Opinion of the Court. evident in the statute, and the power of the State to tax everything which is part of what has been called "the general property" or "the general mass of property" of the State, is undoubted. But things which have been brought to a State may not have reached that condition. Things intended to be sent out of a State, but which have not left it, may not have ceased to be in that condition. The exact moment in either case may not be easy to point out-may be confused by circumstances, and the confident assignment of the property as subject or not subject to taxation is not easily made. Fortunately we are not without illustrations in prior cases, and in Kelley v. Rhoads, p. 1, ante, decided concurrently with this, we express the principles of decision. In Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 622, the property (coal in barges) had reached the State, but was yet in the boats in which it had been brought into the State. While on the barges it was offered for sale. It was held it had become part of the property of the State and was subject to taxation. Pittsburg &c. Coal Co. v. Bates, 156 U. S. 577, had facts assimilating it to the case at bar, and it was affirmed on the authority of Brown v. Houston. As in the latter case, the tax was on coal in barges shipped from the mines in Pennsylvania, and consigned to New Orleans, Louisiana. The coal, however, had not reached, as the coal in Brown v. Houston, its exact destination. To accommodate the exigencies of the owner's business, the barges, "about one hundred in number, were stopped and moored in the Mississippi River at a convenient mooring place about nine miles above the port of Baton Rouge." The coal was held subject to taxation. In Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 517, logs which had been cut in the State of Maine, and others which had been cut in the State of New Hampshire, were floated in course of transit down a stream in New Hampshire to the town of Errol, in the latter State; thence to be floated down the Androscoggin River to the State of Maine. The town of Errol assessed upon the property a county, town, school and highway tax. The tax was sustained by the Supreme Court of the State of New Hampshire as to the logs cut in that State, and abated as to those cut in Maine. court. Opinion of the Court. The judgment was affirmed by this Mr. Justice Bradley, delivering the opinion of the court, expressed the contentions of the parties in two questions : "Are the products of a State, though intended for exportation to another State, and partially prepared for that purpose by being deposited at a place or port of shipment within the State, liable to be taxed like other property within the State? "Do the owner's state of mind in relation to the goods, that is, his intent to export them, and his partial preparation to do so, exempt them from taxation? This is the precise question for solution." It is obvious that like questions could be framed upon the facts of the case at bar to express the propositions presented. Mr. Justice Bradley's observations, therefore, become pertinent and decisive. He discussed every consideration. He clearly exhibited the extent of the power of the State over the property within it, whether in motion or at rest, though destined for points out of it. He said: "There must be a point of time when they (goods destined to other States) cease to be governed exclusively by the domestic law and begin to be governed and protected by the national law of commercial regulation, and that moment seems to us to be a legitimate one for this purpose, in which they commence their final movement for transportation from the State of their origin to that of their destination. When the products of the farm or the forest are collected and brought in from the surrounding country to a town or station serving as a entrepôt for that particular region, whether on a river or a line of railroad, such products are not yet exports, nor are they in process of exportation, nor is exportation begun until they are committed to the common carrier for transportation out of the State to the State of their destination, or have started on their ultimate passage to that State. Until then it is reasonable to regard them as not only within the State of their origin, but as a part of the general mass of property of that State, subject to its jurisdiction, and liable to taxation there if not taxed by reason of their being intended for exportation, but taxed with Opinion of the Court. out any discrimination in the usual way and manner in which such property is taxed in the State." And further: "But no definite rule has been adopted with regard to the point of time at which the taxing power of the State ceases as to goods exported to a foreign country or to another State. What we have already said, however, in relation to the products of a State intended for exportation to another State will indicate the view which seems to us the sound one on that subject, namely, that such goods do not cease to be part of the general mass of property in the State, subject, as such, to its jurisdiction, and to taxation in the usual way, until they have been shipped or entered with a common carrier for transportation to another State, or have been started upon such transportation in a continuous route or journey. We think that this must be the true rule on the subject. It seems to us untenable to hold that a crop or herd is exempt from taxation merely because it is, by its owner, intended for exportation. If such were the rule in many