William Burnham Woods

“ He therefore brought his suit against the United States in the court of claims to recover it. Upon a finding of the foregoing facts the court of claims gave him judgment for said sum, and the United States appealed. ”

“ Applying this rule to the interpretation of sections 2 and 5 of the act of March 1, 1879, so far as they relate to the compensation of collectors, their meaning appears to be-First, that salaries shall be allowed the collectors, graded according to the amount of their annual collections, the minimum salary being $2,000 and the maximum $4,500; second, that in addition to the salary a commission of one-half of 1 per centum on the taxes on spirits collected by sales of tax-paid stamps shall be allowed collectors, provided that their total net compensation shall not be more than $4,500 ”

“ No construction of the two sections would be so incongruous and unreasonable as to hold that congress deliberately re-enacted the provision of section 3314 allowing commissions to the collectors without meaning anything by it; for the case of the appellants cannot be sustained unless we virtually expunge from the statute book, after it had ex industria been put there by congress, the provision allowing to the collectors commissions on taxes collected by the sale of tax-paid spirit stamps. ”