Evening star., 1935-03-24

Vile Weston Fuller. In due time he
was confirmed, and since this great
tribunal could not decide Just who
should administer the oath Of ofiice.
he administered 1t to himself, just as
the great Napoleon-whom he so
closely resembled In stature-had
crowned himself Emperor of the
French.
A FEW years later, in 1894. Chief
Justice Fuller was confronted
with a case which caused him more
than ordinary concern. 1t was the
income tax case. in which the Court
agreed the act was unconstitutional;
the Chief Justice voting with the ma
jority. although he was appointed by
President Cleveland. and knew that
the Democratic administration then in
power was urgently in need Of the
revenue which the act was passed to
provide.
Later, in speaking Of this decision,
Richard Olney, who became Cleve-
lands Secretary Of State in 1894, said:
"Nowhere, in my judgement, are his
eminent merits as the Constitutional
chief magistrate Of the country bet
ter shown than in the income tax
cases of 1894. I" An administration
was in power with which the Chief
Justice was in complete accord, politi
cally and personally. 1t sorely needed
the revenue, an income tax would give
1t; 1t as sorely needed the prestige
and popularity incident to the impo-
Sition Of tax upon wealth rather
than upon consumption. The times
were Of the hardest, vast masses of
people were unemployed and suffering
to a degree which provoked the abor-
tive Coxey and Debs demonstrations,
and q decision of the United States
Supreme Court for the income tax
would have been some answer to the
cry that the existing order of things
favored the rich and oppressed the
poor.
Further, the Civil War income
taxes and various previous adjudica-
tionS seemed to sanction the tax. -" .
But the Chief Justice was not 50 made
as to see things that way. He gave the
haustive personal study, and in de-
Gliding against the tax, sacrificed all
other considerations to his concep-
ton Of his duty as an official inter-
prefer Of the Constitution.
The tax was lost, his friends and
the friends of the administration suf-
fered accordingly, and the only gain
was the conspicuous object lesson Of
the Nations Chief Justice doing his
duty as he understood 1t, irrespective
of all personal and partisan motives
and consequences"
During the recent gold decision by
the highest court in the land Mrs
Hugh Wallace, daughter Of the late
Chief Justice Fuller, was an inter-
ested spectator at the session, and
undoubtedly the division of the court
carried her memory back to the court
OF 1894, when her own father read
the decision Of the majority, though
that decision was against the Govern
ment.
A T THE time of the death of Chief
Justice Waite. John w. Thompson,
then president of the Metropolitan n
National Bank, lived close by, at 141s
I street. and the Mexican Legation
was to the east of the Waite home.
Secretary Of the Navy william E.
Chandler lived next to the Thompsons
and John w. Foster was a neighbor.
e. L. Dent, Washington Mclean,
Catherine Donnelly. and Fernando
Wood also owned property in the block
at one time.
The owners and occupants of land
on I street between Fifteenth and
Sixteenth streets about 1887 were H. L.
King, James Wormley, James G. Ber-
ret, mayor Of Washington 1858 to
1861, who lived at No. 1888; DR..
Samuel Clagett Busey, physician and
historian, at the northeast corner OF
Sixteenth street: John Wickersham
and Charles Manchester. At this
date, and for many years, stood at
the southwest corner of Vermont ave-
nue. and I street the Arlington, one
Of Washington's most famous hotels
in days gone by; removed to make
room for the building which now
houses the Veterans Bureau.
Many important people have re-