Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-03-12
CLASS LEGISLATION
Defined by Whitney in the In
come Tax Case.
NOT TAXING OF CERTAIN CITIZENS,

the Rest-Ex-Senator Edmunds Gives
ter-Secretary sIorton's Estimate of Corn
and Wheat Hand-Sad Story of =
Young Diplomat.
WASHINGTON, March 12-The attraction
at the supreme court in the income tax
cases was the venerable ex-senator Ed
munds, who spoke for the appellants. Be-
fore Edmands arose Assistant Attorney
Whitney closed his speech for the govern
ment, addressing himself to uniformity
in taxation. In answer to the charge that
the income tax violated the principle Of
uniformity he contended that the limit Of
Si,0o0fixed by the law was not class legisla-
tion. II subsequent congress had sought
to amend the law by including those not
previously exempted by the a 1000 limit,
such an amendment would no doubt be
class legislation, as it would apply to a
distinct class. Whitney reviewed prior
decisions in insurance and other cases,
showing that the Interpretation Of this
court on class legislation would not apply
to the income tax.
Ex-senator Edmunds Takes the Floor.
When Edmunds took tine floor he spoke
in = conversational tone, much as he did
when a leading figure of the senate He
stated the contention of his client against
an invasion of his rights and an inspec-
tion Of his private books and papers. .. II
there was in the constitution provision
protecting the individual it was the rock
upon which the contention against this
tax was based. The worst tyranny of his
tory was that which came in the guise of
a tax. He first spoke of the action of con-
gress in endeavoring to take away from the
courts the right to appeal for protection,
as was the case in the income tax law. He
did not think the time had come when
there should no longer be an appeal to
the courts from the acts of congress. 1t
would be beyond the function of the con-
gress to pass an act that would strip the
courts of their rights. and this was just
as true as to the rights OF the citizen as to
those of the courts.
Wants the Court to Overrule Itself.
Edmunds reviewed the cases heretofore
decided and analysed the points involved
at length. He was referring to the Hilton
case, involving the tax on carriages, when
Chief Justice Fuller called his attention
to the fact that Hilton had an unusual
number of carriages-l25 as he remem-
bered. Unusual in numbers, yes" Ed
munds asserted, but he possessed them
as many persons possess virtue and
grace" He asked the court to ovcrrule
its former decision on the income tax as
given in the Springer case. Let u.s." he
said, "come back to the true rule of the
constitution
Revolution, Anarchy aud Despotism.
He argued that the past congress had
oversteppe6 the limits of the constitution
in imposing this tx because, he said,
''it was short of money" and argued that
under this law 10 per cent of the tax
would be paid by 2per cent of tine taxable
voters. "It becomes" said Mr.. Edmunds,
ian interesting subject of speculation as
to how long the government can last I'M
der a system which allows those who pay
nothing to tax their fellow citizens One
evil step will lead to another as one vice
follows another, until by and by We will
have revolution, then anarchy and then
tyrant to rule us as the revolving changes
go round"
A Lot of Talking to do Yet.
Edmunds closed at $3.50 p. IN. and the
court adjourned for the day, as Attorney
General Olncy, who is to speak next,
stated that the half hour left was not suf-
ficient FOR him. Olney said in reply to a
question from the court that lie should
not require more than an hour more of
time, while Carter, who is to follow, said
he should desire to speak for about two
hours and Choate. who is to close. said he
would probably ask for more than two
hours.