The Washington herald., 1920-10-20
GREATER NEED
OF THRIFT AND
HUSTLE SEEN
Rich Are Not Getting Rich
er and Poor Poorer, Says
Trade Expert.
INDICTMENT TO SAVE
Defects and Advantages Of
Inheritance Tax System
Explained to Public.
INDICTMENT TO SAVE
By OTTO II. KAHN.

VUCIcS on Fd1IEy OTdIOHy PIE
pared by Otto II. Kahn for The
Washington Herald.
ARTICLE V.
am convinced that progressive
Inheritance taxation ought to ana
will continue as a permanent fea-
ture of our fiscal policy. The argu- |
lnents for it from the social point |
of view are unanswerable and COM |
pelling, even though in the strictly !
economic aspect Of its workings III
is open to certain objections unless !
kept within somewhat circumscrib- |
ed limits.
While it would exceed the bounds |
Of these articles to enter into |
complete consideration OF the SUB |
ject Of inheritance taxation, it may |
4 be appropriate to set forth a few OF
the rguments-though by no |
means aIl-which bear upon the |
question of measuring the extent |
to which it may wisely and effect |
lyely be imposed.
To a certain degree, inheritance !
taxation, in it's very nature. has the |
economic ill effect Of impairing or
sometimes even destroying that !
which a lifetime of individual work |
and planning created. Values and !
assets thus impaired or destroyed |
must be reCreated, else production |
must fall behind.
That means a duplication OF work |
each generation, a waste of national |
energy and effort, and thus a loss
to the community.
Thrifty Are PenalIKed.
Moreover. there is inevitably in
herent in inheritance taxation one i
al ,F ~ agf- - II
OF unfairness, viz: 1t leaves entire
ly untouched the wastrel who never |
laid by a cent in his life. and penal |
ICES him who practices industry, |
self-Genial and thrift.
Just as the purpose of punish |
ment is to deter, so the purpose OF |
reward Is to stimulate The COM /
munity must stimulate men. and es-
pecially men Of productive ability. |
/ to work to the full measure of the .
capacities they possess.
That Is the practice which men /
1 of large affairs follow in the con-
duct Of their business. They are /
always on the lookout for brains |
and capacity. and ready to give
liberal reward to the possessors Of .
those gifts They pay the price /
willingly because they know that |
there is no better and more re-
munerative investment than men of |
uncommon ability and none more /
greatly in demand or of more linn
tied supply.
That observation. amply demon
strated by long experience, holds |
good equally as applied to the /.
community.
Inducement TO Save.
In addition to stimulating them /.
TO effort, the community must also !
make it worth mems while to save
and to accumulate.
1t is a well-knOwn fact that one .
Of the most powerful inducements /
for men to work and save is the .
thought of those whom they will /.
leave behind. and the desire for the
perpctuatiOn of that which they
have built up.
II that inducement is taken away
or so materially reduced as to be
no longer substantial, it is open at
least to serious question in what
degree saving and thrift will cease
!, and self-indUlgence take the place
of self-denial and to what extent
men will fail to exert themselves
beyond the point at which they are
enabled. during their lives. to sat
isfy their own and their dependents
wants and desires. An immense
driving force will have been re-
moved from those elements which
make the wheels of the world go
round.
DiscOuragin of Wealth. |,
There should not be, and I am
convinced there reed not be. un- Il
merited poverty and want in a
country as abundantly endowed
with natural resources as America.
But the remedy cannot be found In
disCOuraging, spenalizing or pre- Il
venting the individual accumula-
tion OF capital
am profoundly convinced that
we must leave nothing undone,
within the limits Of what may sane
ly and safely be attempted, to |
cqualize opportunity and to strive
for the greatest attainable degree
of well-beins for all. The world
must not and will not stand cal
lOusly by and permit individuals to
exercise without restraint such nat
uTal advantages as are theirs and
let the strong bear down upon the L
weak. Every wisely feasible and L
really helpful plan toward remedy j.
Fing maladjustments in the alloca- I
tion Of the monetary reward of
work ought to be warmly encour- !,
aged and welcomed. II
p But the privilege of handing
down property by will is an essen /,
tial part of the price which through Il
many centuries the community has
found it well and useful to pay as |
an incentive to work and saving
and self-denial and from other mo-
tiyes of even more fundamental
concern.
Only Successful Method
And II the result is tested by the .
material progress and enhanced u
productivity of the world and the
increased well-being of the people,
II appears worth the price Al
least, no other means has as yet
been invented and stood the test of
practical working which will pro-
duce the same result. Many experi-
ments to that end have been tried
in the long and varied history OF
this old globe of ours, but all of
them have failed.
There is an astonishing lot of h
hazy thinking on the subject of the
uses Of capital in the hands of its
owners IL
4 The rich man can only spend a (,
relatively small sum of money un- III
productivity or seIfishly. The money
CONTINUED on PAGE FIVE ia