delivered the opinion of the court.
A tаx, for each of the years 1907 to 1912, inclusive, imposed under a law of Minnesota (Acts 1907, c. 250; 1909, c. 473; 1911, c. 377) against the Cudahy Packing Company as a freight line company, and sustained by the Supreme Court of the State (129 Minnesota, 30), is here in quеstion. Whether the tax constitutes an unconstitutional restraint or burden on interstate commerce is the matter for decision.
The company is an Illinois corporation and operates plants in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska for slaughtering live stock and converting the same into fresh meats and other articles of commerce. It sells the products throughout the United States, maintains branch houses in several States, including three in Minnesota, and owns a line of refrigerator cars wherein the products are shipped to the branch houses arid places of consumption. Under a contractual' arrangement it supplies these cars to the railroads for use in such transportation and receives therefor a fixed compensation per mile of travel. In the territory embracing Minnesota this compensation or rental is one cent per mile whether the cars be loaded or empty. Usually the cars are moved to particular destinations with loads of the company’s products and are returned empty to be loaded again, but where it is practicable to do sc the railroads are free to carry other freight in them on the *452 return trip. The company pays the usual tariff rates for the transportation of its products, just as though the railroads owned the cars, and also bears the expеnse of all repairs save such as become necessary through negligent handling by the railroads. The use made of the cars in Minnesota consists in transporting the company’s products (a) across the State from points without on one side to points without on another, (b) from points without to points within the State and the reverse, and (c) between points within the State. Of their total mileage in the State 90 per cent, is in interstate and 10 per cent, in intrastate transportation. The average number of cars in the State per day ranges from 10 to 12.
The cash value of each car, as a separate article of tangible property, is from $700 to $900, and the intangiblе property incident to their combined use under the contractual arrangement with the railroads is also, as the record shows, of substantial value. The ta,x in question is all that is assessed against the qompany in respect of the cars or the intangible property! It has other tangible property in the State, not part of its car line, whereon it pays the usual local taxes. .
The receipts of the railroads from shipments carried in thesе cars in Minnesota, less the compensation or rental paid to the company, are added to the other gross earnings of the railroads from business in the State and the total is taken as the value, for purposes of taxation of the property which the railroads own or operate in the State for railway purposes.
As construed and applied by the state court, the Minnesota law requires a freight line company, mеaning a company furnishing or leasing cars to rai :oads for freight transportation, to report annually'its gross earnings from the operation of its cat line within the State and to pay, in lieu-of other taxes on the proрerty so employed, a tax fixed at a stated per cent, of such earnings. That court *453 holds that this law is an exertion of the power of the State to tax the property within its limits from which the earnings are derived and is intended to embody a practical method of reaching and valuing that property, tangible, and intangible, for taxing purppses.
In .so far as the property constituting- this car line is regularly or habitually used or employed in Minnesota it is within thе taxing power of the State, although chiefly devoted or applied to interstate transportation.
Pullman’s Car Co.
v.
Pennsylvania,
As before stated, the state сourt regards the tax as imposed in respect of the property rather than the earnings, and the same view seems to be taken by the legislature, for the Act of 1909 speaks of the tax as “a tax upon its [the company’s] property” and the Act of 1911 says “the value of such property [that used within the State] for purposes of taxation is to be determined” by reference to the gross earnings from the mileage within the State. True, this local view is not conclusive on this court, but it cannot be rejected unless it can be said to be ill founded.
The question of the nature and effect of taxes more or less like this has been repeatedly considered in this court. In- somе instances its solution has been attended with considerable difficulty, for while the controlling general principles have long been well settled it has not been easy to apply them to all the varying situations presented. A short reference to two recent cases in which the earlier decisions were reviewed will leave little to be said in solving the question here. We refer to
Meyer
v.
Wells, Fargo & Co.,
The law imposing the present tax is closely patterned after the one exacting the tax upheld in United States Express Co. v. Minnesota, and contains the same declaration that the tax shall be in lieu of other taxes on the property. The statutes differ only in minor details and are both parts of a general system which the State applies to railroads, telephone lines and the like. So, unless this tax be otherwise distinguishable, it must, under the decision in that case, be regarded as a property tax and not as laid on the gross earnings.
Because the usual tax rate, if applied to the cash value of the cars taken separately, would result in an appreciably lower tax, it is insisted that the tax imposed is in excess of what would be legitimate as an ordinary tax *456 on the property. But the. contention proceeds on an erroneous assumption. The ¡State is hot confined to taxing the cars or to taxing them as separate articles. It may tax the entire property, tangible and intangible, constituting the car line as used' within its limits, and may tax the same at its real value аs part of a going concern.. The-record makes it reasonably certain that the property, valued with reference to its use and what it earns, is worth considerably more -than the cash , value of the cars taken separately — enough more to indicate that the tax is not in excess of what would be legitimate as an ordinary tax on the property taken at its real or full value.
Because the receipts of the railroаds from shipments in these, cars, less the rental paid to the company, are made a factor in valuing for taxation the property on which tke'railroads are taxed, it is contended that the cars are taxed twice, once to the company and again to the railroads, and are excessively valued. The contention apparently assumes that the receipts from such shipments arise solely from the use of these сars, whereas they arise in’ part from the use of the tracks, locomotives, fuel, labor and the like provided by the railroads. Not improbably only a minor part is fairly attributable to the use of cars. In any event, the comрany has an interest in the car line which yields it a rental of one cent for each mile of travel. This interest is taxable and the State values it for that purpose by the rental received. In valuing the property on which thе railroads are taxed the amount of the rental is deducted from their earnings. This plainly discloses a. purpose to akoid taxiag the same property twice or at more than its value, faeasured. by what it earns.
We think the tax is. not distinguishable from that sustained in United States Express Co. v. Minnesota.
Judgment affirmed'.