392 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



'■' Congress," lie said, " has adopted as the minimum income for the 

 purpose of taxation the limit of four thousand dollars. This limit 

 may be said to divide the upper from the lower middle class, finan- 

 cially speaking, in the larger cities, or to divide the middle class 

 from the wealthy in the country districts." (Opening argument by 

 William D. Guthrie, in support of the contention that the income-tax 

 law of 1894 was unconstitutional.) 



Attention is next asked to what seems to be by far the most serious 

 point in this whole matter, and which has not as yet attracted public 

 attention in any marked degree. The American people have been try- 

 ing an experiment as a nation which has never before been attempted 

 by any other nation — namely, that of universal suffrage, by which the 

 power to elect legislators and shape the policy of the Government 

 has been put under the control of those who, through no fault of 

 their own, have not enjoyed such educational facilities as will enable 

 them independently to form correct opinions on great constitutional, 

 legal, financial, or economic questions, thereby creating almost end- 

 less possibilities for injudicious legislation. How such possibilities 

 were being made actualities in the case of the income-tax statute of 

 1894 can be made evident to almost any one who makes himself fully 

 acquainted with the circumstances attendant on its inception and 

 almost concurrent legal adjudications and contentions. 



The members of the convention that framed the Constitution of 

 the United States had the very questions before them that have 

 already been in issue before the American people, and may at no 

 distant day be again presented for their serious consideration. It 

 was inequalities in methods and facilities for the raising of revenue 

 among the States of the Confederation for the support of the Federal 

 Government that threatened the existence of the Confederation and 

 necessitated the assemblage of the Constitutional Convention. And 

 the members of this convention, taught by experience, incorporated 

 in their work the provisions respecting the exercise of the power of 

 taxation, the meaning and validity of which are now called in ques- 

 tion. And in so doing they gave to the people of the United States 

 an instrument of which one great feature, if not its chief feature, and 

 one not recognized as it ought to be, is that it guards the rights of 

 minorities as no other governmental instrument devised by mortal 



persons derived from any kind of property, including rent and the growth and produce of 

 lands, and profits made upon the sale of land if purchased within two years. Every 

 element that could make real or personal property a source of value to an owner was taxed. 

 An excise duty was also imposed upon income derived from any profession, trade, employ- 

 ment, or avocation. The tax upon persons generally was not upon their entire income, bat 

 on the excess over and above the sum of four thousand dollars. All persons having incomes 

 of four thousand dollars or under were exempt. 



