Melville Fuller

“ The supreme court of Illinois had repeatedly sustained the assessment on the whole capital stock as being an assessment on the capital stock of the corporation created by the state of Illinois. But in none of the cases in which the question of the validity of such capital stock assessments arose was the point considered that they were contrary to the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ Because said bridge company is consolidated corporation of the states of Illinois and Iowa, one half in each of said states, and its entire business is that of interstate commerce, and any tax thereon is a tax upon such interstate commerce, and is without authority of law and void.
'2d. Such claimed capital stock tax is levied upon the whole capital stock, when only one half thereof, if any, is assessable in Illinois.
'3d. The only tax assessable against said property is upon its tangible property in Illinois. ”

“ People, 145 Ill. 596, 34 N. E. 482, it was held that when the middle of a navigable river becomes the boundary line between two states, the middle of the current or channel of commerce will be regarded as the boundary line; that an assessor in Illinois, in assessing a bridge over a navigable river forming the boundary of the state for the purpose of taxation, has no right to assess any part of such bridge that is located beyond such boundary line ”