Page:Bates v. City of Little Rock (229 Ark. 819).pdf/10

 Rh, has been the rule in Arkansas since 1875. Act No. 51 of 1875 (as now found in § 64-1301 Ark. Stats.) provides for the incorporation of a non-profit organization, and Section 2 of that Act (as now found in § 64-1302 Ark. Stats.) says:

"Any association of persons desirous of becoming incorporated, under the provisions of this act, shall file with the Clerk of the Circuit Court and Recorder for the proper county a copy of their constitution or articles of association, and a list of all the members, together with a petition to said court for a certificate of incorporation under the provisions of this act. (Emphasis supplied.) So it is nothing new to require a non-profit organization to furnish a list of all of the members. The same rule that applies to such organizations seeking corporate status is sought here to be applied to such organizations that seek privilege tax exemptions. The record shows that the rule is being uniformly applied to all organizations.

Requiring the furnishing of information to the taxing power is not an unconstitutional invasion of the freedoms guaranteed. A taxpayer is required to file an income tax return giving the names of the sources of revenue (as, for instance, the name of the corporation and the amount of the dividend received from it); yet all this has been held to be within the power of the Sovereign. See Hubbard v. Mellon, 5 Fed. 2d 764. Furthermore, the United States Supreme Court, in U.S. v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612, 98 L. Ed. 989, 74 S. Ct. 808, upheld a law which required the furnishing of the names of contributors and amounts paid by each to any person engaged in seeking to obtain legislation. So the rationale of the holdings seems to be: when the required information is a mere incident to a permissible legal result, then the information should be furnished. That is the situation in the case at bar; and we find nothing in Speiser v. Randall, 357 U.S. 513, 2 L. Ed. 2d 1460, 78 S. Ct.