States there would be nothing but the lands and real estate to bear the taxes. Some of the Western States produce very little except wheat and corn, most of which is intended for export; and so of cotton in the Southern States. Certainly, as long as these products are on the lands which produce them, they are part of the general property of the State. And so we think they continue to be until they have entered upon their final journey for leaving the State and going into another State. It is true, it was said in the case of The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 565: Whenever a commodity has begun to move as an article of trade from one State to another, commerce in that commodity between the States has commenced.' But this movement does not begin until the articles have been shipped or started for transportation from the one State to the other. The carrying of them in carts or other vehicles, or even floating them, to the depot where the journey is to commence, is no part of that journey." These cases are referred to in Kelley v. as defining the taxing power of a State. Rhoads, 188 U. S. 1, is declared to be "that while property is at rest for an indef Opinion of the Court. inite time or awaiting transportation, or awaiting sale at its place of destination, or at an intermediate point, it is subject to taxation. But if it be actually in transit to another State, it becomes the subject of interstate commerce, and is exempt from local assessment." In further specialization of these propositions we may say that the cases establish that there may be an interior movement of property which does not constitute interstate commerce, though property come from or be destined to another State. In the one case, though it have not reached its place of disembarkation or delivery, it may be taxed. Brown v. Houston, 114 U. S. 662. In the other case, until it be shipped or started on its final journey, it may be taxed. Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 617. The case at bar falls within this principle. It is alleged in the bill that during the winters of 1895 and 1896 the plaintiff cut, hauled and put into the Ontonagon River and its tributaries, one hundred and eighty million feet of logs for the purpose of saving, protecting and preserving the same; that said lumber was more than plaintiff could utilize in any one season at its mills, and it was not, therefore, the intention at the opening of the streams to make a clean drive of the same, but only to take down the streams the following spring and summer, and each succeeding driving season, the number complainant could utilize; that complainant was at the time the logs were cut and put in the streams an owner of lumber mills situated at or near the corporate limits of the village of Ontonagon; that said mills were destroyed by fire in the fall of 1896, and were not rebuilt, and that after the destruction thereof plaintiff destined the logs for its mills at Green Bay, Wisconsin, but that it was not its intention to take to said mills during any one summer any more than sufficient for its purposes, and not to exceed generally twenty million feet-according to the stipulation forty million feet. The route of the logs from the forests to the mills is described as follows: "They are driven down the tributaries of said Ontonagon River into the stream of said river and thence down said Ontonagon River to a point at or near the mouth thereof, in the Syllabus. township of Ontonagon, to the sorting grounds and pier jams of the complainant; they are then loaded aboard cars and shipped by rail to Green Bay, Wisconsin, via the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, and pass out of the State of Michigan at a point near the village of Iron Mountain in said State." The number of the logs shipped by rail from Ontonagon to Green Bay before the levy of the tax complained of is given in the stipulation of facts, and it is stipulated that "about five hundred thousand feet of complainant's said logs in said river have been (in said river of slough) constantly within said village since 1898, for the purpose of shipment by rail to the destination as aforesaid." The appellant's contention is that the movement of the logs commenced at the opening of navigation of the river (presumably in the spring or summer of 1896 and 1897,) and from that date were in continuous transit as subjects of interstate commerce, and exempt from taxation. The contention is more extreme than that made and rejected in Coe v. Errol. BILLINGS v. ILLINOIS. Decree affirmed. ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS. No. 106. Argued December 4, 1902.-Decided January 19, 1903. The claim that section 2 of the act providing for the taxation of life estates, as construed by the highest courts of the State of Illinois, is in contravention of the Fourteenth Amendment in that the classification of life tenants is arbitrary and unreasonable and denies to life tenants the equal protection of laws because it taxes one class of life estates where the remainder is to lineals and expressly exempts life estates where the remainder is to collaterals or to strangers in blood, cannot be sustained. Inheritance tax laws are based upon the power of a State over testate and intestate dispositions of property, to limit and create estates, and to impose conditions upon their transfer or devolution. This court has already decided in regard to this law that such power could be exercised by distinguishing between the lineal and collateral relatives of a testator. VOL. CLXXXVIII-7 |