“ No canon of construction is better established or more universally observed than this: that if a statute will bear two constructions, one within and the other beyond the constitutional power of the law-making body, the courts should adopt that which is consistent with the Constitution, because it is to be presumed that the legislature intended to act within the scope of its authority. ”

“ The taxing provisions of the act apply to all corporations doing business in the state for profit, whether organized under its laws, or under the laws of other states, or of foreign countries, and entirely irrespective of the question whether they are engaged in commerce. ”

“ Reference is made to an extract from the opinion in the Adams Case, 155 U.S. 696, where the court said: 'Doubtless, no state could add to the taxation of property according to the rule of ordinary property taxation, the burden of a license or other tax on the privilege of using, constructing, or operating an instrumentality of interstate or international commerce, or for the carrying on of such commerce; but the value of property results from the use to which it is put, and varies with the profitableness of that use ”

“ And we proceed to consider whether, in view of the construction thus placed upon act No. 112, the franchise tax imposed upon plaintiff in error pursuant to its terms runs counter to the commerce clause or the 14th Amendment.
The tax, as will be observed, is not in any wise based upon the receipts of the railroad company from interstate commerce, either taken alone or in connection with the receipts from its intrastate business. ”

“ Rep. 817, the court, reviewing numerous previous cases, laid down certain propositions as well-established, and among them the following: (a) No state can compel a party, individual, or corporation, to pay for the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce; (b) this immunity does not prevent a state from imposing ordinary property taxes upon property having a situs within its territory, although it be employed in interstate commerce ”

“ Under the first three sections of this act, each corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the state for profit is required to pay a tax of 1/20 of 1 per cent upon 'that part of its subscribed or issued and outstanding capital employed in Arkansas,' with an exception not now pertinent ”

“ Therefore it was natural that, in such a provision as is contained in § 20, language having upon its face a general scope should be adopted; but it need not be indiscriminately applied to all the several kinds of corporations that are subject to the act. ”

“ Since, therefore, the amount of the imposition is not made to fluctuate with the volume or the value of the business done, we are relieved from those difficulties that arise where state taxes are based upon the earnings of interstate carriers, as in Maine v. ”