The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-08-12
WHAT OTHERS SAY.
WHO SHALL PAY THE STAMP
TANES!
Springfield Republican.


The express shippers have won the
first skirmish in the courts over the in
cdence of the stamp tax of one cent
on each bill of lading or receipt issued
by an express company. Judge Tuley,
of Chicago, sitting i'll the State Circuit
Court, rules i'll IL case brought by the
Manufacturers Association that the
express companies must accept packages
for shipment with the receipt duly stamp
ed by themselves. and without adding
the cost of the stamp to the regular ex-
press rate. The express companies will,
of course, appeal to the higher courts;
for. if this decision should stand and
could be enforced, the companies would
have TO bear the whole tax, which will
amount to about $3,000,000 year.
Judge Tuley is accounted a very able
jurist, but his judgment in this case is
amazing. 1t is fair to compel the Iex-
press companies, and as well the rail
road companies, to provide the stamps
required by law and affiX them to their
bills of lading. But to go further, and
say that this cost of the stamps shall
not be passed along to the shipper, is to
proceed beyond the intent Of the law,
if not the power of the court, and rem
der judgment, furthermore, which
cannot be enforced. a stamp tax is.
an excise tax, and an excise tax pays
no regard to rules of apportionmcnt, but
is allowed to fall where if may-thc
Government concerning itself merely
with collecting the money which IS
sought.
1t il to exhibit great ignorance of the
nature of the tax to say that it was
the intent of Congress in imposing Il
stamp tax on bills of lading and express
company receipts that the railroad and
express companies should pay the whole
tax ana not pass any part of it along
to their customers. The absurdity of
the idea will appear on ii moments re-
Election. If Judge Tuley's decision is
sound, then the beer brewers and wills
Ky distillers and the tobacco men have
been violating the law for 50 years in
collecting the costs of the internal rev.
enue stamps on their products from the
consumers or purchasers of their goods.
If this judgment is sound, then the OWN
ers Of productive real estate have been
violating State law from time out CT
mind i'll undertaking TO add the State
property taxes on their tenements and
business blocks to the rent charged for
the use of such property. Then, too,
the domestic importers of dutiabe goods
have been violating Federal laws from
the beginning in seeking to pass along
the customs dues collected from them
by the Government to the buyers and
consumers of the goods.
The Merchants Association of New
York and the Manufacturers Associa-
ton of Illinois say it was the intent of
Congress that the express companies
should bear the whole stamp tax on
receipts without increasing their charges
but is it any more the intent of the
law that the express companies shall
pay the tax than that the lawyer who
draws up IL legal instrument shall pay
the cost of stamping it, or that the banks
shall stamp checks out of their own
pockets. or that the increased tax on
cigars shall not in any event increase
the price to consumers, or that the extra
dollar Il barrel on beer shall not in any
event increase the amount of foam in
the retail glass of beer or reduce the
size of the mug? We need only ask
the question to reveal its absurdity. It'll
WAS, of course, never the intention of
Congress that the compare lively few cor
porations and individuals who are TO
buy and alfix stamps in the first in
stance shall necessarily shoulder the
whole estimated sum of $175,0OO000 II
year provided through these special
taxes for the costs Of the war.
And if this were the intention of Con
gress it could never be enforced All
the law within reach of that body could
not prevent an express company or other
concern in Il similar position from pass
ing along the tax to the consumer in one
way or another, either through increas.
ed charges or reduced accommodations
or in some other manner. Judge Tuley's
decision is both untenable and imprac-