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merce is at rest within a State and has become commingled with the mass of property therein, it may be taxed by such State without thereby imposing a direct burden upon interstate commerce, that doctrine, as expounded in the decided cases, including those relied upon by the court below, has always expressly excluded the conception that a State could, without directly burdening interstate commerce, discriminate against such property by imposing upon it a burden of taxation greater than that levied upon domestic property of a like nature.

The leading cases announcing the doctrine that a State may tax property which had moved in the channels of interstate commerce, when such property had become at rest therein, even before sale in the original package, are Woodruff v. Parham, 8 Wall. 123, and Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622. But in both those cases it was sedulously pointed out that the power which was thus recognized did not, and could not, include the authority to burden the property brought from another State with a discriminating tax. In American Steel Wire Co. v. Speed, 192 U. S. 500, 519, where the doctrine of Woodruff v. Parham and Brown v. Houston was reviewed and restated, it was pointed out that to prevent the levy of a tax upon property brought from another State, even after it had come at rest within a State, from being a direct burden upon interstate commerce, property so situated must be taxed "without discrimination, like other property situated within the State."

The statements just made adequately point out the misconception as to the rulings of this court upon which the court below placed its conclusion, since the court took no heed of the express declaration concerning the nullity of any discriminating tax made in the cases which the court relied on. The importance of the subject, however, and the statement made by the court below as to the long existence in Tennessee of the tax exemption in favor of the products of the soil of Tennessee, leads us to a brief review of other decided cases in this court which have long since clearly established the want

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of power in a State to discriminate by taxation in any form against property brought from other States.

In Guy v. Baltimore, 100 U. S. 434, the invalidity was adjudged of a municipal ordinance of the city of Baltimore which established rates of wharfage to be charged on vessels resorting to or lying at, "landing, depositing or transporting goods or articles other than the productions of this State, on any wharf or wharves belonging to said mayor and city council, or any public wharf in the said city, other than the wharves belonging to or rented by the State." The principle, settled by earlier decisions, which were referred to (Woodruff v. Parham, 8 Wall. 123; Hinson v. Lott, 8 Wall. 148, and Ward v. Maryland, 12 Wall. 418), was reaffirmed, the court saying (pp. 439, 442):

"In view of these and other decisions of this court, it must be regarded as settled that no State can, consistently with the Federal Constitution, impose upon the products of other States, brought therein for sale or use, or upon citizens because engaged in the sale therein, or the transportation thereto, of the products of other States, more onerous public burdens or taxes than it imposes upon the like products of its own territory. If this were not so, it is easy to perceive how the power of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States could be practically annulled, and the equality of commercial privileges secured by the Federal Constitution to citizens of the several States be materially abridged and impaired

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"The State, it will be admitted, could not lawfully impose upon such cargo any direct public burden or tax because it may consist, in whole or in part, of the products of other States. The concession of such a power to the States would render wholly nugatory all National control of commerce among the States, and place the trade and business of the country at the mercy of local regulations, having for their object to secure exclusive benefits to the citizens and products

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of particular States. But it is claimed that a State may empower one of its political agencies, a mere municipal corporation representing a portion of its civil power, to burden interstate commerce by exacting from those transporting to its wharves the products of other States wharfage fees, which it does not exact from those bringing to the same wharves the products of Maryland. The city can no more do this than it or the State could discriminate against the citizens and products of other States in the use of the public streets or other public highways."

In Webber v. Virginia, 103 U. S. 344, a license statute of the State of Virginia was held to be a regulation of commerce and invalid because the tax was made to depend upon the foreign character of the articles dealt in; that is, upon their having been manufactured without the State. The court said (p. 350):

"If by reason of their foreign character the State can impose a tax upon them or upon the person through whom the sales are effected, the amount of the tax will be a matter resting in her discretion. She may place the tax at so high a figure as to exclude the introduction of the foreign article and prevent competition with the home product. It was against legislation of this discriminating kind that the framers of the Constitution intended to guard when they vested in Congress the power to regulate commerce among the several States."

In Walling v. Michigan, 116 U. S. 446, an act of the State of Michigan, which imposed a tax or duty on persons who, not having their principal place of business within the State, engaged in the business of selling, or of soliciting the sale of certain described liquors, to be shipped into the State, was held to be repugnant to the commerce clause, as being "a discriminating tax levied against persons for selling goods brought into the State from other States or countries." The court said (p. 455):

"A discriminating tax imposed by a State operating to the

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disadvantage of the products of other States when introduced into the first-mentioned State is, in effect, a regulation in restraint of commerce among the States, and as such is a usurpation of the power conferred by the Constitution upon the Congress of the United States."

And in the course of the opinion, referring to state decisions announcing a want of authority in the several States to prescribe different regulations in relation to the commerce in certain articles, dependent upon the State from which they were brought, the court thus referred to a decision of the Supreme Court of Missouri (p. 457):

"In State v. North, 27 Missouri, 464, where an act of Missouri imposed a tax upon merchants for all goods purchased by them, except such as might be the growth, produce, or manufacture of that State, and manufactured articles, the growth or produce of other States, it was held by the Supreme Court of that State that the law was unconstitutional and void. The court says: 'From the foregoing statement of the law and facts of this case it will be seen that it presents the question of the power of the States, in the exercise of the right of taxation, to discriminate between products of this State and those manufactured in our sister States.' And after an examination of the causes which led to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, one of the principal of which was the necessity for the regulation of commerce and the laying of imposts and duties by a single government, the court says: 'But, whatever may be the motive for the tax, whether revenue, restriction, retaliation or protection of domestic manufactures, it is equally a regulation of commerce, and in effect. an exercise of the power of laying duties on imposts, and its exercise by the States is entirely at war with the spirit of the Constitution, and would render vain and nugatory the power granted to Congress in relation to these subjects. Can any power more destructive to the union and harmony of the States be exercised than that of imposing discriminating taxes or duties on imports from other States? Whatever may be the motive for such

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taxes, they cannot fail to beget irritation and to lead to retaliation; and it is not difficult to foresee that an indulgence in such a course of legislation must inflame and produce a state of feeling that would seek its gratification in any measures regardless of the consequences.' "

The principle applied in the foregoing cases was also given effect in Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U. S. 313; Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78, and Voight v. Wright, 141 U. S. 62, and so-called inspection laws of various States were held to be repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution because of their discriminating character. In New York v. Roberts, 171 U. S. 658, while the tax there considered, imposed by New York upon a corporation of another State, was sustained as a valid tax upon the franchise of doing business as a corporation in New York, the court reaffirmed the authority of its former decisions declaring the invalidity of all taxes of a discriminating character levied by a State upon the products of other States.

In this connection we excerpt from the opinion in Philadelphia Steamship Co. v. Pennsylvania, 122 U. S. 326, statements which directly relate to the subject in hand and which conclusively demonstrate the unsoundness of the proposition which the court below upheld, that is, that the commerce clause of the Constitution does not protect property brought from another State from being discriminated against after it has arrived and been commingled with the mass of property within the State of its destination. Commenting upon the reasoning of the opinion in State Tax on Railway Gross Receipts, 15 Wall. 284, the court said (122 U. S. 341):

"When the latter (imported goods) become mingled with the general mass of property in the State, they are not followed and singled out for taxation as imported goods, and by reason of their being imported. If they were, the tax would be as unconstitutional as if imposed upon them whilst in the original packages. When mingled with the general mass of property in the State they are taxed in the same manner as other prop

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