hority to extend
immunity only to the governmental functions of the federal land banks;
the only governmental functions of the land banks are those performed by
acting as depositaries and fiscal agents for the federal government and
providing a market for governmental bonds; all other functions of the
land banks are private; petitioner here was engaged in an activity
incidental to its business of lending money, an essentially private
function; therefore Sec. 26 cannot operate to strike down a sales tax upon
purchases made in furtherance of petitioner's lending functions."[90]
The Court rejected this argument and invalidated the tax saying: "The
argument that the lending functions of the federal land banks are
proprietary rather than governmental misconceives the nature of the
federal government with respect to every function which it performs. The
federal government is one of delegated powers, and from that it
necessarily follows that any constitutional exercise of its delegated
powers is governmental. * * * It also follows that, when Congress
constitutionally creates a corporation through which the federal
government lawfully acts, the activities of such corporation are
governmental."[91] However, in the absence of federal legislation, a
state law laying a percentage tax on the users of safety deposit
services, measured by the banks' charges therefor, was held valid as
applied to national banks. The tax, being on the user, did not, the
Court held, impose an intrinsically unconstitutional burden on a federal
instrumentality.[92]

THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION; "ACTIVITIES" OF

In the recent case of Carson _v._ Roane-Anderson Co.,[93] the Court was
confronted with an attempt on the part of Tennessee to apply its tax on
the use within the State of goods purchased elsewhere to a private
contractor for the Atomic Energy Commission and to vendors of such
contractors. This, the Court held, could not be done under Section 9 b
of the Atomic Energy Commission Act, which provides in part that: "The
Commission, and the property, activities, and income of the Commission,
are hereby expressly exempted from taxation in any manner or form by any
State, county, municipality, or any subdivision thereof."[94] The power
of exemption, said the Court, "stems from the power to preserve and
protect functions validly authorized--the power to make all laws
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested in
Congress."[95] T