Rates of charges.

Issuance of stocks and

bonds.

Eminent domain.

Abuses to be regulated by law.

competing line; and in no case shall any consolidation take place except upon public notice of at least sixty days to all stockholders in such manner as may be provided by law.

SEC. 4. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may hereafter be constructed in this state, are hereby declared public highways, and shall be free to all persons for the transportation of their persons and property thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. And the legislature may from time to time pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight on the different railroads in this state. The liability of railroad corporations as common carriers shall never be limited.

SEC. 5. No railroad corporation shall issue any stock or bonds, except for money, labor, or property actually received and applied to the purposes for which such corporation was created, and all stock, dividends, and other fictitious increase of the capital stock or indebtedness of any such corporation shall be void. The capital stock of railroad corporations shall not be increased for any purpose, except after public notice for sixty days, in such manner as may be provided by law. SEC. 6. The exercise of the power and the right of eminent domain shall never be so construed or abridged as to prevent the taking, by the legislature, of the property and franchises of incorporated companies already organized or hereafter to be organized, and subjecting them to the public necessity, the same as of individuals.

Sec. 7. The legislature shall pass laws to correct abuses, and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in all charges of express, telegraph, and railroad companies in this state, and enforce such laws by adequate penalties to the extent, if necessary for that purpose, of forfeiture of their property and franchises.

ganized in

SEC. 8. No railroad corporation, organized under Railroads or the laws of any other state, or of the United States, and other states. doing business in this state, shall be entitled to exercise the right of eminent domain, or have power to acquire the right of way, or real estate for depot or other uses, until it shall have become a body corporate pursuant to and in accordance with the laws of this state.

MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.

prohibited.

SECTION 1. No city, county, town, precinct, munici- Subscriptions pality, or other subdivision of the state, shall ever be come a subscriber to the capital stock, or owner of such stock, or any portion or interest therein, of any railroad or private corporation, or association.

MISCELLANEOUS CORPORATIONS.

to be by gene

SECTION 1. No corporation shall be created by Incorporations special law, nor its charter extended, changed, or amend- ral law. ed, except those for charitable, educational, penal, or reformatory purposes, which are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the state, but the legislature shall provide by general laws for the organization of all corporations hereafter to be created. All general laws passed pursuant to this section may be altered from time to time, or repealed.

struct street

SEC. 2. No such general law shall be passed by the Right to con legislature granting the right to construct and operate a railroads. street railroad within any city, town, or incorporated village, without first requiring the consent of a majority of the electors thereof.

SEC. 3. All corporations may sue and be sued in like cases as natural persons.

SEC. 4. In all cases of claims against corporations Liability of and joint stock associations, the exact amount justly due subscribers to

stock.

Elections, how held.

Existing charters.

I iability of stockholders in banks.

shall be first ascertained, and after the corporate property shall have been exhausted, the original subscribers thereof shall be individually liable to the extent of their unpaid subscription, and the liability for the unpaid subscription shall follow the stock.

SEC. 5. The legislature shall provide by law that in all elections for directors or managers of incorporated companies, every stockholder shall [have] the right to vote in person or proxy for the number of shares of stock owned by him, for as many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected, or to cumulate said shares and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number of his shares of stock shall equal, or to distribute them upon the same principle among as many candidates as he shall think fit; and such directors or managers shall not be elected in any other

manner.

SEU. 6. All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive privileges under which organization shall not have taken place, or which shall not be in operation within sixty days from the time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no validity or effect what

ever.

SEC. 7. Every stockholder in a banking corporation or institution shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, over and above the amount of stock by him held, to an amount equal to his respective stock or shares so held, for all its liabilities accruing while he remains such stockholder; and all banking corporations shall publish quarterly statements, under oath, of their assets and liabilities.

ARTICLE [XII].-STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL

SECTION 1. The state may, to meet casual deficits or failures in the revenues, contract debts never to exceed in the aggregate one hundred thousand dollars; and no greater indebtedness shall be incurred except for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the state in war; and provision shall be made for the payment of the interest annually, as it shall accrue, by a tax levied for the purpose, or from other sources of revenue, which law providing for the payment of such interest by such tax shall be irrepealable until such debt be paid.

Bonds of the state.

eities, etc., to

internal im

SEC. 2. No city, county, town, precinct, municipal- Donations by ity, or other subdivision of the state, shall ever make do- aid in works of nations to any railroad or other works of internal improvė. provement. ment, unless a proposition so to do shall have been first submitted to the qualified electors thereof at an election by authority of law: Provided, That such donations of a county with the donations of such subdivisions in the aggregate shall not exceed ten per cent of the assessed valuation of such county; Provided further, That any city or county may, by a two-thirds vote, increase such indebtedness five per cent, in addition to such ten per cent, and no bonds or evidences of indebtedness so issued shall be valid unless the same shall have endorsed thereon a certificate signed by the secretary and auditor of state, showing that the same is issued pursuant to law. Reinman v. C. C. & B. H. R. R. Co., 7 Neb., 310.

SEC. 3. The credit of the state shall never be given or loaned in aid of any individual, association or corporation.

State credit not to be loaned.

Militia.

Outh of officers.

Who ineligible to office.

ARTICLE [XIII.]-MILITIA.

SECTION 1. The legislature shall determine what persons shall constitute the militia of the state, and may provide for organizing and disciplining the same.

ARTICLE [XIV.]-MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

SECTION 1. Executive and judicial officers and members of the legislature, before they enter upon their official duties, shall take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Nebraska, and will faithfully discharge the duties of according to the best of my ability, and that at the election at which I was chosen to fill said office I have not improperly influenced in any way the vote of any elector, and have not accepted, nor will I accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any money or valuable thing from any corporation, company, or person, or any promise of office for any official act or influence (for any vote I may give or withhold on any bill, resolution or appropriation)." Any such officer or member of the legislature who shall refuse to take the oath herein prescribed, shall forfeit his office, and any person who shall be convicted of having sworn falsely to, or of violating his said oath, shall forfeit his office, and thereafter be disqualified from holding any office of profit or trust in this state, unless he shall have been restored to civil rights.

SEC. 2. Any person who is in default as collector and custodian of public money or property, shall not be eligible to any office of trust or profit under the constitution or laws of this state; nor shall any person convicted of felony be eligible to office unless he shall have been restored to civil rights.