Chapter XXI: Section 1: All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive

privileges, under which the corporators or grantees shall not have organized and commenced business in good faith at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall thereafter have no validity.

SEC. 2. No charter of incorporations shall be granted, extended, changed or amended by special law, except for such municipal, charitable, educational, penal or reformatory corporations as are or may be under the control of the State; but the General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the organization of corporations hereafter to be created.

SEC. 3. The General Assembly shall have the power to alter, revoke or annul any charter of incorporation now existing and revocable at the adoption of this Constitution, or any that may hereafter be created, whenever in their opinion it may be injurious to the citizens of the State, in such manner, however, that no injustice shall be done to the corporators.

SEC. 4. All railroads shall be public highways, and all railroad companies shall be common carriers. Any association or corporation organized for the purpose, shall have the right to construct and operate a railroad between any designated points within this State, and to connect at the State line with railroads of other States and Territories. Every railroad company shall have the right with its road to intersect, connect with or cross any other railroad.

SEC. 5. No railroad corporation or the lessees or managers thereof, shall consolidate its stock, property or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning or having under its control a parallel or competing line.

SEC. 6. All individuals, associations and corporations shall have equal rights to have persons and property transported over any railroad in this State, and no undue or unreasonable discrimination shall be made in charges or in facilities for transportation of freight or passengers within the State, and no railroad company, nor any lessee, manager or employe thereof, shall give any preference to individuals, associations, or corporations in furnishing cars or motive power.

SEC. 7. No railroad or other transportation company in existence, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall have the benefit of any future legislation without first filing in the office of the Secretary of State an acceptance of the provisions of this Constitution in binding form.

SEC. 8. The right of eminent domain shall never be abridged, nor so construed as to prevent the General Assembly from taking the property and franchises of incorporated companies and subjecting them to public use, the same as the property of individuals; and the police powers of the State shall never be abridged, or so construed as to permit corporations to conduct their business in such manner as to infringe the equal rights of individuals, or the general well-being of the State.

SEC. 9. No corporation shall issue stocks or bonds, except for labor done, services performed, or money or property actually received, and all fictitious increase of stock or indebtedness shall be void. The stock of corporations shall not be increased except in pursuance of general law, nor without the consent of the persons holding a majority of the stock, first obtained at a meeting held after at least thirty days’ notice given in pursuance of law.

SEC. 10. No foreign corporation shall do any business in this State without having one or more known places of business, and an authorized agent or agents in the same, upon whom process may be served.

SEC. 11. No street railroad shall be constructed within any city, town, or incorporated village, without the consent of the local authorities having the control of the street or highway proposed to be occupied by such street railroad.

SEC. 12. The General Assembly shall pass no law for the benefit of a railroad or other corporation, or any individual, or association of individuals, retrospective in its operation, or which imposes on the people of any county or municipal subdivision of the State, a new liability in respect to transactions or considerations already past.

SEC. 13. Any association or corporation, or the lessees or managers thereof, organized for the purpose, or any individual, shall have the right to construct and maintain lines of telegraph within this State, and to connect the same with other lines, and the General Assembly shall, by general law of uniform operation, provide reasonable regulations to give full effect to this section. No telegraph company shall consolidate with, or hold a controlling interest in, the stock or bonds of any other telegraph company owning or having the control of a competing line, or acquire, by purchase or otherwise, any other competing line of telegraph.

SEC. 14. If any railroad, telegraph, express, or other corporation organized under any of the laws of this State, shall consolidate, by sale or otherwise, with any railroad, telegraph, express, or other corporation organized under any laws of any other State or Territory, or of the United States, the same shall not thereby become a foreign corporation, but the courts of this State shall retain jurisdiction over that part of the corporate property within the limits of the State in all matters which may arise, as if said consolidation had not taken place.

SEC. 15. It shall be unlawful for any person, company or corporation to require of its servants or employes, as a condition of their employment or otherwise, any contract or agreement whereby such person, company or corporation shall be released or discharged from liability or responsibility on account of personal injuries received by such servants or employes while in the service of such person, company or corporation, by reason of the negligence of such person, company or corporation, or the agents or employes thereof, and such contracts shall be absolutely null and void.

ARTICLE XVI.

MINING AND IRRIGATION.

MINING.