The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-09

not the least surprising to me from
any advanced by the upholders of the
law, and that is, that if this court
shall declare that the exern D.
tons and exceptions from taxa
/ ton extended 10 the various corpora
tons Of fire. life and marine
/ insurance companies and to mutual
savings banks. building and loan assoc
| cations. violate requirements of uni
! formity and therefore the tax as to
such corporations be enforced and that
the law will stand as though the ex-
emption had never been inserted. The
saDrogatlon or repeal of the unconSti-
tutional or Illegal provision does rot
permit to create and give force to any
enactment or part of an enactment
which Congress has not sanctioned and
promulgated.
The law of 1894 says there shall be
assessed. levied and collected. except
as herein otherwise provided" two per
/ centum of the amount. If the excep-
tions are stricken out. there is moth
ing TO be assessed and collected except
what Congress has otherwise affirma-
lively ordered. Nothing less can have
the force of law. This court is impo-
tent to pass any law on the subject.
1t has not the legislative power. The
law of Congress is also invalid. in that
1t authorizes a tax upon the salaries
of the judges of the courts of the
United States against the declaration
OF the constitution that their compen-
sation shall not be diminished during
their continuance in Office
In conclusion Justice Field said:
Here L close my opinion. / could
not say less in view of questions of
such gravity that go down to the very
foundation of the question. If The
provisions of the constitution can be
set aside by an act of Congress, where
iG the Of 7l~T1a 70
The present assault upon capital is
but the beginning. 1t will be the
stepping stone to others larger and
more sweeping, until our political
contests will become a war of the
poor against the rich; a war con-
Stantly growing in intensity and bit
terness.
IF the court sanctions the power
of discriminating taxation and multi
fies the uniformity mandate of the
constitution, as said by one who has
been all his life a student of our in
Stytutions, it will mark the hour when
the sure decadence of our political
government will commence.
IF the purely arbitrary limitation
OF $1,000 in the present law can. be
sustained, none having less than that
amount of property being assessed or
taxed, for the support Of the govern
crosses may be fixed at a much larger
sum, at five or ten or twenty thou
sand dollars, parties possessing that
amount alone being compelled to bear
the burdens of our government: or the
limitation may be designated at such
an amount as a board of walking del
egates may deem necessary There
is no safety in allowing the limitation
to be adjusted except in strict
compliance with the mandates Of the
constitution, which require it's taxa
ton to be uniform In operation and, so
far as practical, in proportion to their
property, equal upon all citizens.
Unless the rule Of the coastitu-
ton governs, a majority may tx the
Limitation at such a rate as will not
include any Of their own number.
L am of the opinion that the whole
law of 1894 should be declared void
and without binding force-that part
which relates to the tax on rents. pro-
fits and income from real estate that
is, so much as constitutes the direct
tax because not imposed by the rule of
apportionment according to the repre-
Sentation of the states, as prescribed
by the constitution-and that part
which imposes a tax upon the bonds
and securities of the several states
and upon the bonds and securities of
their municipalities as being beyond
the power Of Congress to impose and
the law as far as it imposes duties,
impoStS and excuses as void in not pro-
viding for the uniformity required by
the constitution in such cases.