This is a writ of error to review a judgment of the supreme court of the state of Illinois, which affirmed a judgment for the amount of a tax assessed against the plaintiff in error for personal property in the year 1907. The contention that the assessment was in violation of article I., § 8, clause 3, of the Federal Constitution, in that it was laid upon a subject of interstate commerce, was overruled by the state court. 243 Ill. 313, —L.R.A.(N.S.) --, 90 N. E. 686.
'That the defendant, E. R. Bacon, had, on the 1st day of April, 1907, and for many years prior to said date, his residence and domicil in the town of Lake View, in the county of Cook, and state of Illinois; that the defendant, E. R. Bacon, on the 1st day of April, 1907, and prior thereto, occupied and controlled a certain private grain elevator known as Wabash Elevator, and that the said grain elevator was located at 33d and Waterville streets in the town of South Town, in the city of Chicago, county of Cook, and state of Illinois; that the only personal property in the town of South Town owned by the defendant on the 1st day of April, 1907, was certain grain stored in the said elevator above mentioned, and certain personal property used by him in his business office located at 234 La Salle street, in the city of Chicago Illinois, and that the said business office and the said personal property used by said defendant therein was not then a part of or in any way connected with said grain elevator; that the said defendant, E. R. Bacon, has paid the tax assessed on April 1st, 1907, on all the personal property used by him in his said business office located at 234 La Salle street, in the city of Chicago, Illinois; that the said defendant, E. R. Bacon, has paid the tax assessed on April 1st, 1907, on all his personal property located in the town of South Town, except the tax assessed on the grain which was stored in the said Wabash Elevator on the 1st day of April, 1907; that all of said grain stored in the said Wabash Elevator on the 1st of April, 1907, was sold to the defendant, E. R. Bacon, by various persons domiciled in and residents of various states in the southern and western portions of the United States, and that the said persons who sold the said grain to the said defendant, E. R. Bacon, did, prior to the said sale, and the shipment of said grain, as hereinafter mentioned, enter into certain contracts with certain railroad companies for the transportation of said grain to the cities of New York and Philadelphia and various other cities in the eastern portions of the United States, all of said cities being outside of the state of Illinois, in and by which said contracts the said persons reserved the right to the owners of the said grain to remove said grain from the cars of the said railroad companies at the city of Chicago, Illinois, for the mere temporary purposes of inspecting, weighing, cleaning, clipping, drying, sacking, grading, or mixing, or changing the ownership, consignee, or destination of said grain; that after the making of the said contracts by the original vendors of the said grain and the said railroad companies, the said original vendors delivered to the said railroad companies, under and in accordance with the said contracts, the said grain for transportation to said cities of New York, Philadelphia and the said divers other cities specified in the said contracts of shipment.
'That the said E. R. Bacon was, prior to and on April 1st, 1907, represented in the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and the said divers other cities in the said eastern portions of the United States by various agents, by and through whom he disposed of grain and other commodities on the eastern markets, and that all of the said grain above mentioned was purchased by him as aforesaid for the sole and only purpose of being sold and disposed of by and through his said agents in the aforesaid eastern cities, and that the said grain or any portion thereof was not at any time intended, by said original owners nor by said E. R. Bacon, for use, sale, or disposition in the state of Illinois.
'That at the time the said grain was sold to the said defendant, E. R. Bacon, by the said original vendors thereof, domiciled in and residents of said southern and western portions of the United States, his sole and only intention regarding the said grain was that all of the said grain should be transported and carried from the place of its said original consignment to said railroad companies to the said points of destination named in the said contracts of shipment entered into between the said original vendors of said grain and the said railroad companies, as hereinbefore mentioned.