The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-26
FIVE DIFFERENT
 SUITS OVER NEW :.
 TAXON RECORDS
Revenue Levies on Incomes In Courts More Than
 Half a Century.

Washington, Jan. 26.-FTve sepa- rate. suits to test the constitutionaIity of the new income tax were brought in the federal courts throughout the country soon after the law became effective and all found their way to the Supreme Court of the United States soon after.
 For nearly fifty years the fight for and against a federal income tax has been somewhere in the courts
 The income tax imposed during the Civil War and the years immediately following were not attacked with the seriousness of later cases It was not until the Cleveland administra- ton placed an income tax in the Will son tariff act that the fight became se- rious.
 The contest over the validity of the tax in 1894 and 1895 before the Su- preme Court was one of the most bit ter ever fought out before that court One of the lawyers, James c. Carter, warned the court against setting up its judgment to thwart the will of sixty million people. Joseph H. Choate, opposing, called upon the court to exercise it's judicial power regardless of any popular popuIis- tic propaganda.
 At first the court decided that the tax was unconstitutional as to rents from land because it was a, direct tax
 
 tion, and was unconstitutional as to interest on. municipal bonds. Only eight judges participated and they were evenly divided as to the validity of other features of the law. A re- hearing was granted and Justice Jack son, then dying, took his place on the bench to listen to the last arguments in his lifetime. Justice Jackson vot- ed to sustain the law. Justice Harlan created a sensation by announcing from the, bench that another justice had changed his mind over night on the question, and the entire tax. both ! as to realty and as to income from personality was set aside on the ground that it was direct tax and not apportioned according to popu1a- | uion, as was required by the cOnStf- 1 tuition of direct taxes.
 An agitation for an amendment to 1 the constitution then began. It came to nothing until President Taft recom- | the enactment of an excise l tax on corporations to- be measured 1 by their income and an amendment | to the constitution to permit the levy 1 ing of an income tax on all income. l The amendment was submitted to the | states at once and was proclaimed as the sixteenth amendment to the con 1 stitution on March 1. 1912
 It provided:
 saThe Congress shall have power to | lay and collect taxes on incomes from whatever, source derived without ap- portiopment among the several states and without regard to any census or | enumeration"
 Congress avai1ed itself of the first l to exercise the new pow l er. by incorporating into the tariff act | which became effective October 3, 1913 the present income tax. Five | suits, all challenging the validity of certain features of the tax were.
 T1-. 1IS5 <1f the Union Pacific Railroad Co.,, seek | ing in the New York federal courts, to enjoin the company from paying the tax.
 John F. Dodge and Horace E. Dodge, manufacturers of Detroit, 1 Mich, in the Michigan federal courts, to enjofn the internal revenue collec- | tor from collecting the tax, largely on the ground that it discrinainated | against co-partnerships in favor of | corporations
 John R. Stanton, stockho1der of the | Baltic Mining Go. in the Massachu- sets fe4era1 courts, to enjoin the com pany and others from paying the tax, | largely because of the five per cent. annual deduction from income allow d mining companies for ore deple- ion.
 ! Tyee Realty Company, in the New [ ork federal court, to enjoin the col ector of internal revenue.
 Edwin Fhorne, in the New York federal court, to enjoin the collector, arge1y on the ground that the addi- -iona1 or surtax imposed on incomes over S2O.OOO was unconstitutional.
 In each instance the lower court held the tax constitutional and the case was brought to the Supreme Court on appeal. The eases were ad- zanced for early hearing and were to the court for decision on October IS, 1915, twenty years after he first great income tax decisions.
 Information has been forwarded the ocaI prosecuting authorities today