10 REPORT OF THE

of taxation, that burdens should be made to weigh as nearly as pos-
sible, in proportion to the capacity to bear them. I accordingly
recommend that a tax of five cents per ton be laid on the transpor-
tation of all coal mined in this State, and transported from the mines
for sale, and that the same be paid by the Companies effecting such
transportation. The justice and propriety of this recommendation is so
very apparent, that I cannot doubt that it will meet a general an-.
proval, and will be regarded as a judicious method of taxation.

The stock taken and loan made to the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
Road Company by the State, have been the only investments which
the State has made in internal improvements that have been decid-
edly profitable.

In pursuance of the Act of Assembly, passed at December Ses-
sion 1832, Chapter 175, the State subscribed the sum of $500,000.00
to the capital stock of the Washington Branch of the Baltimore
and Ohio Rail Road. This investment has paid in dividends to the
State up to the present time, in addition to a stock dividend of
$50,000.00, the sum of $1,367,025.00. By the same Act a tax was
established on the franchise granted the Company, of one-fifth of
the gross receipts from passengers on said road. This tax has
been punctually paid up to July 1st, 1868, and amounted to the sum
of $3,011,048.10, and it is estimated that there was due from the
Company from the same source, on 30th September, 1871, the fur-
ther sum of $490,000.00, which, if added to the amounts already
paid, would foot up the sum of $3,501,048.10. This income being
so important and valuable to the State, it is suggested that a simi-
lar tax ought to have been laid on the Washington Branch of the
Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road, which will, of course, be a com-
peting line, and, when in operation, will detract very largely from
the amounts received on this account from the other road. When
the State had this investment in the Washington Branch of the
Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road, it seems wonderful that the Gen-
eral Assembly should have granted a similar franchise to another
road in which the State had no investment, without laying a similar
tax on the franchise granted the rival road. I recommend that the
same tax be imposed by au amendment to the charter of the Balti-
more and Potomac Road.

The two roads should be put upon equality, without detriment
to the interests of the State. A proposition, I understand, will
probably be brought forward to relieve the Baltimore and Ohio Rail
Road from this taxation, as soon as the Baltimore and Potomac Road