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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, MAY 30, 1913.
*
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
BJntered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GHAT,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta, Ga.
Georgia’s Rivals in Road Building.
Georgia must bestir herself, if she is to maintain
her leadership as a builder of good roads. So
warns the Southern Press Clipping Bureau in a re
cent statement showing the wonderful energy and
progress of neighboring States in highway develop
ment. North Carolina, we are told, is issuing more
bonds than any other commonwealth of this section
for the extension and upkeep of roads in the various
counties. Florida follows as a close 6econd and is
now considering a fifty-million dollar bond issue for
this and related purposes.
A government report issued a few years ago cred
ited Georgia with having constructed more miles of
good roads during the period under review than any
other State in the South and with coming second
among all the States of the Union, her record being
, excelled by New York alone. That was the time of
the Journal-Herald National Highway tours, followed
by various local tours which served to arouse and
to concentrate public sentiment in behalf of good
roads endeavors.
It is always easier to launch a great enterprise
than to carry it patiently forward from year to year.
The people of Georgia must see to it that their first
fine enthusiasm in this important cause does not
lessen or lag. We ar- today reaping the benefits of
roads built seasons ago—benefits to the farmer, the
merchant, to town and country and to educational
and social as well as material interests.
The wital thing now is to follow up these goodly
results with continued and still more earnest efforts.
This State has stood as ah example and a stimulus
to its neighbors in highway improvement. Let it
take care that it does -rest upon things already
achieved but press steadily forward to still larger
and better results.
New Zest in Arctic Exploration.
The discovery of both the North and the South
Poles has in no wise lessened the interest or the
value of arctic exploration, but on the contrary has
simply blazed a path for more thorough and fruitful
quests. Indeed, the mere finding, or identification,
of those points which we call the tips of the earth’s
axis is within itself of little account; as one writer
observes, “Had nothing been done in the New World
more than the hart discovery of America, it would
hardly have been worth while; Columbus opened the
way for others and that is what the polar discoveries
have successively done.”
The far-reaching and practical purpose of such ex
peditions is witnessed by that of the Stefansson
party which is preparing to set forth from Esqui-
mault, British Columbia, about June the fifth for an
extended excursion into the comparatively unknown
regions of the frozen North. The prime object of
these explorers will be to gather scientific data.
Among them will be zoologists who will study the ani
mal life of the arctic country and anthropologists
who will investigate not only the habits and charac
teristics, but also the history and traditions of the na
tives. During a considerable part of their journey, the
explorers will keep in touch, by means of wireless
telegraphy, with the meteorological stations at Ice
land and on the Aleutian islands to which, as a news
dispatch explains, “they hope to furnish daily mes
sages, thus providing among other things a means
of predicting the approach of storms from the
North—a matter of utmost importance to navigation
in the northern oceans and in the Great Lakes.”
It is a noteworthy fact that the Stefansson expe
dition has bestirred' such widespread interest among
scientists that it has become necessary to enlarge
its orignal plans; two vessels instead of one, as was
contemplated, will be required to carry those
who wish to go. The experience of Peary, Amuns-
den, Scott and other brave adventurers are invalua
ble to future explorers of the arctics, constituting as
they do an accurate record of the perils to be antici
pated and the most practical plans to follow. There
is little doubt that within the next few decades
many interesting and really valuable facts of the
polar regions will be brought to light.
The Pecan-Growers’ Convention
The annual meeting of the Georgia and Florida
Pecan Growers’ Association, now being held at
Thomasville, marks the progress of one of the State’s
youngest yet most important industries.
A- decade ago interest in pecan trees was limited
to individuals here and there who valued the tree'
for Its beauty and shade but who scarcely dreamed
of its material possibilities. Today thousands of
acres are devoted to pecan orchards which yield an
ever-increasing revenue to their owners and which
are making Georgia known throughout the Union for
the high quality of the nuts produced.
The extent to which this industry has grown is
evidenced in the fact that those engaged in it have
formed a large association for the promotion of their
common interests and are now holding one of the
year’s most noteworthy conventions.
Trade Excursions
To South America.
The Merchants and Manufacturers’ Association of
Baltimore is promoting a South American Trade Ex
cursion by means of which it expects to establish
direct business connections between its own city and
those fruitful countries beyond the Gulf and the
Caribbean. A party representing all the mercantile
and manufacturing interests of the community will
leave for Panama within the next few months and
make a thoroughgoing tour of the principal ports
and cities of Central and South America, taking ob
servations as they go and, through personal contact,
cultivating the good will of prospective customers.
