OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10399, 29 June 1895, Page 3

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

San Francisco, May 30. THE. INCOME-TAX ( : has been... declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Government must look elsewhere for the 30 million of dollars:,^; relied upon from this source. The verdict was oue of five to four, and among the former was one=jiidge who changed his mind from the decision he had rendered on a previous occasion—a change of mind which (and I merely mention the matter as indicative of the low view taken of even the > highest judicial dignitaries in this strange land) has caused many people to have no hesitation in openly askiug and guessing, How much was he paid?

The decision, however, has its uses. It emphasises more clearly than all tha rhetoric of tue Socialist and revolutionist possibly could that this country is governed solely and exclusively by the few for the direct benefit of the Jew. It is not a question of cold Jaw, but of the deliberate reversal of many prior decisions and the establishing a formidable incentive for" all classes to deny the right of the Federal authority to raise: taxes from their especial [ sources of wealth, merely on the ground that | such'levy is "sectional,""and differentiates in I tavpur of one. as against another. Thab a country supposedly governed' by the people; and haviagiits own House of Representatives, bcannot.'levy^taxes as its representatives: shall decide la an anomaly unique in the history of a frse'people. Congress in its' wiedom decides that every person earning over £800 a year must contribute 2 per cent, ot [his or her surplus earnings to tbe. Government of the country Now, when it; is remembered the entire cost of government is supplied by the excise and customs duties, it will be apparent to "the meanest capacity" that a well-to-do man ,or woman coatnbutes far less to the maintenance and support of hia or her country than does tha worker who toils for 50aol a mouth. Both pay on.what they eat, drink, and wear, and, proportionately, the 50dol a month man contributes the larger share of the two; in fact it is well known that the very wealthy Americans make a trip to Europe, buy sufficient, clothing to last; them a year, and pass the same through the customs free of auty, because all such articles are personal effects !It would, therefore, seem that a law bo equitable and honest would have been met willingly and graciously. Not so, however. I'olks who think tbusly do not know the American plutocrat. The tax was denounced by the Eastern and Republican press as socialistic, anarchistic, fib for monarchies only, inquisitorial, sectional, class legislation, and so on, whilst a few men, backed up by others, hired the best legal qnibblers of the day, and determined to fight the question in the courts. The result is a matter of history. • _ But the *tnd is not yet." It is absurd to imagine wealth can for ever contihua to dictate its terms to the 70 odd millions of people over whom it at this hour proudly lords itself. Contrast the complacent ejaculations of a few of the beneficiaries by this judgment with the warnings uttered/by the four disaehtiug judgeß who formed the minority. ' ', ' " I tellyou," exclaimed one' oE the attorneys for the protestanta, "the courts of this land ! are more powerful than the legislative and executive bracches of the Government/or even the army."

" The decision is a most excellent one," ob> served a bunk president, "and it will, I hope, tend to give a quietus to class legislation." ' "It will show," remarked'the president of a trust company, "that we have some authority higher than legislatures, some authority to which the people bow."

Now listen to the other side. Justice Harlan, in recordiog bis dissent, said : " In my judgment, this decision strikes at tha very foundation of national authority, in that ifc denies to the General Government a power which ib, o? may become at some time in a, peat emergency, such as that of war, vital to the existence aad preservation of the Union.

In its practical operations this decision withdraws from national taxation not ouly all incomes derived from real estate, but the personal property of the whole country—personal property, bonds, stocks, investments of all kinds, and the income that may bs derived from such property.

' It this new theory of the Constitution, as I believe it to be; if this new departnrs from the way marked out by tbe fathers is justified by the fundamental law, the American people cannot ton soon amend their Constitution. " The practical, if not the direct, effect of the decision to-day is to give to certain kinds of property a position of favouritism and advau-

