Opinion of the Court. It is further said that the soliciting of passengers in California for a railroad running from Chicago to New York, if connected with interstate commerce at all, is so very remotely connected with it that the hindrance to the business of the plaintiff in error caused by the tax could not directly affect the commerce of the road, because his business was not essential to such commerce. The reply to this proposition is, that the essentiality of the business of the plaintiff in error to the commerce of the road he represented is not the test as to whether that business was a part of interstate commerce. It may readily be admitted, without prejudicing his defence, that the road would continue to carry passengers between Chicago and New York even if the agent had been prohibited altogether from pursuing his business in California. The test is Was this business a part of the commerce of the road? Did it assist, or was it carried on with the purpose to assist, in increasing the amount of passenger traffic on the road? If it did, the power to tax it involves the lessening of the commerce of the road to an extent commensurate with the amount of business done by the agent. The court below relied mainly upon Norfolk & Western Railroad Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 Penn. St. 256; Pembina Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania, 125 U. S. 181, and Smith v. Alabama, 124 U. S. 465, to support its judgment. But we are of opinion that neither of the cases of this court sustains that position. The other case we dispose of in a separate opinion, reversing the judgment in the court below, post, 114. Pembina Mining Co. v. Pennsylvania manifestly is not an authority in favor of the position of the court below, but rather the reverse. In that case a company incorporated under the laws of Colorado for the purpose of doing a general mining and milling business in that State had an office in Philadelphia "for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents, and employés." The State of Pennsylvania, through her proper officers, assessed a tax against the corporation for "office license," which the company resisted on the ground that the act under which the assessment was levied was in conflict with the " commerce clause" of the Constitution of Opinion of the Court. the United States, in that it was an attempt to tax interstate. commerce, as such. The Pennsylvania courts affirmed the validity of the assessment and, a writ of error having been sued out, the case was brought here for review. This court held that the state legislation in question did not infringe upon the commercial clause of the Constitution, because it imposed no prohibition upon the transportation into the State of the products of the corporation or upon their sale in the State, but simply exacted a license tax from the corporation for its office in the Commonwealth; and went on to say: "The exaction of a license fee to enable the corporation to have an office for that purpose within the Commonwealth is clearly within the competency of its legislature. It was decided long ago, and the doctrine has been often affirmed since, that a corporation created by one State cannot, with some exceptions, to which we shall presently refer, do business in another State without the latter's consent, express or implied," p. 184; quoting at some length from Paul v. Virginia, 8 Wall. 168, to sustain the conclusion there reached. But the court further remarked that “a qualification of this doctrine was expressed in Pensacola Telegraph Company v. Western Union Telegraph Company, 96 U. S. 1, 12, so far as it applies to corporations engaged in commerce under the authority or with the permission of Congress," p. 185; and in conclusion said: "The only limitation upon this power of the State to exclude a foreign corporation from doing business within its limits, or hiring offices for that purpose, or to exact conditions for allowing the corporation to do business or hire offices there, arises where the corporation is in the employ of the federal government, or where its business is strictly commerce, interstate or foreign. The control of such commerce, being in the federal government, is not to be restricted by State authority," p. 190. The reference to Pensacola Telegraph Co. v. Western Union Telegraph Co. clearly indicates that the court did not intend to lay down any rule recognizing the power of a State to interfere in any manner with interstate commerce. The latter case was one in which the legisIature of Florida had granted to the Pensacola company the Opinion of the Court. exclusive right of establishing and maintaining telegraph lines in two counties in that State, and this court held that such legislation was in conflict with the act of Congress of July 24, 1866, granting to any telegraph company the right "to construct, maintain and operate lines of telegraph through and over any portion of the public domain of the United States, over and along any of the military or post roads of the United States which have been or may hereafter be declared such by act of Congress, and over, under or across the navigable streams or waters of the United States," etc. This court held such state legislation unconstitutional, as interfering with interstate commerce, and in its opinion announced no doctrine not in harmony with the