Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr20/fedzone.zip/INTRO.TXT

Text File | 1993-01-21 | 13KB | 363 lines

                          Introduction


     In the late Spring of the year 1990, our small beach town in
Northern California was visited by a minor political controversy.
A local  writer for  the weekly  newspaper,  a  man  named  Kirby
Ferris, had  a number  of  neighbors  buzzing  about  his  recent
sequence  of   articles  challenging   the  16th  Amendment,  the
so-called "income  tax" amendment  in the  U.S. Constitution.  It
seems  that  Kirby  had  come  across  some  huge  collection  of
documents which  allegedly proved  that the  16th  Amendment  was
never ratified.  Instead of obtaining the required approval of 36
State legislatures,  the proposed amendment was simply "declared"
ratified on  February 25,  1913 by  Philander C.  Knox, a man who
purported to be Secretary of State.  Kirby Ferris had, evidently,
visited one of the men responsible for assembling this collection
of  17,000   State-certified  documents   and  returned  entirely
convinced that  the so-called  16th Amendment  was a complete and
total fraud.   The  man he visited was Martin J. "Red" Beckman, a
Montana rancher  whose name  now appears  as co-author  with Bill
Benson on  the cover  of The  Law That Never Was, a book that has
already become a classic in American historical literature.

     Up to  that point  in time,  I had not been much of a Ferris
fan.   Too  often  for  me,  his  style  bordered  on  being  too
inflammatory and lacking necessary details.  After all, Kirby had
spent  his  youth  surfing  waves,  drinking  beer,  and  chasing
bikinis.   When this little controversy erupted, I made no secret
of my  bachelor's degree  in Political  Science from UCLA, and my
master's degree  from the  University of  California at Irvine in
public  administration.    Trotting  out  these  credentials,  of
course, was  invariably  my  preface  to  answering  the  several
questions which  friends and  neighbors put  to me  about Kirby's
allegations, as  if to  underscore my  obvious qualifications  to
repudiate Kirby's  claims.   "If there's a problem, Congress will
just fix it," I must have said more times than I care to admit.

     One day  at breakfast in the Parkside Cafe, a favorite hang-
out for all the "locals", the same conversation began again, this
time with a Vietnam War veteran by the name of Mike Taylor.  Mike
is an  intense man,  with fierce  convictions, a booming voice, a
few lingering  effects of  combat shell  shock, and  a  habit  of
getting right  to the  point.   "What do  you  think  of  Kirby's
columns on  income tax?"  he queried.  Again, as if to practice a
polished art,  I repeated  the same  old answer  one  more  time,
"Congress will just fix it, if there really is a problem with the
16th Amendment."   The  answer had worked in the past;  there was
no reason  why it  wouldn't work  on Mike too.  Wrong!  Mike shot
right back,  "OK.  You're so smart.  How is Congress going to fix
it?" he  retorted.   "They'll pass  a law.  How else do you think
they would  fix it?" I answered, somewhat surprised from pride to
be challenged  so directly.  And then Mike lowered the boom, "Are
you telling  me that  Congress  can  amend  the  Constitution  by
passing a law?  Is that what you're telling me?"


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     My jaw  fell, as  if to begin my next sentence, but no words
came out  of my  mouth.   I knew that he had me.  Congress cannot
amend the  Constitution.  Of course, Mike was right.  In a feeble
attempt to  recover, I  retreated by admitting that two-thirds of
the States  were required  to amend  the Constitution,  and  that
Congress alone  did not  have the  power to  do so.    Then  Mike
delivered the  knockout punch,  "It takes  three-fourths  of  the
States to  amend the Constitution, Mitch, not two-thirds."  I was
had.   All those  years in  school, all  those high school civics
classes, all  those papers  on political  theory, and  all  those
months of  management science  had left me woefully unprepared to
spar with  Mike when it came to the Supreme Law of our Land.  The
lesson was  a good one, one that I will never forget for the rest
of my days.

     My embarrassed  defeat was a terrific motivation.  I went to
work ordering  books and  reading everything I could get my hands
on.   A purchase  order flew  up  to  Red  Beckman  in  Billings,
Montana.   Within a  week I  was devouring my own copy of The Law
That Never  Was.   I had  to repent  for  my  errors,  or  so  my
religious training had led me to believe.  The book was a turning
point, in  more ways  than one.  I knew enough about the rules of
evidence to  question every  page.   "How could this problem have
gone undetected for such a very long time?" I asked myself.  Here
were allegations  which appeared  to undermine  a major source of
revenue for  the entire  federal government of the United States.
I needed more proof.

     I wrote  to Kirby  and explained  my situation.  It had been
many years  since my  college political  activism.   I was  now a
senior systems  consultant for  a major  investment bank  in  San
Francisco, with  almost 20  years of computer experience under my
belt.   I was  often seen blending in among the "grey men" of the
financial district,  not too  far from a regional Federal Reserve
Bank.  If I was going to take this problem very seriously and, in
particular, if  I was  ever going  to do  anything about the 16th
Amendment fraud,  then I  was going to need something more than a
printed book  from some  Montana rancher  I had never met.  After
all, with  enough money,  anybody can  put ink  to paper  and put
almost anything  into circulation these days.  I needed something
more;  I needed material evidence, as they call it in court rooms
and in  law schools   --   material  evidence, not  hearsay,  and
certainly not  unsubstantiated allegations  that a massive fiscal
fraud had  been perpetrated  on the American people for more than
two generations.

