Page:Is Capital Income, Earle, 1921.djvu/24

24 relaxed as to this single thing called "Income." And thus we have a situation where, both positively and negatively, and from every point of view, whether we consider the subsisting principles of the Constitution or the Amendment itself, that can, alone, bring us to but a single result.

"Income" cannot by any possibility be stretched one iota beyond what "Income" has always clearly and generally been understood to be; if there be doubt, it must be construed in protection of the citizen; whilst, on the other hand, everything directly taxed must be strongly construed, to be within the protection of the principles originally introduced to protect our freedom, and as widely construed as is reasonably possible. Again, turning to the Common Law for our guidance in interpretation, we learn that it always favors Liberty. Even under the Tudors and Stuarts, it promulgated this fundamental and most important doctrine—"In favour of Liberty. * * * Impius et crudelis judicandus est, qui libertati non favet. Angliae jura in omni casu libertati dant favorem." Coke on Littleton, 124 b. But the Constitution itself makes this doubly clear, fortifies it forever, goes even further, making it a chief purpose of that wonderful instrument—"We, the people of the United States, in order to * * * secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." And every Judge of the United States, as well as of every separate State, "shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution." As Broom so well says: "If any doubt arises from the terms employed by the Legislature, it has always been held a safe means of collecting the intention, the ground of making the statute, and to