Opinion of the Court. and Assessment placed the value of the company's entire property at $2,900,000, and deducted therefrom $627,660 for the tangible property assessed in Indiana, which left $2,272,340, of which two thirds, or $1,514,893, was held to be the entire value of the property in Kentucky. From this, $649,735.54, the value of the tangible property in Henderson County, was deducted, and the remainder, $865,157.46, was fixed by the Board as the value of the company's franchise. The company's stock was worth not less than $90 per share on the market, and the bonds took precedence of the stock. The evidence showed a large amount of assets and the receipt of a large income. From the total value, $1,385,107 was deducted for the tangible and intangible property in Indiana, and the taxes in Kentucky were levied on $1,514,893 of tangible and intangible property in that State. The tax on the tangible property amounted to $2762.08, and this, as we understand it, was paid by the company. The tax on the intangible property was $3675.91, which the company refused to pay, whereupon this action was brought for its recovery. The state Circuit Court rendered judgment in favor of the Commonwealth for $595, which was reversed by the Court of Appeals, which held the Commonwealth entitled to recover the full amount. 31 S. W. Rep. 486. The cause having been remanded, and judgment entered accordingly, by the Circuit Court, and affirmed by the Court of Appeals, this writ of error was sued out. The company was chartered by the State of Kentucky to build and operate a bridge, and the State could properly include the franchises it had granted in the valuation of the company's property for taxation. Central Pacific Railroad v. California, 162 U. S. 91. The regulation of tolls for transportation over the bridge considered in Covington & Cincinnati Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U. S. 204, presented an entirely different question. Clearly the tax was not a tax on the interstate business carried on over or by means of the bridge, because the bridge company did not transact such business. That business was carried Opinion of the Court. on by the persons and corporations which paid the bridge company tolls for the privilege of using the bridge. The fact that the tax in question was to some extent affected by the amount of the tolls received, and therefore might be supposed to increase the rate of tolls, is too remote and incidental to make it a tax on the business transacted. This very question was decided in Erie Railroad v. Pennsylvania, 158 U. S. 431, 439, where it was said: "It is argued that the imposition of a tax on tolls might lead to increasing them in an effort to throw their burthen on the carrying company. Such a result is merely conjectural, and, at all events, too remote and indirect to be an interference with interstate commerce. The interference with the commercial power must be direct, and not the mere incidental effect of the requirement of the usual proportional contribution to public maintenance." The only franchises treated here as the subject of taxation were those granted by the State of Kentucky. So far as the State of Indiana could be said to have conferred any franchise upon the company, it was a franchise that inhered in that portion of the structure that was within the State of Indiana, the value of which was not included in the tax complained of. The acts of Congress conferred no right or franchise on the company to erect the bridge or collect tolls for its use. They merely regulated the height of bridges over that river and the width of their spans, in order that they might not interfere with its navigation. The declaration that such bridges should be regarded as post roads did not interfere with the right of the State to impose taxes, as was decided in Postal Telegraph Cable Co. v. Charleston, 153 U. S. 692, 700. The contrary view would withdraw from the taxing power of the States nearly all the railroads and stage routes throughout the country. The tax in controversy was nothing more than a tax on the intangible property of the company in Kentucky, and was sustained as such by the Court of Appeals, as consistent with the provisions of the constitution of Kentucky in reference to taxation. And for the reasons given, and on the authorities cited in Adams Express Co. v. Ohio State Auditor, 165 U. S. 194, we are Dissenting Opinion: White, Field, Harlan, Brown, JJ. unable to conclude that the method of taxation prescribed by the statute of Kentucky and followed in making this assessment is in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Judgment affirmed. MR. JUSTICE WHITE, with whom concurred MR. JUSTICE FIELD, MR. JUSTICE HARLAN and MR. JUSTICE BROWN, dissenting. A fuller statement of the facts than is given in the opinion of the court seems to me necessary in order to make clear the reasons for my dissent. The plaintiff in error, the Henderson Bridge Company, owns and operates a bridge across the Ohio River from Henderson, Kentucky, to the Indiana shore. This bridge is largely occupied by railroad tracks, used, necessarily, solely for interstate commerce. On the Kentucky side there is an approach, and one also on the Indiana side, consisting of an embankment and a siding about nine miles in length. The corporation was chartered by the State of Kentucky. The general laws of the State of Indiana provide for the recognition of any corporation "created by the laws of another State for constructing a bridge across any river or stream forming in whole or in part the boundary between such other State and this State." It directs also the filing of a copy of the charter in Indiana, and subjects the charter of the corporation to the exercise by the State of Indiana of the power to repeal, alter or amend. The bridge in question was also authorized by act of Congress and was established as a post route. 