The daily times. [volume] (Wilson, N.C.) 1902-1936, 1919-04-23
COTTON ACT IS
CONSTITUTIONAL
Judge Allen so Holds, Csc. per
Bale to Establish Cot
tom Warehouses.
ATTORNEY GEN. APPEALS

Fhe Governor, the board of Ag-
riculture and the State Warehouse
superintendent won the first round
in the fight in the courts to COM
pc the State Tax Commission to
provide the machinery for collect
ing the twenty-five sent per bale
tax on cotton levied by the Price
warehouse act. II required all day
yesterday to argue the constitution
aIity of the act in Wake Superior
Court. Judge Oliver H. Allen heard
the case and late in the afternoon
signed an order directing the Tax
Commission to promulgate rules
and regulations for the collection
of the tax.
The hearing before Judge Allen
presented an unique situation by
reason of the illness of Associate
justice George Prown, who will
hardly sit on the case. Judge Allen
having he'd the act to be constitu-
tional, it will require three fourths
of the upper-eourt to reverse him.
If the Supreme court divides evenly
when the case goes up for "a
hearing the Judgment in the lower
court will stand.
IF it isn't CONSTITUTIONAL, it
ought to be- Judge Allen said
from the bench when the argument.
had been concluded Ex-senator
Marion Butler, of Elliott. had
finished powerful argument in
which he referred h Prcbbbggg
as the means for abolishing white
slavery and making the cotton crop
a profitable business for the South
ern farmer. Judge ]. Crawford Biggs
{ and James II. Pou had preceded
| him for the plaintfffs and Judge
Naming and Assistant Attorney Gen
eral Sykes represented the State
Tax Comission.
/ Judge Manning rendered the
opinion declaring the act unconsti-
tutional some time ago, upon
which opinion the Tax Commission
formay declined to provide the ma
t tchinery for collecting the special
tax as requested by the State ware
house superintendent. The matter
was then Initiated before the courts
and viii be finally passed ON by
the Supreme couprt within the next
month, attorneys thought yester-
day.
The price act ievfes a tax of rs
cents on every bale of cotton gfnned
in the State OF North Carolina be-
ginning June 80. 1919 OF the
total revenue from this source, the
act authorizes the Board of Ag-
r1culture upon recommendation
OF the warehouse superintendent,
to loan as much as onefaaH to be
used in financing the building OF
storage warehouses throughout the
State The tax is to be collected
through the ginner and remitted
to the State Treasurer. The attor-
ney ruled that it was a discrimina-
tory tax against the cotton growers
and that the business of farming
was not trade.
| ME- Pou, arguing for the plain
tiff's explained to Judge Allen that
the tax was a tax which the farm
ers had begged to be allowed to
pay in order that the cotton farm
er might get start toward mark
citing system that would enable
him to get fair price for the
staple. He called the attention OF
the court to the enormity af the
crop, venturing that cotton, of all
products made in the South. is
the least profitable for the amount
OF abor it requires. The organiza-
ton in Memphis recently Mr. .Pou
referred to as the beginning of a
systematic marketing of cotton to
european countries ,but one that
must necessarily be supported by
the several State warehouse sys-
TENS. The Price Act embodied
what the farmers of North Caro-
lima met and asked for.