Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1906-12-12

duty should De put upon all moneys or
 other valuablcs coming by gift. hduest or devise tu any individual or corpora | ton lt may bc well tp max" me tax | heavy lu proportion uf tho individual
 benefited K remote uf kin In any event. | in my judgment, the pro fhth pi in' tax | should Increase very heavily Witn the | increase uf the amount left tu any one | individual after a certain point has been reached It is most d"siribl" 'o en- | courage thrift and ambition. nud poe
 tent source of thrift and 1mbijinn is me d, sire on the part of tho br'tdwiuucr 10 leave his children well "n This object | can be attained by making ihc itN very small on moderate amounts pi property left: because the prime object should
 be to put a constantly increasing bur den on the inheritance pt those swollen fortunes which it K certainly pi no b"u"- flt to this country Co pcrpctuntc. There can be mo question on The "fhlril
 proprietv of the Government thus dee tcrmining the conditions upon which any gift or inheritance should b" received. Exactly how far the inheritance tax would. as an incident, hay" th" effect of limiting the transmission by devis" or gift of the enormous fortunes in puts- ton it is not necessary at present to dis cuss It is wise that progress In this direction should be gradual Al first a permanent national Inheritance tax. whie it might be more substantial than any such tax has hitherto been. need moi appro ximatp, either in amount or In the extent of the increase by graduation. to what such a tax should ultimately b". In It's incidents. and apart from the main purpose of raising revenue. an in- come tax stands on an entirely different footing from an Inheritance tax: because it Involves no question of the perpetua- ton of fortunes swollen tO m unhealthy size The question k in it's essence q question of the proper adjustment of burdens Co benefits. As the law now stands it is undoubtedly difficult to de- wise national income tax which shall be solutely impossible is another question: and fl possible it is most certainly de- sirSblc. The first purely income tn law was passed by the Congress in 1881. but the most important law dealing with the subject wns that of 1891 This the court held to be unconstitutional.
 The question is undoubtedly very in- tricatc. delicate and troublesome. The by one majority. It is the law of the land. and of course is accepted as such and Loyalty obeycd by all good citizens. Nevertheless. the hesitation evidently felt by the court as a whole in coming to a conclusion. when considered to- gether with the previous decisions on the subject, may perhaps indicate the possi- S of Gex'S,ns Ms,cS sSa in accomplish the results aimed at
 IRRIGATION AND FOREST PRESER-
 .. NATION
 Much is now being done for the states of the Rocky Mountains and Great Plains through the development of the national policy of irrigation and forest preservation; no Government policy for the betterment of our internal conditions has been more fruitful of good than this.
 MEMORIAL AMPHITHEATER AT
 ARLINGTON.
 I invite the attention of the Congress to the estimate oi the Secretary of War for an appropriation to enable him to begin the preliminary work for the con struction of a memorial amphitheater at Arlington.
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.
 I am well aware of how difficult lt Is to pass constitutional amendment. Nevertheless in my Judgment the whole question of marriage and divorce should be relegated to the authority of the Ma tional Congress. At present the wide differences in the laws o{ the different states result In scandals and abuses: and surely there Is nothing so vitally essential to the welfare of the nation, nothing around which the nation should go bend Itself 10 throw every safeguard, as the home life of the average citizen. The change would be good from every standpoint.
 When home lies are ioosened; whcn worthy home life. with all it's duties tiles lived up to. as the fife best worth living, taen evil days for the common wealth are at hand. There are regions in our land. and classes of our popula- tion. where the birth rate has sunk be- low the death rate. Surely it should need no demonstration to show that will ful stcrility Is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race the one sin for which the penalty is national death. race death: a sin for which there tx no Monement: a sin which is the more dreadful exactly In proportion as the men and women guilty thereof are in other respects, In
 
 those whom for the sake of state lt would be well to see the fathers and mothers of many healthy children. well brought up in homes made happy b, their presence. No man. no woman. can shirk the primary duties of life. whe ther for love of ease and pleasure. or for any other cause. and retain hls or her self respect.
 CURRENCY REFORM
 | especially call your attention to the second subject. the condition of our cur rency laws. The national bank act has ably served great purpose in aiding the enormous business development of the country: and within ten years there has been an increase in circulation per capita from s2lil to .Dos For several years evidence has been accommodating that additional legislation K needed. The recurrence of each crop season empha- sizes the defects of the present laws. because to leave them as they are means to incur liability of business disaster Since your body adjourned there has been nuctuation In the intcrst on call money from 2 Der cent to 3D per cent: and the iluctuation was even greater during the preceding six months. The Secretary of the Treasury had to step in and by wise action put n stop to the most violent period of oscillation. Even worse than such nuctuation is the nd- vance of commercial rates and the un- certainty felt in the suffciency of credit even at high rates. All commercial in- terests suffer during each crop period Excessive rates for call money in New York attract money from the interior banks Into the speculative field: this de- plctes the fund that would otherwise be available for commercial uses, and com merclal borrowers are forced to pay ab- normal rates: SD that each fall n tax. In the shape of increased interest charges. is placed on the whole commerce or the country.
 The mere statement of these facts shows tha' our present system is seri- ously defective. There Is need of change.
 Various plans nave recently been pro- l.x