6i4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



not result in good to the State or benefit to the public except in a 

 remote collateral way. 



On the other hand, it has been urged that roads, canals, 

 bridges, navigable streams, and all other highways, have in all 

 times been matters of public concern ; that such channels of 

 travel and of the carrying business have always been established, 

 improved, and regulated by the State ; and that a railroad had 

 not lost this character because constructed by individual enter- 

 prise, aggregated into a corporation. 



In rendering an opinion in the celebrated Loan Association vs. 

 Topeka case, the court took up the question whether the grants 

 of public money or credit which have been made by counties and 

 municipalities in the United States in aid of railroad construc- 

 tion were not by parity of reasoning equally unconstitutional as 

 similar grants for establishing or encouraging manufactures have 

 been held to be ; and remarked that in all such cases, which have 

 been numerous before the courts in every State in the Union, 

 " the decision has turned upon the question whether the taxation 

 by which the aid was afforded to the building of railroads was 

 for a public purpose. Those of the judges who came to the con- 

 clusion that it was, held the law for that purpose valid. Those 

 who could not reach that conclusion held them void. And it is 

 safe to say that no court has held debts created in aid of railroad 

 companies, by counties or towns, valid on any other ground than 

 that the purpose for which the tax was levied was a public use, a 

 purpose or object which it was the right and the duty of the State 

 governments to assist by money raised from the people by taxa- 

 tion." But, continues the judge, " Of the disastrous consequences 

 which have followed its recognition by the courts, and ivhich were 

 predicted when it was first established, there can be no doubt." 



It is interesting to note in this connection that since the deci- 

 sion in this case many States of the Union have been forced to pro- 

 hibit loans in aid of the construction of railroads and like enter- 

 prises in the revision of their Constitutionss. 



When the purpose of taxation is evidently to primarily pro- 

 mote the interests of individuals i. e., to establish a manufac- 

 tory, a brick company, a hotel, and the like the courts whose 

 province it is to decide whether the purpose is public or private 

 will as a rule undoubtedly declare it void. 



A noted and the almost solitary instance in which the above 

 proposition and precedents have been clearly antagonized by a 

 judicial decision is to be found in a case in Louisiana, where an 

 act of the State Legislature authorizing a municipal subscription 

 to the stock of a company incorporated to build a theater was held 

 valid, on the ground that " it would contribute to the wealth and 

 embellishment of the city, afford a place of relaxation and amuse- 



