The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-01-09

persons and upon corporations, other than
municipal, doing business in the state"
Under this provision the legislature
enacted law that every chartered tele-
graph company doing business in the state
should be required to pay tax of one
cent for every full-rate message sent, and
one-half cent for every message less than
full rate. The Western Union Telegraph
company is New York corporation. Its
lines extend into Texas as we'll as into
and through most of the states and terri
tories Of the United States. A large
number Of dispatches are sent over this
company's lines from its offices in Texas
to places outside of the state. The com
pany neglected to pay the taxes imposed,
and suit was brought against the com.
pany. Its defense was that the law i'm
posing the tax was in conflict with the
constitution of the United States, and
therefore void. The case was decided
adversely to the company by the state
courts and was taken to the United States
supreme court. The court held that
"Q) In respect to its foreign and interstate
business telegraph company u.s. as an instru-
ment of commerce, subject to the regulating
power Of congress. ~ State laws, so far as
they impose upon 1t a specific tax on each
message which 1t transmits beyond the state,
are unconstitutional"
This company having also accepted GER
toi Of ~ Of ha
came an agent of the United States, 80
far as the business of the government is
concerned. The Texas law was also held
unconstitutional so far as it taxed the
messages which an officer of the United
States sent over this company's lines
on public business. Chief Justice Waite,
delivering the opinion of the court, said :
A telegraph company occupies the same
relation to commerce as a carrier of messages
that railroad company does as carrier of
goods. Both companies are instruments of
commerce and their business is commerce
itself. In the case of The State Freight
Tar, this court decided that a law of Pennsyl-
| vana see above was unconstitutional, so far
as II related to goods taken through the state,
| or from points without the state to points
| without, because to that extent 1t was reg
ulation Of foreign and interstate commerce
q. The present case, as it seems
to us, comes within this principle. The tax is
| the same on every message sent, and because
it is sent, without regard to the distance car
ried or the price charged. :. AS to the gov
eminent messages, it is a tax by the state on
the means employed by the government of the
| United States to execute its constitutional pow
ers and, therefore, void. 1t follows that the
| judgment Of the state court so far it includes
| the tax on messages sent out of the state, or for
| the government on public business, is errone-
| GUS"
The court accordingly reversed the
judgment of the supreme court of Texas,
but held that "any tax which the state
may put on messages sent by private
parties from one place to another ex.
clusively within its own jurisdiction will
not be repugnant to the constitution OF
the United States" We have referred to
this case at considerable length because
there seems to be some Misrepresentation
as to the extent of the right and power OF
the state to tax express and telegraph
companies, or any other companies doing
business within the state, but not char
tered by the state. Even the Brattleborc
Reformer fell into the popular error in this
respect in commenting upon the relation Of
the Hooker revenue bill, so called, "to the
limitations of the Texas decision" when
it said, on late occasion, that " all tele
graphic and railroad business extending
to other states requires the Vermont
share to be proportionately figured" This
is true of the railroads because they arr
chartered by the states. But the foreign
express and telegraph companies, under
the Texas decision, pay only on the re
ceipts for business begun and ended with
in the state. This accounts for tn,
smallness of the returns of these com
panies last August, which at the time wa
matter of some surprise and the subjec
of considerable comment.