, 1885, was part of a plan conceived by Buckley Burton Paddock and other Fort Worth civic leaders to create a transcontinental route linking New York, Fort Worth, and the Pacific port of Topolobampo, which they... - St. Louis Southwestern RailwaySt. Louis Southwestern RailwayThe St. Louis Southwestern Railway , known by its nickname of "The Cotton Belt Route" or simply Cotton Belt, was organized on January 15, 1891, although it had its origins in a series of short lines founded in Tyler, Texas, in 1870 that connected northeastern Texas to Arkansas and southeastern...
: St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas - Southern Pacific Company: Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway, Houston East and West Texas Railway, Houston and Texas Central Railroad, Texas and New Orleans RailroadTexas and New Orleans RailroadThe Texas and New Orleans Railroad is a former railroad in Texas and Louisiana. At one point the company was the largest railroad in Texas, with of trackage in 1934, but by 1961 there were only remaining when it was merged with parent company Southern Pacific....
- Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway: Wichita Falls and Northwestern Railway of Texas
The Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
approved a lease of the Texarkana and Fort Smith to the Kansas City Southern in 1933. Texas took the case to the Supreme Court but lost, and section 3 was effectively nullified. The Fort Worth and Denver, the last of the Texas subsidiaries, merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....
in 1982.