Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/233/304.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 17:16:36+00:00

Document:
And also to enjoin the enforcement of county taxes, amounting to 50 per centum of the state tax prescribed by the above section, which might be imposed in the several counties for county purposes under 33F of the same act.
In each of the counties, except the county of Russell, the business is conducted as follows: A resident agent is employed for the purpose of making contracts for the sale and renting of machines in that county and that county only; machines are delivered to such agents and placed aboard wagons and taken by the agents into the [233 U.S. 304, 307] rural districts for the purpose of soliciting customers either to purchase or to rent machines; when a buyer is found the machine is delivered by the agent to the customer, who either pays cash for it or executes an instalment note in which the company retains title to the machine, or an instalment note secured by a mortgage upon the machine and other property; such sale on credit is made subject to the approval of the company, and if not approved, the instalment note is returned to the maker and the machine returned to the company. If the agent makes a contract for the sale of the machine for cash, this also is subject to the approval or disapproval of complainant. The final consummation of all sales is at one of complainant's established places of business. The same agents are engaged also in renting machines and collecting the rent arising therefrom, and the greater portion of their time is consumed in such renting, this constituting at least 70 per centum of the business done by complainant in the state. Rented machines are placed aboard wagons and taken by the agents into the rural districts. Each of these agents is attached to some one of the stores or places of business operated by complainant, and the machines handled by the agent are sent to him from the place of business to which he is attached, or taken from that place of business by him upon the wagon which he drives. Besides this, complainant sells and rents machines at its regularly established places of business, and delivers such machines to the buyers or renters by the use of wagons and teams; and in those counties where complainant has established places of business, machines sold or rented at those places are delivered by the same agents and with the same wagons that are used in carrying machines into the rural districts. It is averred that the machines are of the average weight of 135 pounds. That there are many other merchants in the state who sell sewing machines of a different manu- [233 U.S. 304, 308] facture at their places of business, and the average weight of these also is about 135 pounds; that on account of their weight it is the custom and practice of complainant, and of the other merchants also, to make delivery by the use of wagons and teams whether the sales are made at their places of business or otherwise, and that it is impracticable to conduct the business without delivery by wagon.
With respect to the business conducted in Russell county, Alabama, it is averred that complainant operates a regularly established place of business in the city of Columbus, Georgia, where sewing machines and accessories are kept for sale, and in connection with this business agents are employed to deliver machines and accessories in Russell county, which adjoins the Georgia state line; and that complainant does not sell or deliver any sewing machines or accessories in Russell county except in the following manner, namely: Its agents use wagons and teams in going about and displaying sample machines, and thereby obtain orders for machines and accessories, which orders are transmitted by the agents to the complainant at Columbus, Georgia, for acceptance or rejection, and if accepted, the machines or other articles so ordered are taken out of stock there, placed upon wagons, and thereby delivered to the purchasers in Russell county.
The bill is based upon the contention that 32 of the tax law violates the Constitution of the United States in that it is a regulation of interstate commerce, and contravenes the 'due process' and 'equal protection' clauses of the 14th Amendment, and also that it violates the Constitution of Alabama; and, finally, that appellant is within the exception of the statute.
To the original bill (Prior to the amendments) demurrers were filed, and were sustained as to the whole bill except paragraph 6, which set forth the mode of conducting complainant's business in Russell county. As to this the court held that the facts showed a case of inter- [233 U.S. 304, 309] state commerce, and that the act had no application to it. 199 Fed. 654.
The amendments having been made, the amended bill was submitted upon the same demurrers, which were made to apply to the bill as amended. Again the court sustained the demurrers except as to paragraph 6, relating to Russell county, and as to this overruled them. Defendants then filed an answer admitting the allegations of paragraph 6, and the cause was submitted upon bill and answer, with the result that by final decree relief was accorded to complainant as to the license tax sought to be collected in Russell county, and in other respects relief was denied and the bill dismissed. Because of the constitutional questions, a direct appeal to this court was taken under Judicial Code, 238 [36 Stat. at L. 1157, chap. 231, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 228].
Messrs. John R. Tyson, Henry Axtell Prince, and W. A. Gunter for appellant.
[233 U.S. 304, 312] Mr. Robert C. Brickell for appellees.
With respect to the business conducted in Russell county, the decree of the district court is not now directly under review; but, at any rate, it was clearly correct under Crenshaw v. Arkansas, 227 U.S. 389 , 57 L. ed. 565, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 294. With respect to the other counties, the correctness of the decision, so far as the commerce clause is concerned, seems to us equally clear under Emert v. Missouri, 156 U.S. 296 , 39 L. ed. 430, 5 Inters. Com. Rep. 68, 15 Sup. Ct. Rep. 367.
This argument, we think, misses the point. The statute under consideration does not in direct terms or by necessary inference manifest an intent to regulate or burden interstate commerce. Full and fair effect can be given to its provisions, and an unconstitutional meaning can be avoided, by indulging the natural presumption that the legislature was intending to tax only that which it constitutionally might tax. So construed, it does not apply to interstate commerce at all. The statute provides for a license or occupation tax. Normally, as the averments of the bill sufficiently show, the occupation may be and is conducted wholly intrastate, and free from any element of interstate commerce. The fact that, as carried on in Russell county, a like occupation is conducted with interstate commerce as an essential ingredient, is wholly fortuitous.
