San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-23
Today
Taxing the Dead.
= Penalizing States.
See California.
Fertile A. Nile.
By Arthur Brisbane
Copyright. 1896 BY Star Co:


A punitive inheritance tax is COW.
srdly, because it takes money from
dead man. Why not take it from him
while he is alive, instead of waiting
to take it from his widow and chill
dren.
IT is an unwise tax, because by
= such a tax business men of middle
age at the height of their construc-
tive ability but facing possibility of
death, dread new undertakings.
The death tax collectors might find
their affairs too much spread OUT
and destroy their estate by excessive
tax collecting.
ITO take taxes from the living and
! let the dead alone would be a
good plan. Mr.. Mellon and Presi-
dent Coolidge recommend it.
A particularly vicious proposal
which would make the inheritance
tax worse than it is now, is that the
national government should discrim-
Innate against states like Florida,
that collect no inheritance tax. The
plan would be to give dead man
credit for his local state inheritance
tax, the nation collecting only as
much as the state failed to collect, Of
1.-THE total federal tax.
I'm other words as Colonel Peter o.
! knight, of Tampa, points out, the
scheme would be for the federal gov
|ernment to collect from man dying
lin Florida, five times as much as
from q man dying in New York
(State. Even if such a tax were con-
|stitutional it would be extremely
stupid.
To punish the citizens of Florida,
|or Of any other state, because their
local government has the decency TO
leave its hands off the property Of
n dead man, is strange suggestion.
|THIS is written in Fred Harvey's
! hotel at Barstow, California, on
the Mojave desert. ". T. Kester Of
|Pasadena brings you here from Pasa-
|dena driving a high-powered car, in
|tbree hours and a half, over road
that runs along the base Of giant
mountain, up over the Cajon Pass,
1000 feet high, then down upon the
floor Of this desert, which is 1000
feet above the level of the Pacific.
MO matter where you live in the
~ United States, make up your
mind to see this country as soon as
you can, Of all the country that lies
between the two oceans. Whoever
viii can do it, extensively and grand
ly, or economically, and with infinite
ly greater enjoyment.
NNE. man in Chicago read about
~ the Hodge Brothers alfalfa
ranch, near the Hodge postoffice and
railway station just west of Barstow.
He made up his mind to see the
desert land on which you can raise
seven crops of alfalfa per year, by
giving water TO the marvelously fer
tile land. He bought a second hand
Ford car for $50, drove here from
Chicago in eleven days, fired the car
up a little, and sold it. Now be ia
living here and getting on.
THIS land, far from being a real
desert is as fertile as the Nile
valley, lacking only the Nile water on
the surface. The deep soil is like
the rows OF books in a great IL
brary. What you get out of them de-
ponds on what there is in you. Here
the water, a great inexhaustible river.
lies Just below the surface, and the
to pump it, brought down
from waterfalls in the mountains is
cheap.
EOR instance, it takes 800 pounds
> Of water 10 produce one pound
OF alfalfa. On IL acres, the Hodge
Brothers raised this season $50 tons
and pumped one hundred and fifty
million pounds Of water.
The power cost for the season was
just $500, no worry about rain and
constant sunshine, ripeniug a crop
in 90 days.
GET your car, big or little, start
- for the Pacific coast, keep going
until you get there, stop at Hodge
just west of Barstow and get the
Hodge brothers TO tell you about this
desert. In years to come, il will
produce food enough to feed ten nil
lion people and more.
EVERYTHING that grows will
- grow here. When you finish
with your seventh crop of alfalfa in
November, you can 90 travelling, or
better, start raising onions through
the winter, the big SILVER skin"
pniops Of which three or four make
! quart and a half.
IN Mr.. Kesters wonderful Pas.