The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-20
FIGHT TO TAX INCOMES
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN

eject Springer. On this issue the
reached the supreme court SYRINGE e-
pared his own brief, and fighting fr-Ftt7-
very hearthstoue, he Is said f1 rA
brought in as nearly a complete r----.e
tatiOn of his case as ever was r7aEs
any case in the supreme court NJ
theless. the court held that an income .--
was not a direct tax, and that rrars-'14
it was constitutional.
The whole controversy over what .-
stiIutes direct taxes began when ~. .-
stttution Itself was being framed r v--
in the course of that debate that u..-s
King asked his famous question. ..re--s
are direct taXes2' We have the z-o-s q
Mr.. Madison that the question went --- ~
answered. The school of political -r5,.--
which holds that income taxes are frr.7F.
ed in the term direct taxes makes r----L
of this failure 20 answer Mr.. Kings r-s.-
ton. The other school replies tia. -.
doing violence to reason 20 assume +-5.
the constitution trainers would Dur l--.
that instrument phrase whose rne4-f-.
they themselves could not explain
The first case in which the zrr-a7--
court attempted to pass upon this araz+f--
was the HyltOn case, which grew OUT ~
THE carriage tax law passed by congress
in 1874. Madison had bitterly opposed F..
asserting that the bill could b. rs.s-F
only by a combination of those vino ----
, for 1t from principle and those who u-a-g
the opponents Of luxury. Alexander Ham
iltOn and John Marshall each had q -.-
as to have a letter of Edmund Pa-F-a
toms published i'm the hope that the .o---
would read il before rendering da-is
ion. The contention of Hamilton Was
that tax on carriages could not b.
appOrtiOned. that one state might rz-.
a hundred and another a thousand III
| though having the same population This
would force the people of one state 20 nav
ten times as much on their carriages as
| those OF the other. The court held thar
the tax on carriages was not a Gire--
tax.
The opponents of an income tax TODAY
declare that this tax on carriages was
tax on the use Of the carriages and not
on the carriage itself. They make this
the crucial point of their argument II
they can prove that It was on the use
of the carriage and not upon the carriage
itself they believe they have overcome
upon personal property is not a direct
tax.
It IS claimed by the advocates of On
income tax that it Is not an apport0r-
able tax. The population of the state Of
New York is approximately six times az
great as that Of Arkansas; vet the az
gregate Of incomes Of New York above
the limit of exemption is at least twenty
four times as great as the aEEreE gate Of
/ taxable incomes Of Arkansas The result
would be that Arkansas would have 10
pay four dollars on its incomes where
New York paid one. were the tax regarded
as direct and apDOrtiOued according 10
population. This is identical with Ham
ilton's claim with reference to the car
riags tax.
The first income tax I'm the United
States was levied by the MsEsaeHusat-s
Bay colony in 1916 Since then uanv states
have followed suit. From the Declaration
Of Independence down 10 the present
about one hundred state constitutions
have been adopted. Thirteen Of these
have provided for taxation of incomes
There are now sixteen states I'm which
legislative provision has been made for
the collection Of income taxes I'm most
Of these states the amounts collected are
wOefully out Of proportion 10 the incomes
in the state.
It is Of particular interest TO note that
in the consideration of the income tax
laws Of the Civil war period there was
little or no opposition to an income tax
on the ground that il was direct tax
The debates show that most of the Uu-1-
sitiOn TO it was based on considerations
Of its eXpedienCy. When the law ceased
to be operative IL did so through the pro-
vision Of the last act, which set forth
that it should be effective for the fiscal
years 1870 and ls1 land no longer
The opponents Of income taxes argue
that beyond the question of uucOns----
ttonality, such taxation is inherently ---
just. They assert that iu the states It Is
the wealthy who pay the taxes, and that
wealth bears unusual burdens To this
the friends Of the income tax reply that
only 20 per cent of the personal property
Of the rich IS assessed for taxation Sen
atOT BOran recently emphasized this point
by declaring that 107 estates then iu course
Of settlement in a single state showed
values aggregating $4,000 600. vet the TO-
tai amount upon which these estates had
paid taxes had never amounted TO more
than 100000
Copyright, 1902 by Frederic J. Haskinj