Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-16

| ~ 10 "A philanthropic enterprise, he
| probably does not wish part of it to go
/ INTO the treasury of the state.
1t is questionable policy for the
state to repress philanthropy by such
laws. 1t would seem 10 be in the in
terest of the public that the state en-
| courage requests to benevolent institu-
tions: for such requests take off from
the state burdens which otherwise the
! whole community would have to bear
| IN the form of taxes for meeting these
public ends. For example, a bequest to
! a hospital relieves the public treasury
of the necessity of an equal approprIa-
| tiOn to accomplish the same purpose
In like manner gifts to educational in
stitutions meet educational wants
/ which otherwise would have TO be met
! by appropriations from the treasury Of
the state. Georgia's appropriations to
! higher education would have to be
| more than five times as great as they
! Row are, if there were no other educa-
| tional institutions than those which the
| state supports.
J 1t is obvious, therefore. that it would
! be wise for the State to exempt requests
| to benevolent institutions from the oper-
| alton of the law which imposes an in
heritance tax; but the authorities of the
| State have adopted a different policy
, and men and institutions must submit
to the law as they find it. The tax on
requests for philanthropic purposes must
| be honestly and fully paid, although in
| exacting it the State plays the discred-
liable part of Hophui and Phinehas, the
| grasping sons of Eli, who appropriated
| TO their own uses the offerings which
Gods people had laid upon the altar
The law being such as ii is il be-
| hooves men and women, who have a
| mind hapaUn1apt do
what they propose before they die. Lei
| them give what they intend to give while
| they are yet in life, and have the glad
| experience of seeing the good which
their gifts accomplish.
In truth, that is no gift at all which
| a man undertakes TO give through a
| will. A man can no more make a gift
after he is dead than he can make a
crop. a will merely projects into the flu
ture a mans desires concerning money
which he can no longer use. legacy
merely expresses what a -testator desires
with reference to property which death
has wrenched from his hands. Real and
! genuine gifts are, by the very nature
of his case, confined to ones lifetime.
Perhaps the reason that some people
make legacieS rather than gifts is their
unwillingness to part with their money
while they can devote it to their own
| uses HeN WISH 10 90 ROOO, OUT Jney
| do not wish to do good at the cost of
any Inconvenience or self-denial to them
selves While this is not true in every
case, it is doubtless true with regard
to many of the requests which are made.
Certainly il would be far nobler and
far better that men and women relax
their hold upon their property and turn
it to good while still in the flesh. There
rs about such giving generosity and
large-heartedness which can not possibly
be attached to legacies. Gifts made in
! life do not look like they were wrenched
from their donors but that they were
freely given by benevolent hands. On
the contrary legacies seem to indicate
that the teStators were welded to thelr
property as truly as to their wives, VOW
ing that they would not be separated
from such property until death do US
part" ..-.'s 9, a-.. ,,e. ...r ..
Attention is called to this matter that
any who may be contemplating post
morten benevolence may be moved to
| consider the wisdom of doing what they
propose before they die. And surely
with the ever increasing wealth which
is coming to us, many of our people do
not propose to live and die without con-
tributing anything to the public good
1t would be humiliating to believe that
men and women of means among us have
no eyes to see and no hearts to care
for the splendid opportunities for good
which are all around them.
The educational institutions of the
south are so far behind financially the
| institutions of other sections, it is hard
to believe that our people of means can
withhold longer generous gifts to these
institutions. Both patriotism and piety
should impel them to do generous things
In this direction to the end that the
south may be brought abreast with edu-
cational progress in other sections of
our country and in the other civilized
countries of the world.
No right-minded man or woman will
be willing for the youth of the south to
be denied longer educational advantages
equal to the best offered the youth of
any other section of the United States.
1t may not be amiss to suggest that a
man sometimes deceives himself by pro-
posing to leave something in his will
for the cause of education rather than
give it while he lives. Thereby he sat-
isles his conscience with reference to
present duty by promise of future good
He discounts his own good intentions
and misleads himself by feeling that he
has done what he vaguely hopes he will
do. 1t is known that the owner of a
very large estate, ABOUT. WnECh there
has been most costly litigation which IS
still pending in the courts, and which
will doubtless cost more yet a few
months before he died said he proposed
to make large bequests to the cause of
education in Georgia. 1t now appears
that he made no will at all, and unless
he made a will which has been some
how destroyed or put out of the way, he
merely deluded himself as to his inten-
tons by postponing his benevolence I'm
til after his death.
He had the smallest possible reason
for INDUCING postmortem benevolence;
for while he lived he was without any
near dependents. He had no children,
and he might have parted with, many
thousands of dollars without depriving
himself or any who had just claims up
on him of even so much as one luxury,
to say nothing of the necessities of
life. Now his estate is being dissi-
pated by process in the courts and
wasteful litigation. He would perhaps
have done better to have made a will
and divided his estate among the law
yers. At least that process might have
saved the time of the courts, and, per-
haps. have accomplished other useful
ends AS IL is, nothing is coming of
his great estate that is either credita-
To