The Washington herald., 1914-05-03
BIRD WOMAN TO
FLY TOMORROW
Miss De Wolfe Will Take. to
Air with Graham
White.
TELLS OF COMING SUIT
Explains Reasons for Attack on Con-
stitudonality of Income
Tax Law.
by w. ORION TEwsoN.

spedal Csble to The Washington Herald.
London, May 2-Miss Elsie De Wolte,
Of New York. who has come TO LONDON
to make extensive purchases OF objects
of art on behalf of Americans whose
homes she is decorating, today gave
away a deadly secret'-she's going to
fly with Claude Graham-White, the Brit
ish aviator. tomorrow at Hendon.
Miss De Wolfe made the announcement
only after obtaining q promise that no
wireless message would be sent to her
agent, Miss Elizabeth Marbury, who now
is crossing the ocean on her way TO Lon
don.
IF Miss Marbury got wind of it," Miss
De Wolfe declared. shed burn up the
wireless installation on the boat trying to
stop me. I've been in the air once be-
fore-with Miss Anne Morgan-in bal
loon in Paris I vast wonderful. The
whole world locked like one of those re-
lief maps. We arose at 2 o'clock in the
afternoon and by O'Clock that night had
been blown from st. Cloud to Chatres.
Wants to Loop the Loop.
I'm not a bit afraid TO go up in an
aeroplane. and hope Graham-White will
loop the loop and do all the other stunts
he knows"
Asked as to the status of her suit
against the government in which she is
fighting the constitutionality of the in
come tax law Miss De Wolfe explained
the defeat of her attorney Bourke Cock
ran, to be actually what they wanted.
She added:
Now we have got the case before the
United states Supreme Court, and when
the decision is given, II will be final Men
Of influence and learning. who are well
posted on the subject. all expressed their
best wishes but they admit they are not
optimistic regarding my chances OF win
ming the action.
The suggestion that others are be-
hind me in the fight is untrue. I am go
ing II alone and unaided because I feel
II is not right to tax me on my income
OF $4,000 which have earned myself and
then put i'm force a sliding scale benefit
ing out Of all proportion the multi-mil-
lionaire with an income ten times as big
as mine Ny contention is that the slid
ing scale is wrong in principle and unfair
in practice.
IF there is going to be any discrim-
nation and that is the chief point In my
rase. that discriminatory legislation is un-
constitutional. Oct discrimination be
made between tn self-earned fortunes and
inherited fortunes). where is the Justice
of taxing me on my income. every penny
of which is the result Of my own hard
labor at the same rate as the brainless
youth who inherits his wealth.
Personally I am not over-sanEuine Of
victory but in any event ] am sure my
action will have one beneficial result at
least. What really started me in the de-
termination TO fight was the discovery
that a corporation had withheld the
amount of the tax in paying me divi-
dends. refused to accept the deduction
and insisted that the corporation pay the
dividends in full.
The point made is that the government
is receiving payments in many instances
from both the corporation and the in
vestor.
Finds Museums Closed.
THE corporation. through fear of the
consequences and the investor, through
characteristic honesty, pay the tax. Ger
tainly nobody will question the absurd
fly of this phase of the law"
Referring to her mission to London,
Miss De Wolfe expressed despair at find
ing virtually all museums closed.
"Of course I am an ardent believer in
votes for women" she said. but when
women, otherwise sane and decent re-
sort to destroying priceless works of art
by arson and mountaineering and wanton
destruction generally. I fail to follow
their motives. How they ever hope to
attain their object through such van
da1ism is beyond me. Yet I have talked
to women whom / respect highly and
whose minds are of the highest order,
and whose position in England is unas-
sailable-and to my dismay ! find these
women heartily approving the militant
methods. Naturally the casual traveller
has not the same interest in unearthing
beautiful art treasures that I have, but
everyone knows England is the great
NJ he
is one of the principal reasons for the
annual invasion Of American tourists,
and with these closed the nation must
suffer financially.