Public Aid—A Constitutional Question. 
353 
Two important decisions * 1 have established the principle that 
a vote is void if it is taken before there is legislation author¬ 
izing it. Clarke vs. Janesville , indirectly asserts the same prin¬ 
ciple. Wisconsin decisions stand in harmony with what Judge 
Cooley 2 says on the subject: “The power to tax being legis¬ 
lative, there must be distinct authority of law for every levy 
upon the people under that power. The authority may come 
from the constitution, which, in exceptional cases, will provide 
for a specific tax, or for a tax for some defined purpose; but in 
general the authority will come from the legislature and must 
be expressed in statutory form. . . . And in case of local 
legislation there must commonly be two distinct acts of legis¬ 
lation: first, that by the state giving the power to tax, and 
second, that by the local legislative or quasi-legislative author¬ 
ity, laying the tax under thd power so given.” Wisconsin 
seems to have been more conservative and to have combated 
the constitutionality of taxation for railroad aid more vigor¬ 
ously than many other states; yet “it must be admitted that 
the great preponderance of the judicial judgments has been on 
the side of the competency of such legislation, in the absence of 
special constitutional restraint. ” 3 “ By reason of the greater 
favor with which the rights of the holders of such securities 
have been regarded by the Supreme Court of the United States, 
the volume of municipal bond legislation has of late years taken 
place in the Federal Courts. . . . The Supreme Court of 
the United States has upheld the rights of the holders of munic¬ 
ipal securities with a strong hand, and has set a face of flint 
against repudiation, even when made on legal grounds deemed 
solid by the state courts, as well as by municipalities which 
have been deceived and defrauded. ” 4 
such. Other cases which pronounce the validity of stock subscription are: 
Hasbrouck vs. Milwaukee , 13 Wis., 43; Brodhead vs. Milwaukee , 19 
Wis., 652; Curtis vs. Whipple, 24 Wis., 350. 
1 Phelps vs. Alfred Bank , 13 Wis., 432; Berliner vs. Waterloo , 14 
Wis., 378. 
2 On Taxation , p. 324. 
3 Dillon, Municipal Corporations , §508. 
4 Ibid., §511. 
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