Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 10).djvu/105

Rh Estimates differed in various states but averaged up quite evenly. To the rising generation, to whom tollgates are almost unknown, a study of the toll system affords novel entertainment, helping one to realize something of one of the most serious questions of public economics of two generations ago. Tollgates averaged one in eighteen or twenty miles in Pennsylvania, and one in ten miles in Ohio, with tolls a little higher than half the rate in Pennsylvania.

Tollgate-keepers were appointed by the governor in the early days in Ohio, but, later, by the commissioners. These keepers received a salary which was deducted from their collections, the remainder being turned over to the commissioners. The salary established in Ohio in 1832 was one hundred and eighty dollars per annum. In 1836 it was increased to two hundred dollars per annum, and tollgate-keepers were also allowed to retain five per cent of all tolls received above one thousand dollars. In 1845 tollgate-keepers were