David Josiah Brewer

“ Congress has undoubtedly the power, by direct legislation, to impose these license taxes upon the residents of Alaska, providing that, when collected, they are paid to a treasurer of the territory, and disbursed by him solely for the needs of the territory. Does the fact that they are ordered to be paid into the Treasury of the United States, and not specifically appropriated to the expenses of the territory, when the sum total of these and all other revenues from the territory does not equal the cost and expense of maintaining its government, make them unconstitutional? ”

“ For Alaska, Congress has established a government of a different form. It has provided no legislative body, but only executive and judicial officers. It has enacted a penal and civil code. Having created no legislative body and provided for no local legislation in respect to the matter of revenue, it has established a revenue system of its own, applicable alone to that territory. Instead of raising revenue by direct taxation upon property, it has, as it may rightfully do, provided for that revenue by means of license taxes. ”

“ They are licenses peculiar to the condition of affairs in the territory of Alaska on certain lines of goods, articles of commerce, etc., which, in the judgment of the committee, should bear a license, inasmuch as there is no taxation whatever in Alaska. Not one dollar of taxes is raised on any kind of property there. ”