nt. The decision was
substantially aided by the fact that the company had been doing a
general telegraphic business within the State for more than fifty years
without having been subjected to such an exaction.[640]

SPREAD OF THE DOCTRINE

The doctrine of the case, however, soon cast off these initial
limitations. In Looney _v._ Crane Company[641] a similar tax by the
State of Texas was disallowed as to an Illinois corporation, engaged in
its home State in the manufacture of hardware, but maintaining in Texas
depots and warehouses from which orders were filled and sales made,
likewise, in International Paper Company _v._ Massachusetts,[642] it was
clearly stated that "the immunity of interstate commerce from State
taxation" is not confined to what is done by carriers in such commerce,
but "is universal and covers every class of ... [interstate] commerce,
including that conducted by merchants and trading companies." On the
same occasion the general proposition was laid down that "the power of a
State to regulate the transaction of a local business within its
borders by a foreign corporation, ... is not unrestricted or absolute,
but must be exerted in subordination to the limitations which the
Constitution places on State action."[643]

STATUS OF THE DOCTRINE TODAY

The precise standing of this doctrine is, nevertheless, seriously
clouded by certain more recent holdings. In Sprout _v._ South Bend,[644]
decided in 1928, the doctrine was still applied, to disallow a license
tax on concerns operating a bus interstate. Pointing to the fact that
the ordinance made no distinction between busses engaged exclusively
interstate and those engaged intrastate or both interstate and
intrastate, the Court said: "In order that the fee or tax shall be
valid, it must appear that it is imposed solely on account of the
intrastate business; that the amount exacted is not increased because of
the interstate business done; that one engaged exclusively in interstate
commerce would not be subject to the imposition; and that the person
taxed could discontinue the intrastate business without withdrawing also
from the interstate business."[645] Likewise, in Cooney _v._ Mountain
States Telephone and Telegraph Co., the Court asserted that to sustain a
State occupation tax on one whose business is both interstate and
intrastate, "it must appear * * *, and that the one [who is] taxed could
discontinue the intrastate business without [also] with