     Kirby rose  to the  occasion.   "Tell me  what you need," he
said.   I thought  about it  and invited  him to  come  over  for
coffee.   If there  really were  17,000 documents, all officially
certified by the Secretaries of State in the Capitol buildings of
48 of the United States***, there was no point in plowing through
such a  huge mound of paperwork.  Paperwork was something which I
put somewhere  below a necessary evil.  We put our heads together
and came  up with a plan.  The feds have admitted in writing that


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                                                     Introduction


6 States  did not ratify the 16th Amendment.  Since three-fourths
of the  States were  required to  ratify it,  the amendment could
have passed with at most 12 States opposing it.  If we could find
only 7  additional States  which obviously  failed to  ratify the
amendment, that would make a total of 13 NAY's, and we would have
defeated the  "income tax".   What a tantalizing thought!  Before
the night  was over,  we had  our list  of "The  Dirty Seven", as
Kirby liked to call them.

     Kirby Ferris went home to call Red Beckman.  Two days later,
Kirby left a short note on my front door:  Red Beckman had agreed
to photocopy  all the  relevant documents  for  The  Dirty  Seven
States, and  would ship  them to  us as  soon as  the copying was
done.   Within a  week, two large cardboard boxes were sitting on
my front porch when I returned home from work.  There it was, the
evidence I  needed.  It was incontrovertible:  the 16th Amendment
was never  ratified.  The act of declaring it ratified was an act
of outright  fraud by Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, a man
who was  sworn to  obey the  Constitution.   This was  an awesome
discovery.

     The events  which have  transpired since  that  moment  have
literally changed  my life.   I  have filed formal petitions with
two Representatives  in the  Congress of  the United  States.   A
detailed notice of fraud and deception has been served on all the
governors of  the 50  States.   I have  requested  a  Grand  Jury
investigation into  the fraud  committed by  Secretary  of  State
Philander C.  Knox.   I have  studied  and  debated  and  learned
everything I  could about  the laws and regulations which bear on
this question.   It  has been  an  exhilarating  and  challenging
experience.     Almost  all  of  the  opposition  has  come  from
government personnel,  mostly officials  of the  Internal Revenue
Service.  That opposition has been most instructive.


     For those  of you who may not know exactly how and where the
U.S. Constitution is relevant to this subject matter, the text of
the failed 16th Amendment follows:


     The Congress  shall have  power to  lay and collect taxes on
     incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment
     among the  several States,  and without regard to any census
     or enumeration.

                  [Constitution for the United States of America]
                               [text of so-called 16th Amendment]
                                                 [emphasis added]

From the  beginning, the U.S. Constitution has empowered Congress
to levy  two different  kinds of  taxes:   direct  and  indirect.
These are  powers which  Congress has always had, with or without
the so-called  16th Amendment.   The power to levy indirect taxes
is authorized by Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1, as follows:


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                                                The Federal Zone:


     The Congress  shall have  Power To  Lay and  collect  Taxes,
     Duties, Imposts  and Excises,  to pay  the Debts and provide
     for the  common Defense  and general  Welfare of  the United
     States;   but all  Duties,  Imposts  and  Excises  shall  be
     uniform throughout the United States; ....

                  [Constitution for the United States of America]
                                 [Article 1, Section 8, Clause 1]
                                                 [emphasis added]


     Federal excise  taxes on  the sale of gasoline and tires are
examples of  indirect taxes.  The requirement that indirect taxes
be  uniform  throughout  the  several  States  is  known  as  the
"uniformity rule".   The power to levy direct taxes is authorized
by two separate clauses of the Constitution, as follows:


     Representatives and  Direct Taxes shall be apportioned among
     the several  States which may be included within this Union,
     according to their respective Numbers ....

                  [Constitution for the United States of America]
                                 [Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3]
                                                 [emphasis added]


     No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in
     Proportion  to   the  Census   or  Enumeration  hereinbefore
     directed to be taken.

                  [Constitution for the United States of America]
                                 [Article 1, Section 9, Clause 4]
                                                 [emphasis added]


     Thus, the  requirement that  direct taxes be apportioned was
considered by  the Framers  to be  so important,  it is mentioned
twice in the U.S. Constitution.  This requirement is known as the
"apportionment rule",  and its application is easy to understand.
If California  has 10  percent of  the nation's  population, then
California's "portion"  would be  10 percent  of any  direct  tax
imposed by Congress.  A "capitation" is another word for a direct
tax imposed on each "head" or person (caput is Latin for "head").
Federal taxes  on personal property, or on the income of personal
property, are  examples of  direct taxes.   Appendix  Q shows the
State portions of a lawful direct tax that was levied by Congress
in the year 1798.




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