Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/838

 sion of 1919) the legislature had authority to exempt personal property from taxation if it so desired (article 29, Amendments to the Constitution; see Laws 1919, p. 507).

Here again we might observe that the legislature could not, by reason of the federal constitution and the Act of Congress relative to the taxing of national bank stocks, exempt moneys and credits generally from taxation, and continue to subject national bank stock to taxation at the local rate of levy or at any rate differing from that applicable to other moneyed capital. It is not probable that the legislature would relinquish altogether the tax on national bank stock while continuing to tax that of state banks at the local rate. On the contrary, whatever reasons were potent enough to cause it to exempt “moneys and credits, including bonds and stocks,” which of necessity embraced the stock of national banks, would naturally operate likewise favorably upon that of competing state banks. This impels us to the conclusion that the legislature has in fact exempted all stock, including bank stock, from all taxation, except that expressly retained by chap. 62 of the Laws of the Special Session of 1919. It follows that the complaint states a cause of action, and that the writ should issue as prayed for.

, J., and and, District Judges, concur.

and, JJ., disqualified.

, C. J. (dissenting). This is a proceeding where the original jurisdiction of this court has been invoked on the ground that the matters involved and presented for decision are of real and great public interest, affecting the state materially in its sovereignty and prerogatives. The object of the proceeding is to procure this court, on final hearing of the matters involved, to exercise its original jurisdiction and permanently enjoin the collection of or the attempt to collect certain taxes assessed and levied against certain specific property hereinafter mentioned. This court in the first instance issued an appropriate writ, which was duly served upon the defendants, directing them to show cause why they should not be temporarily prohibited and enjoined from taking any further proceedings for the collection of the tax, and why, upon final hearing, they should not be permanently enjoined from collecting or at-