Revisionist history that needs revisiting

I’m not allowed to use any cuss words in this column. Policy of the

newspaper. This is a family paper, the editors tell me, and we don’t

want to be a party to exposing kids to profanity. I can live with

that, even when the darns and hecks sound pretty awkward. But what

really troubles me is inconsistency. If we are going to protect kids

against bad language, then we should also protect them against bad

history.

That’s why I’m going to violate one of my cardinal rules today. I

don’t normally respond to letter writers here. I figure I’ve had my

shot, and they should have theirs, no matter how misguided it might

be. But I’m compelled to respond to a recent letter writer named Tom

Williams because he maligned my reading of American history while

misrepresenting it himself. So in case any kids are reading this,

let’s have a brief lesson on the history of the 16th amendment to the

U.S. Constitution.

Williams would have us believe that the demon “liberals,” under

the leadership of Woodrow Wilson -- “the first certified liberal

president of the 20th century” -- were unilaterally responsible for

inflicting the income tax on us. The truth is that virtually all of

the early income tax action took place under Republican

administrations, particularly that of William Howard Taft, one of the

most conservative of our presidents.

This nation’s first income tax law was passed in 1862, during the administration of a Republican president named Abraham Lincoln, to

pay for the Civil War. It was based on a progressive scale and

created the predecessor of the Internal Revenue Service. This tax was

upheld by the Supreme Court and remained law until 1872 when it was rescinded by Congress because it was no longer needed. The tax was

reenacted in 1893 and challenged in a quite different Supreme Court

where it was ruled unconstitutional in 1895.

In the years that followed, public sentiment in favor of an income

tax grew in both parties and was supported in principle by Republican

President Taft.

When yet another income tax bill was introduced in 1909, it had

the backing of Theodore Roosevelt and his Republican followers, and

the Taft administration came along reluctantly only if the tax could

be offered as an amendment to the Constitution. That required

ratification by three-fourths of the states, which seemed unlikely at

the time but was achieved four years later. Although there were

serious -- and probably valid -- charges of fraudulent certification

of some of these votes, the 16th Amendment was officially approved

Feb. 25, 1913, by a vote of 77-0 in the Senate and 318-14 in the

House of Representatives.

Only then did newly-elected President Wilson enter the picture to

sign an income tax bill.

Williams has the Founding Fathers “turning over in their graves”

at such a departure from their rejection of direct taxes in the

Constitution unless apportioned to each state by population. But in

their wisdom, the founders also provided machinery to amend the

Constitution to cover their own oversights and to deal with the

drastic changes and needs of a rapidly growing population and an

industrial society. The 16th Amendment was sandwiched around

amendments that freed the slaves and provided the vote to women, two

matters that -- like the federal income tax -- the Founding Fathers

didn’t include in the Constitution.

So that’s our history lesson for the day. Meanwhile, back at the

ranch, we have a brouhaha in state Republican circles that might be

instructive in the Newport Beach City Council’s current consideration

of election reform. Seems as how the 21st Century Insurance Group

gave $950,000 to the California state GOP two weeks before last

fall’s election for last-minute doling out to candidates in the

closest races. The source and the amounts -- which would have had to

be reported in 24 hours if given directly to the candidates -- were

kept secret until well after the election. Although the numbers are

much smaller, some interesting parallels played out in Newport Beach,

where $40,000 in donations were distributed to a group of candidates

called Team Newport the day after the cutoff period for filing

finance statements.

Team Newport members are dismissing complaints about this ploy as

“much ado about nothing” and charging Greenlight candidates with

similar end runs.

But some Republican heavy hitters are taking a very different tack

at the state level. State Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), for

example, told a Los Angeles Times reporter: “I disagree with those

who say this is only shady, not illegal. I think it is both. If the

allegations are true, it could constitute money laundering, and ought

to be investigated.” And former GOP party chairman, Shawn Steel,

said: “If the charges of circuitous money transfers are accurate,

this obviously raises serious legal and ethical questions.”

Hopefully, such questions will also be explored in Newport Beach

-- especially now that the City Council has finally gotten this

hearing underway.

Then we have “Gods and Generals,” which I went to see last weekend

because I’m deeply involved in writing a Civil War novel -- but,

alas, not this deep. The film takes almost four hours, and -- as one

of my companions remarked on the way out -- it would make a good

hour-and-a-half movie. But despite the endless scenes of Stonewall

Jackson playing uncle to Confederate children, I carried away one

persistent thought: both sides were certain of God’s support for

their cause and fought with a clear sense of almighty sanction.

This puts God in an untenable position, since someone has to lose.

It also strongly suggests that no one -- not even the United States

of America -- has an exclusive covenant with God.

Finally, I am off to the Anaheim Convention Center, where all of

these weighty matters can be sublimated to the world’s most

satisfying event for an Indiana boy: a basketball tournament. I

figure I’m on a roll.

I got the Angels into their first World Series. Now I plan for UC

Irvine to win the Big West tournament and its first trip to the NCAA

Big Show. I’ll be watching.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.