Note 403 — Chapter X · THE LAW OF LIMITATIONS
Reading edition
The Sixteenth Amendment (income tax) bears most heavily on States having large cities and a manufacturing population. It is possible that States which would be but slightly affected by a proposed amendment, might favor and ratify it; to avoid this possible discrimination, the suggestion has been made that in such a case the power of a State to ratify or to oppose ratification should be in proportion to its interests as affected by the proposed amendment. To this suggestion answer has been made that the Constitution is national, not local, in purpose and operation.