private interests; the grant or grants for such roads to be disposed of by the proper authorities of such city, at public auction, to the parties who will agree, with sufficient security, to pay to the city the largest sum in gross, or the largest sum annually, for the privileges granted; or if not at public auction, then in such other way as may be best calculated to make certain a fair and honest disposition of the grants, upon terms which will secure to the city treasury their just and reasonable value.

An act containing such provisions, or framed upon such principles, at the same time providing safeguards for the general public convenience, and for the protection of private rights, would be free from any imputation of favoritism and improvidence, and would secure to the tax-payers a just return for the use of the public property granted.

I respectfully ask, therefore, a reconsideration of the bill herewith returned.

JOHN T. HOFFMAN.

ALBANY, April 16, 1869.

To the Senate:

I return, without my signature, Senate bill No. 121, entitled "An act to aid in the completion of the Whitehall and Plattsburgh railroad, and to amend chapter 103 of the Laws of 1867, and to renew the appropriation made thereby."

In my annual message, in referring to the condition of the State, the burdens resting upon the people, and what they would expect and demand of their representatives, I thought it proper to say as follows:

"While in all public affairs a reasonable liberality is to be encouraged, extravagance and waste will be condemned. A large

amount of invested capital has been declared by Congress exempt from the taxation which now oppresses nearly every interest in the country. Those who bear no portion of the public burdens will never be active in opposing their increase. Some will be always ready to favor projects involving great outlays of public moneys in enterprises of real or supposed merit, but the great body of the people will not sanction any expenditures or appropriations, the necessity of which is not clearly apparent."

In considering any bill which appropriates money from the State Treasury to aid private capital in constructing new railroads, my duty to the people at large requires that I should not overlook the facts that we are in the midst of a period of great speculation; that we are under the influence, to some extent, of a depreciated or inflated currency, one of the invariable effects of which is to create an activity more or less feverish, under the stimulus of which men are not likely to discriminate carefully between legitimate enterprises and speculative projects. When this is over, and we return to a sound currency and a more healthy condition, we will estimate more justly the heavy burdens of taxation resting upon us, and will witness a diminution of the profits which some undertakings now earn, and of the promise of profit in others.

I fully comprehend what great benefits may be realized from wisely projected and economically constructed railroads, as well by the State at large as by the localities through which they pass. I would be glad to see their construction pushed forward with energy whenever there is need of them. I should rejoice in seeing the people of the State assist all such enterprises whenever it was apparent that the general interests of the State would be promoted by their success or injuriously affected by their failure. There are, I know, some portions of our territory full of undeveloped riches, and yet so sparsely settled that individual energy

and home capital are wholly inadequate of themselves to open avenues of transit and communication to and through them, or even to contribute so much towards local improvements as to inspire capitalists elsewhere with that confidence which would lead them to come to their aid. To open such regions to active traffic, to bring them into nearer connection with our great markets, to give to them facilities for communication and transportation which other more favored portions of the State enjoy, may often be so important to the whole State, and be so well calculated to add largely to its material and general prosperity, as to justify at times, and under proper restrictions, the granting of some aid from the Treasury of the State. While, however, it may be wise sometimes to grant this aid to enterprises simply because of their great merit and their great need, the money of the people should never be used to foster and encourage a spirit of speculation, or enterprises which may possibly have their origin in it. Even in cases of great merit, there is one difficulty which suggests hesitation, and that is that a contribution from the State Treasury, in one instance, becomes a precedent for many others. Meritorious projects and those purely speculative become linked together, and alike appeal to this precedent, with equal confidence, and too often, in the present condition of financial affairs and legislative temper, with equal chances of success. Every new railroad corporation thinks it has a right to some portion of the public money, and sends its friends to the Legislature, intent on securing means from the public treasury, which receives its supply from the contributions of the heavy-burdened tax-payers of the State.

As a general rule, the sagacity of private capital will be quick to see where railroads are needed, where they can be made to pay, and where they will add to the public wealth. It is hardly possible for the Legislature or an Executive to decide these points

so well as can be done by the keen sagacity, the willing enterprise, and the careful scrutiny of private capitalists.

General laws have been passed for the incorporation of railroad companies. Liberal facilities are already extended (whether always wisely or not I need not here discuss) to the people in cities, villages, and towns, by the issue of their corporate bonds, to associate their corporate responsibility with individual capital, to construct their railroads. Under these circumstances, it seems to me that almost any meritorious enterprise can succeed without State aid, and that such aid should only be granted, if at all, when the necessity is clearly apparent, and when the well-being of the State at large demands it.

The aggregate appropriations proposed to be made from the State Treasury to railroad corporations, by bills introduced at the present session, is over four and a quarter millions of dollars, as will appear by the following statement:

Most of these bills have progressed so far as to indicate clearly

that the friends of one rely, for success, upon the aid and coöperation of the friends of the others.

The whole amount of taxes levied by the State for schools, canals, bounty debts, railroads, and general purposes in 1868, was $10,343,317.01, being five and four-fifth mills upon the assessed valuation of property. The amount of State aid proposed by the bills above referred to, viz., $4,315,000, is more than two fifths of the whole State tax of 1868. If a tax were imposed in any single year to provide for this aggregate of State aid, it would make the State tax eight and one-fifth mills, instead of five and four fifths, as in 1868. This bill provides for extending the tax over two succeeding years, which same provision will no doubt be adopted in the other bills. In such case the tax would be increased to seven mills for two successive years.

These figures may well excite alarm. If this bill be successful, it will be likely to be regarded as a precedent and to lead to the success of most, if not all, of the others, and thus to subject the Treasury to an expenditure of nearly $4,000,000 more, distributed among enterprises of similar character, whatever may be their respective degrees of merit.

It is a fact as apparent as it is deplorable, that whenever heavy demands are made upon the public Treasury for other than the ordinary expenditures of the State Government, influences are at work in and around the Capitol, to secure their success, which are not calculated to promote an impartial exercise of the legislative power; and it may be predicted with almost absolute certainty, if these present applications are successful, that at some future day, and that not far distant, a portion of the very money now drawn from the Treasury of the State will be used as means to secure renewed and increased appropriations for like purposes.

It is confidently alleged that the people of the State will and do approve of these enormous appropriations, and are willing to have imposed upon them these new burdens for the sake of aid