And though I digress for a moment, it has occurred to me that it might be of interest to you to know that the Company which I represent has tested the question under our laws in connection with an ordinance of the Common Council passed last Spring which increased the rate of license fifty per cent. During my absence the Company thought best to dispute the power of the Common Council to pass that ordinance. The Company was finally defeated in the contest. The Supreme Court of our State held the subject to be within the control of the Common Council, which had originally passed the ordinance and fixed the license. The Company's claim was that the license having been fixed by the original ordinance that granted the right to lay tracks and run cars, and having been accepted, had thus become a contract which neither side could disturb.

There seems to me to be no just principle on which street railroad property should be taxed in excess of other property. While, however, modes of taxation are so various, it can hardly be expected that justice and uniformity will be applied in this regard to municipal dealings with our companies.

SUMMARY.

From our tables, representing ninety-four companies, it appears:

1. That, with but rare exceptions, the property of railroad companies is subject to taxation.

2. That the real estate of the companies is generally taxed usually about as that of individuals is taxed. The taxation does not in any case exceed the rate of about two per cent. on the actual value of the real estate; it is in many instances less.

3. The receipts of companies are not usually taxed. In twenty-one cases out of ninety-four, the gross receipts appear to be taxed at rates varying from five mills to eight mills upon the dollar. In Baltimore only is there in one case a tax stated to be nine per cent. on the gross receipts of the company; but if I understand the returns from that company, there is no other taxation. Still, an amount so enormous seems utterly unaccountable and unreasonable.

From

4. The capital stock is taxed in thirty-seven cases out of ninety-four. this tax is generally deducted the tax paid upon assessed value of property, and usually when tax is paid on the capital stock, it is not paid upon the property of the company. There is nothing in the tables which I have examined to indicate that this mode of taxation constitutes a peculiar hardship. 5. Dividends are sometimes taxed, but in only nine or ten cases. And this tax is usually closely connected with the tax upon the capital stock. In Wisconsin no taxes are imposed upon the capital stock of corporations, but always upon its property of every kind.

6. When railroad tracks are assessed, they seem to be rated at from two to five thousand dollars per mile of single track. Although in some instances the assessment is, as doubtless it ought to be, as low as one thousand dollars per mile.

7. Licenses greatly vary. On fifty-eight roads no licenses are reported as paid. On the remainder, the licenses seem to vary from one dollar a car up to fifty dollars per car per annum.

8. The area of paving, and repairing of roadbed required to be done by the companies, also greatly varies. In some cases no such requirement is made. In fifty-six reports the companies are required to pave or keep in repair all the tracks between their own rails. In the remainder no work of that kind seems to be required; but the city or village probably does that work. In Pennsylvania some roads seem to be required to keep in order the entire street from curb to curb. The apparent injustice is, however, mitigated, if I understand the reports, by a diminution of other taxes.

9. Sweeping and sprinkling the tracks are not usually required of the companies, but probably the cleaning is frequently done by them.

There is so great variation, as appears from the returns, that I do not think general deductions can be drawn, or any useful purpose subserved by giving further details. Each company, member of this Association, knows its own interests, the laws which regulate the taxation of its own property, the difficulties with which it has to contend, the hardships it endures. Probably those companies are most fortunate which are working under unchangeable regulations, or are subject only to the control of intelligent Commissioners, a fact which I found to prevail generally in Europe, so far as I was casually able to get information upon the question there, and not of a body of municipal legislators who are utterly ignorant of the subject, and yet desirous to show how great is their sympathy for individual taxpayers, and how little they care for justice to corporations.

Respectfully submitted,

WINFIELD SMITH,

Committee.

Applause followed the reading of the report.

DISCUSSION ENSUING ON STREET-RAILWAY TAXATION. The President: The paper is before you; we should be glad to hear from any gentleman upon the subject.

REMARKS OF MR. WILLIAM MCCREERY ON STREET

RAILWAY TAXATION.

Mr. McCreery, of Pittsburgh: This matter comes very close to me, as I hail from the Banner City of the Banner State of this country in regard to taxation. As we all like to have something to brag about, it is the only thing I have been able to find. In regard to taxation in the city of Pittsburgh, I would say that we are required to pave the street from curb to curb, and keep it in perpetual repair. We are required to scrape and clean it as often as the Street Commissioner orders it to be done. Our road is unfortunately situated, Mr. President; we are on both sides of a river which is not very broad, and which is spanned by a number of bridges, which should be public highways but they are not, and

there is a toll-gate on each end of each bridge. We are required to pay the small license of fifty dollars on one side for each bob-tail car, and we are required to pay a license of twelve dollars and fifty cents on the other side; and one hundred and twenty-five dollars per car for crossing that public highway over that little river. We are required to pay the city of Allegheny five per cent. on all dividends, and the State of Pennsylvania five per cent. on all dividends, and eight-tenths of one per cent. on gross receipts. [Laughter.] Allow me a little longer time; you have not got the half of it. These things come on us regularly; and now we are promised, in addition to them, if we will elect a certain gentleman to the Legislature, he will be careful in future legislation to see that the corporations pay the entire expenses of the State. Mr. Chairman, the only parallel that I ever saw to it was when I was a boy. A man sent a skin to the tanner to be tanned. The tanner was his father-in-law; and the tanner said it generally took a year to tan a skin, and that the owner received onehalf and the tanner kept the other half. After the tanner had the skin a year, the man sent for it, and the tanner sent back word that he charged one-half for tanning and one-half for currying; and if it had not been a good skin, he would have brought him in in debt. [Laughter.]

