The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1895-04-17

Is coming, ana COulup rapidly.
THE supreme court decision, as we'll
as its indecision. has wrecked the pop
ulistic income tax law. A dynamite
bomb could hardly have made greater
havoc with material flbric. Through
the breach in the statute made by the
decision that the tax on real estate
rents and on income from state and
municipal bonds is unconstitutional, the
assaulting forces will enter and the
constitutionality of the tax on incomes
from other sources contested. Only on
the foregoing points has any decision
been made. On all others the court
was evenly divided. The remainder OF
the act simply stands as it was enacted.
The remnant remains a law, but it's
constitutionality is neither affirmed nor
denied. New suits have already been
brought Complications in levying the
tax are multiplying, and these are 80
many and so intricate that the enforce
ment of the law with the remotest ap-
proach to fairness is deemed to be prac.
tically impossible. The rich and pow
erful, on one ground or another, will
contest the payment of the tax. The
burden of taxation under the law will
fall chiefly on salaried people and those
who can better afford to pay than to 60
to law. If the law was odious and I'M
just as enacted, its odiousness and in
justice now are 30 enormous and palpable
that the president would be justified in
suspending its enforcement till the
matter can be referred to congress.
The supreme court has released the
larger part of the class the tax was
especially designed to reach. Through
one avenue and another, the remainder
of this class will escape. Only the
weak and powerless will pay the tax.
The law will become an instrument,
not OF taxation, but of robbery and op-
preston. The democratic scheme of
revenue reform ends in grand climax
of failure and humiliation.
VERY likely Judge White of the
United States supreme court could con-
found the average layman and bury him
out of sight in the discussion of consti-
tutional questions; but the average lay
man ought to be able to give the learned
judge points in ordinary common
sense and bury him out of sight. AS a
senator from Louisiana, Judge White
had opposed the income tax because, in
his judgment, it was unconstitutional.
As judge of the supreme court, how
ever, he felt "bound by the established
precedents of the court" to declare the
law constitutional. If presidents in
stead of reason are to be the sole guide
OF a judge, an automaton or cuckoo
should be able to perform his functions.
A century has elapsed since the prece-
dents were established. Study and dis
cussion have thrown new light on the
question at issue. The forms of prop
erty have changed. Modern questions
outgrow the moss-grown presidents
1t is sometimes necessary to take a new
reckoning, Congress had made tax
law the principles of which and the
circumstances of its enactment were
believed to be hostile to the citizens
rights under the constitution. The
question was very fully and exhaust
lively argued by the ablest lawyers il
the nation. 1t was time for new
consideration and new decision of Thu
question on Its merits. But Judg
White confesses that from his seat OF