Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1895-07-11
CALAMITY HOWLERS.
ARE BECOMING MORE NUMER-
GUS EVERY DAY.
Evsn the Supreme Court of tho Unlted
states Has a 0uartetto of Them :
Income Tax Decision GROSS
HnIquity.

\ II Populists had given utterance to
the expressions that fell from the lips
Of che four dissenting justices of the
supreme court in the income tax case,
they would have been hooted at from
Dan to Beersheba as Calamity howl
ers." Listen to them. Justice Harlan
Ssays: THE practical, If not direct eff
feet, Of the decision today is to give
certain kinds Of property a position OF
faVoritism and advantage that Is in
consistent with the fundamental prin-
Jciples Of our social organization, and
to invest them with power and intiu-
ence that is perilous to that portion OF
the people upon whom rests the larger
part of the burdens Of government, and
who ought not to be subjected to the
domination Of aggregated wealth any
more than the property of the country
should be at the mercy of the lawless."
Justice Jackson is reported as follows:
The decision, in his opinion, practically
destroyed the power of the govern
ment to reach incomes. 1t takes from
Ncongress its rightful power to fix the
lie Of taxation and substitutes there
ffore a rule incapable Of application
without imposing the most monstrous
inequality on the citizens Of the COM
mon country. The decision reverses
the common rule of taxation by exempt
ing those who were best able to pay
and forcing the burden upon the shout
ders Of the least able to pay. In con-
clusion, Justice Jackson said, in his
opinion, the decision was the most dis
astrous blow ever struck at the constt-
tutional power of congress. II struck
i down an important, vital and essential
power Of the government. 1t left the
government, in case of necessity, with
out power to reach by taxation in any
form the vast incomes derived from the
real and personal property Of the coun-
try. Justice Brown, in conclusion, said:
THE decision involves nothing less
than the surrender Of the taxing power
to the moneyed class. While l have no
doubt that congress will find some
means Of surrounding the present
crisis, my fear Is that in some mo-
ment of national peril this decision will
rise up to Illustrate its will and par
alyZe its arm. hope it may not be
the first step towards the submergence
Of the liberties Of the people in sordid
despotism of wealth." Justice White,
in concluding, said "The injustice of
, the conclusion points to the error Of
adopting it. 1t takes the invested
wealth and reads it into the constitu-
ton as a favored and protected class
Of property, while 1t leaves the occu-
patton Of the minister, the doctor, the
professor, the lawyer, the inventor, the
Iauthor, the merchant and all the vari-
GUS forms of human activity upon
which the prosperity of the people must
depend, subject to taxation without ap-
portionment. The absolute inequality
and injustice Of taxation by reference
to population and without regard to the
amount of wealth taxed, are so manifest
that to admit the power to tax and limit
1t to this mode, substantially denies
the power to tax and limit 1t to this
y mode substantially denies the power It
self, since it imposes a restriction which
renders its exercise impossible" A few
extemporaneous remarks were made by
Justice White after the reading Of his
written opinion. He spoke of the deci
sion as a blow at the American people
and said that the power of levying al
income tax now left could only be ex
ercised with such injustice that no leg
islative body would dare attempt II
exercise it, for such an attempt would
bring forward a bloody revolution
Coming Nation.