The Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) had jurisdiction over the rates and operations of railroads, terminals, wharves and express companies. These records of the Rail Division (formerly the Main Office, then the Main and Transportation Division and then the Transportation Division) of the Railroad Commission of Texas include incoming letters, telegrams, petitions, newspaper clippings, affidavits, depositions, transcripts of hearings, maps, blueprints, pamphlets, circulars, tariffs, copies of legislative bills, mortgage contracts, and merger agreements. Also present are various printed items such as railroad tickets, free railroad passes, labor union contracts with railroads, railroad passenger tax receipts, and copies of railroad valuation statements. The bulk of the correspondence dates from 1891 until the early 1920s with some materials from 1872 to 1955. The correspondence can be roughly grouped into four categories: general public, business, railroads, and government. Correspondents from the general public included passengers, farmers, lawyers, labor unions, chambers of commerce, and other citizens who wrote to the Commission on such topics as complaints about passenger facilities and rates, free passes, jobs with the Railroad Commission, requests for racially segregated depots, and petitions for more frequent train service. Correspondence from businesses was overwhelmingly concerned with freight rates on commodities and with such shipping problems as overcharges, lost cars, demurrage costs for delays or damages, and the classification of commodities. Other business topics included cotton compress regulations, rebates, tariffs, taxation, and weight limits of freight shipments. The same preponderance of concern over rates was also evident in the correspondence from the railroads and their freight agents. Other correspondence from railroads concern reports filed by railroads to comply with legislation regulations. These include the annual reports and the valuation statements each railroad had to file with the Railroad Commission and the frequent corrections and addenda. More correspondence was generated by the examination of railroad capital stock records by the Railroad Commission, the issuance of railroad stocks and bonds, the costs of construction, and general questions on Railroad Commission policy and form requirements. The fourth category of correspondents with the Railroad Commission were government officials from the local, state, and federal levels. This included county attorneys, Texas governors and attorney generals, governors and railroad commissioners from other states, Texas representatives and senators on the state and federal levels, and the federal Interstate Commerce Commission. The overriding concern reflected throughout the incoming correspondence is the subject of rates, both passenger and freight, with the most attention given to freight rates and the costs for the many different commodities. Businesses, farmers, and other shippers complained about high rates and sought relief from the Railroad Commission; railroads defended their rates and asked for increases through the Commission; the Commission held rate hearings, received mail from both sides lobbying their respective positions, then made rulings, issued rate orders, and published tariffs and circulars announcing the new rates. These records document the reactions of the railroads and railroad users to the policies and actions of the Commission. The incoming correspondence reflects the nature of the Commission's outgoing correspondence, from routine form letters to the predominant subject of rates. An inventory of the records was conducted to provide a brief description of the contents of each box including the dates and types of materials and a notation of any filing arrangement that may be present. This finding aid describes one series of the Railroad Commission of Texas records. See Railroad Commission of Texas: An Overview of Records (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/tslac/20078/tsl-20078.html) for more records series.
