Governor Austin, in his inaugural address of 1870, went no further than to ask the attention of the legislature to the complaints of railroad extortions and discriminations, and the use of the constitutional powers possessed by it for their abatement. His first annual message, delivered one year later, is a notable document in the literature of railroad regulation. It may be questioned whether there was another state executive in the country ready at that time to nail any such array of theses on the doors of the capitol. His propositions, briefed out of his text, were: 1. All special railroad charters not put into operation within ten days after consummation, to be void. 2. Every railroad corporation doing business within the state to maintain a public office within the state, and keep therein records of the officials, capitalization, assets, and liabilities. 3. No new road to be built parallel to an existing road. 4. All railroads in the state to be public highways free to all persons for transportation at reasonable charges. 5. No railroad company to issue any stocks and bonds except for money, labor, or property actually received and applied to the purposes of the corporation; all fictitious stocks and bonds to be void, and no increase of either, unless in a manner prescribed by law. 6. The state’s right of eminent domain to apply to railroad as to other property. 7. Adequate penalties, extending if deemed necessary to forfeiture of property and franchise, to be provided for unjust discrimination or extortion. 8. Finally, the creation of a national railroad commission for the regulation of commerce by rail and otherwise among the several states. It is remarkable that the same legislature which passed the 500,000 acre land grab also enacted one of the first and most stringent acts for railroad regulation. It is chapter 24 of the General Laws of 1871. It classified all freight and fixed a maximum rate for each of the five classes, according to distance. It determined a maximum passenger fare of five cents per mile. It declared all railroads in the state to be public highways, and fixed a penalty of $1000 for every denial of the right of any person to travel or ship goods at the prescribed rates. The law finally declared the rates therein established to be “maximum reasonable rates,” and any corporation demanding or receiving more should, on conviction, forfeit its charter.