The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-12
NOVEL HELP FOR TAXPAYERS.
Proposal 10 Sell Jubilee HOnors.
Schedule For Cash Prices.

'NiAA GpAhDAi LiulHs
My proposal that jubilee honors should
be balloted for seems to have commended
| itself to many readers, but there is a gem
eral feeling that something in the nature
of an entrance fee ought to be paid. With
this 1 quite agree, for / always contend
ed that the money which is at present
paid for titles of one kind and another
ought to go to the public at large and not
to the party war chests. Why not estab-
fish a series of state lotteries of titles,
the tickets varying in price according TO
the value of the prizes, say Il 900 where
the first prize is a dukedom. $500 for an
ordinary peerage, and f1OO- tickets for bar
onetcies, knighthoods, c. BIS, etc. Sew
eral millions sterling could be raised in
a few days by this process. especially if
American citizens were allowed TO take
tickets, and the money might be devoted
to various useful objects, including the
reduction Of the national debt. and of
course the Prince Of Wales hospital fund
for London.
There is another idea, for which / am
indebted to a correspondent, worthy of
consideration in this connection 1t ia
that, apart altogether from the ballot ar
rangement, the purchase of peerages
would be greatly facilitated and stimulat-
ed if they could be acquired by easy pay
ments" on the hire purchase Drinciple
For instance. you might offer a peerage
cash price 100000, for 10000 down and the
balance in instruments extending over ton
or twenty years, at the option Of the pur-
chaser, with interest on the deferred paw
ments If the life insurance sytem now
adopted by the hire purchase tradasmen
were introduced into the arrangenents so
that the eldest son would stiIl get the title
In the event Of the original purchasers
death before the full payment was com.
pleted, no doubt large numbers would
avail themselves Of these facilities. or
course, on default in the payment OF the
instruments the title would be forfeited
and II could then be disposed Of bv auc-
ton or private treaty. II might very
probably realize on the resale even more
than the original value. Unlike ordinary
goods and chattes. peerages are none the
worse for being secondhand: on the CON
trary, they Increase I'm value with age
like wine and poetry, ana, however bar.
tered and besmirched by the last owner.
i have never noticed that a title n con-
sidered 10 be reduced IN value thereby.
Another important consideration arises
out OF this, which ought not 10 be Iosr
sight Of. ] refer, OF course TO the s'un-
earned Increment on hereditary titles. II
a new peefase " worth, say 10000. a peer
age three or four generations old would
be worth double that amount and In The
course OF few hundred years Il would
reach a positively fancy value. II Ve
once start the principle OF selling these
commodities, the question at once arises
whether We are going 10 make the future
owners a present OF all the unearned I'm.
crement. should say certainly not.
There ought clearly to be a betterment
tax on hereditary generation, and the sur
plus above the original cost price trans
forrod 20 the state In cash. If me nevs
owner did not care 20 take over the title
on these terms, he could surrender it 10
any one who Il prepared 20 pay the mar
ket value, receiving either a new peer.
age In exchange, or the price Of ono In
cash, as he preferred II IL obvious nj
a glance that we have here a vast source
of national wealth entirely unworked.