17 Stat. 398, as amended by 22 Stat. 414. Whether the operation of the Indiana legislation was to make the bridge company an Indiana corporation, need not be considered. It is certain, however, from the facts just stated, that the bridge company possessed, first, a franchise to exist as a corporation from the State of Kentucky, and under this franchise to build and operate the bridge to the Indiana line that is, two thirds of its length; second, that it also possessed a franchise or right from the State of Indiana, whether Dissenting Opinion: White, Field, Harlan, Brown, JJ. a corporation under the Indiana laws or not, to build and operate the bridge and its approaches in so far as these structures were to be located in that State; third, a franchise or right derived from the United States to operate the bridge for purposes of interstate commerce and as a post route. None of these franchises were incompatible, the one with the other, and all were of such a nature as to be of value to the corporation. The laws of the State of Kentucky under which the tax in question was levied are set out in extenso in the opinion of the court in Adams Express Co. v. Kentucky, this day decided, post, 171, and I therefore content myself with a brief statement thereof. The sections referred to are as numbered and contained in Barbour & Carroll's compilation of the Kentucky statutes in force in 1894. Section 4019 fixes the rate of taxation and the various purposes for which taxes may be imposed. Section 4020 defines the general subjects of taxation, that is to say, the objects upon which the rate of taxation provided in the previous section are to be levied. This latter section provides that "all real and personal estate within this State, and all personal estate of persons residing in this State, and of all corporations organized under the laws of this State, whether the property be in or out of this State, including intangible property, which shall be considered and estimated in fixing the value of corporate franchises as hereinafter provided, shall be subject to taxation unless the same be exempt;" etc. It is manifest that this section clearly designates the objects of taxation to be as follows: (a) all real and personal estate within this State; (b) all personal estate of persons residing within the State; (c) all the property of corporations organized under the laws of the State, whether such property be in or out of the State, including the intangible property of such corporations, which property, that is, the intangible property, whether situated in or out of the State, shall be considered and estimated in fixing the value of the corporate franchises. The statutes of Kentucky provide, as a general rule, for the assessment by the local or county officials of all real and per Dissenting Opinion: White, Field, Harlan, Brown, JJ. sonal property of individuals or corporations in the county where the property is situated or the corporation established. The franchise tax embraced in the last of the foregoing enumerations is not assessed by the local authorities, but by a board of valuation and assessment, composed of the state auditor, treasurer and secretary of State; for it is said in section 4077: "The auditor, treasurer and secretary of State are hereby constituted a board of valuation and assessment, for fixing the value of said franchises," and a subsequent sentence makes the state auditor the chairman of the board. Section 4078 compels a return to this board showing the amount of capital stock, preferred and common; the number of shares; the amount of stock paid up; the par and real value thereof; the highest price at which such stock was sold at a bona fide sale within the next twelve months before the day on which the statement is required to be made; the amount of surplus and undivided profit, the value of all assets, the total amount of principal indebtedness, the amount of gross or net earnings or income, including interest on investments and income from all sources for twelve months; the amount and kind of tangible property in the State, and where situated, "assessed or liable to assessment in the State," and the fair cash value thereof estimated at the price it would bring at a fair voluntary sale, and such other facts as the auditor may require. Section 4079 provides, if the corporation have a line or lines extending beyond the limits of the State, the statement must also show the length of the entire line owned, leased or controlled in the State, and the entire line of the same company elsewhere. If the corporation be organized under the laws of any other State, or under the laws of Kentucky, but conduct its business in Kentucky as well as in other States, the statement is required to show the gross or net income or earnings received in the State and out of the State on business done in the State and the entire gross receipts of the company in the State and elsewhere during twelve months. From the data thus obliged to be furnished to the board, the act (§ 4079) commands that the assessment of the franchises of the corporation created by the State of Kentucky |