Page:Is Capital Income, Earle, 1921.djvu/33

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IS CAPITAL INCOME?
33

of doubt. The taxing power always has, if the people really approve, the full power of clear statement, and there is, therefore, no pretext for "paltering with us in a double sense" in so vital a matter. If the Government is not content plainly to ask specifically what consent is desired, that of iself is strongest reason to be on guard!

When we consider the matter from the viewpoint of the surviving Liberty that still abides with us in the unrepealed provisions of the original Constitution, the solution becomes overwhelmingly clear, for by History, Common Law and Constitution, they deeply involve our Liberty, and must be safeguarded against everything. We should thank our Creator that we have a Supreme Court that has never faltered in such cases.

As one may see by reading the decision in Towne vs. Eisner, 245 U. S. 418, the unanimous decision in Lynch vs. Turrish, 247 U. S. 221, and the very instructive discussion of the Justices in the Macomber case, which, though the point actually decided lies outside of the purpose of this work, the doctrines contended for in this Essay are, again, unanimously supported. The only real point actually involved, if the Macomber case be understood by the writer is whether or not the majority of the Court were right in considering, for example, that if a man had checked his hat and been given two checks for it, or had received duplicate bills of exchange for a single sum, or taken duplicate title deeds for his property, or been given, say, ten-twentieths, instead of five-twentieths of the same thing, he had really doubled it or not, for purposes of taxation. But there can be no question raised, since the unanimous decisions in the Gould, the Towne, and the Turrish cases. If they be but adhered to, and only considered so far as