AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

In this age of corporate business activity, a study of the legal and social relations which this form of business enterprise has borne to this State becomes of immediate interest. Such a study is of concern because the problem is in the process of solution. Moreover the study reveals striking similarities in methods and in results with those attained by adjoining commonwealths. These similarities have been induced by the existence of almost identical economic conditions and by the practice of imitative adaptation. The one form of corporate business with which this paper deals is the methods of railroad regulation in Missouri. The railroad corporation was the first of a class of public utility corporation was the first of a class of public utility corporations to demands serious treatment. In its importance to the general public, it still retains first rank. Technological changes and inventions have produced other public services they perform, are affected with a public interest.