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

result we are told that Miss Helen
Gould and the Goulds generally are go.
ing to move out of the state OF New
York into adjoining states. The check
for $1S2, 900 that was sent to the as
SCISSOR of Gotham was accompanied by
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 testsmenta-
ry disposition of his property at his
death as to wholly escape the inheri-
tance tax. All this Notwithstanding
the fact that he had so used the laws of
New York as to enable him, with a pli-
ant execution of the process of courts, to
steal fully twenty million dollars from
the English and American stockholders
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
we'll 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 &C.
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 $3,0O0,000. He was afraid that if he
did not do so, he might land behind the
penitentisry bars. He knew from ex.
perience that the so-called American
freeman-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 virtue.
The committee of ways and means
would do we'll to take co9nizancs of the
unwillingness of the Goulds to paw 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 a law
of the United States, strictly aimed at
overgrown estates seeking escape from
the just burdens of taxation, wonld
come into play worry we'll An incoma
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 all kinds now available for Cir
culation in the United States, we are
told that within q 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. Caius
julius Caesar, and other illustrioul
Romans, made their sesterces flow like
water. 1t is not too much to say thai
the premier American republic will be
justified in making enormously ex'
panded estates, like those of the Astors
represented by absentee landlords, snd
the Gouds, seeking to escape taxation,
perform their share in bearing the
burdens of the state. And that is about
fhe 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 juet scheme oi
national taxation. If Jay Gould had
left his estate in the shape in which an
honest man would have left his affairs,
the state of New York, at his death,
would have received several million dol
lars in the shape of a succession tax,
and we should have heard nothing oi
the great howl and protest of his heirs
at being obliged to pay tax of 1882, ,00C
on a modest valuation of the property
of an estate which is we'll understood to
have footed up over one hundred mil
lions of dollars, at least sixty millions
OF which WAS in personal property. A
law OF the United States would render
hocus pocus OF transfer of these
assets to New Jersey, or to some other
state of the union, useless device oil
avarice and incivism run mad.
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