The weekly Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1911-1922, 1911-08-10
WRONGS Of SYSTEM
SHOWN By K[[[|SON
Vigorous Article In South Bend Times,
Commenting On Wealth of Marsh
all Field, Tells of Injustice of Tax
alton In Our Government.


wrote an article for the South Bend
Times, which on account of its
strength and depth of argument and
thought. we are pleased to copy al
most entire He shows that tax on
incomes is only makeshift and does
not at all strike at the root of the
question. The article is worthy OF
the earnest reading and study of
everyone, and especially those who
care about and have thought about
our industrial system-Editor)
To the Editor of The Times:
Dear Sir:-I am in receipt of a
copy Of your editorial entitled 'The
Pocket in the Shroud,' together
with your request for an expression
of opinion thereon.
That editorial, taking for its text
the address of Mr.. C. r. Lane re-
Gently delivered at Fl. Wayne, Ind,
deals with the fact that Marshall
Field, late merchant prince of Chi
cago. left fortune of two hundred
millions of dollars and that by his
Will he created trust In his proper
ty to continue until his yet unborn
grandchildren shall have reached the
age of thirty years. The danger and
injustice of permitting such vast az
gregations of wealth to be passed
he 4
generations is suggested. together
with the remedy of an inheritance
tax, by means of which the pocket
in the shroud will be ripped open
and a portion of the financial honey
gathered and appropriated by the
busy Mr.. Field in his lifetime shall
be transferred to the state of Il
linois.
The editorial closes with the sug-
gestion that it is high time that the
public conscience be aroused on these
subjects, to the end that more
earnest and determined effort be
made to correct such evils and it
is suggested that the church ought
to be depended on as an efficient
and powerful champion of the re-
form.
Twenty-Five years of personal ac-
quaintance with the editor of The
Times has brought the conviction
that he Is a man of profound
thought, on most questions, and one
having warm sympathy for the sub
merged classes of his countrvmen.
albeit strongly inclined by nature
and temperament to optimistic views
and conservative methods. Optimism
has its uses and its limitations, and
1T strikes me that in a raging sea.
1T Is akin TO folly to cling to so frail
a spar as TO hope and trust that In
good time. with a little tinkering
now and then, the generosity of the
powerful and the patient suffering
of the weak, will bring about a cor
rection of industrial and political
evils, without resorting to drastic
measures and without the necessity
for radical changes in cur political
and industrial systems.
Right here lie the lines or diver
gence between the editor of The
Times and Mr.. Lane, on the one
side, and the writer on the other.
With profound regard for their
opinions and reasoning, it impresses
me that their logic is faulty and
sadly lacking in knowledge of econo-
mic principles.
Both seem to proceed on the as
sumption that the possession Of such
a colossal fortune In the hands of
one individual is not necessarily an
evil, but that its perpetuation for
generations In the hands Of the
same family-holding it in trust in
dead hands-is a great wrong that
ought to be corrected In some way,
(inview of the fact that society con-
tains thousands of other individuals
who, with the greater economy and
industry, are scarcely able to exist,
and the further fact that many more
are actually suffering for the neces-
saries of life.)
In reaching the conclusion they
did, they must have had in mind the
fact that the world today contains
hundreds of thousands of human be-
ings who are In destitution and want
men, women and innocent children,
each and all created, like Marshall
Field and his defendants, in the
image of God, and they must have
contrasted In their minds the situa-
ton Of these unforunates with the
situation of the man who owned,
possessed and exclusively controlled
more than one fve-hundredth part
of the taxable value of all the prop
ertv In the United States. Let us
see If they did not. Suppose that
Marshall Field did leave fortune
Of two hundred million of dollars
and that ne did entail that fortune
to bis descendants for succeeding
eensrationsa Then, suppose that al
the time of Mr.. Fields death, every
individual in this land surviving MIN