erty of the railroad, real and personal, in each county where it is situated, at the county rate of taxation of force in that county, and to apportion the transitory, frequently moving personalty in fair proportion among the several counties. This class of property may be fairly said to be situated at one place as well as another, or to "reside," if that word is allowable, along the entire length of the road. Having no fixed situs, it is absolutely right to apportion it, and this is really all that could be appropriately done with it for taxing purposes. The unlocated property of the road, therefore, is to be distributed in just proportion to the portions of located property (real and personal) situated in the several connties.

It is manifest that, in making a proportion for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of a particular share in a distribution of any kind, the thing to be divided, and which constitutes one term of the proportion, should not be added to either of the other terms. It must be kept separate, and the share arrived at by the ratio which the smaller of the remaining terms bears to the other. The first term of the proportion contemplated by section 3, "the value of the property located in the particular county," is literally as it should be. The second term, "the value of the whole property, real and personal, of the said company," should be construed to have the meaning it would have if the word "located" were inserted after the word "whole." This, unquestionably, is the purpose of the law, and, thus understood, it is logical, natural, and fair; that is, the transitory personalty which a county would draw to itself for taxation would be in the proportion the company's located property in that county bore to the entire located property of the company. Otherwise, the proportion would have the vice, already pointed out, of adding the thing to be divided to one of the other terms. We have long and anxiously studied and examined this act, and, being convinced that we understand its true intent and meaning, we do not hesitate to give effect to that intent by adopting the construction stated. The law is too wise, too just, and too important to be defeated by sticking in the bark, and adhering to the literal meaning of words, when by so doing we would not only set at naught the legislative will, but impute to our law-makers the folly of making a provision at once mathematically absurd and legally impracticable. Nor is our construction of the words in question at all strained. It is perfectly fair to assume that the law means to declare the located property in a county shall draw for taxation its share of the distributable property, in the proportion this located personalty in the county bears to the whole property of the company, real and personal, of like kind; that is, the whole

located property of the company. Let it be borne in mind it is the located property, situated in the different counties, to which the unlocated is to be added in proper proportions for the purpose of being taxed, in order that the aggregate of the unlocated personalty, as well as all the located property, real and personal, may be rightly taxed. This could never be done by giving the words of the act their literal meaning, but can be easily done in the manner shown. If one construction meets and effectuates the plain purpose of the law, and another defeats it, the former should prevail.

To further explain the operation of law, let us suppose that a railroad traversed four counties, and that the return required by the act showed the following figures. Those selected are, of course, arbitrary, and round numbers are used for the sake of simplicity, but the principle is applicable to any return by a railroad company lawfully made:

(4) Value of property (real and personal) located in County A.

$1,200,000

Deducted from $3,000,000, the entire property of the company, will leave....

$600,000

-which will be the value of the rolling-stock and other unlocated personalty.

Again, deduct from the $2,400,000 of located property; real and personal, the $2,000,000 of realty, and it will leave $400,000, the value of the located personalty. This $400,000, taken from $450,000, the total value of personalty, exclusive of rolling-stock, will leave $50,000 of unlocated personalty, besides the rolling-stock.

$1,000,000

And we have grand total of personalty.....

--which is the amount shown by the third item of the return.

The property upon which the tax is to be assessed in County A would be-First, the property located therein, $1,200,000; and, second, its proportion of the $600,000 representing the rolling-stock and unlocated personalty. To ascertain this, our statement of the proportion to be made under the act, as we construe it, would be as follows: As the value of the property located in the county, $1,200,000, is to the value of the whole located property of the road, $2,400,000, so is the unlocated property to be taxed in that county, $to the whole unlocated property of the road, $600,000. Upon solving this proportion, the blank will be filled with $300,000, which, added to the $1,200,000 above, will give $1,500,000, the amount upon which taxes should be assessed for County A. Pursuing the same method, we will obtain for the counties B, C, and D, respectively, $750,000, $500,000, and $250,000, and all these sums added together will make $3,000,000, the total value of the company's property. It will be observed that in applying the act, as shown in the foregoing illustration, the words, "rolling-stock and other personal property," in the clause," Second, the amount of tax to be assessed upon the rolling-stock and other personal property is as follows," are treated as meaning the rolling-stock and other unlocated personal property of the company. That this is proper seems inevitable. The first section of the act requires that the third item of the return to be made by the company shall show "the value of the rolling-stock and all other personal property of said company," i.e., the total value of the company's entire personalty of every kind whatever. In the clause of the third section now under consideration, the significant_word "all" is omitted. Moreover, the taxation of the located personalty is fully provided for in the preceding clause, for, when such property in each and every one of the counties is taxed as located therein, it will result that all of it has been taxed. The word "other," therefore, as here used, must mean "other than located," i.e., the unlocated personalty, or personalty of like nature with rolling stock. If the words "other personal

