The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1892-12-23
A RnEOzhE EHAP OUGHT 10 BE
PUSHED.

There is q direct inheritance tax ON
personal property in New York and
under it GouId's pile OF 500, 200, 600,
il it is that, will pay to the state ST.
600 ,OOO. This Is nothing like What it
ought to pay and would pay if the
state had the proper sCrt Of graduated
inheritance tax. Such a tax system
would exempt altogether small estates
of say 81 600 or less and levy a rate
Oh all large estates which would in
crease in proportion to the amount Of
property. On such vast accUmula-
lions as GouId's, which threaten the
welfare of tile community and the iu-
dependence of the state, the rate
should be stJ least SO per cent. The
inheritance tax on Gould's fortune tnat
is TO say should have given the state
ST, 600 900 instead OF a galtry 81 ,OOo.-
600.
Nevertheless, inadequate rs New
| York's Inheritance tax law is, it is in
advance Of most American states in
/ Ievying any such tax at all Even
/ here in Massachusetts we have no in
heritance tax except a small one on
collateral requests, and there was "a
strong effort in the last legislature to
remove even this. Not only should
direct inherirauCes be taxed as we'll as
collateral requests, but, if the object
is to encourage the division OF danger
ously large estates, the tax on direct
linheritauces should be, if there is any
! difference. heavier than on collateral
inheritauces.
One Of the most serious defects OF
the Omaha platform and of the various
reform declarations modelled on it. is
the failure to make prominent the de-
maud for a progressive Inheritance
tax. The income tax, which the plat
form favors, while just and desirable
is a very petty fundamentally as com
pared with a proper inheritance tax
if the object is TO check plut0cracy
and curtaII the money power.
The Inheritance tax is moreover in
hiui teIy easier to collect than an ln-
come tax can possibly be made. A law
would simply be necessary requiring
all evidences Of property which have
passed from dead to living banda, TO
bear a stamp sttestiug that the requis-
ite tax has been paid, on peril OF con
I6scatiou of the property for neglect of
the law. Under such a statute AN in
Ihsritence tax would collect itself,
50 to speak.
TimId refOrmers should bear in
mind that there is nothing radical Oh
/ cranky in the idea of graduated
succession tax 1t prevails in many
foreign countries and some is very
high. So conservative a paper as the
New York Times, in commenting on
the lack of any public bequesta in
/ Gould's will strongly advocates q do
rect succession tax as the only way
society can get even with such fellows.
Such "a tax it says is 'au expression OF
universal belief that no mann lives OF
dies to himself, and that the right OF
j q man TO do as he likes with bis owl
} has its limits The public obligation
recognized i'm The wills of pubIic-spiriteC
rich men may fairly been forced agains
r the estates of uch men not publ,
D spirited 10y usinga share of such estate.
} to tighten the public burdens"
The equally conservative Springfield
, Republican commenting on tile same
text strongly urges such a lax iu Mass
I achusetts.
Let us hear, not indeed less ab0ul
an income, but more about the prog
ressiye Inheritance tax, which Of the
5 two is by far the more promising as an
? instrumsntalIty-N Nation.