The herald., 1893-12-04
WHAT AN INCOME TAX SHOULD AIM
TO REACH

NASAo oAo nSAAo AS0buAOb bANt 1Ao AO7
veloping in the United States of late
that are strikingly peculiar. One of
them is that the board of assessors of
the state of New York dared to assess
the personal property of the late Jay
Gould at the sum of $4,000, 900. As a
result we are told that Miss Helen
Gould and the Goulds generally are CO.
ing to move out of the state of New
York into adjoining states. The check
for $182,000 that was sent to the as
SCISSOR of Gotham was accompanied by q
protest. Here is richness for you.
This insolence upon the part of Jay
Gould's heirs was heightened by the
fact that the cunning robber, their
father, had so arranged the testaments-
ry disposition of his property at his
death as to wholly escape the inheri-
tance tax. All this notwithstanding
the fact that he had 30 used the laws of
New York ss to enable him, with pill
ant execution of the process of courts. to
steal fully twenty million dollars from
the English and American stock kholders
of the Erie Railway company. The
spectacle OF unjustly enriched people
defying the laws of their country is not
an edifying one. We wish it to be dis
tinctly understood that we regard riches
justly acquired ss great element in the
well-being and progress of society, es-
pecially if, in addition to being justly
acquired, they are justly and intelli-
gently used. But Mr.. Jay Gould sc-
knowledged the robbery of the English
stockholders of the Erie railway by
paying the representatives of that inter
est in the railway he wrecked the sam
of s3,000,000. He was afraid that if he
did not do 30, he might land behind the
penitentisry bars. He knew from ex-
perience that the so-cslled American
freemsn-anoths word for the most un-
complaining serf in existence when it
comes to being swindled-would stand
anything. He would then, but it is
very much to be doubted whether he
will now. Long suffering sometimes
ceases to be a virtue.
The committee of ways and means
would do well to take cognizance of the
unwillingness OF the Goulds to pay their
taxes, and of the attempt TO make the
neighboring state OF New Jersey the
means OF defeating the payment of their
just dues. Here is case where law
of the United States, strictly aimed at
overgrown estates seeking escape from
the just burdens OF taxation, would |
come into play very we'll. An income
tax enacted for such purpose alone
would commend itself to the people of |
this country. The greatest peril that
confronts US today halls from New York.
Although billion and half of dollars |
is redundant statement of the cur
rency of ali kinds now available for cir
culation in the United States, we are
told that within a restricted radius Of
certain blocks on Fifth avenue and
fashionable side streets in the city OF
Gotham there live people the sum total
of whose wealth is fully thirty billions
OF dollars. That is to say, the persons
who reside in this narrow strip of terri
tory estimate their own personal pos
sessions at about twenty times in value
the amount Of gold and silver and other
currency they permit our people, OF
nearly seventy millions, to handle in
their immense business concerns, and
fully four times the stock of gold and
silver that is known to exist on the
whole globe in coined Shape. No won
der that artificial panics and "object
lessons" can be created, whenever they
are needed. under such circumstances.
In the old Rom an republic there were
great aggregations of wealth in single
hands. However, in those days, all
roads led to Rome, and there were no
artificial means of making money tight
In fact, the great and wealthy Romans
thought it was polite thing to scatter
their money amongst the masses. Caiue,
Julius Caesar, and other illustrious
Romans, made their sesterces flow like
water. 1t is not too much to say that
the premier American republic will be
justified in making enormously ex-
panded estates, like those of the Astors,
represented by absentee landlords, and
the Goulds, seeking to escape taxation,
perform their share in bearing the
burdens OF the state. And that is about
the point to which the proposed income
tax should sink. Inheritance or success
sion taxes, imposts on absentee landlords,
On foreign landlords holding immense
expanses OF unimproved lands for pur-
poses of speculation, are those which
should be reached by a just scheme OF
national taxation. If Jay Gould had
left his estate in the shape in which an
honest man would have left his affaire,
the state oil New York, at his death,
would have received several million dol
lars in the shape OF succession tax,
and we should have heard nothing OF
the great howl and protest of his heirs
at being .as a x of Sl82, 900
on mo ;he property
OF an es Understood to
have tot hundred mil
lions OF xty millions
Of whit property. A
law OF would render
a hocus fer of these
assets { some other
state OF ess device OF
auorina