Arizona republican., 1913-02-05
HISTORY IF THE
 TAX AMENDMENT
Has Been Before Congress at Various Times in Many Years and Particularly So During Administration of Grover Cleveland
APPROPRIATED rnraa prarArcin


 The provision authorizing an in- come tax as now made a part of the federal constitution will be known as tho sixteenth Amendment" and reads as follows:
 Article XVI-Thc congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source de- rived, without apportionmcnt among the states. and without regard to any census or enumeration"
 The change in the fundamental law of the land marks new epoch in the American tax system For the first time congress is given specific authority by a provision of the fed eral constitution to levy an income tax All previous efforts for tax | of this kind have been without the 1 explicit authority Of q constitutional | provision. The change also marks q | broad development of the economic and fiscal system of the United l States, permitting incomes to be a basis for taxation, similar to the sys- tems now in force in Great Britain 1 Austria, Switzerland, Spain and va rious other countries.
 1 Probably the most important aspect of an income tax, as now authorized | by the constitution, is that it adds q 1 new source of revenue for the govern ment At present the two great sources of government revenue are l customs duties levied by tariff acts on goods imported from foreign coun- tries; and internal revenue taxes on tobacco, spirits. oleomargarine and l of these. ! sources at present produces a little less than half of the total revenues of the government. In 1911 the total government revenues were $700,100- 9O6 and of this customs duties yielded $313. .846.269. while internal revenue taxes yielded $331.759,375. The re mainder came from sales of public land. the corporation tax and various miscellaneous sources. Under an in 1 come tax. however. a new and far i reaching source of revenue is pro vided for the government, and this l will in turn reduce the amounts re- quired from the other sources of re- 1 venue in order to meet the expenses of the government. This last phase is likely to have an important bear ing on tariff legislation as hereafter l enacted.
 Before the amendment formally be- comes a part of the constitution to- days action of the legislature must 1 be transmitted to the secretary or 1 state at Washington and proclamation of the ratification made.
 The first offical step toward amending the constitution so as to authorize specifically an income tax | was taken by the senate on July [, 1909 By unanimous vote, that body adopted a resolution submitting this amendment to the legislatures of the respective states. Only few days later, on July F, the house passed the resolution by vote of 5lf to IA. The movement took form during the tariff debate in 1909. Amend ments to the Payne Aldrich tariff bill, incorporating an income tax and ln- | heritance tax measures were then pressed. Finally. President Taft sent q message to congress, urging the passage of tax upon the doing of | business by corporations, measured bv their income" and the submission to the states of an income tax amend ment to the constitution.
 | Senator Brown of Nebraska fath- cred the amendment finally adopted. As introduced and sent to the finance committee. congress was given power to lay direct taxes on incomes with out apportionment. When the amend ment was reported out of committee bv Senator Aldrich. the word "dl- rect had been eliminated. The words from whatever source derived were incorporated. These words caused sharp criticism before sev- eral state legislatures.
 1 In the house the amendment was | referred to the ways and means com mittce one afternoon was given to debate. Representative Payne, re publican floor leader, spoke in favor of giving the government the power as a war measure, but denounced It as peace measure by saying that he believed with Gladstone, that ii tends to make nation of liars" Rep 1 resentative Champ Clark championed tbn amendment as making accumulat- ed wealth pay it's just burden of tax | alton. It was eventually agreed tC Inv the house by a very large major itv in which both parties were fepre- scented
 The states were slow in ratifyine ! the amendment Alabama had the honor of being the first and only state to approve the change during 1909. Within less than a month from l the date of action by congress, the |. Alabama legislature had voted unani- mously in favor of the amendment
 In 1910, Georgia, lllionis, Ken lucky. Maryland, Mississippi, Okla homa. South Carolina and Texas voted to ratify the amendment. IT 1911. Arkansas, California, Colorado Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ne braska. Nevada, New York, Nortf Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio Ore gon, Tennessee, South Dakota, Wash ington and Wisconsin gave their ap- provaI In 1912 Arizona, Louisiana and Minnesota voted for ratification Thus thirty four states had acted af- firmatively on the proposal, Con necticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Is- land and Utah by this time had re iected the amendments.
 A notable incident occurred ir Arkansas during the conderation oi the amendment. Both houses of the
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