tagc inconsistent with the fundamental principle of our social organisation, to invest them with power ; and influence that ig perilous to that partion.of the people upon whom rests the larger part of the burins of the Government, and who ought, not bo be subjected to tha dominion of aggregated wealth any more than tbe property of the country should ha at the mercy of,the lawless." . ' '.. •■ Justice Jackson' affirms: "'lf is not and cannot bs.dfthied that under the broad and comprehensive taxing power conferred by the Constitution, Cqngrc-S3 has authority to tax incomes from whatsoever source "arising,' whether from/real estate or personal proparty or otherwise." ; "■ . .■>■■• Justice Brown was more emphatic in his opinion Among ;mnch that was equally unmistakable he said: "The decision involves nothing less than the surrender of the taxing power to the money dag's. While I have no doubt that Congrevs'will find some means of surmounting the present crisis, my fear is that in some moment of uatibnal pefil this decision will rise up to fustrate its will and paralyse its arm. I hope,jt may not'prove the first step towards submergence of the liberties of the people m a. Bordiddespotism of wealth " Justice White followed upon similar .line's. Alter, reading his opinion, he spoke of -the decision as. a blow struck at the American people, and said tbe.power of levying an income tax bow left couid only be exercised with.such liyjus.ice that no" legislative body would dare atretapt to exercise it, for/such an'"attempt would bring, forward a bWody revolution ' - From the above it is el-jar I htv.e in no sense exaggerated the. eetious \phsUs involved iv the denial, by. a majority of ,the Supreme Court, to sanction the -action of .Congress in itsefforts "to make a tair apportionment of the: burden of necessary taxation. ' ,', u ? f «>u»e-'ppUt.ios enters so largely idto 'the Utterances of,.the, .public 'men iv thi 3 country tha.care.has.to. be exercised before accepting them as : . worthy of belief, but when a man like ex-i.reßident-;Harnson, speaking upon the in-come-tax, .-said'"Mr- Carlisle might, as' well have sent out hi ß .minions.to tako'away money from every,«W man," he states what be oupht to ~knos is a deliberate falsehood. Not one man.m a hunored.in this land would have been liable under; thejincome'tax law, and it is the most, toolwh of-foolish bunkum, to affirm otherwise Four thousand dollars a year salaries are,, relatively,,no commoner here than elsewhere, and the class of men most ekted over the recent decision give substantial proof that 1C -IS fi 0 *■-=.;'. ■. . -: ; . " . lit i^well to remember the Preach nobles, priorjo the : Revolution, refused to. pay taxes .upon their properfcy-a refusal which coat.; a ; few,year S after,Vmany of them their heads as well as, their, property, and the contemptuous disregard to the of history ana tfie dictate? of .pomajon sense displayed in the UmtedAStates may/eventually tqach the American plutocracy ■ that the possession of wealth is not an unmixed blessing. UTERAItYJNOTgS.

The. Trilby craze, : although not so virulent, cannot bej said, to have. expended itself The .patient stiU. manifests many symptoms characteristic.of phase (if. insanity which has for its ome.f'features agenaral flabbiness and limpness, buf at the same- time, there are si^ns denoting reason's ultimata return to occupy the premisss from which it was hysterically ejected.v Chief among.the latter is the, to many, conclusive sign that booksellers no longer place Irilby at the head of their popular demand column, and the' patient can stand a good deal so long as this significant manifesta-twa-oi. ajeturn'to health continues. At the libraries, however. Trilby, much to the disgust of the librarians, still canters in an easy winner. The gu-ls.wjli insist on having their Trilby. anP*ke "dear.girl?'. at whcsa counterpart in **$ £s £ ey up their delicate noses lSt?u c- and petted most fulsomely. Then the theatrical'managers— those clever masters m the art of free advertising— gave the tirgsame stuff a lift/ They got up a fight as to the dramatic rights' of the book, and they took U into court.v and inductions wore issued, and writs applied for,,,and charges hurled and answers made, and through it all the author of the craze and his publishers smiled knowiocly Nor. is this all. -As I previously mentioned somebody claimed Trilby was an old book rewritten, and.there have been more injunctions, and..mpre..thteats, and more talkee-talkee, and the great)man who wrote the latest Trilby— in name only the first Trilby—was cabled, for, and is now I believe, in America to settle these momentous questions, and to. receive the adulabisn of the women.and men;^ho call Trilby "literature" and its author a genius. •i? tt., t9Pi?^ thil Came an Pfclier big " ad." Some silly boy had taken an overdose of Trilby befora going to bed, and dreamed Srengali was after him and going to do all kinds of things to him •', so he tpokpoison and died, which was very kind ot ;himj . But before dying he wrote a letter saving he should mcc! Trilby and Silly Billy in heaven '.—which last we sincerely hope he will not, for it is bad enough ever to have had them on e&rfch: .-: • ' • , ■ "

