Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1894-07-07
GRADUATED TAXATION.

Gates the graduated inheritance laA'
About three per cent of the popula-
ton of the United Suites are said to
own one half of the property, and
the rich are growing richer while
poverty increases:
1t is said that one-tenth of all who
die in New York city are buried In
trenches at public expense.
The raising of revenue is an impor-
tant item but not the only one the |
the inheritance tax would do much |
to solve this great problem of ex-
cessive wealth and hopeless grinding
poverty.
Suppose each estate of from So, 600
to $500 was taxed one per cent,
or from so to $3.50, and those above
$50, 200 and less than 100000 five
per cent, from 800, 900 to S250,O00
ten per cent, from $3.50, 900 to $780,
600 fifteen per cent, from $500, 600
to $1,000, 900 twenty per cent, and
$1,000, 900 and over twenty-five per
cent, the Gould estate would have
paid some eighteen or twenty mil
lions: the Vanderbilt and Astor
estates twenty to forty millions
and that would have been repeated
several times in the last two decades.
The amount collected would GER
tainly more than pay all national
expenses and might prove enough to
nav interest on an issue of bonds sui
fcient to pay for all the railway and
telegraph lines. If so, transporta-
ton and communication could be
furnished at actual operating expen-
ses, with nothing for interest aud
dividends.
If used judiciously, it would GER
tainly build beautiful public build
inSs at all important points, dig
canals and improve rivers and har-
bors sufficient to greatly cheaper
transportation. 1t would provide
work for millions of the unemployed
and best of all, both those who would
give and those who would receive
would be benefited thereby.
viii any person say it is his honest
conviction that tie sons and daugh-
tiers of our millionaires are better be-
cause of the large sums they Inherit
We all know that without an incent-
i've to labor character tends to degen-
crate,
Men pursue the accumulation OF
GREAT wealth from habit, because OF
the power it gives and because the
stimulation of an active successful
business is more congenial than pur-
noseless existence. They do not
easily part with their wealth until
about to draw their last breath. Ii
every man could be permitted to pay
his part of the taxes at one time and
that time the day he dies he would
not perjure himself nearly SO Otter
or evade payment SO persistently as
under present conditions. Neither
would those who receive seriously
object.
Money not yet received is mos
easily parted with and under tn
graduated system only those who In
herit large estates would fail to re
ceiye any considerable amount t
which they are now entitled, and
most cases the less sum would o
fully the equal of the larger in pro
noting their happiness and prosper
ity,
The sum that would thus be Oh
tanned would be abulcus-certaln
a round billion a year and probao
several times that sum. If wisely al
honestly paid out, it would bun
thousands of fine public building
dig canals and buy railroads, II tn
was though best. Certainly 1t wou
take enormous sums off the top sh
where il ceases to benefit and actua
hecomes a menace and force 1T
through the artries OF trade ana u
repeated every year.
1t has been said that the comp
itively small sum of thirty miliif
paid out by the government for p
sions at the time Of the Barring Il
pre- actually prevented panic.
that time each dollar passed thro'
the hands of the farmer. the labor
the mechanic, and the merchant
it had liquidated many dollars of
,labiaduess