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Show POLL TAX DECLARED CONSTITUTIONAL BT COURT Salt Lake, April 3. The poll tax law is constitutional, says the supreme su-preme court in an opinion ycsterda Wherefore Ogden and Salt Lake City will proceed to the collection of the tax, which was abandoned last year after the district court had ruled the law unconstitutional Throughout the state the collection of the tax was generally suspended at the time of the district court ruling, rul-ing, pending the appeal The suspen sion was due to the fact that under the lower court's ruling it was feared persons who had paid under protest might he able to recover. The opinion is rendered in the case of 8alt Lake City against M B, Wil son, which began in the city court and was certified up to the district court There a demurrer to the complaint, com-plaint, based on the ground that the law was unconstitutional in that it was not of equal and uniform operations opera-tions Inasmuch as women are exempt, was argued and sustained. The city elected to stand upon its original complaint com-plaint and appealed to the supreme court After the district court ruling the city eliminated Its poll tax collection department, dismissing three men en gaged In that work The usual collections, col-lections, prior to the ruling, amounted to $20 000 a year Last year they amounted to $5000 and so far this j ear not a dollar has been collected The city law department advised C. L. Whitney, license assessor, yesterday yester-day that he may proceed to collect poll tax He decided, however, to take no action toward resurrecting the poll tax department until instructed instruct-ed by the city commission. Passing on the contention that the law Is unconstitutional because women wom-en are exempt the supreme court points out that the poll tax comes under the classification of police powers pow-ers rather than a tax proper It de dares there is nothing In the constitution con-stitution preventing a reasonable classification of the citizens of the state with regard to the performance of some duties which may be required by the state under its police powers, j The tax is founded on the am li ui requirement that male citizens be tween 21 and fiO years of age, not Incapacitated In-capacitated for manual labor, should do a certain amount of work on the public roads The fact that under the law of IDOL in this state the privilege of working out the tax was abolished j and a straight tax of S2 was imposed j does not change the character of the tax from an exercise of police power to a tax in the usual sense of the term, says the court |
