UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF THE. 725 



in determining the question whether the Spanish 

 forces were of superior or inferior force, and found 

 the fleet to be inferior to the American vessels. 

 The Supreme Court affirmed this judgment. Chief- 

 Justice Fuller delivered a dissenting opinion, con- 

 tending for a liberal construction of the statute, 

 in which Justices White and McKenna joined. 



The Constitution of Utah. In Maxwell vs. 

 Dow the court decided that the provisions of the 

 Constitution of the State of Utah allowing pro- 

 ceedings in criminal cases to be prosecuted upon 

 the process of " information," and limiting juries 

 in certain cases to 8 persons insteaxl of requiring 

 the common law jury of 12, were not in contra- 

 vention of the Federal Constitution. The decision 

 fully explained what are the privileges and im- 

 munities of a citizen of the United States which 

 no State can abridge. Justice Harlan dissented, 

 saying that under this decision, if he did not mis- 

 apprehend its effect, the Constitution did not stand 

 in the way of any State striking down guarantees 

 of life and liberty which English-speaking peoples 

 have for centuries regarded as vital to personal 

 security. 



Jim Crow Cars. The case of the Chesapeake 

 and Ohio Railway Company vs. Kentucky was 

 decided Dec. 3. It involved the question of the 

 constitutionality of the Kentucky State law pro- 

 viding separate coaches for colored passengers. 

 The opinion sustained the validity of the act. 

 Justice Harlan dissented, holding that the law 

 was an interference with interstate commerce, and 

 that the Kentucky Legislature had no right to 

 classify citizens by color in railway coaches. 



Restraint on Commerce. Cleveland, Cincinnati, 

 Chicago and St. Louis Railway Company vs. Illi- 

 nois involved the constitutionality of the State 

 law of Illinois requiring all trains to stop at coun- 

 ty seats in the State. As it appeared that the 

 company furnished four regular passenger trains 

 each way, sufficient to accommodate all local and 

 through business, and that all such trains stopped 

 at county seats, the act was held to be invalid 

 as applied to an express train intended only- for 

 through passengers from St. Louis to New York. 

 While railways are bound to provide adequately 

 for the accommodation of those to whom they are 

 directly tributary, they have the legal right, after 

 all these local conditions have been met, to adopt 

 special provisions for through traffic, and legis- 

 lative interference therewith is an infringement 

 on the constitutional requirement that commerce 

 between the States shall be absolutely free and 

 unobstructed. 



Cigarettes. Austin vs. State of Tennessee in- 

 volved the constitutionality of the Tennessee law 

 which forbids the sale or importation for sale of 

 cigarettes. The case grew out of the importation 

 of cigarettes into Tennessee from North Carolina, 

 the packages being shipped in open baskets. The 

 Tennessee dealers claimed the right to sell the 

 separate packages, under the decision of the Su- 

 preme Court made several years ago, that no State 

 fan restrain the sale of an original package of an 

 article of interstate commerce without encroach ing 

 upon the exclusive right of Congress to regulate 

 commerce between the States. The Supreme Court 

 affirmed that portion of the decision of the court 

 of Tennessee which held that the sale of cigarettes 

 involved in this case was not of an original pack- 

 age, but did not affirm that part of the decision 

 holding that cigarettes are not legitimate articles 

 of commerce. The Supreme Court did not under- 

 take to define what is an original package further 

 than to hold that the ordinary package of 10 or 

 20 cigarettes, such as is retailed to smokers, is 

 not an original package. Four justices dissented. 



UNITED STATES, FINANCES OF THE. 

 Notwithstanding the extraordinary military ex- 

 penses incurred in the pacification of the Philip- 

 pine Islands and the increase of the navy, the 

 excess of the revenues of the Government for the 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, over the expend- 

 itures for the same period was !ji79.r>27,060. There 

 was an increase in receipts of internal revenue of 

 $21,890,705; of customs, $27,036,389; and from the 

 postal service, $8,4(50,297. For the same period 

 there was a decrease in the expenses of the mili- 

 tary establishment of the Government as follows: 

 The pay department of the army, $37,637,023; the 

 quartermaster's department, $33,548,260; the medi- 

 cal department, $8,605,738. There was also a de- 

 crease in the expenditures of the State Depart- 

 ment of $20,000,000 on account of foreign inter- 

 course, that being the amount paid to Spain the 

 previous year on account of the treaty obliga- 

 tion. The only notable increase of expenditures 

 was $4,121,037 for an increase of the navy. 



The table on page 726 shows in detail the items 

 of receipts and expenditures by the Government 

 for the past fiscal year, compared with like items 

 of the previous year. 



The surplus arising from these operations was 

 applied in part to the redemption of the $25,364,500 

 outstanding 2-per-cent. bonds of the Government, 

 and to paying a premium of $33,147,055 on 3-. 

 4-, and 5-per-cent. bonds exchanged for 2-per-cent. 

 bonds, as authorized by the act of March 14, 1900. 

 This premium is in effect the anticipation of in- 

 terest on the public debt to its amount, and in 

 the end will be a net saving to the Government 

 of about $6,000,000. Considering the favorable 

 relation of receipts to expenditures and its prob- 

 able continuance and the large available balance 

 of cash, recommendation is made by the Secretary 

 of the Treasury for a moderate reduction of the 

 w T ar taxes. 



The act of March 14, 1890, above referred to, 

 authorized the funding of certain 3-, 4-, and 5- 

 per-cent. bonds into 2-per-cent. gold bonds pay- 

 able at the pleasure of the Government after 

 thirty years from their issue, the outstanding 

 bonds to be received in exchange therefor at 

 a value not greater than their present worth 

 to yield an income of 2^ per cent, per an- 

 num. The new bonds were authorized to be re- 

 ceived by the Government from national banks, 

 and bank notes to be issued thereon to the par 

 value of the bonds deposited. Under this author- 

 ity new national banks were organized through- 

 out the country, which took out circulation, and 

 existing banks largely converted their bonds de- 

 posited for circulation into the new bonds, that 

 they might secure the issue of notes on the more 

 favorable terms offered. 



With the exception of an increase of about 

 $100,000.000 in the holdings of gold, there is no 

 marked change in the assets of the Treasury dur- 



