WHY WE NEED AN INCOME TAX

...At last, therefore, it was provided that direct taxes should be imposed according to population, and direct taxes, in my opinion, referred alone to slaves and lands and the improvements on lands...

...But the income tax is to be met only after you have realized your income...

...It is not too much to say that the clause with reference to imposing a direct tax would never have found its way into the constitution but through the fear which arose out of the belief that the North might impose an arbitrary and unjust tax upon slaves...

...The discussion finally took a wider range owing to the existence of large tracts of land in the South of less value per acre than the land in the North, hence it was believed that these lands might be taxed unfairly...

...All the enjoyments which a man can receive from his property come from his connection with society...

...Rich Escape Taxes: Poor Pay Them IT seems incomprehensible that anyone would seriously contend that property and wealth should not bear their fair share of the burdens of the general government...

...Great as is my respect for any view by it announced, I cannot resist the conviction that its opinion and decree in this case virtually annuls its previous decisions in regard to the powers of Congress on the subject of taxation and is therefore fraught with danger to the court, to each and every citizen and to the Republic...

...ONE of the many unfortunate things imposed from first to last upon this country by reason of the existence of slavery was the compromise in the constitution of the United States providing that direct taxes should be imposed in accordance with population...

...Notwithstanding our large standing army, our large navy, our all but criminal extravagance as a government, men are found who still unblushingly argue that this burden must all be laid upon consumption and nothing upon wealth, that is, that the man of most ordinary means must pay practically as much to the general government as the man with his uncounted millions...

...The general government, as we have said, has its armies and its navies and its great burden of expense for the purpose among other things of protecting property, protecting gathered and accumulated wealth, of enabling men to make fortunes and to preserve their fortunes and there is no possible argument founded in law or in morals why these protected interests should not bear their proportionate burden of government...

...They say it is inquisitorial...

...They soothe their consciences to some extent by saying that it is a just tax, a fair tax and that the property should indeed bear its proportion of the expenses of the general government but an income tax causes men to commit perjury...

...Wealth is what may be exchanged and requires for its existence a community of persons with reciprocal wants...

...For instance, according to amendments recently pending relative to the income tax, a man with an income of ten thousand dollars would pay the modest sum of one hundred dollars...

...In the collection of our customs duties, packages and the baggage of the citizen are taken, opened and inspected, and, male or female though the citizen may be, are sometimes taken into a room and searched...

...Income Tax Fairest of All THE income tax is the fairest and most equitable of all the taxes...

...Adam Smith says, "The subjects of every state ought to contribute toward the support of the government as nearly as possible in the proportion to their respective abilities, that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state...

...Mr...

...Man as a human being owes services to his fellows and one of the first of these is to support the government which makes civilization possible...

...Of course the man who says this would resent the idea that he would commit perjury but his evangelical spirit leads him to look with particular care to the salvation of his neighbor's soul...

...There is not a state in the Union today but has laws just as exacting with reference to accounting with personal property, just as onerous as an income tax law would be and just as liable to encourage perjury...

...Justice White in his dissenting opinion: "My inability to agree with the court in the conclusions which it has just expressed causes me much regret...

...All these arguments are put forth in the hope of leading us away from the great and fundamental principle of equity in taxation and that is that every man should respond to the burdens of the government in accordance with his ability...

...Yet the tax gatherer does not stop gathering taxes...

...Gouver-nor Morris and others declared they would never consent to counting a slave equal to his master...

...It strikes at the very foundation of national authority in that it denies to the general government a power which is or may become vital to the very existence and preservation of the Union in a national emergency...

...It is the one tax which approaches us in the hour of prosperity and departs in the hour of adversity...

...A tax placed upon consumption is based upon what men want and must have...

...Justice Harlan also says, "This decision may well excite the gravest of apprehensions...

...After you have met your expenses, provided for your family, paid for the education of your children for the year, then, provided you have an income left, you turn to meet the obligations you owe to the government...

...Cut off from all social relations a man's wealth would be useless to him...

...The farmer though he may have lost his entire crop must meet the taxes levied upon his property...

...A tax placed upon wealth falls upon those who have enough and to spare and therefore have more which it is necessary for the government to protect...

...Nothing could be more inquisitorial than this...

...This decision was made possible by invoking a mere technicality, that is, that a tax upon the rents of land is a tax upon the land...

...This language may seem strong, but if so, then 1 invite attention to the following from Mr...

...The Supreme Court in the Pollock case extended and broadened the terms of this somewhat unfortunate compromise so that it now not only covers lands but income from land, personal property, and income from personal property...

...It is nothing less than a crime to put all the burdens of this government on consumption...

...The merchant though on the verge of bankruptcy must respond to the taxes imposed...

...Do you know of any kind of taxes which are not inquisitorial...

...The laborer who goes to the store to buy his food, though it be his last must buy with whatever extra cost there may be imposed by reason of custom duties...

...The discussion first arose over the protection of the slaves and to guard against this the Southern delegates insisted upon an equal representation in Congress with the North...

...In fact, there could be no such thing as wealth without society...

...A Tax on Incomes Would Distribute This Burden Fairly Between Property and Accumulated Wealth By WILLIAM E. BORAH United States Senator from Idaho...

...For instance, under the internal revenue system now in existence, the whiskey of the citizen is taken possession of by the government, placed in a warehouse, locked up and a key given to a United States official...

...No man in his right mind would make an assault upon wealth as such or upon property as such or upon the honest acquisition of property—we simply call upon those who have the good fortune to have accumulated wealth to respond to the expenses of the great government under which they live and thrive...

...Income Tax Decision Indefensible I AM not going to discuss at this time the decision further than to say I am one of those who believe that the income tax decision is as indefensible as a matter of law as the Dred Scott decision, and fraught with far more danger in its ultimate effect if it is to become the settled law of the land, to the Republic...

...It is strange indeed that men can bring themselves to believe in so unfair and unjust a position...

...Will Distribute the Burdens of Taxation I THINK those who advocate the income tax merely as a revenue producing proposition rob the proposition of its moral foundation...

...To levy taxes according to population upon any kind of property is impracticable and cumbersome even when the tax is confined to the kind of property contemplated by the framers of the constitution...

...We should contend for an income tax not simply for the purpose of raising revenue but for the purpose of framing a revenue system which will distribute the burdens of government between consumption and accumulated wealth, which will enable us to call upon property and wealth not in an unfair and burdensome way but in a just and equitable way to meet their proportionate expenses of the government, for certainly it will be conceded by all that the great expense of government is in the protection of property and of wealth...