entucky ferry, Helson & Randolph _v._ Kentucky, 279 U.S. 245
(1929); tax laid on privilege of operating a bus in interstate commerce
because not imposed solely as compensation for use of highways or to
defray expenses of regulating motor traffic, Interstate Transit, Inc.
_v._ Lindsey, 283 U.S. 183 (1931); tax on gas pipe line whose only
activity in State was the use of a thermometer and reduction of pressure
to permit a vendee to draw off gas, State Tax Commission _v._ Interstate
Natural Gas Co., 284 U.S. 41 (1931)--but see East Ohio Gas Co. _v._ Tax
Commission, 283 U.S. 465 (1931); gasoline tax imposed per gallon of
gasoline imported by interstate carriers as fuel for use in their
vehicles within the State as well as in their interstate travel,
Bingaman _v._ Golden Eagle Western Lines, 297 U.S. 626 (1936). _See
also_, for reiteration of the basic rule that the commerce clause
forbids States to tax the privilege of engaging in interstate commerce,
Gwin, White & Prince _v._ Henneford, 305 U.S. 434, 438-439 (1939). In
California _v._ Thompson, 313 U.S. 109 (1941), the Court, overruling Di
Santo _v._ Pennsylvania, 273 U.S. 34 (1927), sustained, as not a
"revenue measure," but "a measure to safeguard the traveling public by
motor vehicle," who are "particularly unable" to protect themselves
against overreaching by those "engaged in a business notoriously subject
to abuses," a California statute requiring that agents for this type of
transportation take out a license for both their interstate and their
intrastate business.

[639] 216 U.S. 1 (1910). _Cf._ Osborne _v._ Florida, 164 U.S. 650
(1897), involving an express business; in Pullman Company _v._ Adams,
189 U.S. 420 (1903); and in Allen _v._ Pullman's Palace Car Co., 191
U.S. 171 (1903). Here State taxes levied on the local business of
companies engaged also in interstate commerce were sustained "on the
assumption" that the companies in question were free to abandon their
local business.

[640] _See also_ Pullman Co. _v._ Kansas ex rel. Coleman, 216 U.S. 56
(1910); Ludwig _v._ Western Union Teleg. Co., 216 U.S. 146 (1910);
Atchison, T. & S.F.R. Co. _v._ O'Connor, 223 U.S. 280, 285 (1912).

[641] 245 U.S. 178 (1917). _Cf._ Baltic Mining Co. _v._ Massachusetts,
231 U.S. 68 (1914); Kansas City Ry. _v._ Kansas, 240 U.S. 227 (1916);
and Kansas City, M. & B.R. Co. _v._ Stiles, 242 U.S. 111 (1916). In each
of these a tax like that involved in Looney _v._ Crane was sustained,