“ It is of the last importance that the freedom of interstate commerce shall not be trammeled or burdened by local regulations which, under the guise of regulating local affairs, really burden rights secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States. ”

“ The local and the interstate business may be necessary each to the other to make the whole pay. Or the telegraph company might carry on the local business at a loss, for the sake of popularity or other indirect sources of gain. In the last case the fee would come out of earnings that the state has no right to touch. But these considerations do not reach their aim. To deny the right of Kansas to do as it chooses with the local business is to require the local business to help to sustain that between the states. ”

“ To hold otherwise, is to allow form to control substance. It is easy to be seen that if every state should pass a statute similar to that enacted by Kansas, not only the freedom of interstate commerce would be destroyed, the decisions of this court nullified, and the business of the country thrown into confusion, but each state would continue to meet its own local expenses not only by exactions that directly burdened such commerce, but by taxation upon property situated beyond its limits. ”

“ It is true that, in many cases, the general rule has been laid down that a state may, if it chooses to do so, exclude foreign corporations from its limits, or impose such terms and conditions on their doing business in the state as, in its judgment, may be consistent with the interests of the people. But those were cases in which the particular foreign corporation before the court was engaged in ordinary business, and not directly or regularly in interstate or foreign commerce. ”

“ The highest court of Kentucky sustained the conviction and held the statute to be constitutional. Among other things it said: 'There is no discrimination made between corporations doing a like business; and the state, although the appellant's company is a foreign corporation, has the right to license the business and calling of this agent as it would that of the lawyer or merchant whose business is confined to the state alone.' The judgment of the Kentucky court was reversed by this court. ”

“ We are aware of no decision by this court holding that a state may, by any device or in any way, whether by a license tax in the form of a 'fee,' or otherwise, burden the interstate business of a corporation of another state, although the state may tax the corporation's property regularly or permanently located within its limits, where the ascertainment of the amount assessed is made 'dependent in fact on the value of its property situated within the state.' Postal Teleg. ”

“ The telegraph company has expended in the state large sums of money, adequate for the purpose of enabling it to do both local and interstate business. The investment is there, and its magnitude, it is fair to assume, is, in part, a resultant of the requirements of the local business. The continued beneficial existence of the investment depends upon the right to use the property for the purpose for which it was acquired ”

“ Any person carrying on any business in the state for a transportation or express company, not incorporated in Kentucky, without having obtained the required license, was subject to be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500, at the discretion of the jury. The statute specified the fee to be paid for the license, also a certain fee for filing a copy of the company's charter, and still another fee for filing an original or annual statement. ”

“ If the Constitution of Mississippi should be read as imposing an obligation to take local passengers, the question for us might be which, if not both, the clause of the Constitution or the tax act, is invalid. ”

“ I hardly can suppose that the provision is made any the worse by giving a bad reason for it or by calling it by a bad name. I quite agree that we must look through form to substance. The whole matter is left in the Western Union's hands. ”

“ But it is said to be well settled that a state, in the exercise of its reserved powers, may prescribe the terms on which a foreign corporation, whatever the nature of its business, may enter and do business within its limits. ”

“ One of the questions in that case was as to the constitutional validity of a Tennessee statute, passed in 1887, which required every company operating sleeping cars and doing business in that state to pay, as a privilege tax, 'on each car, per annum, $500.' The Pullman Car Company operated sleeping cars in Tennessee under a contract with railroad companies traversing the state. The gross receipts of the companies from lines running into the state were, annually, about $500,000, and only about $25,000 annually from passengers carried locally in Tennessee. ”

“ We cannot fail to recognize the intimate connection which, at this day, exists between the interstate business done by interstate companies and the local business which, for the convenience of the people, must be done, or can generally be better and more economically done, by such interstate companies rather than by domestic companies organized to conduct only local business. ”

“ It was urged in that case that a portion of the telegraph company's business was wholly internal to the state, and therefore was taxable by the state. To this view the response of the court was: 'But that fact does not remove the difficulty. The tax affects the whole business without discrimination. ”

“ There are other aspects of the case involving constitutional questions that might be considered, and which, it is contended, would lead to the same conclusion as is herein indicated. But it is unnecessary to pass on any of the grounds urged by the telegraph company in its defense, other than those made the basis of the decision now rendered. ”

“ Pennsylvania, 136 U.S. 114, 34 L. ed. 394, 3 Inters. Com. Rep. 178, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 958. Further, in the Crutcher Case: 'We do not think that the difficulty is at all obviated by the fact that the express company, as incidental to its main business (which is to carry goods between different states) , does also some local business by carrying goods from one point to another within the state of Kentucky. ”