Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It seems to us no less plain that Congress cannot be taken to have intended such a partial compensation to be provided for by the words 'exhaustion' or 'obsolescence.' Neither word is apt to describe termination by law as an evil of a business otherwise flourishing, and neither becomes more applicable because the death is lingering rather than instantaneous. ”

“ It is incredible that Congress by an Act approved on February 24, 1919, should have meant to enable parties to cut down their taxes on such grounds because of an amendment to the Constitution that it had submitted to the legislatures of the States in 1917 and that had been ratified by the legislatures of a sufficient number of States the month before the present Act was passed. ”