850 Meyer—Early Railroad Legislation in Wisconsin. 
or reformatory institutions? If so, their validity can not be drawn 
in question. The power of taxation for a public purpose is un¬ 
questioned, and the decisive point is whether or not taxation 
for the purpose of donating to a railroad company the money 
thus raised is taxation for a public purpose. In supporting the 
affirmative of this thesis it was assumed, as the foundation, that 
that which is a public use so as to justify the exercise of the 
power of eminent domain, is also a public use which will, under 
all circumstances, justify the power of taxation. The dissenting 
opinion emphasizes this view. “Taxation and eminent domain 
are alike in this: each requires a public purpose to justify its 
exercise. How can the constitution hold that a railroad is a 
public purpose for the exercise of eminent domain, and not for 
taxation? There is no consistent reasoning by which a court 
can say that any particular work or exercise is public, so as to 
sustain an exercise of the one power, but not public, so as to 
sustain the other. ” But the court asserts that this view ignores 
the difference between public uses. Public uses differ in nature 
and kind, and in the degree or extent of the public enjoyment. 
Highways, public buildings, and the like are public per se; rail¬ 
roads, turnpikes, ferries, toll-bridges have been declared public 
only with respect to the power of eminent domain. " The public use 
implies a possession, occupation, and enjoyment of the land by 
the public, or public agencies. 1 Incidental public benefits do 
not constitute, in the sense of law, a public use. To declare 
taxation for donations taxation for public uses would throw the 
door of taxation wide open for every conceivable object. Would 
it not justify taxation for the purpose of raising money to build 
mills and factories for private corporations? The peculiar 
characteristics of a railroad company do not transform it into 
a public corporation. In so far as it has capacity to assume 
and exercise, in the name of the state, the power of eminent 
domain, a railroad company may be a public or quasi-public 
corporation, yet in all its other powers, functions, and capaci¬ 
ties it is essentially a private corporation, not distinguishable 
from any other of that name or character. It may be public in 
so far as any one may, on payment of a reasonable rate, enjoy 
1 Cooley, Constitutional Limitations , p. 531. 
