New Britain herald., 1915-08-23

.AA poA dS LLlG TlCll IS"p VI CA ~<N@SP uonal service. None would deny or envy him who has performed such service the richest of rewards, al- though one may question the ideals or nation which rewards excep- wonal service only by burdensome lortunes But such reward can be Iiairned as right only by those who nave performed service, not by those who through relationship or mere as heirs.
 Legal right of course. they have py virtue of the law of inheritance, wmch, however, runs counter to the whole theory of American society and which was adopted with important variations from the English law with out any conception of it's ultimate re- suits and apparently with the idea that it would prevent exactly the con- dition which has arisen.
 An Aristocratic Bulwark
 Tn >effect the American law of in heritance is as efficient for the es- tablishment and maintenance of fani- lies as the English law, which has bulwarked the British aristocracv through the centuries. Every year, in- deed, sees this tendency increase, as the creation of estates in trust se- cures the end which might be more simply reached if there were no pro- hibition of entail
 According to the income tax re- turns for ten months of 1914, there are in the United States 1,59S for tunes yielding an income of $100, 900 per year or over. Practically all of these fortunes are so invested and hedged about with restrictions upon expenditure that they are, to all in- tents and purposes, perpetuities.
 An analysis of fifty of the largest American fortunes shows that nearly half have already passed to the con- trol of heirs or to trustees (their vice. regents) and that the remainder will pass to the ,control of heirs within twenty years upon the deaths of the founders Already, indeed, these founders have almost without excep- tion retired from active service, leav- ing the management ostensibly to their heirs, but actually to executive officials upon salary.
 we have, according to the income tax returns. forty-four families with incomes of $1,0O0,0O0 or more, whose members perform little or no uuseful service, but whose aggregate incomes totalling at the least $50, 900, 900 per year, are equivalent to the earnings of 100000 wage earners at the average rate of $500.
 Between the Extremes.
 Between the two extremes of su. perfluity and poverty is the large mid dle class, farmers, manufacturers merchants, professional men, skilled artisans and salaried officials whose incomes are more or less adequate for their legitimate needs and desires and who are rewarded more or less ex- actly in proportion to service. They have problems to meet in adjusting expenses to income, but the pinch of want and hunger is not felt, nor is there the deadening, devitalizing ef- feet of superfluous, unearned wealth.
 From top to bottom of society, however, in all grades of. incomes are an innumerable number of parasites of every conceivable type. They perform no useful service, but drain off from the income of the producers a sum whose total cannot be estimated.
 Besides the economic significance of those great inequalities of wealth and income there is social aspect which equally merits the attention of congress. It has been shown that the great fortunes of those who have profited by the enormous expansion of American industry have already or will in a few years pass by right of in- heritance to the control of heirs or to trustees who act as their 'vice-re- gents They are frequently styled by our newspapers 'monarchs of indus try and indeed occupy within our re- public a position almost exactly anal ogous to that of feudal lords.
 Invisible Municipalities.
 "In fact, such scattered, invisible in- dustria1 principalities are greater menace to the welfare of the nation than would be equal power consoli- dated into numerous petty kingdoms in different parts of the country. They might then be visulized and guarded against; now their influence invisibly permeates and controls every phase of life and industry"
 As a remedy for this unequal dis tribution of wealth and income the re- port urges "the enactment of an in heritance tax so graded that while making generous provision for the support of dependents and the edu- cation of minor children it shall leave no large accumulation of wealth to pass into hands which had no share 1 in its production" The report sug- gests that a limit of $1,000,000 be fixed as the amount that shall pass to the heirs. It recommends that the revenue from this tax be reserved by the federal government for three prin- cipal purposes:
 The extension of education; the Of other important so- cial services which should proper ly be performed by the nation | which are discussed in detail else | where development in co-opera- | tion with States and municipalities |