The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1895-05-10
THE INCOME-TAY.

nationality of the act under consider
alton. The court will convene again
on the Goth of this month to render its
decisions in pending cases, and it is ex-
pected that its conclusions upon the
income tax will be announced at that
time.
AS the constitutionality of the law
was sustained at the former hearing
merely by the eight justices sitting at
that time being evenly divided on the
subject, it is taken for granted that
the opinion of Justice Jackson, who
was prevented by illness from being
present at the first presentation of the
case, will decide the whole matter as
none of the other justices will be apt to
change their opinions as once annouc-
ed. The prevailing impression seems
to be that Justice Jackson will coin
eide with the four justices who
held the whole law to be unconstitu-
tional. Of course Justice Jackson has
given no indication as to his decision.
but this opinion exists almost univer-
sally without any one pretending to
explain why it exists. lis said that
the administration would prefer to
have the entire law swept from the
statute books rather than that it
should remain in the emasculated and
confusing form in which it was left by
10 of he ic
believed by some that the decision of
the court may be made public next
Monday.
1t would be matter of audacity for
any layman or lawyer to attempt to.
settle the constitutionality of a law
while the matter is under considera-
ton by such an august body as the
Supreme Court of the United States,
but it is certainly allowable to assert
that the income-tax idea is contrary
to Democratic principles. Atthe time
of the passage of the law it was justi-
fed on the score of expediency, and
ON this ground perhaps it had right
to exist that the far more Ubiquitous
burdens of the Mckinley tariff might
be in some degree removed. Now
that it has been settled that the in
come arising from the rents and pro-
fits of real estate or from State and
municipal bonds, forms of property in
most cases inherited, are exempt from
ia xation, while the revenues of the
hard working professional or business
man are to be strictly levied upon, the
law has become too great farce to be
longer tolerated.
1t is true that many men look with
distrust upon the large fortunes being
heaped up by some individuals, and
take the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES at some re-
stxieEi66 4 anld 81 I III upon d such con-
cdztr8tion OF .wesif sEheir position
ssnyt.far frosnsrigh bIif B6nld it not
beHuftAt " Cher I'm lslwst that per-
mi au favor sui y stztssof things
th&h&1 attempt to lop off the insight
ficant proportion of two per cent.
from the incomes arising from
these great fortunes after they
have been accumulated. As long
as we have laws upon our statute
books which permit one man, by starry
ing thousand of his fellow beings, to
roll up an income of million dol
lars year, is it consistent to tacitly
admit the wrong by laying a fine up
on the man who succeeds in reaping
the benefit of such state of affairs?
The right way to destroy a noxious
weed is to dig it up by the roots, not
to nip off the topmost buds.
THE SCHOOLS WILL STAY OPEN
1t will be noted with satisfaction by
a great majority of the people of
this county that the County Commits
sioners, at their meeting last Mon
day, appropriated $500 to keep the
public schools of the county open for
the full scholastic year, or until the
last of June. The public school sys-
tenn is one of the most expensive of
our county institutions, but, with a
few solitary exceptions, no taxpayer
has ever been heard to grumble at the
amount of his individual contribution
to the fund. The public schools of
Maryland are inferior to those of no
State in the Union, and Hartford
stands among the leading counties in
the State in the excellence of her meth
DDS of instructing the young. Hard
ly within the memory of the pupils
now in attendance in our schools has
the full period of ten months in each
year been shortened, and it would
have been a very undesirable piece of
information to impart, both to the
children and their elders, that Hartford
county could no longer afford to give
her sons and daughters the liberal
education which has been so freely af-
forded in the past. Aside from the
injustice which would have been
done to the smaller children, who can
not attend during the winter, especial
ly where remote from school, the cut
ting off one month from the school
year would have been decided step
backward and would have proved a
very bad advertisement for our coun-
ty. The Commissioners have the
thanks of all the friends of our public
school system, and may feel sure their
action will receive the stamp of popu-
lar approval.
Probably no true citizen of our
country sees our plOriOus fla o. unfurlad