William R. Day

“ The state must be allowed to tax the property, and to tax it at its actual value as a going concern. On the other hand, the state cannot tax the interstate business. The two necessities hardly admit of an absolute logical reconciliation. Yet the distinction is not without sense. When a legislature is trying simply to value property, it is less likely to attempt to or effect injurious regulation than when it is aiming directly at the receipts from interstate commerce. A practical line can be drawn by taking the whole scheme of taxation into account. ”

“ Appreciating the difficulty emphasized in the Galveston Case of drawing the line between taxes that burden interstate commerce and those whereby the legislature is simply undertaking to impose a property tax within its legitimate power, measured in part by the income from interstate commerce transactions, how does the present case stand? The supreme court of Minnesota construed the tax to be a property tax, measured by the gross earnings within the state, which, under their construction of the tax, included the earnings here in question. ”

“ The statute was not aimed exclusively at the avails of interstate commerce (Philadelphia & S. Mail S. S.C.o. v. Pennsylvania, supra) , but, as in the Maine Case, was an attempt to measure the amount of tax within the admitted power of the state by income derived, in part, from the conduct of interstate commerce. The property of express companies, being much of it of an intangible character, is difficult to reach and properly assess for taxation. ”