s lands
at an average of $8.68 per acre, and the Chicago Burlington and Quincy
sold nearly 350,000 acres at an average of $12.17 per acre.

But land grants form only a small part of the public and private
donations which have been made to Iowa roads. Including the railroad
taxes voted by counties, townships and municipalities, the grants of
rights of way and depot sites and public and private gifts in money,
these roads have received subsidies amounting to more than $50,000,000,
or enough to build 40 per cent. of all the roads of the State. There is
no doubt that the contributions of the public toward the construction of
the railroads of Iowa is several times as large as the actual
contributions of their stockholders for that purpose.

The people of Iowa were from the first very favorably disposed towards
railroads. Every inducement was held out to railroad builders to come
here and help to multiply the tracks for the iron horse. They came and
brought with them many abuses which since the first introduction of
railroads had gradually been developed in other States.

The contrast between the old and the new mode of transportation was so
great, and the public appreciated so highly the superior conveniences
afforded by the latter, that for years the abuses practiced by the early
railroads were scarcely noticed, or, if they did attract the attention
of the public, they appeared more like necessary features of the new
system of transportation than like abuses. The evil gradually increased,
but for years no attempt was made to check its growth. The railroad
managers construed this failure of the people to interfere with, or even
protest against, their unjust practices as a quasi-sanction of their
course, and soon claimed to do by right what they had formerly done by
sufferance. The evils increased until the patience of the people finally
became exhausted.

While the State thus for years dealt very leniently with the railroad
companies, the laws of Iowa had from the beginning of railroad building
emphasized the principle of State control. This principle was asserted
in the very first railroad act ever passed in the State. Section 14 of
chapter I. of the acts of the extra session of the Fifth General
Assembly, regranting to the various railroad companies the lands granted
to the State by Congress for railroad purposes, provides that "railroad
companies accepting the provisions of this act shall at all times be
subject to su