d upon the people and the adjoining property. How to collect the
tax necessary to sustain the road is simply a question of public policy,
and it cannot be collected in any case except with the expressed
permission of the State. If a company is permitted by the State to
operate a railroad it should only be permitted to collect such tolls as
are just and reasonable, and what is just and reasonable should be
determined by the sovereign State, and not by the operating company. The
railroads of the United States collect from our people in round numbers
a transportation tax of eleven hundred million dollars annually. This
tax is equal to a levy of $17 per head, or $85 per family; it is about
as large as all our other taxes combined. In the State of Iowa it
amounts to about $22 per head, or $110 per family, and is two and
one-half times as large as all the State, county, school and municipal
taxes collected within her borders.

When we consider how thoroughly other public charges are hedged about,
by careful restrictions and limitations, and with what caution the
amount to be collected is fixed after thorough public discussion, by
agents of the people selected by them to serve only for short periods,
and that those who collect and disburse the funds are under oath and
bonds for a faithful performance of their duty, is it not preposterous
to permit agents appointed by a few interested persons, and often
serving for a long term of years, without any responsibility to the
public, to fix the rate of this tax, and to collect and disburse the
immense sums levied for the support of these highways without any
supervision or restraint?

The Government might as well lease the post-office, waterways and the
collection of import duties to the highest bidder and permit the lessees
to reimburse themselves by the collection of such tolls as they might
see fit, without any governmental restraint whatever, their franchises
enabling the operating companies to tax each individual, each locality
and each letter, parcel or article as they saw fit. How long would the
people of this country endure such a condition of things? The collection
of taxes has been farmed out, but not by any civilized nation in modern
times. History shows that this system of taxation has always been
productive of the gravest abuses, and prejudicial to the public welfare.
As has already been shown, the railroad is an improved highway, and the
railroad company in operating i