The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1912-11-14

- gan of the Roman Catholic
Church in Louisiana, is found
the circular letter from his Grace,
the Most Rev. Archbishop and his
Lordship Bishop Van de Ven, to the
clergy of the State of Louisiana,
apropos Of the proposed tax amend
ments, calling upon them to use
every influence at their command to
avert the adoption of the inheritance
tax law.
Every hberal-minded citizen. no
matter what his faith, will, in my
Judgment, look upon this pronuncia-
mento as very unfortunate utter
ance. If it had been the individual
opinion of the archbishop and the
bishop of Alexandria expressing their
objections to the inheritance tax
clause of the tax amendment, there
would be no objection to it but it is
an official document issued ex cathe-
dra, with all the power and authority
of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy be-
hind it addressed to the whole Catho-
lie clergy in Louisiana, to be read at
all masses held in Louisiana on Sun
day, Oct. 27, and, therefore, brought
to the attention Of all Catholic lay
men as made part of the services of
their church. tits, therefore, a prac-
tical command to all Catholic lay
men as made part of the services of
their church. 1t is, therefore, a
practical command to all Catholic
laymen to obey the voice of the
church and vote down the whole re-
form amendment, irrespective of it's
merits, on the sole ground it con-
tains one clause which the church
does not approve of because it would
diminish the revenues of the church
in all cases where testator or don
or should give to the church more
than one-half of the disposable por-
ton of his estate. This letter is
based upon the church maxim Roma
ipsa locuta est: causa est finita
Rome herself has spoken; the case
is at an end. No other sect of reli-
gious denomination in the State has
taken such stand. | beg leave re-
specially to suggest to the eminent
and respected divines that issued this
order to set the whole powerful en-
gineery of the Catholic Church to
work to defeat the main tax amend
ment in which the inheritance tax
clause is embodied, that it would
have comported better with their
character and their authority to have
voiced their objections to this clause
and to have suggested that it ought
to be changed and modified, and to
have pointed out that the Legisla-
ture in 1914 could make such change
and put the change to the people at
the November election in 1914.
Surely few dollars Of legacy taxes
that the church might be compelled
to pay is no valid reason to destroy
whole system of tax reform, no
matter how great it's merits or bene-
fits.
AS far as / am individually con-
cerned, l commend and defend the
policy behind this clause of the in
heritance law. Nearly all govern
ments, even those which recognize
the Catholic Church as a State
church, have found it necessary to
prohibit excessive donations to the
church. Statutes Of mortmain were
adopted in England at an early Pc
Rod in her history, and long before
the Protestant reformation was
dreamed of. These statutes were
brought into this country as part of
the common law, and they are the
law today in all the States, except as
modified by special statutes in each
State. Many of the States of the
Union absolutely prohibit donations
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