Edward Douglass White

“ The method of assessing railroads provided for in the statute was to treat each road as a unit, embracing the sum of its franchises, property, and rights. The division of the total amount of the one assessment of the property of the road into certain sums per mile was a mere method of stating the assessment, and did not change the real unit forming the basis of taxation,-the railroad, in its entirety, comprising every element entering therein which could be made assessable. ”

“ It is conceded that there was no treaty with the Indians for whose benefit the reservation was established, limiting the power of congress to grant to the railroad the rights conveyed. The consent of congress to the railroad's entering on the land and using it as therein provided was, then, a valid exercise of power. Its necessary effect was, to the extent of the grant, and for the purposes thereof, to withdraw the land from the operation of the prior act of reservation. ”

“ It is insisted that the territory is without authority, under its organic act, to extend its taxing power beyond its limits and over a reservation created by act of congress, and that it has undertaken to do so, either directly, or by including the value of the property within the reservation in its general estimate of the amount for which the company ought to be assessed. ”