principles of the later decisions to which we have referred. Smith v. Alabama was a case in which an act of the state legislature imposing a license upon any locomotive engineer operating or running any engine or train of cars on any railroad in that State was resisted by an engineer of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, who ran an engine drawing passenger coaches on that road from Mobile in that State to Corinth in Mississippi, on the ground that the statute of the State was an attempt to regulate interstate commerce, and was, therefore, repugnant to the commercial clause of the Constitution of the United States. We held, however, that the statute in question was not in its nature a regulation of that so far as it affected commercial transactions among the States, its effect was so indirect, incidental and remote as not to burden or impede such commerce, and that it was not, therefore, in conflict with the Constitution of the United States or any law of Congress. It having been thus ascertained that the legislation of the State of Alabama did not impose any burden or tax upon interstate commerce, there is nothing to be found in the opinion in that case that is not in harmony with the doctrines we have asserted in this case. That opinion quoted at length from Sherlock v. Alling, 93 U. S. 99, 102, where it was expressly held that "the States cannot by legislation place burdens upon commerce with foreign nations or among the several States. The decisions go to that VOL. CXXXVI-8 Syllabus. extent and their soundness is not questioned. But, upon an examination of the cases in which they were rendered, it will be . found that the legislation adjudged invalid imposed a tax upon some instrument or subject of commerce, or exacted a license fee from parties engaged in commercial pursuits, or created an impediment to the free navigation of some public waters, or prescribed conditions in accordance with which commerce in particular articles or between particular places was required to be conducted. In all the cases the legislation condemned operated directly upon commerce, either by way of tax upon its business, license upon its pursuit in particular channels or conditions for carrying it on." It results from what we have said that the judgment of the court below should be, and it hereby is, reversed, and the case is remanded to that court for further proceedings in conformity with this opinion. MR. CHIEF JUSTICE FULLER, MR. JUSTICE GRAY and MR. JUSTICE BREWER dissented. NORFOLK AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY v. PENNSYLVANIA. ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA. No. 294. Argued April 24, 25, 1890.- Decided May 19, 1890.. A railroad which is a link in a through line of road by which passengers and freight are carried into a State from other States and from that State to other States, is engaged in the business of interstate commerce; and a tax imposed by such State upon the corporation owning such road for the privilege of keeping an office in the State, for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents and employés (it being a corporation created by another State) is a tax upon commerce among the States, and as such is repugnant to the Constitution of the United States. THE case is stated in the opinion. Opinion of the Court. Mr. M. E. Olmstead for plaintiff in error. Mr. John F. Sanderson, (with whom was Mr. William S. Kirkpatrick on the brief,) for defendant in error. MR. JUSTICE LAMAR delivered the opinion of the court. The 16th section of an act of the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, approved June 7, 1879, provides as follows: "That from and after the first day of July, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine, no foreign corporation, except foreign insurance companies, which does not invest and use its capital in this Commonwealth, shall have an office or offices in this Commonwealth for the use of its officers, stockholders, agents or employés, unless it shall have first obtained from the auditor general an annual license so to do, and for said license every such corporation shall pay into the state treasury, for the use of the Commonwealth, annually, one-fourth of a mill on each dollar of capital stock which said company is authorized to have, and the auditor general shall not issue a license to any corporation until said license fee shall have been paid: The auditor general and state treasurer are hereby authorized to settle and have collected an account against any company violating the provisions of this section, for the amount of such license fee, together with a penalty of fifty per centum for failure to pay the same: Provided, That no license fee shall be necessary for any corporation paying a tax under any previous section of this act, or whose capital stock or a majority thereof is owned or controlled by a corporation of this State which does pay a tax under any previous section of this act." Laws of Penn., Sess. 1879, 120, No. 122, § 16. Under the authority vested in him by that statute the auditor general of the State assessed a license tax against the Norfolk and Western Railroad Company, a corporation existing under the laws of Virginia and West Virginia, for each of the two years ending July 1, 1885, on its capital stock of $25,000,000, at the rate prescribed in the act, amounting to |