■: Altogether, the Trilby craze will be chronicled .by the future chronicler of our social life'as the most extraordinary outbreak in literary historr I do'not know Whether'-.the panic extended to fc.pgla.nd: and her coioaies (from what I can gather it did not do much damage in England) but your Headers can hardly gather its extent here. It is' Trilby, Trilby, Trilby everywhere. Press,; ■-•pulpit, politician, artist, clothier, leweller, hosier, hatter, dressmaker, have a!l caught the iever, and it requires an extra dose ot fecott, Dickens, Thackeray, Eliot, Weyman, Doyle, or Stevenson-to-keep some of us from catching it. ■ Of the monetary worth of this epidemic to the Harpers and Dv Maurier it is difflculfe to speak .with accuracy ; but the fact that £3QOO— not dpliarse-were. paid for the dramatic <i»hts fpr; the .summer sessou in the city of Boston alone, of the work will give an inkling as to what it rniist^ be ; and the cry is still they come— i.c , the dollars. '

■ Miss Beatrice Harrsden was on the platform at the opening of the Woman's Congress She says her little book which made her reputation has, bo far, only yielded her. some £300 Contrasted with Trilby's figures the price is miserable, especially as "Ships That Pass in the Night, strikes a deeper, truer, higher note than :'does the .spiled - beauty .of the Latin Qdartier..

The Examiner has made an excellent departure iv connection with its Sunday edition. In place of printing its short stories among the ordiqary.mafcter'ii; issues a fiction supplement ot. 16 ,pages, size about 12in by Bio, with three .cpjuuins to. the page and several illustrations to each story. The latter are by the best authors For Sample that of the! 19hh ins!;, coataiaea a story.each by Weyman, Ouida, Daudet, lav Maclaren, and a bit of rhyme by Kipling The cost, although shaced by other papers in other cities, must bs large; but I presume it pays, as I have never yet 'encountered a. paper run solely for the benefit of fche/humau raca.

:■■■■:. , THEATRICAL CHATTEH. lahye, the Belgian violinist, is the only name of note during the past month or two. He appeared four times at the Baldwin Theatre, and has been greeted by tha critic?, ag he has been greeted throughput the country, as the greatest man of his class. Originally engaged to appear for^O concetts only, a fe 500dol a concert, m the Eastern States his success was so immediate that the 50 nights became 80, and the territory largely extended. In this city, however, there were not sufficient people to flll the Baldwin at 4-a, 6s, Bs, and 10s a aeat. Snch prices- may be obtained for a few nights in Boston* New York, and Philadelphia, but nob m Sau^raneißco, and it would have been better opobcy to halve the figures and double or treble the attendance.- Tne members ;pf the Bohemian eiub-sn Organisation containing a few artists and literati and 90 psr. cent, of business men—welcomed Ysaye as they have welcomed everyone with a name who has ever appeared in the city. There is a certain element of meanness m this welcoming, however, and' which generally takes the form of anticipating something for nothing-i.e., the invited artist will, as a rule, pay for his hospitality with a free ectertsiomeDfc, - In Yeaye's case the club overdid the business. It issued invitatioas to member?, and friends, and wives, and sisters, and others, stating on the invitation there would be mmie.snd giving Ysaye's name in large letters. So.-ne--500 responses were the result, io&ye bowed in pleasure to the warm welcome he received: Bowed—but rio more I>?ot a note did be ple.y. The silly man actually thought it was Y«aye, aad not. Ysaye's violin, who was invited ! Of course he was not directly asked to play; but then, why come, aud why ask U3, if "he didn't? Ifc' must have b°eii amusing to have seen those 500 deadheads glide down the staircase after the reception was over, although it is somewhat more thnn amusing to read the club intends to boycott the Baldwin management for its action. It geeias Ysaye, or ' his managers,'made a simple calcuhtion to the effect; that as most people would ba content to hear the violinist once a free entertainment at the club would meau the loss of, perhaps, lOOOdol, and rh the club/members ought to expect no such gift the player and his directors naturally viewed the invitation as to the man and not to the fiddle. Were they right, or were they wrong ? And what do you think of the. club ?

Sullivan's "Pinafore," Offenbach' 3 "Brigands," and Lecocq's "La Fiilo de Madame Angoii" have Mcd tha Tivoli <'f line. Tfce first ran for U nights, and although it has been plajcd ajrain and again in this city, it went with all the vim of a new pices. Stocktvell's Theatre, opened some two and a-hatf years ago with Ada Rehan in Tennyson's "Robm Hood," and, short!?-after, with V oun C Dion Boncicaulb, and Jewett, of Dunedin .is leading. man, has had a mixed career Admirably situated, and, without doubt, the prettiest place'of amueement in the eii;y it h?a not paid for raauy mouths. It has tried variety melodrama, society, leg-kicking, andspeetacnlw but without getting " tha ghoi>t to walk." Now it has changed hsnda and name. Ib becoaies the Columbia, and starts undec fair promise of success. An admirable stock company has been engaged, and good plays are being presented in a creditable manner B nd. with. exc6 [.

