The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-05-31
BIG FORTUNES NOT DANGEROUS
Existing Practices Working Against
the LARGEST Accommodations.

Existing Practices Working Against
the Largest Accommodations.
The multi millionaire in modern So
ciety shapes the control of an immense
property he cannot himself consume
any large part Of it. The big fortune
seeking investment lowers the interest
rate, just as the big wheat farm low
ers the price of -four, and the prevail
ing rate of interest is the largest sin
gle factor in determining house rent
and most of the other charges upon
the life of the poor. They are obvious
have a large rhare of it themselves.
ly benefited by tendencies which make
capital plentiful, even if they do not
have a large share of it themselves.
Neither English literature nor the
English common law shows any appre-
hensiveness over the big fortune in it.
self. Charles Dickens, who was fairly
representative of the humanitarian
thought Of his time, pictures his rich
men, where their character is good
like the Cherryble Brothers, as highly
desirable in the community.
Certain rules of the common law OPP
crate toward the limitation of fortunes,
although that was not the motive in
their growth. The wellkuoWn princi-
pie which, stated in rough popular
form, prevents tying up" property for
longer than one life in being, and TWEEN
ty lone years thereafter, incidentally
tends to prevent trusteeships for the
purpose of accumulation. Its object
was not that, but simply to obVate the
inconvenience of having property ina
lienalble. The contest in England be-
tween the lawyers who wanted proper
ty, particularly real estate, freely
transferred, and the landed gentry
who preferred, by tying it up, to keep
it in their families, produced the rule,
rather than any desire to prevent ac-
emulation.
The courts have made a conspicuous
exception in tying up property for
longer periods in favor of charities.
In this state, while they have never es-
tablished a fixed limit, they have said
that they would allow charitable be-
quests to accumulate within reasona-
bic periods, The liberal Interpretation
of this rule for the Peter Bent Brigham
I hospital is well remembered
The old principle Of primogeniture
went down with us because the condi-
tions which had in a measure justified
it passed away. Where the land down
err was the chief in war, some real rea-
son existed for keeping his property
consolidated to provide resources for
general defence. The restrictions
thrown about the disposal of property
by will were doubtless evolved in the
interest of certainty, rather than be-
cause the statute makers wanted to
render it difficult to dispose of property
other than by the conventional meth
DDS of legal distribution.
Certain existing practices are thus
working, although without that lnten-
ton. to check the largest accumula-
ton, Beyond this, it Is undesirable to
ask the law to- go, so long as natural
! causes are still operatice on the three
generations from shirt sleeves to shirt
sleeves theory. The Astor fortune
hats long been in process Of successive
subdivision. Generally the number of
children in any family will keep pace
with the rapidity Of accumulation.
OF course, the Presidents suggestion
was merely a case Of thinking aloud
on his part and no one can be more
fully aware than he of the tremendous
distractions, constitutional and legal,
that are fortunately in the way Of
putting such an idea into operation.
An inheritance tax drives people of
wealth into making gifts in their life
| time.
The President has noted this under
the New York State law, and so he
includes such gifts as Of course would
be necessary to bring his plan out
equitably But when the arm of the law
steps in to prescribe the terms under
which a man may present a house to
his daughter we shall have gone a
long distance on the down grade, and
that leads to the socialistic state
Boston Transcript.