Again, Pensions Out

Last year when the U. S. Supreme Court voided the 1934 Railway Pension Act, which required railroads to pension their aging employes (TIME, May 13, 1935), President Roosevelt had Congress pass a substitute, split into two separate parts, (a retirement act and a companion tax measure), in the hope that each would pass court muster alone and together put railway pensions into effect. Last week, in a test case brought by Alton Railroad Co., Associate Justice Jennings Bailey of the District of Columbia Supreme Court declared the two parts "inseparable," outlawed both on the ground that the tax law sought to collect revenue not to defray general government expenses but to benefit one class--"a purpose which the Supreme Court has held not within the domain of Federal Government."

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