The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-05-31
Rulings Set Aside Old Doctrines
 On Taxing

ulS OUHlpHLy CdScp tLlC COuIb IuloO that the board has jurisdiction over labor relations of any com- pany, regardless of whether 1t is actively engaged in interstate com- merce, if labor troubles at that company's plants would have a substantial effect on the free flow of interstate commerce.
 Strikers Ordered Reinstated
 Just two weeks ago, the tribunal ruled that an employer may not practice anti-union discrimination in reinstating strikers any more than he can practice such discrim- nation in discharging workers, and upheld an NLRB order direct ing the Mackay Radio adn Tele- graph Company to reinstate five telegraphers found to have been barred from reinstatement, after a 1885 strike, because they were union leaders.
 State bank conservators, who owe their position to appointment by state officials but whose salaries actually are derived from fufnds of the institution they are adminis- tering, are subject to Federal in- come taxes, the court ruled. Simi- larly, 1t upheld Federal taxes on salaries of attorneys employed by state banking and insurance de- partments engaged in liquidation work and whose salaries come from institutions being liquidated.
 And the income of a contractor working for the Federal govern ment on Federal projects similarly may be taxed by the state in which the work was performed, the court said.
 Municipal Bonds May Be Taxed
 The tribunal twice ruled that a state may tax income from interest on tax-exempt bonds of the states subdivision, holding that when the bonds were issued there were no income taxes so the exemption could not cover such levies, and that the state did not surrender it's taxing powers in providing the exemptions.
 One of these decisions was made in approving such a tax imposed by Iowa, the other in connection with the Indiana gross income tax.
 In connection with the latter tax, however, the court ruled that its application to income derived from sales of products in inter- state commerce-income from sale Of Indiana produced products in states other than Indiana was unconstitutional because it would subject interstate commerce to double taxation and thereby would directly burden interstate com- merce.
 The court specifically overruIed a 10 year old doctrine when it ruled that the federal government could tax income derived from state owned oil lands operated by private parties under leases, and similarly that states could tax in- come derived by persons operating government-owned oil lands under lease.
 Negro Ordered Retried
 Joe Hale. Negro, was convicted of first degree murder in Me- Cracken, Ky, courts. The Supreme Court set aside the conviction and subsequent death sentence and ordered a new trial when it found that there was evidence to show that Negroes were not permitted to serve as jurors in that court, citing its decisions overruling con- victions in the Scottsboro, Ala, assault case on the same grounds.
 Alma Lowell was convicted Of violating Griffin, Ga, municipal ordinance which forbade distribu- ton of handbills or literature of. any sort without permit from the city manager, because she had distributed tracts of "Jehovah's Witnesses" religious sect to which she belonged, without & permit.
 She appealed to the Supreme Court, and the tribunal ruled that the ordinance violated the freedom of the press clause of the Consti- tuition, pointing out that through history handbills and pamphlets have been employed by minoritics as the best, and sometimes as the only means of expression.
 A district court enjoined the New Negro Alliance from pickcting stores of a grocery chain in the District of Columbia which had refused to employ additional Negro clerks in its stores located in Negro neighborhoods. The lower court found that the controversy was a racial dispute, and that the Norris LaGuardia act. prohibiting anti picketing injunctions in any labor dispute case, therefore did not apply.
 The Supreme Court. however, vacated the injunction, finding that although the dispute might have originated because of racial difficulties, it nevertheless was a dispute over working conditions and was 8 labor dispute, and that the injunction was illegal under the Norris-LaGuardi act.