47* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



come tax was not direct but indirect, and accordingly that its 

 imposition was not unconstitutional. The following was the 

 exact language of the Court : 



" Our conclusions are that direct taxes within the meaning of 

 the Constitution are only capitation taxes, as expressed in that in- 

 strument, and taxes on real estate ; and that the tax of which the 

 plaintiff complains " (i. e., a direct tax) " is within the category of 

 an excise or duty." 



Whether warranted or not, the drift of public opinion in the 

 United States has been, that the decision of its Supreme Court 

 in the Springer case in 1874, and, to a certain extent, in all pre- 

 vious cases touching the constitutionality of an income tax, 

 was made under the pressure of an apparent political necessity. 

 Had the decision been to the effect that the income tax was a 

 direct tax, and any method of levying it other than that pre- 

 scribed by the Constitution i. e., according to population was 

 unconstitutional, the Government would have been forever prac- 

 tically deprived of an effective instrumentality for raising reve- 

 nue which might be most desirable in cases of emergency. Im- 

 mense sums which had been paid under protest as income taxes 

 would also have been pressed for repayment in case the decision 

 had been otherwise, to the serious embarrassment of the national 

 Treasury. 



In harmony with the above decisions, the United States Su- 

 preme Court has decided that neither taxes on distilled spirits 

 (United States vs. Singer, 15 Wall., Ill), nor succession duties on 

 the devolution of title to real estate (Scholey vs. Hew, 23 Wall., 

 331), nor taxes on the notes of State banks (Veazie Bank vs. Fenno, 

 8 Wall., 533), nor taxes on the receipts of insurance companies from 

 premiums and assessments (Insurance Company vs. Soule, 7 Wall., 

 433) are direct taxes ; but that all such taxes are imposts and ex- 

 cises, and subject, therefore, to the requirement as to uniformity, 

 but not subject to the requirement of apportionment. 



Important, interesting, and instructive from a constitutional, 

 legal, and economic point of view, as was the experience of the 

 United States in respect to direct taxation, prior to 1894, the 

 sequel of events and experience in respect to this question and its 

 involved problems has been no less important and worthy of nar- 

 ration. 



By an enactment of Congress, August 18, 1894, establishing 

 an income tax for the United States, a tax of two per cent was 

 imposed on the gains, profits, and income of 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 pur- 

 chased within two years. Every element that could make real or 

 personal property a source of value to an owner was taxed. An 