The Baltimore Sun in commending this enterprise
truly remarks that the day for getting trade away
from active rivals “by merely sending out catalogues
and letters has passed;” and adds, “If we are to get
next to South America, our merchants and our manu
facturers must go down there in person and study
the situation and the people with whom we want to
trade.”
The importance, the necessity of such efforts
cannot be overgauged For, it must be remembered
that we are to deal not with markets which are
comparatively virgin but with markets which the
foresight and energy of Europeans have long been
exploiting and eighty per cent of whose trade is
now in the hands Of European competitors.
Whether the opening of the Panama canal proves
a commercial advantage to the United States depends
on whether the merchants and manufacturers of this
country turn their opportunities to account. The
natural circumstances of the contest are all in their
favor. But they must show South America that they
have the goods before they can expect to get South
America’s patronage.
The merchants of England, France, Holland, Ger
many and other nations across the Atlantic have
been studying the commercial needs and tastes of
these Latin republics. They have sent embassies
into each of them; they are building ships and
planning transport lines for the particular purpose
of serving South American trade; they have got into
direct and intimate touch with the people of these
lands and, being already well established there, they
will continue to hold the ascendancy unless our own
business interests exert equal energy and skill.
The completion of the Panama canal Is now only
a matter of months. The city that hopes to share
in its advantages must bestir itself without further
delay, must begin definite plans like those now be
ing inaugurated in Baltimore. And that is what
most of the progressive cities in the United States
are doing, by one way or another. The competition
will henceforth grow keener and keener among the
mercantile and manufacturing centers of the United
States itself as well as between this and foreign
countries.
Being too clever at the wrong time has created
many a confirmed spinster.
New Features for the Parcel Post.
From the day the parcel post was inaugurated it
became evident that Atlanta would derive rich and
far-reaching advantages from the new service. The
public in general and merchants in particular were
quick to see and to utilize the opportunities afforded
them. Within the first week or two, this city had
established a record of national note as a parcel post
center and had outstripped, in this respect, scores of
larger communities.
With so brisk a beginning, it is certain that At
lanta’s parcel post business will be greatly quickened
and extended when two new features of the service,
by means of which parcels may be insured and may
be paid for upon delivery, are introduced on July the
first. These important additions will make the poet
more than ever valuable to merchants and conven
ient to purchasers. For an additional ten cents in
stamps, a package may be insured on a valuation not
to exceed fifty dollars and delivered by the postman
who will collect for it at the door; the postoffice will
remit to the sender.
By this means persons living out of the city may
send an order either by mail or wire and receive
what they want by return post, paying for the pur
chase when it arrives; and the same advantage, of
course, is offered those within the city. It would be
difficult to overestimate the broadening and stimulat
ing effect of this service on mail-order trade. Alert
merchants will not be slow to press their opportun
ities in this connection; for they will thus be en
abled to reach mor- people through a wider range of
territory and in less time and at less expense than
ever before.
Consumers will be equally benefited whether they
live in town or country. Housewives will be able to
supply their wants quickly and cheaply; and farmers,
if they will turn to account the advantages offered
them, will be able to build up a steady trade with
city customers. "
But for the mistakes made by great men and
women history would be such a bore.
The Thin Gray Legion.
The twenty-third annual reunion of the United
Confederate Veterans, now in progress at Chatta
nooga, is an event that inspires a tender and rever
ent patriotism in the soul of the South and calls
forth a kindly sentiment in the entire nation. It is
in such gatherings as this that the younger genera
tion catches a reath of that heroic spirit which
made the days from ’61 to '65 the epic years of
American history. We of a later and happier time
are still permitted lo hear the voices and grasp the
hands of those who were comrades on fields of fire
and blood; and uiey themselves, though their ranks
be sere and dwindling, are still permitted to gather
in their jackets of gray around the tattered flags
and revive in softened memory the spell of a glorious
long-ago.
The reunions of our Civil war veterans, whether
they are held in the South or the North, are no
longer occasions for anything resembling sectional
rancor; rather, they are occasions touched with a
spirit of thoughtful and ennobling Americanism. Our
country has come to realize that the valor and sac
rifice of those gray warriors are its common heritage
and that under whatever standard they fought they
bore aloft an example of devotion to ideals which
Americans of ali times will do well to emulate.
This reunion at Chattanooga must, in the nature
of things, he among the last of its kind that will be
held. Hundreds of voices that answered the roll call
so cheerly at Macon last year are silenced now and
before another May brings its flowers, hundreds more
will have ceased. But so long as a company of gray
veterans, however few, assemble they will strike a
thrill of patriotic love through their Southland’s
heart.
