The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1915-10-28
THURSDAY, OCTOBER %, 1915.
Getting the Pound of Flesh.

Shylock had nothing on the State Of
Wisconsin. True, Shylock baked when
it came to the actual cutting away the
pound of flesh but it was noted that
he feared the penalty Of the extra drop
of blood more than he show unwill-
ingness to relinquish his claim. I'M
fortunately there is nothing to prevent
the state taking it's full pound of flesh.
There are no scales which may not vary
within the estimation of hair but be
it said that the greed Of the state to
get every cent that it can is not a bit
less than that accredited to the famous
character of the Bard of Avon. The
only differences are that the state is not
a character in the play but character
that actually gets away with it.
A new order has been sent out by
the Wisconsin State Tax commission
on providing that insurance money paid
on death claims shall be subject to the
inheritance tax collector. This means
that whatever tax is assessed is to go
something over ninety per cent into the
state treasury.
The average man when he goes to
an insurance company and takes out
policy on his life does it with the idea
that he will provide something for his
widow and orphans after he is no long
er able to provide for their support.
The average man does not take insur-
ance with view of perpetuating him
self as a taxable asset to the state as
long as possible after his death. Some
Of these men may have had an idea
that his thrift in providing insurance
would in a measure relieve from the
state the necessity of providing for
the support of those he love9 the best.
He too pride in making this provision
for them.
That same man had not studied the
actions of the state or he would have
known that one of the real functions of
the state is to put a handicap on thrift.
Years ago the state declared that the
income of the individual should be tax
ed. 1t asserted that if man was will
ing to educate himself that he might
earn that the state must be paid ON his
ability to earn, that if he saved the
nickles which lot of men threw over
the bar and built him o home that he
must pay the state a tax on the rental
value of the results of his thrift. Now
the state says that he must pay new
kind of tax on the insurance money
which he would leave for the support
of his widow and orphaned children
and it says that the lion s share of
tdis tax must go--not to the local
community in which he lived and made
what little he had to pay the insurance
but into the state treasury. The state
has out-Shylocked Shylock.
OF course the argument is advanced
that the insurance money before the
new law went into effect was properly
taxable under the income tax law but
even the hard-hearted income tax col
lector was willing to overlook the few
dollars which widow might have re-
ceived from fraternal organization
following the death of her husband.
this tax went to the state. Now the
tax commission is placing it under the
inheritance tax law and less than ten
per cent of it will go to the local COM
munity. Exemption from income tax,
a tax which would leave seventy per-
cent of the amount paid by the widow
is granted at cost of inheritance tax
which gives less than ten percent to
the local community.
Does it not seem that the state in
these matters is really putting handi-
cap on thrift. The men who escape
taxation in the state are not those who
seek to lift the burden from the shout
ders of the state but the ,thriftless who
care not who bears the burden. The
men who refuse to save money for
homes, the men who refuse to buy in
surance for wives and children are the
men who under the state are exempted
from the income tax and of course
there is nothing left by them to be
taxed under the inheritance tax.
The prudent man is not only taxed
on his income while he lives but he
continues to be an object of the solicit
tude of the state tax collector after
he has been gathered to his fathers.
Again we say Shylock had nothing
ON the State of Wisconsin.