Nor has the tax that 'unity of character' upon which the argument necessarily depends. The cases cited in support of the insistence that the act must be adjudged totally void because, if applied in Russell county, it would burden interstate commerce, are readily distinguishable. In United States v. Reese, 92 U.S. 214, 221 , 23 S. L. ed. 563, 565, there was a penal statute couched in general language broad enough to cover wrongful acts without as well as within the constitutional inhibition, and it was held that the court could not reject the unconstitutional part and retain the remainder, because it was not possible to separate the one from the other. In Trade-Mark Cases, 100 U.S. 82, 99 , 25 S. L. ed. 550, 553, the court upon the same principle declined to sustain in part a trademark law, so framed as to be applicable by its terms to all commerce, by confining it to the interstate commerce that alone was subject to the control of Congress. In Leloup v. Mobile, 127 U.S. 640, 647 , 32 S. L. ed. 311, 314, 2 Inters. Com. Rep. 134, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1380, the court held a general license tax imposed by the state [233 U.S. 304, 314] of Alabama upon the business of a telegraph company in part interstate and in part internal, to be unconstitutional, and held that since the tax affected the whole business without discrimination it could not be sustained with respect to that portion of the business that was internal and therefore taxable by the state. To the same effect are Norfolk & W. R. Co. v. Pennsylvania, 136 U.S. 114, 119 , 34 S. L. ed. 394, 397, 3 Inters. Com. Rep. 178, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 958; Crutcher v. Kentucky, 141 U.S. 47, 62 , 35 S. L. ed. 649, 654, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 851; Galveston, H. & S. A. R. Co. v. Texas, 210 U.S. 217 , 52 L. ed. 1031, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 638; Western U. Teleg. Co. v. Kansas, 216 U.S. 1, 27 , 54 S. L. ed. 355, 366, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 190. In Williams v. Talladega, 226 U.S. 404, 419 , 57 S. L. ed. 275, 281, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 116, there was a state license tax that operated without exemption or distinction upon the privilege of carrying on a business, a part of which was that of an essential governmental agency constituted under a law of the United States. It was held that the tax necessarily included within its operation this part of the business, and since this was unconstitutional, the whole tax was rendered void.
It would be going altogether too far to say that appellant, being properly taxable, and without the least interference with interstate commerce, in twenty-nine counties of the state, could obtain immunity from all such taxation [233 U.S. 304, 315] by establishing in one county a system of business that involved transactions in interstate commerce.
So far as the 14th Amendment is concerned, the argument is confined to the 'equal protection' clause. It is said there is no sufficient ground for a distinction, with respect to taxing the occupation, between the business of selling sewing machines from a regularly established store and the business of selling them from a delivery wagon. But there is an evident difference, in the mode of doing business, between the local tradesman and the itinerant dealer, and we are unable to say that the distinction made between them for purposes of taxation is arbitrarily made. In such matters the states necessarily enjoy a wide range of discretion, and it would require a clear case to justify the courts in striking down a law that is uniformly applicable to all persons pursuing a given occupation, on the ground that persons engaged in other occupations more or less like it ought to be similarly taxed. This is not such a case. Connolly v. Union Sewer Pipe Co. 184 U.S. 540, 559 , 562 S., 46 L. ed. 679, 689, 690, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 431; Cook v. Marshall County, 196 U.S. 261, 274 , 49 S. L. ed. 471, 476, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 233; Armour Packing Co. v. Lacy, 200 U.S. 226, 235 , 50 S. L. ed. 451, 456, 26 Sup. Ct. Rep. 232; Southwestern Oil Co. v. Texas, 217 U.S. 114, 121 , 54 S. L. ed. 688, 692, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 496.
In Quartlebaum v. State, 79 Ala. 1, a previous statute (subsec. 20 of 14, act of December 12, 1884; Session Acts 1884-85, p. 17), which imposed an annual license fee of $25 upon 'each sewing machine . . . company selling sewing machines . . . either themselves or by their agents, and all persons who engage in the business of selling sewing machines . . . but when merchants engaged in a general business keep sewing machines . . . they shall not be required to pay the tax herein provided,' was sustained against the criticism that it discriminated between two classes of persons engaged in the business of selling sewing machines, namely, between persons who were 'merchants engaged in a general business,' and persons not so engaged; [233 U.S. 304, 316] the court saying as to the former: 'If sewing machines be part of their stock in trade they are taxed for them as for other merchandise. Their business is in its nature stationary, and there is little or no risk in levying taxes upon their business, on the rule of percent age. That rule may be wholly unsuited and ineffectual for other pursuits and other lines of business. Much must be left to the discretion of the legislature, for exact equality of taxation can never be reached.' And see Ballou v. State, 87 Ala. 144, 146, 6 So. 393.
It is quite plain, however, from a reading of the entire section, that the business of selling sewing machines by traveling salesmen is intended to be taxed, and the business of selling them at established places of business is intended to be left untaxed, so far as this section is concerned, although the machines sold at these places be delivered by wagons. Complainant is engaged in doing business of both kinds; and with respect to the itinerant sales it is subject to the tax under the section referred to.

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