Owen J. Roberts

“ Good management makes for volume and volume makes for the possibility of making or acquiring more capital, and more capital makes for the possibility of employing the highest grade of experts, so that there is constant intercommunication or revolving. I would find the same advantage adhering in a large department store over a small one. ”

“ This Court said, however:
'The difference between a business where coupons are used, even regarding their use as a means of advertising, and a business where they are not used, is pronounced. Complainants are at pains to display it. The legislation which regards the difference is not arbitrary within the rulings of the cases. It is established that a distinction in legislation is not arbitrary, if any state of facts reasonably can be conceived that would sustain it. ”

“ To determine that a tax of $25, instead of $3, $10, $15, or $20, shall be imposed in respect of any store, it is necessary only to have an affirmative answer to the inquiry, Is this store operated by a person who already owns or operates twenty or more stores? ”

“ Persons owning a greater number of stores, and with more money invested, in a business similar to that of appellee, but having only one store in Indiana, pay $3 because they have but one store in the state. Large numbers of stores independently owned and controlled are members of associations or 'voluntary chains' under which co-operative buying is conducted for the group, but each of them is required to pay a license fee of only $3. The mere addition of a new unit or store to an existing chain of stores does not increase the sales more than arithmetically. ”

“ Obviously greater specialization in management and methods is possible in the latter type of enterprise than in the former, whose management, however capable, must after all consist of many separate types each devoted to a single store similar to an independent retail store. ”

“ For the want of a valid ground upon which to stand, therefore, the classification should fall, because it is made to depend, not upon size or value or character, amount of capital invested or income received, but upon the mere circumstance-wholly irrelevant so far as any of the advantages claimed are concerned-that the business of one is carried on under many roofs, and that of the other under one only. ”

“ Notwithstanding the differences disclosed between chain and other stores, the court below found that 'all persons engaged in the operation of one or more stores * * * belong to the same class, for occupational tax purposes, as plaintiff, and should pay the same license fee, regardless of the number of stores owned and operated by them,' and that any other classification is arbitrary and unconstitutional. ”

“ There undoubtedly are, and always will be, more or less inequalities in the operation of all general legislation arising from the different conditions of persons from their means, business, or position in life, against which no foresight can guard. ”

“ The abilit of the chain stores to make large quantity purchases; to pay cash and thus obtain the advantage of discounts; skill in buying so as to avoid either overstocking or understocking; warehousing in, and distribution from, a single warehouse for numerous stores; large capital with the advantages flowing therefrom; certain pricing and sales policies resulting in slightly lower prices on the part of the chain stores as compared with single stores; more rapid turnover of goods; cheaper and better advertising; superior management ”

“ It is a matter of history that unequal and discriminating taxation, leveled against special classes, has been the fruitful means of oppressions, and the cause of more commotions and disturbance in society, of insurrections and revolutions, than any other cause in the world.'
It seems plain enough that we have in the present case 'a carefully devised scheme to produce such inequality ”

“ For example, there are two large department stores in the city of Indianapolis each doing a business of more than $8,000,000 per annum, one operating 124 separate departments and the other, 86 separate departments, but each pays a license fee under the statute of only $3 per annum; while appellee, owning 225 separate stores and doing a total business of approximately $1,000,000 per annum, pays license fees of $5,443 per annum-eighteen hundred times as much! ”

“ Of the retail stores of the country approximately 63 per cent. are independent or community stores, 16 per cent. are department stores, 12 per cent. are chain stores, and 4 per cent. are mail order houses. Several department stores in Indianapolis doing a much larger business than the appellee pay a tax of only $3 as contrasted with his tax of $5,443, although their business is highly competitive with that of chain stores. ”

“ The fact that a statute discriminates in favor of a certain class does not make it arbitrary, if the discrimination is founded upon a reasonable distinction, American Sugar Refining Co. v. Louisiana, 179 U.S. 89, 21 S.C.t. ”

“ The statute provides that it shall be unlawful for any person, firm, association, or corporation, foreign or domestic, to establish or operate any store [3] within the state without first obtaining from the appellants a license, which must be renewed annually. It makes the operation of a store without a license a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $100 for each day it is so operated. ”

“ No decision of the Indiana courts is cited in support of the court's conclusion, and those referred to by appellants demonstrate that the section permits classification for purposes of taxation and that the same principles are applicable as under the Fourteenth Amendment. Kersey v. Terre Haute, 161 Ind. 471, 68 N. E. 1027; Gafill v. Bracken, 195 Ind. 551, 145 N. E. 312, 146 N. E. 109. Article 10, § 1, [5] is declared by the Supreme Court of the state to be applicable only to the assessment made under a general levy, and not to occupation or license taxes. ”

“ Classification, to be legitimate, must rest upon some ground of difference having a reasonable and just relation to the object of the legislation. All persons similarly circustan ced must be treated alike. ”