The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-10
Collectors May BE Enjoined or Dis
trict and Circuit Courts BE Asked
to Declare the Law Invalid.
MR.. MILLER IN A DILEMMA
MUCH OF THE COMMISSIONERS
WORK MUST BE DONE OVER.
Exemption of "Coupon Clippers. and
Landlords Likely to He n Political
Issue-AIr. OIney's Views.
Special to the indianapolis Journal.

Special to the Indianapolis Journal
WASHINGTON, April 9.-It is the general
belief in Washington that the death knell
of the income tax law has been rung, and
that even before the next Congress meets
in regular session the entire law will be a
dead letter Mr.. John G.. Moore, of New
York, who is the author OF the test case
just ended announces that he will continue
to contest the law, making his returns, pay
ing his tax, and then instituting suit to re-
cover. Mr. Jere NJ. Wilson, who was one
of the counsel employed by Moore & schley
in the suit, points out in an interview this
afternoon the very important fact that per-
sons who question the validity of the law
need not make the payment of their taxes,
but have now recourse to the courts, and
may seek to have the income tax collectors
enjoined from collecting the tax, a pro-
cedure which has hitherto been impossible,
it having been always held that no injunc-
tion could lie against federal collector of
duties or revenues. Attorney-general Olney
takes a respondent view of the laws future
existence. 81 do not think the law will
stand as the law of the land" he is quoted
as saying. 1T is too technical His views
are shared by the Office of the Internal
Revenue Commissioner. Mr.. Miller puts on
a bold front, but secretly he is utterly be-
wildered by the almost hopeless tangle in
which his work now finds itself. Instead of
yielding $50, coo, 600, first estimated, he now
gravely doubts if more than s10,0O0Oo0 will
be realized.
An interesting complication has suggested
itself to legal minds. The district and Cir
cult courts of New York hold that the law
is constitutional Under the decision of the
Supreme Court (or rather in view of the
failure to decided, the view of the court
stands as to the law, with the exception of
the incomes from rents and from certain
classes of bonds. 1t occurs to some people
that it would be possible for the District
and Circuit courts elsewhere in the United
States, say in Indiana or in Maryland to
hold that the law is unconstitutional. Such
a decision is easily possible. There would
again be no result from an appeal to the
Supreme Court so long as only eight jus
tces are sitting, for, by a divided court, as
yesterday, the decision of the lower
court would stand The curious spectacle
would then be presented of a federal law
which is constitutional in New York and
unconstitutional in Maryland or Indiana.
Such an anomalous condition could how
ever, If it should arise, exist only until next
fall for Justice jackson, whose absence
from the bench is the innocent cause of all
this turmoil, has promised that before the
fal term of the court he will either resign or
resume his seat 1t is now the expectation
that whenever the remaining sections of the
law are decided by full bench adverse de-
cison will be rendered.
The income tax bids fair now to become
a political issue. Republicans and Demo-
Gratis will prove to be as divided on the in
come tax as on silver. The West favors the
income tax, just as 1t favors free silver.
The East is opposed to the income tax as
.slx,
enough, the very men who were most earn
est in Congress in saddling an income tax
the Wilson bill will be most dsgusted
with that law as 1t now stands, for, thanks
TO the Supreme Court, the ''coupon-clip-
pers'' and the ''grasping landlords''-the two
betes nors of the INCOME -taxer-are the
only persons who are now exempt from the
tax. 1t is not likely that the next Congress
will feel itself called on to repeal the law,
even if the Supreme Court has not over
thrown it by that time. Possibly then it
may find itself promoted i'll 1896 to the peril
pus dignity of plank" in the national
party platforms.