The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1892-04-02
rhE couRT 60.
Tie P6opIs Are the Tr AIuni
Finally Dtssas.

Finally Dtoi1s.
The Supreme court overrules every
9oint made agsinst the validity Of the
Mckinley bil and does il ? style
which beae familiar en6ugf b 1870
NotF isf Was GENERALLY expseed,
thoefh IS Nfe eppossd b. come that
tho co would not 20 50 f@F a
assert the af1 , clause attemti
iaE TO sfs Che pt dent power % de-
clare levy % 11il levied
BY law. Thia b does However but
txe decision in no way affects the ques-
tion. The supreme court is q tribunal
Of last resort only when Il is right
When IL Is wrong appeal lies from us
decisions to the power and the right
whose creature it is--tlae power and the
right Of the people, who are above the
wrongful findings of any tribunal what
ever.
As the decision Is reported by tell
egraph the court holds that the Nc
Kinley bill does not authorize the pres
ident to levy retaliatory taxes hut
prescribes taxes to go into effect under
certain prescribed contingencies This
is an unworthy bubble. The clause
does prescribe certain rates of taxation
on certain articles, but it does not levy
them nor make them operative. On
the contrary, coffee, teas and hides
being already untaxed, 1t red ves the
taxes from raw sugar and nolasses,
leaving these articles untaxed alto
gether. Then it prescribes certain
rates of taxation on these articles but
does not tax them at all. Instead Of
doing so it declares that the president
shall have power to levy taxes at the
prescribed rates after January 1, 1892,
if he chooses to do SO. These taxes do
not exist by legislative act. They have
no existence at all There are no such
taxes No Legislative act has put them
in force and no date has been set by
Legislative act for them to go into force.
They do not exist nor can they ever
exist by legislative act until such act is
passed putting them in force.
AS every republican on the supreme
bench knows, as every one who watches
public affairs knows, the repub-
licans of the Reed congress passed this
clause because the constitution ex-
plicitly provides that all such meas
ures as this must originate in the
house, and because they did not ex-
pect them to have a majority in the
succeeding house. Not wishing to de-
clare this levy of taxes outright, and
knowing that democratic house
would never pass such a measure,
they attempted at once to evade theil
own responsibility and to bind sue
ceeding congresses, because as long as
the senate is republican the democratic
majority in the house cannot undo thi'
action by which taxes are to be levied
by the president
It would have been different in no
essential had the Reed congress passeC
this clause;
That on and after January I, 1892, the presi
dent may levy by proclamation tax Of 200 PEI
i cent ad valorem on any and all articles h
pleases. He shall have the power and 1t shal
be his duty to do so when in his opinion 1t is ez
pedient a
This is the taxation by proclamation
clause of the Mckinley bill, except tina
here the absolutism is extended to al
instead of to specified decisions.
This is the longest step taken to
wards absolutism in the history of tn,
country, but it would have been ruin
Ous to the republican party to hay'
had the Mckinley bill declared invali'
with a democratic majority in tn
house and with campaign opening
with every indication of popular hos
tility to the bill. There could be NJ
greater or juster reproach against tn
courts decision than the statement o
the fact that the decision nowher
creates surprise and that none are les
surprised than those who most deplor
its action.
The republican theory OF absolui
ism in government must run its cours
to its logical conclusion. Nothing Wi
be lost if the defenders of constitution
al liberty surrender nothing of primo
ples in accepting and acqaiescing i
facts as they present themselves Will
republicanism is working out its ow
destruction. st. Louis Republic.