William Howard Taft

“ Maryland show that the analogy between imports and articles in original packages in interstate commerce in respect of immunity from taxation fails. The distinction is that the immunity attaches to the import itself before sale, while the immunity in case of an article because of its relation to interstate commerce depends on the question whether the tax challenged regulates or burdens interstate commerce. ”

“ The question we have to decide is whether oil transported by appellants from New York or elsewhere outside of Texas to their warerooms or warehouse in Texas, there held for sales in Texas in original packages of transportation, and subsequently sold and delivered in Texas in such original packages, may be made the basis of an occupation tax upon appellants, when the state tax applies to all wholesale dealers in oil engaged in making sales and delivery in Texas. ”

“ Many of the sales by the appellants were made by them before the oil to fulfill the sales was sent to Texas. These were properly treated by the state authorities as exempt from state taxation. They were in effect contracts for the sale and delivery of the oil across state lines. The soliciting of orders for such sales is equally exempt. Such transactions are interstate commerce in its essence and any state tax upon it is a regulation of it and a burden upon it. ”

“ In that case, Woodruff, an auctioneer in Mobile, received, in the course of his general business for himself and as consignee and agent for others, merchandise from Alabama and from other states and sold it in unbroken packages. The city of Mobile under its charter levied a uniform tax on real and personal property, on sales at auction, on sales of merchandise, and on capital employed in the business in the city. Woodruff objected to paying any tax on the auction sales of merchandise from other states in original packages. ”

“ It was said in that case (257 U.S. 290, 42 Sup. Ct. 108, 66 L. Ed. 239) that—
'Where goods in one state are transported into another for purposes of sale, the commerce does not end with the transportation, but embraces as well the sale of the goods after they reach their destination, and while they are in the original packages. ”

“ Speed, 192 U.S. 500, 519. On the same principle, where goods are purchased in one state for transportation to another, the commerce includes the purchase quite as much as it does the transportation. American Express Company v. Iowa, 196 U.S. 133, 143.'
But this language has no relevancy to show that a tax without discrimination on goods after the transportation ceases, is a burden on interstate commerce, a proposition negatived in the American Steel & Wire Co. Case it cites, or that a different rule should apply to an ad valorem property tax from that in case of a tax on sales. ”

“ The cases all involved the validity of statutes providing for excessive inspection fees and the question of saving the statute as an excise law applicable to part of the sales of the oil was an incidental one. The facts upon which the line between taxable and nontaxable sales could be correctly drawn do not appear fully in any of the cases, or to have been discussed by counsel. ”

“ Justice Miller in Woodruff v. Parham is chiefly devoted to showing that exports are limited to goods sent out of the country, the decision on the interstate commerce phase of the issue was most fully considered. ”