Nevertheless, it can be greatly bettered if amended in two important particulars. In its essential principle, that of taxing franchises as realty, it is right and proper. After much study of the question, I am convinced that in this way we can come nearer to doing justice than in any other which has as yet been proposed. It is no new thing to treat franchises as realty. They are so treated in Washburn’s work on real property, and by Chancellor Kent; but under the laws of New York as they are now a franchise can not be taxed except by special statute, and as a matter of fact this extremely valuable species of property is in very many, if not in most, cases untaxed or taxed far below its value in comparison with other kinds of real estate. Local franchises are granted for various purposes and under varying conditions; sometimes by special statute and sometimes by the municipal authorities under a general statute. The value of the franchise of course varies widely in different localities, depending upon a variety of circumstances; but a great part of its value is dependent upon the same causes which operate to make other kinds of real estate more valuable in one locality than in another. The franchise is inseparable from the property of the corporation in the street, whether this property consists of poles, pipes, or tracks, above the ground, under the ground, or on the ground. The right to lay a railroad track and operate a railroad in a public street can not be separated or dissociated from the railroad itself. This is equally true of the right to lay water and gas mains and the like. The franchise is a necessary and inevitable element of value and is a proper subject of consideration in determining the taxable value of the real property of the corporation enjoying it. The right to occupy a street should not be classed as an intangible something, distinct from the other property of the company, but should be treated as a necessary incident to the tangible property and one to be considered in measuring the value of the whole property. The Nichols law in Ohio which provides for the taxation of certain kinds of corporations such as telegraph and telephone companies and the like, doing business in the public streets, proceeds along these lines, and has in practice been found to work admirably. It is possible that further experience may enable us to find some better method of taxing franchises, but with our present knowledge it is certainly wisest to tax them as realty.