REMARKS OF MR. DANIEL B. HASBROUCK ON STREET

RAILWAY TAXATION.

Mr. Hasbrouck: I regret that I am not provided with a pamphlet issued by the New York State Association, in which Hon. G. Hilton Scribner sets forth the wrongs under which we suffer in New York.

We pay a tax on our real estate, and for the purpose of taxation our tracks are also held to be real estate.

We pay a tax on our personal property which is assessed at the aggregate market value of the entire issue of stock, we pay a tax on the gross earnings and we pay again on the net earnings or dividends, so that the latter being a part of the former and both a part of the personal estate, it follows that the gross earnings are taxed twice and the net earnings three times.

We pay a car license, and each company also pays its share of the expense of maintaining three Railroad Commissioners. I will send my friend from Pittsburgh a copy of the pamphlet referred

to, and if he should, after perusal, think himself entitled to the "cake," he can take it.

He has my sympathy, and if he persists in believing that he has a right to live at all, he at least ought to be very grateful to the authorities that he is not taxed out of existence altogether.

The only comfort I can administer is such as an Orderly gave to one of his patients in a London hospital. 'Twas in this wise: Chaplain "So poor Hopkins is dead. I should have liked to speak to him once again and soothe his last moments; why didn't you call me?"

Hospital Orderly-"I didn't think you ought to be disturbed for 'Opkins, sir, so I just soothed him as best I could myself." Chaplain-"Why, what did you say to him?"

Orderly "Opkins," sez I, "you're mortal bad." "I am," sez 'e.

"'Opkins," sez I, "I don't think you'll get better." "No," sez 'e.

"'Opkins," sez I, "you're going fast."

"Yes," sez 'e.

"'Opkins," sez I, "I don't think you can 'ope to go to ‘eaven." "I don't think I can," sez 'e.

"Well, then, 'Opkins," sez I, " you'll go to 'ell."

"I suppose so," sez 'e.

"'Opkins," sez I, "you ought to be wery grateful as there's a place perwided for you, and that you've got somewhere to go.' And I think 'e 'eard, sir, and then he died. [Great laughter.] The President: Has any one any motion to make?

Mr. Hasbrouck: I move that the report take the usual course. The motion was carried.

The President: The paper read this morning on the Conditions Necessary to the Financial Success of the Cable Power was not disposed of owing to the pressure of business. Has any one a

motion to make in regard to that paper?

Mr. Woodworth, of Rochester: I move it be received and printed in full in the minutes.

The motion was carried.

INVITATION OF HON. JAMES W. HYATT, UNITED STATES TREASURER, TO VISIT THE TREASURY.

The President: I am very glad to make known the following invitation from the Hon. James W. Hyatt, United States Treas

urer, and President of the Norwalk Horse Railroad Company. He invites the delegates and their ladies to visit and inspect the Treasury Building between the hours of nine and eleven o'clock, A M., and one thirty and three o'clock, P. M. He will take pleasure in showing all who go, the building and its contents; and this is quite an opportunity, considering there is so large a surplus in the Treasury! [Laughter.] I think if we started in good time in the morning, we could leave the hotel by nine o'clock and be back by half-past ten.

Mr. Sinclair, of Galveston: I move that we accept the invitatation and the surplus. [Laughter].

Mr. Winfield Smith: I move that we visit the Treasury building at the hour suggested by the President, and that we return our hearty thanks to the Treasurer for his courtesy in extending the invitation.

The motion was carried.

APPOINTMENT OF NOMINATING COMMITTEE.

Mr. Linch, of New York: I move that a Nominating Committee of seven be appointed to make nominations for the Officers of the Association for the ensuing year.

The President: How is the Committee to be appointed?

Mr. Woodworth: I move that the same Committee designate a place of meeting for the next year.

The motion was carried.

The President: The Chair will appoint Messrs. Linch, of New York; Cleminshaw, of Troy; Littell, of Louisville; Longstreet, of Boston; Rugg, of Minneapolis; Ackley, of Philadelphia; and Walsh, of St. Louis.

On motion, the meeting adjourned till ten o'clock, Thursday morning.

THURSDAY'S SESSION.-MORNING.

The President called the meeting to order at 10:45, A. M. The President: We will now listen to the reading of the paper on Street-Railway Mutual Fire Insurance, C. C. Woodworth, Secretary of the Rochester City and Brighton Railroad Company, Rochester, N. Y., being Chairman of the Committee.