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28 Am. L. Rev. 808 (1894)
The Income Tax: Is It Constitutional

handle is hein.journals/amlr28 and id is 820 raw text is: 28 AMERICAN LAW REVIEW. THE INCOME TAX: IS IT CONSTITUTIONAL? The enactment by the Congress of the United States of a revision of the tariff, with the incorporation in it of a provision for the taxation of persons, in proportion to the amount of their incomes, marks an era in our history. It is true that during the war for the maintenance of the Union, an income tax was one of the measures resorted to in order to provide means for carrying on the great contest. It was freely submitted to by the people, in the same spirit of patriotism, which marked their toleration of many exactions and deprivations inseparable from a state of war. The tax was then considered to be necessary, and it was con- sequently submitted to; as the stamp taxes on conveyances, bills of exchange, checks and receipts, were submitted to for the same cause,- the supposed necessity. But now in a time of profound peace, in a measure for the ostensible purpose of reducing taxation, and which does in a great many instances reduce the duty on imports, we have the impo- sition of the burden of an income tax. What is the reason for its enactment? Certainly not the necessity for more revenue. The duty on sugar will supply more than any possible deficiency caused by the general reduction of the rates under the other schedules. Not to redeem party pledges, for in the platform of the Democratic party there is no word regarding a tax on incomes. The only answer to the question is to be found in the desires of the leading members of the Democratic party in Congress to curry favor with the Populists and throw a sop to the Socialists. It is a measure of purely socialistic tendency. It is the placing of public burdens, not fairly and equally, but unfairly and un- equally. It is not a tax on property, but a tax on some persons for having over a certain arbitrary amount of productive prop- erty, or ability to earn more than an arbitrary sum. It is the lirst attempt under the constitution of the United States to inter-

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