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 instrument, 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 previous 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 prescribed by the Constitution—i. e., according to population—was unconstitutional, the Government would have been forever practically deprived of an effective instrumentality for raising revenue which might be most desirable in cases of emergency. Immense 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 Supreme Court has decided that neither taxes on distilled spirits (United States vs. Singer, 15 Wall, 111), nor succession duties on the devolution of title to real estate (Scholey vs. Rew, 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 excises, 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 narration.
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 purchased within two years. Every element that could make real or personal property a source of value to an owner was taxed. An
