with the Tax Commission the appointment of some elector of this state as its agent for the service of all notices, summonses and other papers authorized, or required to be served in accordance with the provisions of this Act. Such appointment shall contain the name, residence and post office address of the agent. From and after filing such appointment, ail notices, summonses or other papers required by this Act to be served upon the express company, may be served upon such agent and all notices or other papers required by this act to be sent by mail to such express company may be sent by mail to such agent, so long as such agent shall continue to reside in this state and until his appointment shall have been revoked.

§ 14. Every express company which owned property in this state and used the same in this state in the express business in the years 1913, 1914, 1915, or 1916, and which shall not have paid the taxes levied thereon for such year or years, shall on or before June 1st, 1917, file with the Tax Commission a statement in the form and manner provided for in Section 2 of this Act, for each of such years. Such statement shall contain the matters required to be contained in the statement provided for by said Section 2, for the year ending upon the 31st day of December preceding. The Tax Commission shall thereupon proceed to make an assessment upon the property so owned, and used, for each of said years, and the assessments so made shall be transmitted to the various county auditors together with the assessment made for the year 1917. The county auditor shall add such assessment or assessments to the assessment book or books of the proper taxing district of the county, and shall spread the taxes levied for the year for which such assessment or assessments are made in such taxing districts upon such assessments. The county treasurer shall collect the taxes so levied from the express companies in the same manner as other taxes are collected, as hereinbefore provided, excepting that the same shall be deemed to be due and delinquent at the same time that the taxes for the year 1917 become due and delinquent, and no interest or penalty shall attach thereto if the same be paid before they become delinquent, but otherwise if not so paid. Each company shall furnish the Tax Commission on or before July 1st, 1917, a verified statement of the mileage over which it conducted its business in each county and taxing

district in this state for the years 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1916. The state treasurer shall cancel on his books all unpaid taxes heretofore levied or attempted to be levied against express companies for the years 1913, 1914, 1915 and 1916.

§ 15. Sections 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 of Chapter 100 of the Laws of 1915, and all other acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith, are hereby repealed.

§ 16. There being no law in this state for the assessment and taxation of express companies, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, and this act shall be in force and effect from and after its passage and approval. Approved Feb. 23, 1917.

CHAPTER 121.

(H. B. 212)

RELATING TO ASSESSMENT AND TAXATION OF TELEGRAPH

COMPANIES.

AN ACT Entitled, An Act For the Assessment and Taxation of the Property of Telegraph Companies Used in the Telegraph Business of This State.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota:

§ 1. Any person, corporation, association, company or copartnership owning or operating any telegraph line in this state with appliances for the transmission of messages and engaged in the business of furnishing telegraph service for compensation. as owner, lessee or otherwise, shall be deemed, held and known as a Telegraph Company.

$2. Every Telegraph Company doing business in this state. shall file with the Tax Commission, on or before the first day of June each year, a statement verified by the oath of an officer or agent of such company, with reference to the business and property of the company for the year ending December 31st, next preceding, as follows:

First. The name of the company and under the laws of what state or country organized.

Second. The location of its principal office.

Third. The name and post-office address of the president.

secretary, auditor, treasurer and superintendent or general manager.

Fourth. The name and post-office address of the chief officer or managing agent of the company in this state.

Fifth. The number of shares of capital stock.

Sixth. The par value and market value or, if there be no market value, the actual value of the shares of stock on the 31st day of December of the year in which the report is made.

Seventh. A statement of the gross earnings from the telegraph business, for the year ending the 31st, day of December in the year for which the report is made.

Eighth. A statement of the net income from the telegraph business, for the year ending the 31st, day of December in the year for which the report is made.

Ninth. A detailed statement of the real estate owned by the company in this state, where situate and the value thereof.

Tenth. A detailed statement of the personal property, including moneys and credits, owned by the company in this state on the 30th day of April in the year in which the report is made, where situate and the value thereof.

Eleventh. The total value of the real estate owned by the company outside of South Dakota;

Twelfth. The total value of the personal property of the company situate outside of this state.

Thirteenth. The whole length of the lines and the length of so much of the lines as are within this state, which lines shall include what said telegraph company controls or uses, as owner, leasee or otherwise.

The tax commission shall have the power, for good cause shown, to extend the time within which the statement prescribed by this section must be filed.

§ 3. Such other facts or information may be furnished as the Telegraph Company may deem material upon the question of the taxable value of its property within this state; and shall furnish such other facts or information as the Tax Commission shall call for.