I lent scenery and mountings. Tho" house has been overhauled throughout. '.Che walls,-ceil-ing, balconies, and boxe3 are nil decorated iv ( white and gold and pink, Electfic light'! are in' every nook and eoruur. Curtains of silk and velvet pile carpefs shade the doorways and cover the flosrs.aad staircases. Daintly -tar-nished-retiring rooms, whose walla are. covered with paintings and . : wkose soft sofas and loungjsß and settees invite bo rest, are generously provided. In brief, as pretty a hiiuse as'one need wish for. Pinero'splay •' Sweet Lavender " opened the season, and Chambsrs's "Captain" Swift" succeeded. •:-.-• NOTES AND COJIMESTS. . ' **■-■. From log cibin to White Hous<sis a favourite theme with public speakers, but fcbo reverse of ,the picture is as common. On the 18th mat-,. the grandson of President Tyler, who was born in the White House 52 years ago, died in, the veriest poverty within a mile of tbe ; palatial place ot, his birth. His life was one of the hardest luck, and not in auy way a dissioated oae. Had he bseu the gra.ndson of a moti'arch instead of the grandson of the President of the freest, arid greatest nation on earth, how different the ending would have been. -■/ There are 25,000 men and women in San Francisco who use the bicycle. The price for a machine is lower now than it was somev two years since, but 85dol is still askedand^ evi-dently,-obtsined. ■ .'.-... ~,; The A.P.A's., in full-council aasembled, atMilwaukee, uuacitnoualy decided to extend the order to all the couotrics of.the world.;- so■ look OUt. ._ ■ .:. ..-^ ■. • .... ■.' '."'■"' '' .", .■'"'"■ '". A .missiqaary from [ the Gilbert Islands told ;his Christian brethren in San Francisco: he would be ashamed to bring his con vert*i here. :He said the practical exposition of CbrisEianity as exemplified iv this cicy would"'cause the "heathen" to tnrn-and rend him as a':false .prophet. ' ■- .....:■ ■.;..■;.;■?:.,.■_. - ;

The girla of Beecher Hall, University of Chicago, have organised a suieidsclub;. •-.■; A>]

A Kiss .Bertha'Ross: died recently at;Cler-! :mont, Florida. She belonged to a club, the>! chief, feature of which; was that no , member i should ask a man to do anything for heir.'. So the; women ran her funeral. They, prepared the" body, acted. as pallboarers, .conducted the services, lowered ; the coffin, and filled -; the grave. - v Tiie hearse-driver was the''only'inale present. ■'■'■ ' '.' '■'■".- ■ - v :'-' •?■ ■ ■>;•"•• By the way, at the late Women's Congrassrio fewer than seven spinsters read papers' oh-'the training of 'children, and one fashionable.lady ■ who lives in a boarding hbnse readone'on "How to Make- Home Beautiful." And stillc.the masculine brute grins !.• :;--,;■

A gentleman cut a lady's, throat in,Gbicagq, last wicter, and has thus early been brought up for 'trial. His.attorney moved forja'dismissal ,because in the indictment tfie''-'word "peace." .was spelt with an" b"! ./. :' ."r The rapid t'caiisformation of the fastidious Wilde into the closely-shaven convict No.'i— has astonished the American press. This latter chbcWed' with deJight and drew awfui;domparisbns whenit W3s'rumoured Wilde was to be permitted' to " skip," &c, &c. •■ There are: no comments now—rthere seldom are in .the ■last resort'in all questions touching British doings,—^ bub it is permissible to assert that in this country Wilde would have been still fighting the courts three ; year« from now. ... ; ... i , ,!- - Johann Tranqnilini, who drpve'Crown Priace Rudolph of Austria ..to his fatal rendezvous /at Meyerlirii,' on June 30,1869, died iv the hcspiSal ■of New York's City Asylum for the Tisane- on the''22nd iosb. Says the Examiner :^-'"' It is full time that the absurd policy of cbdulih" murderers was reversed: The evil fruits it has borne are registered in every coroner's book iti the Und. It has made the United .States the bloodiest of nations and reduced the value of human life.to a lower point than can hafoUud outside the savage races of tae. g10b8... The policy has been dictated by a false hu'manitarianism that shrinks from the application of the death penalty. The result has beeo v t6 multiply the number of deaths by violence"many times over." Which reminds one that the press is of . the opinion that the man charged /with the Emmanuel Charca. atrocities may be brought before, a jury, by October, but more probably December, next! ■-■ ■ - . . ./.