Evening star., 1936-02-11
PRESS HELD
VITAL TO COUNTRY
Supreme Court Stresses
Point in Validating Louisi-
ana Tax Law.
BY JOHN III. CLINE.

Declaring free press is an essen
tial element of free country, the
Supreme Court yesterday invalidated
a Louisiana newspaper tax and then
adjourned without announcing its de-
cision in the Tennessee Valley Author
ity case.
The T. v. A. ruling, expected to de-
termine the Governments right to sell
electric power on a commercial basis
as "yardStick' for ascertaining the
fairness of private utility rates, may
be announced next Monday.
The newspaper tax law, passed in
1884 by the State Legislature at the
request of the late Senator Huey Long.
required publishers of newspapers and
magazines with weekly circulation
of 10000 or more to pay the State 2
per cent of their gross advertising re-
ceipts.
Violated Free Press Provisions.
| Holding this law violated the con-
stitutional provision for a free press,
the court, in an opinion read by JUS
tice Sutherland. said, in part:
1.-The newspapers, magazines and
other journals of the country. it is safe
| to say, have shed and continue to
shed more light on the public and busi-
ness affairs of the Nation than any
other instrumentality of publicity;
and since informed public opinion is
the most potent of all restraints upon
misgovernment, the suppression or
! abridgement of the publicity afforded
by free press cannot be regarded
otherwise than with grave concern.
THE tax here is bad not because it
takes money from the pockets of the
appellees. If that were all, a wholly
different question, would be presented.
It is bad because in the light of its
history and of its own present setting,
it is seen to be deliberate and calcu-
lated device. in the guise of tax to
limit the circulation of information
to which the public is entitled in virtue
of the constitutional guarantees.
One of Greatest Interpreters.
"a free press stands as one of the
great interpreters between the Gov
ernment and the people. To allow it
to be fettered is to fetter ourselves.
I'm view of the persistent search
for new subjects of taxation, it is not
without significance that, with the
single exception of the Louisiana
statute, so far as We can discover, no
State during the $50 years of our
national existence has undertaken to
impose a tax like that now in question.
The form in which the tax is i'm
posed is in itself suspicious. 1t is
not measured or limited by the
volume of advertisements. It is
measured alone by the extent of the
circulation of the qualification in
which the advertisements are carried,
with the plain purpose of penalizing
the publishers and curtailing the cir
culation of selected group Of news
papers.
Having reached the conclusion that
the act imposing the tax in question
Is unconstitutional under the due
process of law clause because it
abridges the freedom of the press,
We deem it unnecessary to consider
the further ground assigned that it
also constitutes denial Of the equal
protection of the laws"
Noe Declines Comment.
The attack on the laws was brought
by 9 publishers of 13 newspapers, the
only ones in the State affected by
the law. These papers had opposed
the policies of the Long regime, which
controlled the State Legislature. Gov.