MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
97 
public utility corporations of any description. This is much more 
marked in the case of local public utility corporations than for the 
more general types. Yet there is clearly evident a tendency in varying 
degrees to subject these local corporations to a tax other than the 
general property tax, a tendency especially marked in the North At- 
lantic and Middle Western States. 
Second. Among the forms of tax employed, either as supplementary 
to, or in lieu of, the general property tax, the gross earnings tax finds 
place in some extent in eight states — Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, Maine (street railway), Vermont (street railway), Rhode 
Island (street railway), and Minnesota (street railway). Eight states 
employ a tax upon the corporate excess. These fall into two groups: 
One, composed of western states — Minnesota (exc. st. railways), North 
Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa — attempts to reach a corporate excess 
through local assessors in connection with the general property tax. 
These laws have proved dead letters. Another group — Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Indiana, Illinois — applies this principle through some 
form of state authority with success. A small group of states — Ne- 
braska, Kansas, Missouri — make use of a special franchise tax. 
Third. There is a noticeable tendency in the states which have 
really made some effective progress in these affairs to inaugurate some 
state authority — board or commission — to whom is entrusted the as- 
sessment of the property and the administration of the law. At least 
six states have active commissions. 
Fourth. The disposition of funds derived from corporate taxation 
offers another instance of the lack of uniformity of policy. Whether 
such income shall be used for state purposes, be divided between state 
and locality, or be left to the locality, is no doubt largely determined 
by the policy of each state in respect to other sources of income. 
(c) What policy ought to be adopted in Michigan? First of all, 
and fundamental to any wise, comprehensive plan of dealing with 
these corporations, we need some plan of securing annually reliable 
data concerning corporations of this type. The state authorities ought 
to possess records pertaining to capitalization, earnings, and taxation, 
and many other items, if for no other reason than to know 
whether the various species of property as well as individual interests 
are being dealt with equitably in legislative and administrative pro- 
cedure. For instance, in the present investigation of the Fere Mar- 
quette, a witness has asserted that the two-cent rate is unjust to that 
railroad. The state must be the judge in a contention of this kind, and 
can expect to deal justly only through the possession of complete au- 
thoritative facts. 
This argument is augmented when we note the tendency to enlarge 
the field of activities of our Railroad Commission. The scope of its 
powers has been materially enlarged by each legislature since the present 
Commission was established in 1907, and at present, members of Ibis 
body are favorable to the extension of its powers to the various local 
public utility corporations of the state. This amounts to transforming 
the present commission into a full fledged public utilities commission. 
If this policy is to prevail, then the aforesaid information becomes im- 
perative for such a purpose. The foregoing views do not comprehend 
a system of taxation on the part of the state, but, whatever policy the 
state may see fit to adopt in this connection, the data would be in- 
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