The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-07-18

farmers had gathered on the steps of
the store to await the distinguished
visitors. Other towns might not ex
| pect visit. but not so Ottumwa. This
| place had long been familiar with
fame and Friday but added another
page to the story
Curtis delights in opportunities of this
kind. They have played no small part
| in the victories to his credit in many
| hard fought campaigns of the past. He
| gathered the handful of people in front
| of him in a semicircle and talked to
them like Samuel teaching the school
of prophets at Ramah.
| Watching the senator there in that
dusty road overgrown with weeds and
called a street by placing the widest
construction on the name, one could
see the foundations upon which he has
! built up his political strength. He was
just as earnest and painstaking as the
night before in the Pleasanton opera
house with four hundred people facing
him and a brass band in the rear of
the room. He embraced Ottumwa and
all the country round about in the
! space between his outstretched arms as
| he called upon the heavens to witness
| that the last congress had done great
work for the people of this country
He talked tariff schedules in words Of
| one syllable and used an A B G chart
to Illustrate the benefits of protection
and the evils of free trade.
| When the party left Ottumwa the
senator was claiming everything in the
precinct. and really he had grounds for
| that claim.
Curtis had not made a speech at this
plaoe for 1S years but there were mary
old friends out to bid him welcome
At Emporia Saturday night. Wag-
staff delivered himself upon the in
heritance tax law as follows:
Not satisfied with raising your
| taxes while you are alive to suffer. this
governor has had a measure passed
which provides for taxing You after
you are dead. 1 refer to this inheri-
| lance tax. Lots of people in this state
do not know about this new law, ana
to those who know little or nothing
about it. 1 want to say few words
Two years ago while candidate the
| governor advocated this law from the
| platform and he urged its passage by
| the last legislature. 1t was passed. and
declare to you that 1t is an obnoxious,
uncalled for and un-American law, for
| it places a tax on the fidelity of the
| good wives of Kansas who, in 80 cases
| out of 100, have had as much to do
with saving what their husbands made
as the husbands had in making 1t.
This law in a nutshell is simply this:
"If a man dies his estate must be
probated and appraised to ascertain
the extent thereof. If the appraise-
ment discloses an estate of $4,000 or
more then the widow and children
and heirs of that estate must pay the
inheritance tax of from one to Is per
cent. 1t affects the poor as we'll as
the rich man, for all estates must now
be probated to ascertain the extent of
the decedent's holdings. The result is
that should the appraisement disclose
that the decedent did not leave $4,000
| the poor widow and children are
caught in the meshes of the law any
way, for the costs not only of probate
must be paid, but the attorney fees as
well. These fees average from SIS to
| $40. We all realize that this $40 to
| the widow with children at her knee is
a greater burden than that borne by
the rich widow who pays the inheri-
lance tax of 500 to $1,000
Records of the probate courts of
the state since the enactment of this
| law are prolific with cases showing
1.-THE extent and harshness of the law