party with
Republican virus had poisoned its blood.

Shortly after the last Democratic Congress--the last for many years--the
Supreme Court undid one of the few successful achievements of this party
when it was in power. The Tariff Bill contained a section imposing a
tax of two per cent on incomes in excess of $4000. A case was framed
attacking the constitutionality of the tax,* the parties on both sides
aiming to defeat the law and framing the issues with that purpose in
view. On April 8, 1895, the Supreme Court rendered a judgment which
showed that the Court was evenly divided on some points. A rehearing was
ordered and a final decision was rendered on the 20th of May. By a vote
of five to four it was held that the income tax was a direct tax, that
as such it could be imposed only by apportionment among the States
according to population, and that as the law made no such provision the
tax was therefore invalid. This reversed the previous position of the
Court** that an income tax was not a direct tax within the meaning
of the Constitution, but that it was an excise. This decision was the
subject of much bitter comment which, however, scarcely exceeded in
severity the expressions used by members of the Supreme Court who filed
dissenting opinions. Justice White was of the opinion that the effect of
this judgment was "to overthrow a long and consistent line of decisions
and to deny to the legislative department of the Government the
possession of a power conceded to it by universal consensus for one
hundred years." Justice Harlan declared that it struck "at the very
foundation of national authority" and that it gave "to certain kinds of
property a position of favoritism and advantage inconsistent with the
fundamental principles of our social organization." Justice Brown hoped
that "it may not prove the first step towards the submergence of the
liberties of the people in a sordid despotism of wealth." Justice
Jackson said it was "such as no free and enlightened people can ever
possibly sanction or approve." The comments of law journals were also
severe, and on the whole, the criticism of legal experts was more
outspoken than that of the politicians.

* Pollock vs. Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, 157 U.S. 429.

* * Springer vs. United States, 102 U.S. 586.

Public distrust of legislative procedure in the United States is so
great that powers of judicial interference are valued to a degree not
usual in