Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1890 — Judge Cooley's Opinion. [ARTICLE]

Judge Cooley's Opinion.

Judge Thomas M. Cooley, of Michigan, -who is now President of the Interstate

Commerce Commission, and who is one of the foremost constitutional lawyers of the country, has expressed his opinion of protection in the following words: “Constitutionally, a tax can have »o other basis than the raising of revenues for public purposes, and whatever governmental exaction has not this basis is tyrannical and unlawful. A tax on imports, therefore, the purpose of which is not to raise revenue, but to discourage and indirectly prohibit some particular import for the benefit of some home manufacturer, may well be questioned asdming merely colorable, and, therefore, not warranted by constitutional principles.” Then what about the McKinley bill, with its fundamental idea of “intentional protection and incidental revenue.”