and concludes that it is to be hoped that the people

will always take care to preserve the constitutional
equilibrium between the general and the state governments.

[Footnote 1: _Federalist_, Number XVII.]

[Footnote 2: Id., Number XXXI.]

That hope has failed of realization. The "constitutional equilibrium" of
which Hamilton wrote is not being preserved. Some will say that this is
an age of progress and we are improving upon Hamilton. Others, however,
think we are forgetting the wisdom of the Fathers.




VIII

THE FEDERAL TAXING POWER AND THE INCOME TAX AMENDMENT


Had the World War come five years earlier the United States would have
been much handicapped and embarrassed in financing its share of the
struggle. One of the chief sources of national revenue during and since
the war, the income tax, would not have been available. The federal
income tax had been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in
1895, and it was not until eighteen years later that the obstacle
pointed out by that decision was removed through the adoption of an