t -T
4 Conservative *
AGAINST TAXATION FOR CLASSES.
[ Speech delivered by .T. Sterling Morton before
the National Live Stock Association at Chicago
cage , Ills. , on Dec , 4,1001. ]
Gentlemen of the National Live Stock
Association :
Poets have described and artists have
depicted , times without number , the
beauties of the only perfect human home
ever known to this world. In all the
literature and art of Christendom , for
centuries , the biblical Garden of Eden
has been portrayed as the one abode
entirely satisfying in its tranquil and
enchanting loveliness. Foliage , flower
and fruit abounded in rich and gorgeous
profusion , and neither storms nor clouds
ever darkened this winterloss and
delightful home. Poets and painters
have vied with each other in sketching
it and have exhausted , in their efforts ,
the opulence of exaggerative descrip-
tiou. Our first parents have been en
vied as to their lot , and criticised for
thousands of years because of that dis
obedience which brought the fall , or
uplifting , of the race from well-fed ,
physical indolence and perfect mental
stagnation , to a strenuous struggle for
bodily life and a perpetual tension of
intellectual activities.
But the one great beauty of that
original homestead on this earth which
has escaped alike the attention of
artists and poets , strikes the mind of
the economist as more to be sought
after , nobler and more heaven-like , than
all other characteristics and qualities ,
and that is its absolute Taxlessuess.
That first inhabited and pre empted
quarter section of the globe appeals to
the judgment and reason of modern
men who are forced every day to think
of the burdens of taxation which gov
ernments impose upon subjects and citi
zens alike in the beginning of the
twentieth century. No assessor ever
valued the acreage in the Garden of
Eden for the purposes of taxation. No
distress warrant was ever issued be
cause of the non-payment of personal
taxes in that most serene and tranquil
home. Taxation is then the one great
sequential curse of the disobedience of
Adam and Eve. This curse intensifies
itself as the generations of men come
and go. This curse is so ubiquitous , so
universal , that it reaches every human
being and extorts its claim. There
never was and there never will be a
tax levied under any form of govern
ment or law which , in and of itself , is a
& blessing. A system of organized society
exacting no compensation for the pro
tection of life , liberty and property ,
would be an ideal government. When
ever human research and ingenuity can
develop absolute Taxlessuess so that
neither citizen nor subject need con
tribute a single penny for the service
which government renders in the pro-
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teotion of life , liberty and property ,
Paradise will have been regained ,
Heaven descended upon earth 1 But
within present limitations of human
investigation and deductions it is im
possible to conceive of a civilized people
in the enjoyment of stable and efficient
ly administered government who are
utterly without taxes.
First Power Granted.
The founders of the government
of the United States understood
perfectly well that this republic ,
like all other forms of govern
ment , would be born penniless , a com
posite pauper , and that only by taxation
of its citizens would it ever acquire
revenues sufficient for its own adminis
tration. Therefore the first power
granted by tfie people to Oongresswhich
is simply their agent , in that instrument
from which each of the three great de
partments of government derives all its
authority , is in these words , exactly
copied from the original and official
parchment in every particular :
"The Congress shall have power to
lay and collect Taxes , Duties , Imposts
and Excises ; to pay the Debts and pro
vide for the common Defense and gen
eral Welfare of the United States ; but
all Duties and Excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States. "
"Thus it is seen that Congress is given
power to lay taxes in order to get money
with which to pay the debts and pro
vide for the common defence and gen
eral welfare of the United States.
That was the opinion and purpose
of every member of the Fed
eral convention that framed the
Constitution in the summer of
1787 ; of Alexander Hamilton , who
was first called upon , as secretary of the
treasury , officially to interpret it ; of
Daniel Webster , often called the "Great
Expounder" of the Constitution ; of
John Marshall , the great Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court ; of Story , the
first copious and most distinguished
commentator upon the text ; of George
Bancroft and George T. Curtis , the
learned and elaborate historians of the
text ; and , in short , of everybody else
who has earned any right in any way
to have an opinion on any such matter
of political interpretation. "
The power to tax is plainly therefore
vested in governments solely for public
purposes. To support the government
by revenues taken from the people by
fair and equal taxation is the sole ob
ject for which this power may be right
fully exercised. Taxation cannot there
fore be equitably or properly laid for
the purpose of encouraging one industry
or trade , and to the detriment and de
struction of another industry or trade.
Cooley says that
"A tax laid for the double purpose of
regulation and revenue must be ground
ed in both the police and taxing power ;
but the grant of a power to tax would
not authorize the imposition of a burden
in its nature and purpose prohibitory. "
For the protection afforded the citizen
by the government taxes are demanded.
They are simply compensation for a
service rendered. The power to tax is
vested in the legislative department of
the government. It was put there by
the people of the states which were to
become- the United States , upon the
adoption of the Constitution. The
power to levy taxes is a grant from the
people of the several states to the Fed
eral government of the United States.
This is recognized universally and it is
made especially prominent by the pro
vision that all bills for raising revenue
or appropriating revenues must origin
ate in the popular branch of Congress ,
the House of Representatives. But
while the power to levy taxes is entirely
within the legislature , the question as to
whether it has overstepped its power to
levy taxes must always be finally de
termined by the courts. There is how
ever one undisputed and universally ad
mitted limitation to this taxing power.
The very first and the inexorable re
quirement as to lawful taxation is that
it shall be laid exclusively for a public
purpose. The Congress of the United
States may determine , temporarily ,
what a public purpose is. But Congress
is not infallible in its decisions , nor at
all conclusive , because always subject
to revision by the judiciary.
The Grout Bill.
Is the tax upon bntterine and oleo
margarine , proposed by the Grout bill ,
exclusively for a public purpose ? Is it
not a cunning device for using the pow
er to tax for the purpose of destroying
one industry in order to encourage and
build up another industry ? In the first
section of the bill there is an attempt to
delegate the power to regulate com
merce between the states by making
"all articles known as oleomargarine ,
butterine , imitation butter or imitation
cheese , or any substance in the sem
blance of butter or cheese * * * and
not made exclusively of pure and un
adulterated milk and cream , transported
into any state or territory , and remain
ing there for use , consumption , sale or
storage therein , shall upon the arrival
within the limits of such state or terri
tory , be subject" the operation and
effect of the laws of such state or territory - & '
tory enacted and to the exercise of its -v
police powers to the same extent and in
the same manner as though such arti-
.cles or substances had been produced in
such state or territory , and shall not
be exempt therefrom by reason of being
introduced therein in original packages
or otherwise. "
Would not this provision enable any
state to interrupt and absolutely destroy
the re-shipment of these commodities
