172 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
burden. Its very enormity of weight suggests the necessity of dropping it at 
once, to avoid being crushed beneath it. 
" It was under these circumstances that the Constitutional Convention assem- 
bled in the summer of 1875, and with these facts before it, that the subject of 
the limitation of legislative power was entered upon. The legislative branch of 
the government had sanctioned the creation of this insupportable load of debt. 
Its power had therefore been misused in this respect and should be restrained. 
The resulting evils already indicated that repudiation (at least in the mild 
form of compromise) would, in some instances, be certainly resorted to, and that 
the consequent redaction of the standard of public morals, carrying with it a 
depraved sentiment in respect to obligations between man and man in their pri- 
vate capacity, must necessarily follow. These evils must therefore be arrested, 
and the plan adopted was to cut off their source, prevent a further accumulation 
of the burdens which had caused them, and thus relieved of the fear of any 
future increment of burdens, we would be free to grapple with those already 
existing. 
" Therefore, in the constitution prepared by this convention, and afterward 
adopted by the people, provisions were inserted which effectually prevented the 
creation, thereafter, of any public debt whatever, except for certain specified 
purposes ; and so limited the rates of taxation for State, county, or municipal 
purposes, that except for the liquidation of the debts, these rates can never reach 
one and three fourths per cent on the valuation of city property, nor three fourths 
of one per cent on country property. To the tax payers of Missouri the adoption 
of this constitution came like a burst of sunshine at noon to the storm-tossed 
mariner who had lost his reckoning; or like a touch of firm bottom to the foot 
of the exhausted swimmer. Four years have elapsed since that event occurred, 
and results already prove that the State has been thereby rejuvenated, and enabled 
to commence a new and more vigorous growth." 
Since that article was penned, three years more have elapsed, and each year 
has added cumulative evidence that the new and more vigorous growth then 
begun has far outstripped the most sanguine anticipations of the writer. In the 
accomplishment of these results, the two other measures which I have mentioned, 
have also borne their part, and have contributed more largely than was expected 
from our imperfect law of rates, and the limited powers conferred upon the railroad 
commissioners. Viewing the situation from the standpoint of the present, we 
find our State debt in such condition as promises entire extinction within a few 
more years, our other public debts very materially reduced, and our private debts 
except those on railroad property almost entirely liquidated. At the same time 
our paying capacity has so largely increased that, except in a very few counties, 
neither public nor private debts are now felt to be a burden. The numerous farm 
mortgages have mostly been cancelled, and farmers are mainly out of debt. The 
extension of railroad facilities throughout the state is progressing more rapidly 
than at any former period, the number of miles having increased to 4,500 at the 
close of 1882. The total business of all the roads in the State has increased from 