§ 4. Blanks for making the above statement shall be prepared and furnished said companies by the Tax Commission.

§ 5. If any Telegraph Company shall knowingly make a false statement in any material respect, it shall forfeit to the state of South Dakota not less than $200.00 nor more than $1,000.00 to be recovered in the name of the state by the Attorney General in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Any telegraph company failing to file the statement aforesaid, shall forfeit the sum of $50.00 per day, to be recovered.

by suit brought in any circuit court of the state by the Attorney General in the name of the State; provided, however, that if any Telegraph Company shall make an attempt in good faith to comply with the provisions of this Act in the furnishing of such statement, it shall not be subject to such penalty until after the Tax Commission shall have given such Telegraph Company forinal written notice of any defect which may exist in the statement filed by such company, by registered mail, and such company shall have failed for a period of twenty days to file an amended statement correcting such defect.

The penalties hereinbefore provided shall, when collected, be paid into the general fund of the state. In addition, the Tax Commission may, at its discretion, add twenty-five per cent to the assessable value of the property of such company for failure to make the report required on the specified date.

§ 6. If any Telegraph Company shall fail to make report required of it, the Tax Commission shall proceed upon the best information it may be able to obtain, to make a statement for such company of the facts which should have been so reported, and shall notify such company by registered letter of its action in that behalf.

§ 7. The Tax Commission shall meet annually on the second Monday in July of each year for the purpose of assessing such Telegraph Companies. The ownership and valuation of the assessment shall be as of the first day of May of the year for which the assessment is made.

$ 8. The Tax Commission shall carefully consider al! reports and statements made as hereinbefore provided, all other facts and evidence collected or available and any and all other matters necessary to enable the Tax Commission to make a just and equitable assessment of said property. The Tax Commission may change the valuation given by the Telegraph Company, or add any property omitted there from, and shall proceed to determine the true and full cash value in money of the entire property of each of such Telegraph Companies in this state, according to the following rule:

The Tax Commission shall be guided, in ascertaining the value of the property subject to taxation in this state, by the proportion which the number of miles of telegraph lines controlled or used by said Telegraph Company as owner, lessee or otherwise, within this state, bears to the entire mileage of telegraph lines controlled or used by said company, as owner, lessee or otherwise, both within and without this state; provided, that if it shall be made to appear to the Tax Commission that there is a substantial difference in the character of a telegraph compa

ny's property used in its telegraph business, as between that within and that without this state, the Tax Commission shall be authorized to take such fact into consideration in order to correct and equalize such difference.

§ 9. The Tax Commission shall give ten days notice by registered mail to each Telegraph Company of the assessment made upon such company, which notice shall specify a date upon which the Telegraph Company may appear before the Tax Commission and be heard in all matters relating to the correctness of the assessment made, after which hearing, and on or before. the 4th Monday of August next following, the Tax Commission shall equalize the assessment and notify each Telegraph Company by registered mail of the amount at which such assessment shall have been equalized.

The Tax Commission shall then proceed to divide and apportion said assessment to the various counties of the state in which such Telegraph Company conducts its business according to the mileage in each of said counties.

§ 10. The Tax Commission shall, on or before the fourth Monday in August, transmit to the County Auditor of each county through which any Telegraph Company conducts its business, a statement showing the mileage of such Telegraph Company in such county, the value per mile and the total amount thereof. The County Auditor shall thereupon apportion such value to the various taxing districts of the county in accordance with the mileage in each taxing district, and the County Auditor shall add such asssessment to the tax lists of each of such taxing districts and shall spread the tax levies in each taxing district upon such assessments, the same as upon the assessments of all other property. The taxes shall become due and payable at the same time and in the same manner as other taxes. The County Treasurer shall collect the taxes so levied upon the Telegraph Companies in the same manner as other taxes are collected.

§ 11. Upon failure to pay the tax for a period of thirty days after the same shall have become due there shall be added a penalty of five per cent of the amount of the tax, together with interest at the rate of one per cent per month from the time the tax becomes due until paid.

§ 12. In case any Telegraph Company shall refuse or neglect, for a period of thirty days after the same shall have become delinquent, to pay any tax levied against it in any taxing district of the state, the County Treasurer of the county in which such taxing district is located shall have the power, in addition to the remedies provided by law, for the collection of personal property taxes, to institute and maintain an action in