James Clark McReynolds

“ This conclusion seems inevitable when consideration is given to the title of the act, the price usually paid for such options, the size of the prescribed tax (20 cents per bushel) , the practical inhibition of all transactions within the terms of section 3, the consequent impossibility of raising any revenue thereby, and the intimate relation of that section to the unlawful scheme for regulation under guise of taxation. The imposition is a penalty, and in no proper sense a tax. ”

“ Plaintiff in error seeks to recover two hundred dollars paid for internal revenue stamps which, after due protest, he affixed to a written 'privilege or option for a contract for the sale of grain in the form commonly known as an indemnity,' as required by section 3 of the 'Future Trading Act,' approved August 24, 1921. ”

“ By far the larger percentage of such agreements were subject to acceptance during the following day at a price ordinarily within one-fourth to three-fourths of a cent of the price prevailing when the market closed on day of the agreement. During many years the uniform consideration paid was one dollar per thousand bushels. ”