The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-13

IL WIN hhAN ~ ~ ~ S'SA
should DO limited to his actusi expenditures, he
said that the request twill DO most properly
addressed to the House of Representatives"
In Gen. Harrison's opinion. however, and In
TINT Of Justice Miller. there is no doubt that
appropriation bills and bills fixing salaries may,
constitutionally, originate in the Senate. As q
matter OF fact many such bills do originate
there, but a practice has grown up that all OF
the general appropriation bills shall originate In
tho House. The usage Is now so well settled
that, in the Judgment Of both Of tho authorities
Just named. the House would now probably re-
fuse to consider n general appropriation bill sent
to It by the Senate. We may here say that,
from his terse and colorloss reference TO tho
matter, wo arc not able to determine whether
ex.Presidcnt Harrison considers an income tax
constitutional. His words are: The distinction
between n direct and an Indirect tax is not always
easily taken. In tho recent income tax case tho
Supreme Court held that = tax on incomes is n
tax on the property from which the income is
derived, and. therefore. n direct tax."
OF especial Importance is the opinion ex-
pressed by tho ex-President touching the right
OF the Executive to prevent interference with
railroads. even In the absence Of q request
from the Governor or Legislature Of a State.
This matter is discussed on pages 65-7, and
again on pages 1922. Gen. Harrison be-
lieves that the power and duty of the Presi-
dent to suppress exhibitions OF mob violence in
a State 10 broader than was formerly assumed
to be tho case. We are reminded that, dur
ing the great railroad strike Of 1877, the
United States troops wero not used. except
whore the Governor or Legislature OF tho
State concerned called upon the President
for aid, and except, also. to support
tho United States Marshals in making
arrests on process issuing from the United
States Courts. Another fact is recalled. namely,
that during the strike of 1877 the strikers sup
posed they could avert tho intervention of the
President and of the United States Courts by
permitting mail cars TO be run while cutting Off
all freight and passenger traffic. In recent
years, as it is well known. a larger view has
been taken of the powers of tho United States
Courts. and a jurisdiction has been exercised by
both the Federal Judiciary and the Executive
that had not before been asserted In like cases.
Gen. Harrison holds the jurisdiction to be
clearly within the scope Of their constitutional
powers. He records with approval the de-
cision that a mail train Is composed not
only Of postal cars, but Of such other cars
as are usually drawn with the postal cars in q
train; that the railroad companies cannot be re-
quirod to run mail cars alone, when prevented by
violence from hauling with them other cars as
signed to the train. and that any cutting out of
cars from the mail train is an interference with
the transportation of the United States mail.
He concurs also in the view that the stoppage
of freight or passenger trains running from one
State into another. that is to say. transacting
commerce, or the tearing up of the
tracks over which such interstate commerce Is
Is an offence against the peace of the
United States. Such an offence, he holds, may
be enjoined by the courts, and the army
Of the United States may be used by the Presi.
In~N - ,.storn a .ttl1r ,,ot,;~. o. --.