property" in this section of the act should be construed as meaning "all other personal property," the located personalty of the company would be twice taxed; because it would in any particular county be taxed directly as located therein, and its value would be included in the sum total of "rolling-stock and other personal property " to be distributed for taxation among the several counties traversed by the road, and thus taxed again. It cannot for a moment be supposed that the legislature intended any such result as this, and any construction leading to this conclusion must, of course, be discarded. It cannot be denied that in many particulars, to some of which we have already alluded, the meaning of this act might have been more clearly and satisfactorily expressed, and the method of its enforcement made plainer; but its real scheme and purpose are sufficiently obvious to justify us in upholding it. As we understand the law, the system of county taxation it inaugurates is both uniform and fair.

Upon property actually located in a county, the county rate of taxation is assessed as upou the property of all other persons and corporations in that county. This is certainly free from all objection. Property such as rolling-stock, car furniture and fixtures, tools, and all other kinds and descriptions of personalty having no physical location or situs, may, as we have stated, be fairly considered as belonging as much in one county traversed by the road as another, and, if each county gets its tax only upon its fair proportion thereof under the distributive method provided by the act, the doctrine of uniformity is not violated, but absolute equality is maintained. We have shown clearly that, under this system, each county draws to itself for taxation such a proportion of the unlocated personalty of the railroad as the railroad's property located in that county bears to the total aggregate of all its located property, and thus is given to each county in fair ratio the just compensation due it for the measure of protection it affords the company's property actually or constructively within its limits. Having shown, we think satisfactorily, that the law may be maintained and enforced justly against railroads having no charter exemptions from taxation, we will now con sider its applicability to those railroads a part of whose property is taxable for state purposes at a charter rate, and a part at the general statutory rate applicable to the mass of all other kinds of property within the state, for, unless this class of railroads is also subjected to the burden of county taxation, as far as such burden can be properly imposed, the law would not meet the requirements of the constitution.

The principal difficulty is presented in the objection that, under the system of returns required by the act, no means are

afforded for separating the property of a railroad into the two portions indicated, one taxable upon one basis, and the other upon another, and that therefore it is impossible to enforce the act at all as to this class of railroads. While the act does fail to provide expressly for such a separation of any railroad's property in the returns to be made, its terms are broad enough to apply to and reach all the railroads in the state; and all of them, without exceptions, must make returns. If any railroad of the class now being discussed should make returns precisely as required by the act, but refuse to pay the county taxes assessed upon the basis of such returns, on the ground that a portion, at least, of its property could not be thus taxed, and accordingly the comptroller-general should issue a fi. fa. for the whole amount of the taxes, then, upon a proper defence, the whole matter could be so adjusted in the courts-as was done heretofore in the state tax cases against railroads-that only then lawful taxes would be required. Indeed, the act provides that any railroad company may dispute its liability to the tax imposed by the act by an affidavit of illegality. But we do not think there need be any appeal to the courts by railroads of the class now being considered, nor is it necessary to so hold in order to carry this law into effect. The officers of each railroad know its precise condition in the respects mentioned, and can easily separate its property into the parts taxable, respectively, on the income basis, and the ad valorem basis, and can make this all appear in their returns. For this purpose the different portions of property taxable upon different basis may be treated as if they were the property of separate and distinct railroads. The propriety of so doing is sustained by the reasoning of Mr. Justice STRONG in Railroad, etc., Co. v. Georgia, 92 U. S. 665. In reply it may be said the act in question does not require any returns of the kind indicated to be made. The answer is that the act deals alike with all the railroads in the state, outside of those hypothetically referred to in the fourth section. That section cannot, in any view of it, apply to the class of railroads with which we are now dealing, and they therefore undoubtedly are covered by the other portions of the act, and are treated, primarily, as if they had no exemptions or special privileges whatever. If any of them claim to have such, it is incumbent on them to show the fact, and why, and to what extent. To do this by making suitable returns is therefore not a burden, but a privilege; and, though the act does not expressly so require, nothing in its terms forbids a railroad company from making fuller and more explicit returns, if necessary for its own protection; and such a course, on the part of a railroad company, would certainly be in harmony with the gener!