goo POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



valuable, and through it an income is derived. That right may 

 with propriety he taxed. The obligation to pay is a burden, and has 

 never, to our knowledge, been the subject of taxation. It seems, 

 therefore, that the appropriate place to tax money at interest is 

 where the creditor resides, and that for that purpose it may with 

 propriety be said to be located with the creditor." * 



The respondent attached much importance to the analogy "be- 

 tween a money demand, evidenced by a note or bond, and shares of 

 stock in a corporation " ; and to the fact that the United States 

 Supreme Court had decided that shares of stock in national banks are 

 property, separate and distinct from the property of the corporations 

 which they represent, and are taxable " (National Bank vs. Com- 

 monwealth, 9 Wall., 353). 



Reference was also made to the case of Minot vs. The Phila- 

 delphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company, in which the 

 United States Supreme Court was held to have recognized a distinc- 

 tion between shares of railroad stock and the capital (property) of a 

 corporation, and in respect to which it was assumed that the court 

 maintained that the share of a stockholder is something different 

 from the capital stock of a company; the latter being the property 

 of the company only, while the former is the individual interest of 

 the stockholder, constituting his right to a proportional part of the 

 dividends when declared and to a proportional part of the effects 

 of the corporation when dissolved after payment of its debts. Re- 

 garded in that aspect, it was held to be an interest or right which 

 accompanies the person of the owner and having no locality inde- 

 pendent of its domicile. 



But whether, when thus regarded, it can be treated as so far 

 separable from the property to which it relates as to be taxable inde- 

 pendent of the locality of the latter, was a question which the 

 counsel of the State did not hold to be decided; but there was a 

 strong intimation that the United States Court intended to decide 

 that shares of railroad stock can only be taxed in the State where the 

 owner resides. 



Case for the Petitionees. On the other hand, the following 

 is a summary of the arguments and reasons advanced (mainly by one 

 of the most learned and distinguished members of the Court of Errors 

 of the State, and of the American Bar, Hon. L. P. S. Poster, for- 

 merly president of the United States Senate and acting Vice-Presi- 

 dent of the United States), in support of the petition for an injunc- 

 tion in restraint of the collection of a tax upon the plaintiff : 



* Reference in this connection is made to the opinions on this general subject expressed 

 by the Supreme Court of California, given in chapter xvi, Popular Science Monthly, pp. 

 651-653. 



