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Latest Important Cases

afwlmwlﬂl by the Supreme Court of the United l'lth reslmwtt States March 13 (Flint v. Stone Tracy tmde! the 52;’,

Co. and other cases, L. ed. adv. sheets,

llﬂOn lawbas‘ein p. 342).

The gist of the opinion, which

"1 ﬂdaptanimmsi was written by Mr. Justice Day, none the public its of the Justices dissenting, was to the femtion. loss: effect that an excise tax may be im it be found ml: posed upon “the actual doing of busi

'espect to the pa ness in a certain way.” Considering the , and tbarili': point that the tax is a direct tax and ' necessary, in ii: hence could not be levied by Congress articulamelr: unless apportioned, the Court said:— “Within the category of indirect taxa nvenantee.“ l! row] the mi: tion, as we shall have further occasion to in .Yorderjd’ni show, is embraced a tax upon business m é’ Amt: done in a corporate capacity, which is g. Ru). or 03:; the subject-matter of the tax imposed ments in the act under consideration. The ’em, hau'ng l1 Pollock case construed the tax there destrucn'ci d: levied as direct, because it was imposed ~nginterest of price and E upon property simply because of its

'by the MK

‘ts expect w 4! price to lift [8d,] Them

in the pm? rcts of £11555

ownership. In the present case the tax is not payable unless there be a carrying on or doing of business in the designated capacity, and this is made the occasion for the tax, measured by the standard prescribed. The difference between the acts is not merely nominal, but rests upon substantial differences between the mere ownership of property and the

actual doing of business in a certain way.

"It is unnecessary to enter upon an

323

of commodities. Excises are ‘taxes laid upon the manufacture, sale or consump

tion of commodities within the country, upon licenses to pursue certain occupa tions, and upon corporate privileges.’ Cooley, Const. Lim. 7th ed. 680. "The tax under consideration, as we have construed the statute, may be described as an excise upon the par ticular privilege of doing business in a corporate capacity, 1'. s., with the ad vantages which arise from corporate or quasi corporate organization; or, when applied to insurance companies, for doing the business of such com panies."

With reference to the argument that the tax constituted an infringement by the federal Government of the sovereign powers of the states, inasmuch as it

taxed privileges conferred by the state governments, the Court said:—

"It is no part of the essential govern mental functions of a state to provide means of transportation, supply artiﬁ

cial light, water and the like.

These

objects are often accomplished through

the medium of private corporations, and, though the public may derive a beneﬁt from such operations, the com panies carrying on such enterprises are, nevertheless, private companies, whose business is prosecuted for private emolu ment and advantage. For the purpose

extended consideration of the technical meaning of the term ‘excise.’ It has been the subject-matter of considerable

of taxation they stand upon the same

discussion—the terms duties, imposts

upon which special franchises have been conferred."

and excises are generally treated as embracing the indirect forms of taxation contemplated by the Constitution. . . "Duties and imposts are terms com monly applied to levies made by govern ments on the importation or exportation

footing as other private corporations

Other questions, such as those of uni formity and discrimination, were also

considered. workmen’s Compensation.

Employers’ Liability.

See