New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-03-20
TRAVIS FOR WAR
ON TAX DODGERS
Says State, Crippled by
Secured Debt Law, Must
Increase Income.
HAS LOST MILLIONS
FROM BIG ESTATES
Sums Needed for Institutions
Twill Brighten Some PeO'
pie" He Predicts.

Members of the Republican Club OF
the Goth Assembly District, before
whom Controller Travis talked at their
clubrooms, 627 Madison Avenue, last
night, were disappointed II they ex-
pected him to go into the merits or de-
merits of the S1S,G00,000 controversy.
Controller Travis did not undertake
TO say how large the direct tax should
be or whether there should be any such
tax levied. His function, he said. is
simply to state the financial condition
of the state. But he does believe the
revenues of the state should and must
be increased and that the secured debt
tax law should be repealed or modl-
I fed. ,,
Replying to the suggestion OF Will
lam Bondy, president of the club, who
in his introduction said that after
reading all the papers he did not know
whether the state had "A dehcit or a
surplus, the Controller said:
ave were asked by the Governor and
the Legislature to prepare the state
ment made public this morning. We
had been criticised by some because we
had not seen fit to answer various
statements about state finance that had
been made by a variety Of persons.
We may have been wrong, but We did
not think IL was necessary TO do so.
Some time next week we Will have an
other message to transmit TO the Leg
islature.
III you read all of the statement this
morning you will have seen the dec
laraton that during the last five
months the income of the state has
fallen off materially owing to bad busi-
ness conditions. Some people do rot
seem to realize that, and 1t may IN a
measure explain the difference between
our figures and those Of some Of the
Others"
Then the Controller touched on the
necessity for raising more income.
"ln my judgment" he said, "there
should be soEe changes in regard to
the tax methods of the state. | can't
believe that state which furnishes
such great opportunities for the dmass-
ing of fortunes should be deprived Of
some Of the income. am ass erd that
we have lost 81 100000 recently IN not
being able TO colec. anything from the
estate of Lamon V. Hardness, and a o
we Will HOl Dc az W NS''NSN . fN''''S
from the estate of Norman ). Ream.
In both cases the men who died re-
Gently claimed residences outside the
state. A bill has been introduced in
Albany which will enable the state TO
collect & tax in such cases.
Take the John e. Wendell estate
continued the Controller. "The news
papers said it would net to the trans
Ter tax attorney some $4,000. 1t prob
ably will be nearer $4,000. Mr.. Wen
del transferred to his sisters in the
last wear of his life almost all his real
estate. If we can prove our contention
that this was for the purpose of evad-
ing the tax we may be able to get as
much as Sl.000,000.
Take the Hardness and the Ream
cases. Through shrewd manipulation
the state was beaten out OF anywhere
from s2.000,000 to S5,000000."
The Controller said his secretary,
who had just returned to-day from
visiting the various state institutions,
had reported trat large appropriations
would have TO he made to keep e
property intact and make necessary
improvements. The amount, he said,
would be so large it would brighten
some people.