recently, by a more diversified economic development including both mines and live stock, is reflected in the following statistics of population: POPULATION OF NEVADA FROM 1860 TO 1917 (INDIANS EXCLUDED) The Central Pacific Railroad, completed in 1869, has been of the highest economic importance to the State, not only as a transportation agency, but as a taxpayer as well. Separated from the rest of the world by high mountains and by deserts and possessing no navigable waters, Nevada's need for transportation agencies was very great. Moreover, the peculiar character of the industry of the State has emphasized the dependence on railroads. Nearly everything produced in Nevada is exported and the greater part of all that is used-food, clothing, lumber, fuel, tools, machinery-is imported. At present there are three transcontinental railroads passing through the State and a number of lines of local importance reach some of the more important mining and agricultural regions. Taken as a whole, the railroads have contributed greatly to the economic and financial stability of Nevada, creating in large measure the values 1U. S. Census. 2Territorial Census. Estimate based on number of votes, school census, and other data. of mines and of agricultural and grazing land, and contributing directly to the public revenues beyond any other single interest. So unequal is the geographical distribution of resources and of wealth in Nevada that it sometimes happens that the chief property of a county is the railroad running through it. In several counties the railroads have paid over sixty per cent of the county tax-in one case as much as sixty-nine per cent. In one instance the building of a railroad within its borders rescued a county from a long-standing failure to meet its interest obligations. Any just view of taxation in Nevada must take into consideration these peculiar economic conditions: (1) The State has had a very small and unstable population at all times. (2) Its industrial development lacks diversification and its chief industry, mining, has been very unstable. (3) The agricultural lands are of very small area and they are found in large holdings and in a low state of cultivation. (4) The transcontinental railroads serving a wider region possess greater stability of value and they have contributed the most important element of stability to the financial system of the State. CHAPTER II TAXATION IN THE CONSTITUTION Nevada had two constitutional conventions preceding its admission to statehood. The first convention met in 1863 and the constitution formulated by it was rejected by the people at the ensuing election chiefly on account of matters relating to taxation, the article on this subject being unsatisfactory to the mining interests.1 Most of the early mining population of Nevada had come from California where it had been the custom not to tax mines, although the constitution of that State provided for a uniform tax on all property. The general property tax was an impossibility in the case of the placer claims, which alone were mined in the earlier years, because of their very transient value. The valuable claims of assessment time might be worked out and worthless by taxpaying time. Later the custom was carried over and applied to quartz-ledge mines, even though they had greater stability of value.2 The people of Nevada were, therefore, familiar with the exemption of mines, and such is the influence of custom in determining men's ideas of justice that it is probable that mines would have been exempted in Nevada without any serious discussion had there been sufficient property of other sorts to bear the burden of taxation easily. But the Nevadans were also former residents of 1It provided for the taxation of mines under the provisions of the general property tax. 2Statutes of California, 1857, p. 326. the eastern part of the country where they were familiar with the general property tax and where its justice was popularly regarded as axiomatic. Consequently the nonmining interests, when weighed down by an excessive burden of taxation due to the exemption of the mines, turned to the theory of the general property tax as a means of equalizing the burden. This tendency was strengthened by the fact that two efforts on the part of the Territory to secure revenue from the mines through a production tax had not met with much success on account of the opposition of the mine owners. In view of the previous opposition of the mine owners to taxation of any sort, and in view of the predominant power and influence of the mining interests, it was pretty evident to the members of the convention that the only way to make sure of a revenue from the mines was to include a specific and unequivocal requirement to that effect in the constitution. The following article was adopted: The Legislature shall provide by law for a uniform and equal rate of assessment and taxation and shall prescribe such regulations as shall secure a just valuation for taxation of all property both real and personal, including mines and mining property; excepting such property only as may be exempted by law for municipal, educational, literary, scientific, religious, or charitable purposes.1 There were some people who opposed statehood because of the smallness of the population2 and because of the 1Printed in proceedings of the second constitutional convention, p. 30. "The population was, in 1860, 6,857; in 1861, 16,374. The estimated population in 1863 was 50,000. lack of stability in the chief industry of the Territory and because of the lack of agricultural resources. There was also a degree of mistrust of the character of the men likely to exercise power under the proposed state government. But the chief opposition, the effective opposition, arose from the fear of taxation. The organized fight was directed mainly against the specific mention of mines in connection with the general property tax. The opposition of the few small agricultural districts, which were situated, for the most part, in nonmining counties not far distant from the mines, was based on their belief that they had little or nothing to gain from statehood except higher taxes. Consequently the constitution was rejected by a large majority, every county giving a majority against it. 1 THE SECOND CONVENTION Notwithstanding the large vote against statehood in 1863, a second convention was called the following yearthis, too, in the face of a decrease in the production of the leading mines and of a great shrinkage in the value of mining stocks and of other mining property. The Government at Washington was anxious to secure the one "Then, in regard to the basis of revenue, I think it unmistakably apparent that the last constitution was rejected because the mines were taxed; there can be no question as to that proposition. Now, if there is to be a constitution submitted to the people, leaving that clause out, or recommending the proposition that the mines shall not be taxed, I think it would undoubtedly be satisfactory to the people in that regard." Mr. Dunne in Constitutional Debates, p. 10. All references to the Constitutional Debates are to the debates of the second convention, the debates and proceedings of the first convention not being published. 2"But I do not believe that it is right to do any such thing as to tax the mines at their market value. Why, sir, what would have been the result in the past year if we had taxed all our mines at the full market value which |