The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1913-02-04
TAX ON INCOMES
NOW ASSURED
1hirty'seVsn Legislatures Rat.
lily Amendment.
WYOMING AND DELAWARE ACT
The Bill Is Already Under Consider.
alton and Probably Will Be Enacted
at Extra Session.

Washington, Feb. 4.-Wyoming and
Delaware rushed to the fore and made
the provision for levying an income tax
part of the constitution of the United
States by ratifying the amendment
submitted to the states by congress.
Thirty-fve states previously had
taken similar action. AS to whether
Delaware or Wyoming will be accord
I'd the honor of being the state com
pleting the three-fourths necessary to
made the amendment part of the con
stitution probably will depend upon a
technical question of time. News OF
Wyoming's action was the first to
reach Washington.
The action in Wyoming was taken in
both houses of the legislature under a
suspension of the rules. Thus New
Jersey and New Mexico, both of which
were expected to ratify the amend
ment, were beaten out in the race to
be the state to decide the question thai
has been agitated in various forms fol
many years.
This is the sixteenth change in the
constitution and the first since the re
construction days following the Civil
War.
Congress now will enact law to
levy the tax, and it probably will be,
come effective in the extraordinary
session to be called by President-elect
Wilson in March. The tax itself, its
provisions and it's limitations are all
left to congress.
The new law probably will super.
sede the corporation tax and provide
for tax on all incomes above $4,000.
although there has been some senti-
ment in favor of making the limit as
low as $4,000. Congressional leaders
who have been preparing for the final
ratification by the states estimate an
income tax would bring in about $780,
100000 year.
Now that the tax Is permitted by the
constitution, the proposed excise tax,
framed by the Democratic leaders in
1912 to meet the supreme courts de-
cision, which held a former income
tax law unconstitutional, will be drop
be included in the new law.
AS there are forty-eight states in the
Union, ratification of thirty-six, OF
three-fourths of the whole number,
as,aaa;s 6 t.zsr laei Sat lures Is
necessary to change the constitution
The thirty-five states acting before
Wyoming and Delaware were: Ala
bama, Arkansas, Arizona, California
Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, In
diana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Missis
sippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska
Nevada, New York, North Carolina
North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon
Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota
Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wis
consin and West Virginia.
Four states - Connecticut, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island and Utah
rejected the amendment.
The sixteenth amendment, as it will
be known, reads as follows:
ARTICLE XVI.-The congress shall
have power to lay and collect taxes on
incomes, from whatever source deriv.
ed, without apportionment among the
states, and without regard to any cen
sus or enumeration"
This change in the fundamental law
marks a new epoch in the American
tax system. All previous efforts for g
tax of this kind have been without ex-
plicit authority Of constitutional pre-
vision. The change also marks broad
development of the economic and fis.
cal system of the United States, per
mitting incomes to be a basis for tax
alton similar to the systems now in
force in Great Britain, Austria, Swift
zerland, Spain and various other coun
tries.