Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-09-01
The Cresco Times says Mr.. Reed in

The Cresco Times says Mr.. Reed in
his speech at the Lime Springs politi-
cal meeting made grand defence of
the Supreme court against the Chica-
go platform. Mr.. Reed may be just
as good lawyer as the Times thinks
he is, but the following opinions of
the dissenting Judges in the income
tax case is criticism of that court
from its own members worth reading
and leaves the criticism of the Chica-
go platform, by comparison mild as
dishwater.
Justice Brown said:
''The decision involves nothing less
than the surrender of the taxing
power to the moneyed classes. While
l have no doubt that congress will
find some means of surmounting the
present crisis, my fear is that in some
moment of national peril this decis-
ion will rise up to Illustrate its will
and paralyze its arm. hope it may
not prove the first step toward the
submergence of the liberties of the
liberties of the people in a despotism
of wealth."
Justice Harlan said:
"In my judgment this decision
strikes at the very foundation Of ma
tional authority, in that it denies to
the general government a power
which Is, or may be at some time
imperatively needed. in great en-
ergeucy, say in case OF war.
The practical if not the direct effect
of the decision to-day is to give to
certain kinds of property a position
of favoritism and advantage that is
inconsistent with the fundamental
principles of our social organization,
and to invest them with power and
influence that is perilous to that por-
ton of the people upon which rests
the larger part of the burden of the
government, and who ought not to
be subjected to the domination of
aggregated wealth any more than the
property of the country should be at
the mercy OF the lawless."
Jnstice White said:
1.-THE injustice of the conclusion
points to the error of adopting it. 1t
takes the invested wealth and reads
it into the constitution as a favored
and protected class Of property, whilst
it leaves the occupation of the minis
ter, the doctor, the professor, the
lawyer, the inventor, the author. the
merchant and all the various forms of
activity upon which the prosperity
of people must depend, subject to
taxation without apportionment."
Justice Jackson said that be con-
Cured fully in the opinion expressed
by Justice White, and declared that:
1.-THE decision reverses the common
rule of taxation by exempting those
who are best able to pay and forcing
the burden upon the shoulders of
those who are least able to pay"
In concluding Justice jackson said
that in his opinion the decision was
the most disastrous blow ever struck
at the constitutional power of con-
gress. 1t struck down an important,
vital and essential power of the gov
eminent. 1t left the government, in
case of necessity, without power to
reace by taxation in any form the vast
incomes derived from the real and
personal property of the country"
Accepting the opinions of these four
distinguished members of the tribu-
nal, it is not those who criticise the
income tax decision that are anar-
chistic, but the decision itself and the
judges who rendered it.
In the matter of the Supreme court
refusing to declare the United States
bank.act unconstitutional, the act
was allowed to stand until Andrew
jackson boldly declared it unconsti.
tutional and based his veto of its
charter upon that alleged fact.
Abraham Lincoln in his debate with
senator Douglass denounced the Dred
Scott decision justifying it on the
precedent of jackson cited above.
The fifth resolution of the republi
can national platform Of 1860, in the
most emphatic language condemns
the Federal courts for their measure
less subserviency to purely loca
interest which 1t characterized the is
sue raised by the bred Scott case
Although Mr.. Reed and every at
torney who appeals from decision
of court, calls in question the cor
rectness of a judicial decision. an6
when he asks rehearing in the Su
preme court, he asks that court to re
verse its decision; just what tht
. democratic platform asks. 1t will
| not seek to procure reversal by the
use of money, but as is claimed by
the friends of the Judge who changed
his opinion in the income tax case
by the force of public sentiment o
the people. which in that case simpl,
meant the sentiment of the few ]iabl
to the tax, entirely ignoring the sen
timent of the country at large. 1t i
one Of the sacred rights Of the peopl
by all lawful means, to procure from
courts and from legislators, laws ant
decisions conducible to the publi
welfare and for the furtherance o
justice, and when they believe these
8 have been violated to seek the repea