KANSAS. 



445 



made to ameliorate the sad condition of prison-life, 

 while the victims of their crime sleep in death, and 

 the relatives of the deceased are taxed to feed and 

 clothe the ones who robbed the wife of a husband, 

 and the children of a father. The existing law is 

 simply an evasion of a plain manly duty, and should 

 be amended at once, though not made retroactive in 

 its operations ; it should be certain as to the murders 

 committed in the future. 



The present system of appraising or valuing real 

 estate for taxation is very defective. This work is 

 performed by to we ship trustees and city assessors, 

 and thus in many counties there are a dozen or more 

 persons engaged who have different ideas on the sub- 

 ject of values, some interested in reducing them; 

 while others may be giving honest and fair values 

 to real estate, each appears to be anxious to have the 

 land in his township valued less than the others in 

 the county. 



This system results in great inequality of appraise- 

 ment, even in the same county, and places the taxable 

 value of the real estate far below what it should be. 

 While this does not benefit the tax-payer, or reduce or 

 increase the amount of tax necessary to be raised, it 

 works _ a real injury to the State, and especially our 

 municipal organizations, by making the rate of taxa- 

 tion appear higher than it really is, and suggests to 

 those not cognizant of the abuse of our system, a 

 heavy rate of taxation, when in fact it is quite the re- 

 ve rse. It also fails to show the rapid increase of values, 

 and the true value of the taxable wealth of the State. 

 _ I therefore recommend to your favorable considera- 

 tion, as a means of remedying, in a measure, the more 

 serious defects of the present system, the appointment 

 or election of a county assessor, whose duty it should 

 be to appraise real estate only, every third year, leav- 

 ing trustees to appraise new structures, as now pro- 

 vided by law. This would secure an equal, or at 

 least a more uniform, valuation of real estate, would 

 come nearer ascertaining the true value of the wealth 

 of our State, reduce the rate of taxation from fifty 

 to one hundred per cent, furnish a potent and con- 

 clusive argument in favor of bringing wealth and 

 population to our State, and take away all tempta- 

 tion to reduce values . to save State taxation. It 

 would also relieve county boards of the necessity of 

 raising the value of each single tract of land in a town- 

 ship, for the purpose of protecting some townships 

 against the wrongs of an intentional low assessment 

 in another. 



County boards have no authority now, under the 

 law, to appropriate money out of the county Treasury 

 for making or repairing roads. I have no special plan 

 to suggest to remedy these defects of our road laws, 

 but suggest that you give the matter serious attention, 

 with a view of remedying the defects of the system, 

 and securing better highways for the use of the pub- 

 lic, in as economical and satisfactory a manner as 

 possible. To this end I would recommend, however, 

 that the Board of County Commissioners be authorized 

 to levy a tax annually, not exceeding one mill on the 

 dollar, to be used exclusively by the county board for 

 the repair of, or grading roads, where public necessity 

 may require such work to be done, as the means now 

 provided by law are inadequate. There is no tax 

 that could be levied that would be of so great a bene- 

 fit to the farming interests, as one that could be used 

 exclusively, in a prudent and economical manner, for 

 the bettering of public highways, and none that will 

 give a more immediate and beneficial return to the 

 farmer for such a small expenditure. 



The Governor also recommends an increase 

 in the number of judicial districts, the ap- 

 pointment of a veterinary surgeon in connec- 

 tion with the Board of Agriculture, and an in- 

 crease in the capacity of the insane asylums. 



RAILROADS. On the subject of railroads he 

 says : 



In addition to these oppressive discriminations 

 against localities and individuals, these corporations 

 have for ten years persistently defied the law in re- 

 fusing to comply with the enactment requiring them 

 to establish and keep their general offices within the 

 State, but have moved them beyond our limits, and 

 now even deny and defy the jurisdiction of our courts, 

 thus violating the will of the people in this regard. 

 And perhaps one of the worst features of this vexed 

 railroad problem is the constant tendency on the part 

 of railroad managers to manipulate the politics of the 

 State ; to seek not only to control conventions, to 

 make platforms, to nominate and elect candidates, but 

 also to improperly influence legislation by subsidizing 

 and establishing newspapers, and by employing paid 

 lobbyists to defeat proper legislation so that corpo- 

 rate greed may still override and oppress the people. 

 Hitherto these wrongs have been borne patiently, and 

 the people in their magnanimity have given the rail- 

 roads every opportunity to prove themselves the real 

 friends of the State, and for that reason have post- 

 poned legislative action, in the hope that these cor- 

 porations would see the folly and injustice of their 

 methods and adopt a wiser and more equitable policy. 

 It seems, however, that forbearance on the part of the 

 public has only emboldened these corporations to 

 perpetrate still greater wrongs; for example, when 

 it was ascertained that our wheat and corn crop of 

 1882 was a certainty, the railroads of the State at once 

 advanced the rate of freight above the rate of last 

 year, to such an extent as to place an additional burden 

 upon the wheat and corn crops, amounting to over 

 $1,500,000, so that, as we increase the agricultural 

 products of Kansas, the railroads adopt the unnatural 

 policy of advancing their rates, thus preventing a good 

 crop from returning any more money to the producer 

 than a poor one. 



Therefore I deem it my duty not only to call your 

 attention to these evils, and to warn you of the danger 

 of delay in dealing with thern^but also to impress 

 upon you the following propositions : 



1. That railroads are public highways, created' by 

 the authority of the State, for the oenefit of the State. 



2. That railroads are common carriers, and as such 

 shall receive and have the right to demand just and 

 reasonable compensation for service rendered, and 

 have no legal or equitable rights to charge excessive 

 or exorbitant rates. 



3. That all persons have a right to their use, on 

 like conditions. 



4. That the Legislature has the right and power to 

 regulate them in all these respects and particulars men- 

 tioned, including the right to fix rates of freight and 

 fare. 



With these propositions in view it is clearly the 

 duty of the law-making power to exercise a most 

 thorough, fearless, and just management and control 

 of its corporations, including telegraph and express 

 companies, so as to prevent these valuable adjuncts of 

 the business of the State from becoming oppressive 

 monopolies. And should the Legislature, in its wis- 

 dom, deal with this important question as the public 

 demand, and should it be decided that the railroads 

 shall be placed under the control of a commission 

 appointed for that purpose, I would fail in my duty 

 to the State and to you did I not specially request that 

 you shall fix by law, independent of any commission, 

 the rate of passenger fare at three cents per mile, 

 and that you provide by law, independent of any 

 commission, that railroads shall be prohibited, under 

 proper penalty, recoverable by civil action, from 

 charging more" for a short distance than for a long dis- 

 tance ; that you shall fix by law, independent of any 

 commission, a low but just and fair maximum rate of 

 freight for coal, wheat, corn, oats, broom-corn, cattle, 

 sheep, hogs, and lumber, so that no contingency of 

 weather or combinations shall deprive the public of 

 fuel at reasonable rates, or prevent the agriculturist 

 and stock-raiser from getting his produce to market 

 at reasonable rates and in the quickest time, so as to 



