SECTION 23. Until the legislature shall district the state the following shall be the railroad districts: The first district shall be composed of the counties of Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba, from which one railroad commissioner shall be elected. The second district shall be composed of the counties of Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo, from which one railroad commissioner shall be elected. The third district shall be composed of the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Monterey, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Tulare, Tuolumne and Ventura, from which one railroad commissioner shall be elected.

SECTION 24.

The legislature shall pass all laws necessary for the enforcement of the provisions of this article.

The act of April 23, 1880 [Stats. p. 400], requiring directors of mining corporations to post monthly statements of the receipts, expenditures and liabilities of the corporation is not unconstitutional. Hewlett v. Epstein, 63 Cal. 184.

ARTICLE XIII.

REVENUE AND TAXATION.

SECTION 1. All property in the state, not exempt under the laws of the United States, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law. The word "property, as used in this article and section, is hereby declared to include moneys, credits, bonds, stocks, dues, franchises, and all other matters and things real,

ment

personal and mixed, capable of private ownership; provided, that property used for free public libraries and free museums, growing crops, property used exclusively for public schools and such as may belong to the United States, this state or to any county or municipal corporation within this state, shall be exempt from taxation. The legislature may provide, except in case of credits secured by mortgage or trust deed, for a deduction from credits of debts due to bona fide residents of this state. [Amendment ratified at election Nov. 6, 1894.]

[ORIGINAL SECTION.]

SECTION 1. All property in the state, not exempt under the laws of the United States, shall be taxed in proportion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law. The word "property, "as used in this article and section, is hereby declared to include moneys, credits, bonds, stocks, dues, franchises, and all other matters and things, real, personal and mixed, capable of private ownership; provided that growing crops, property used exclusively for public schools, and such as may belong to the United States, this state, or to any county or municipal corporation within this state, shall be exempt from taxation. The legislature may provide, except in the case of credits secured by mortgage or trust deed, for a reduction from credits or debts due to bona fide residents of this state.

Const. 1849, Art. XI, Sec. 14.

Fruit trees are not growing crops, and are subject to taxation. Cottle v. Spitzer, 65 Cal. 456.

The words "all other matters and things, real, personal and mixed, capable of private ownership," do not qualify the word franchise. Said words show clearly that they were intended to add something to what preceded them to refer to kinds of property not pre

viously mentioned-not to qualify anything, and franchises are property subject to taxation. Spr. V. W. W. r. Schottler, 62 Cal. 71, and S. F. Gas Co. r. Schottler, Id. 119.

Where the capital stock of a corporation divided into shares was owned by others and not by the corporation itself, prior to 1879, the corporation could not be assessed therefor, but could be assessed only for the property "owned, claimed by, or in its possession or under its control." San Francisco v. S. V. W'. W., 63 Cal. 524, following decisions of former Supreme Court.

Section 3640 of Political Code as it stood in 1880, providing for the assessment of shares of national bank stock was discriminating and unconstitutional in not allowing deductions for credits. Such stock is not a credit secured by mortgage or deed of trust. Miller v. Heilbron, 58 Cal. 133. Sec. 3640 was repealed March 7, 1881.

The definition of property is broad enough to include the possessory right and imperfect interest of a purchaser of state land prior to payment of the purchase money or receipt of patent, and the state is not estopped from assessing such interest. People r. Donnelly, 58 Cal. 144.

It would be double taxation to assess all the corporate property of a corporation and also assess to each stockholder the shares of stock of such corporation owned by him. Burke v. Badlam, 57 Cal. 594.

That property shall be assessed in pro

tion to its value, to be ascertained as provided by law, requires assessors to proceed to ascertain such value in the manner provided by law at the time of making the assessment. The manner provided at the time the constitution went into effect was not in conflict with the constitution. Hyatt . Hall. 54 Cal. 353.

Section 3681 of Political Code providing for the adding of taxes upon property which escaped taxation the previous year is constitutional. Without such provision taxation would be unequal. [Approving Biddle v. Oakes, 59 Cal. 94.] Farmers' etc. Bank v Board, 97 Cal. 318, 324.

A seat in the San Francisco stock and exchange board is not taxable property. So held in Lowenberg v. Greenebaum, 99 Cal. 162; a seat in the board is a mere personal privilege of being and remaining a member of a voluntary association with the assent of the associates, and is not "property" that would pass by sale under a common writ of execution, and following those views it is held that it has no qualities which make it taxable as property. [Clute v. Loveland, 68 Cal. 254, distinguished.] City and County of San Francisco . Anderson, 103 Cal. 70, and City and County of San Francisco v. Wangenheim & Co., 37 Pac. Rep. 221.

It was held under the act of March 19, 1878 [Stats. p. 338] which was a special law to legalize assessments in San Francisco, that an assessment of the capital stock of a private

corporation was valid. San Francisco v. S. V. W. W., 54 Cal. 571.

The section is referred to in connection with powers of supervisors to collect license tax, (opinion of Thornton, J.) in Ex parte Wolters, 65 Cal. 271; and as to pleading in action to recover taxes from railroad company in People v. C. P. R. R. Co., 83 Cal. 406; and in relation to Los Angeles City Charter, in Security Sav. Bank, etc. v. Hinton, 97 Cal. 214; and in concurring opinion of Sharpstein, J., as to power of board of equalization to raise entire assessment roll, including assessment of money. People v. Dunn, 59 Cal. 336; and of Thornton, J., in W. F. & Co. r. Board of Equalization, 56 Cal. 202.

The provisions of the act of March, 1895 [Stats. p. 267], to establish fees of county, township and other officers and of jurors and witnesses, violates this section in the provision requiring an additional tax or deposit, in probate cases upon each additional one thousand dollars in excess of three thousand dollars, shown by the inventory and appraisement. This is pronounced "an extraordinary tax" upon the property to which it applies, in addition to the equal and uniform tax to which alone all property in the state is liable. Fatjo v. Pfister, 117 Cal. 86.

An assessment by an irrigation district upon pueblo lands within a city which is within the district, which lands are unoccupied and uncultivated, but susceptible of cultivation by irrigation, and which would be