delivered the opinion of' the court:
This is аn appeal from a decree of the circuit court of Peoria county perpetually enjoining the collection of a tax assessed by the town assessor of the Town of the City of Peoria (its corporate limits and the corporate limits of the city of Peoria being co-extensive) upon the franchise of the Central Union Telephone Company, appellee.
The telephone company in the spring of 1914 filed with thе town assessor a schedule of personal property, owned by it. A tax amounting to $18,821 was extended against the valuation of this property and was paicl. After the filing of the schedule of the company’s personal property the assessor assessed its franchise at a value of $50,000, and a tax was extended against this assessment, amounting to $930.70. This tax the telephone company declined to pay, and filed a bill to enjoin its collection оn the ground that the assessor of the Town of the City of Peoria had no authority or jurisdiction to assess the franchises of the corporation, but that if said franchises were taxable the assessment could only be made by and through the instrumentality of the State Board of Equalization. The bill set out the charter of thе corporation as an exhibit. The defense setup and relied upon in the answer was that the Central Union Telephone Company was organizеd for manufacturing and mercantile purposes and is subject to the laws for assessment and taxation governing such corporations. Upon a heаring the chancellor sustained the bill, held the telephone company was not organized for purely manufacturing or mercantile purposes or for either of said purposes, and that the assessor of the Town of the City of Peoria had no right or authority to levy or assess any tax or imposition upon the franchise of the corporation, and that the tax so assessed by said assessor was null and void. It was therefore ordered that the temporary injunction previously granted be made perpetual and the tax authorities permanently restrained from collecting the tax.'
Among other things it was stipulated between the parties on the hearing that the objects and purposes of the corporation as set forth in its charter are as follows: “The object for which it is formed is to manufacture and sell telephones and all apparatus pertaining thereto, and to construct, acquire by purchase, lease or otherwise own and operate telephones, telephone exchanges, telephone and telеgraph lines and offices, and all rights, franchises, patents, machinery and apparatus pertaining thereto, and to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the same or any part thereof, and to acquire, own and dispose of stock in other corporations, and generally to transmit аnd receive signals by electricity for all purposes, and to do a telephone, telegraph and district telegraph business, either wholly within or wholly withоut, or partly within and partly without, the State of Illinois.” It was further stipulated that pursuant to its charter powers the corporation has acquired, construсted and is now operating telephone lines and exchanges in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio; that it is conducting an inter-State and intra-State business; that by authority of оrdinances of the respective municipalities it is conducting a telephone and exchange business in fifty-five or more cities and towns in Illinois, including the сity of Peoria and the whole county of Peoria; that the corporation has never done any commercial telegraph business nor held itself out as prepared to do any such business; that no tax was assessed by the State. Board of Equalization upon the franchise of appellee for the year 1914.
Counsel for appellants say the only question to be determined is whether the local assessor had the right and authority to assess the frаnchise of appellee. The decision of that question depends upon a determination whether appellee was incorporаted “for purely manufacturing and mercantile purposes or for either of such purposes.” If it was, all its property, including its franchise, was liable to assessment for taxation by the local authorities. If it was not, then its capital stock and franchise were assessable for taxation by the State Boаrd of Equalization only, and the tax extended on the assessment of appellee’s franchise by the local assessor is invalid and its collection properly enjoined. People v. National Box Co.
. Whether a corporation is organized purely for manufacturing and mercantile purpоses, or for either of such purposes, is to be determined from a consideration of the language of its charter and the language of the statute. It is stipulated that in pursuance to its objects and purposes and its charter powers appellee is now .operating telephone lines in three States, has exchanges in fifty-five or more cities and towns in Illinois and is doing an inter-State and intra-State business. In our opinion it cannot be said apрellee was organized for purely manufacturing or mercantile purposes. It is true, one of the objects of its organization mentioned is the manufаcture and sale of telephones and apparatus pertaining thereto, but it is perfectly evident that its larger purpose was the construсtion or acquiring by lease or purchase, and the operation, of telephones, telephone exchanges and lines, which, it is stipulated, it is now doing in three.States.
Whether the objects of a corporation set forth in its charter should be construed to make it a manufacturing corporation, within the meaning of the statute, was considered in Distilling and Cattle Deeding Co. v. People,
The decree of the circuit court is correct and it is affiimed.
Decree affirmed.