Los Angeles herald., 1906-06-07

That President Roosevelt by hi,
muck-rake speech at the laying Of tn,
corner stone of the house office build
ing in Washington made the question
of graduated Income and iuheritanc,
taxes live one in immediate polite.
the World editorially stated the day
after the speech was pronounced.
This view is enforced by Wayne Mac.
Veagh in the current North American
Review, in an article stating that botf
these taxes are imperatively demanded
by the people; that "many persons
think an income tax would now be de.
clared constitutional by the supremt
court; that a similar inheritance tar
was sustained eight years ago; that the
British chancellor of the exchequer, in
n country which already collects a
graduated Inheritance tax rising to II
per cent In certain cases, has recently
stated that the time has arrived for
an inquiry into the practicability of q
graduated tax on incomes" also, and
that in this country ut is the part OF
wisdom and of patriotism to hasten the
finding of such a workable basis OF
agreement (upon new taxation) before
It is too late"
Far transcending in Importance even
Mr.. MacVeagh's excellent paper is one
SlkHeu n, All Appeal
our Millionaires." which betrays in its
composition the work of a mind of no
common order.
The writer is at no trouble to amass
several pages of evidence of burning
disconcent with the vast growth of
private fortunes in America, with the
senseless way in which such fortunes
are wasted by the descendants of their
frugal accumulators and, most of all,
of the general feeling that dishonest
means have been used to acquire many
of these great fortunes. There follow
these pregnant sentences:
1.-The most important fact, indeed,
about the possession. Of private property
today is that the world has moved
out of night into light away from
the days Of despotism and privilege,
and that it is now securely anchored
in the democratic ages. Let us seri-
ously consider what this means; and,
above all, do not let any Of our million
aires suppose that he can escape from
the democratic ages by migrating to
any other civilized country
The sudden appearance of over fifty
Labor members in the British house
of commons clearly shows that the
men who labor with their hands will
at no distant day be in practical
possession of the government of that
country, while the rapid growth of
Socialism in Germany indicates the ap-
proach of the same great change there,
Latin countries.
Now, what are the bulwarks of pri-
vate property in the imperial common
wealth Of New York, where SO much of
1t is situated? AS to incomes, nobody
will have the effrontery to deny that,
if the majority of the voters choose
to elect a governor of their own way
of thinking and a majority in both
houses of the Legislature, they can
readily enact a progressive taxation of
incomes which will limit every citizen
of New York state to such income as
the majority Of the voters consider suf-
ficient for him.
1T is, if possible, even less likely that
anybody will deny that in order to
effectually turn every dollar of the
property of every decedent into the
public treasury at his death no affirma-
tive legislation is necessary. 1t is only
necessary to repeal the statutes now
authorizing the descent of such prop
erty to the heirs and legateeS Of the
decedent. 1t is perfectly apparent,
therefore. that there is no ultimate Sc
curity for a single dollar of private
property in New York, and precisely
the same statement is true of all other
American states, except such as a ma
jority of the voters may decide to be
just and wise, both to the possessors of
such property and to the community at
large"
"X' cites at some length from a
famous address of Lord Coleridge
former chief justice of England, lest
we should be led 'away by our preju-
dices as possessors of property, great
or small to consider as novel, and
therefore as alarming. the idea of sub
mitting to the majority of the voters
the decision as to what laws shall
regulate the acquisition and disposal of
private property"
Says Lord Coleridge:
"The manner of acquiring property
in a state of nature is by occupancy
all other. modes of transmitting or ac-
quiring property are acts of positive