Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-01-07
A coNsr1TU1IosAL eUAxDAxr,

case has arisen IN OallIOrnla mat u OF
great moment 10 every citizen Of the United
States. Ia that State the railroads, rs so
often elsewhere, use every art and device
possible TO escape paying tax upon their
properly, as individuals do. The California
constitution embodies provision that makes
evasion difficult il not impossible, and the
railways Of the State are up in arms 10 pre-
vent their property being made liable to
The State constitution provides that prop
erty for taxation shall be taxed at its actual
value, and, as far as practicable, assessed to
the owner, less the value of any mortgage
upon il, which shall be taxed 10 the holder
OF the mortgage; so that the whole property
is taxed. As all the owners of corpora
ton cannot be reached, the taxation OF cor
porationp, instead of being made upon the
persons owning theproperty, is made directly
Upon the property itselt, Without deduction
for mortgage, so that in both cases the same
principle is maintained OF taxing the whole
property. Iu San NJ ateo county the South
erp Pacific railroad was thus taxed, when
Associate Justice Field, OF the Supreme
Court, and the circuit judge, Sawyer, granted
su Injunction restraining the county from
collecting the tax. But where could law
BIS found 10 save corporation from paying
taxes in the same proportion as citizens dor
bling has been got up to bolster up the
injunction. The fourteenth amendment to
the constitution, which was adopted to secure
the rights of the negro, makes all persons
born or naturalizsd in the United States citi-
zsns, and forbids any law being made TO
sbridge the rights OF citizens, or TO deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property with
out due process of law, or to deny any person
the equal protection of the lave. The rail-
roads contend, and the two judges appealed
to decided, that a corporation is "person,"
and as such entitled 10 all that this
amendment, and the law generally, grant for
the protection, immunity and privilege Of
persons" Because the mode of taxing
corporate property is different from the mode
of taxing individual property, it is claimed
that there is denial 10 the railroad COM
pany of 'the equal protection of the laws"
The matter now goes 10 the Supreme Court
for settlement. Why is all this so important
to every citizen in the United States? We
all know how corporations, which are very
often outrageous monopolies, disregard and
trample upon the rights of citizens, until
il. IL Ckata Sd - -. ~
commissioners 10 watch their proceedings and
check their iliegalities. To declare corpora
lions persons" and allow them the
standing of individual citizens, would,
contemporary says, be "to declare corpo-
rstions absolutely independent of legislative
control-whIch means our conversion into a
nation Of millionaires and psupers. No
railroad commission could be created, no
Imitation placed upon fares, freights, COM
binations, mouopolies. or other corporate in
Equity, as every right or exemption given
by law to citizens would be enjoyed by the
corporations. Laws taxing corporations,
statutes requiring foreign corporations 10 de-
posit securities before dealing with the peo-
pie of State, would be unconstitutional"
AS corporations are neither born nor natu-
rallied, it looks like a jest to regard them as
included in the words of the constitution,
which say, "All persons born or naturalized
in the United States" when they can show
no proof or certificate OF either birth or
no proof of the possession of
minds, bodies, or the power of breathing; but
as two Judges have decided that corpora
tions are persons, and, as in the present case, a
whole host of the most able lawyers have
been retained to plead the railroad side of
The case, who can tell what the whole So
preme Court may decide? 1t may say that
rach individual member OF corporation
being person the whole corporation is-not
4 psrsop, that cannot be, but an aggregate
Of persons. But ii the corporation is not
one person, how can it sue or be sued? 1t
would be resolved into its elements; the
" hole would have no more rights or privi-
Ieges Than any other one person has. How
hen could it claim any exclusive rights or
privileges not possessed by every person thst
is citizsn7