Source: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Armour_Packing_Company_v._Lacy/Opinion_of_the_Court
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 13:25:43+00:00

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'The act in question does not deny to the petitioner the equal protection of the laws, as the tax is imposed alike upon the managing agent both of domestic and of foreign houses. . . . There is no discrimination in favor of the agents of domestic houses, and, while we may suspect that the act was primarily intended to apply to agents of ultra state houses, there is no discrimination upon the face of the act, and none, so far as the record shows, upon its practical administration. As we have frequently held, the state has the right to classify occupations, and to impose different taxes upon different occupations. Such has been constantly the practice of Congress under the internal revenue laws. Cook v. Marshall County, 196 U.S. 261, 275, 49 L. ed. 471, 476, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 233. What the necessity is for such tax, and upon what occupations it shall be imposed, as well as the amount of the imposition, are exclusively within the control of the state legislature. So long as there is no discrimination against citizens of other states, the amount and necessity of the tax are not open to criticism here.' 197 U.S. 69, 49 L. ed. 668, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 403.
This practically disposes of the fourth and fifth contentions, since the classification of meat-packing houses cannot be said to be an arbitrary selection or not to rest on reasonable grounds, and the 14th Amendment was not intended to prevent a state from adjusting its system of taxation in all proper and reasonable ways, or, through the undoubted power of classification, to impose different taxes upon different trades and professions.
'A tax may be imposed only upon certain callings and trades; for when the state exerts its power to tax, it is not bound to tax all pursuits or all property that may be legitimately taxed for governmental purposes. It would be an intolerable burden if a state could not tax any property or calling, unless, at the same time, it taxed all property or all callings.' Connolly v. Union Sewer Pipe Co. 184 U.S. 540, 562, 46 L. ed. 679, 690, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 431, 440.
And see W. W. Cargill Co. v. Minnesota, 180 U.S. 452, 45 L. ed. 619, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 423; Kidd v. Alabama, 188 U.S. 730, 47 L. ed. 669, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 401; Savannah, T. & I. of H. R. Co. v. Savannah, 198 U.S. 392, 49 L. ed. 1097, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 690; Minnesota Iron Co. v. Kline, 199 U.S. 593, 50 L. ed. --, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 159; Cable v. United States L. Ins. Co. 191 U.S. 307, 48 L. ed. 193, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 74.
By the act under consideration the tax is levied upon every packing house doing business in the state, which includes by its terms both domestic and foreign meat-packing houses. It is true that it appears that where the Armour Packing Company does business certain persons sell, both by wholesale and retail, packing-house products, and yet are not subjected to this tax, but also that those parties are not doing, either in North Carolina or elsewhere, a packing-house business. And so it appears that in North Carolina, at the points where the Armour Packing Company is engaged in business, and at other places in the state, there are establishments engaged in business, which pack articles of food other than meats, such as peas, beans, pumpkins, etc., and offer them for sale; but we cannot accept the suggestion that the statute is void as denying the equal protection of the laws to meat-packing houses because houses packing vegetables and the like are not included in the same classification, and subject to the same tax.
As to the contention that the act is in violation of § 3 of article 5 of the state Constitution, the state supreme court held that this tax, although not a property or ad valorem tax, was controlled, even if the requirement of uniformity were applicable, by the rule that 'a tax is uniform when it is equal upon all persons belonging to the described class upon which it is imposed.' And with that conclusion it is not our province, nor are we disposed, to interfere.
'7. A meat-packing house is a place where the business of slaughtering animals, and dressing and preparing the products of their carcasses for food and other purposes, is carried on. The products thus prepared consist of fresh and cured meats, such as hams, dry salt sides, bacon, lard, beef extracts, glue, blood, tankage, etc.
As one article of the findings defines the meat-packing business to consist in doing certain things, and the very next article declares that none of these things are done within the state, it is difficult to say that, notwithstanding these findings of fact, there is a conclusion of law that the company is doing a meat-packing business in that state. The packing company doubtless falls within the letter of the statute. It does a meat-packing business in Kansas City. It does a business in North Carolina. But, as we have said in numerous cases, a thing may be within the letter of a statute, and not be within its spirit. United States v. Babbit, 1 Black, 55, 17 L. ed. 94. The letter of the statute in this case would be satisfied if the packing company did a furniture or dry goods business in North Carolina, yet it would clearly not be within the intent of the statute. If, for instance, the tax were upon breweries, and the beer were all manufactured out of the state, and then shipped into the state for sale and distribution, is it possible that the defendant would be liable for doing business as a brewer? So if the tax were imposed upon the manufacturers of carriages, and all the manufacturing were done in Chicago, and the carriages shipped into North Carolina, and there sold, the defendant would be liable as a dealer in carriages, but certainly not as a manufacturer. The business done at the five cold storage plants, which consists in packing the meats and wrapping them for delivery as they are sold, is not mentioned in the seventh finding, even as an incidental part of the packing business. Much less even is the business of selling meats at retail, as ordinary butchers do. Yet, in the opinion of the court, the company was doing a meat-packing house business within the state. In the view of the minority, the business done within the state must be a meat-packing business, and not the business of selling meats, either at wholesale or retail; and when the meat-packing house is accurately defined in the stipulation, and no part of the business thus defined appears to have been done within the state, it is impossible to support the tax.
The case resembles that of Kehrer v. Stewart, 197 U.S. 60, 49 L. ed. 663, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 403, in many particulars, but with the vital difference that the law of Georgia imposed a tax upon 'all agents of packing houses doing business within this state, $200, in each county where said business is carried on.' As the tax was imposed upon agents of packing houses, and not upon the packing houses themselves, the court was unanimously of the opinion that the managing agents of foreign packing houses were subject to the tax. But in this case the act attempts to reach out and tax packing houses doing business as such exclusively in another state.
With the utmost deference to the opinion of the court, we are constrained to dissent from its view.
Mr. Justice White and Mr. Justice McKenna also dissented upon other grounds.

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