THE SCHOOL TEACHER
BY DR. PRANK CRANE.
(Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
The trouble with the school, if you really want to
know what is the matter, is the Teacher.
The very word, teaqher, connotes the whole list of
antiquated, exploded and abandoned ideas in pedagogy.
In a word, it implies that it is the business of the
adult in charge of the education of the child to tell
him things. He is supposed to know rfiore facts than
the pupil, or t least to know better where to get the
facts, and to guide the young mind in cramming itself
full of knowledge.
a fence, we set examinations for candidates for the
teacher’s position to see if they “know” enough facts to
qualify them. Now, in very truth, it makes ot the
slightest bit of difference how many facts a teacher
knows; the only question is, does he havo the gift of
inspiring youth?
tao also we “grade” children according to the amount
of history, arithmetic and geography they have memo
rized from books.
The entire out-of-date viewpoint is that there is a
body of knowledge, which io know is to be educated.
This may do for Mahometans or Chinese, but hardly for
America.
The rational theory is to send children to school,
not to study, but to be studied; not to lay them on
Procrustean beds of “the system” and to lop them off
if they are too long and to stretch them out if too
short. When the washlady said to the schoolma’am,
“I send Johnny to school for you to learn him,” she
unwittingly stated the truth of what ought to be.
Charles Dickens, who was a sympathetic student oj
Froebel, in one of his works makes Esther say: “I
did doubt whether Richard would not have profited by
some one studying him a little, instead of his studying
Latin verse e much.”
Instead of Teachers-of-children we need Students-
of-children, patient, trained, gifted men and women
who try to find out what is in a child and to develop
that.
The child-teacher stands the children up in “classes”
and gives them a dose of geometry much as we use the
process of ravage with chickens. The child-student
stimulates and influences the child to get his mental
food for himself.
There is no true child-training that is not individual.
The class system is as bad in the schoolroom as in so
ciety.
The class system is a labor-saving device for lazy
teachers, a money-saving scheme for stingy taxpayers.
But it does not work. A cnild trainer should have no
more pupils than he can give his personal attention
and constant companionship.
The child trainer is born, not made; a- in the case
of animal trainers. One must be endowed by nature
for it, as violinists or public speakers are for their pro
fessions. One m.~st be called of God, as preachers are
supposed to be.
Child training should be the most honorable and the
highest paid of all professions. The very cream of the
human race should be drawn to it. Think of an actor
becoming a millionaire by playing the fool while teach
ers are paid the wages of clerk work!
We have n^t yet begun to appreciate the value of
child training to the state. We leave* it to underpaid
agents. We manage it by the cheap methods of
“classes” and “examinations.” The whole thing is arti
ficial, unscientific and ineffective. Children develop
in spite of it, not because of it.
In the coming democracy there will be no “teach
ers;” then the “child trainers” will take the children in
hand and by personal contact cause them to grow in
morals, intelligence and bodily strength.
The child trainers!—these will be regarded as th©
true Levites, entitled to a tenth of all our wages.
Answer to “Ballade” of
Anxious Inquiry
If I were wedded true and tight,
Unto a dame, such as you know,
I soon would set all things aright
By telling her—in accents low
That she cannot afford to go
^.nd waste your dollars, bright and new
On outfits that are Just for show.
That’s wh-t I’d do! That’s what I’d do!
If you possess a mind that’s bright,
Unto this lady you will go
And talk to her of “Equal Rights;”
Discuss with her just what you know
Of “Politics” and “Civic Fights,”
And show her how her little mite
Will help to set the world aglow.
That’s what I’d do! That’s what I’d do!
If g-rqcers’ bills, in black and white,
Now look to you like too much dough.
Don’t blame the dames for such a plight
You made the laws yourself—you know.
Give them a chance and they will show
What equal suffrage uoon will do
To put those grocers’ bills aright.
That’s what I’d do! That’s what I'd do!
My friend, don’t mimic Adam now,
And lay the blame on Gentle Eve;
Pray, be a sport, and make a. vow
To vote to give us what we need—THE BALLOT.
What Oxford Knew of Thackeray
The ignorance of the scholar concerning what is
going on in the world round him is proverbial. But a
story of Thackeray’s own telling points to surprising
possibilities of the cloistered life at Oxford, at least
in the last century.
Thackeray, it seems, was to lecture at Oxford, and,
according to custom, had first to get the vice chancel
lor's license to do so. This is the conversation that
occurred, as the novelist reported it:
Vice Chancellor—Pray, sir, what can I do for you/
Thackeray—Mr. name is Thackeray.
"Vice Chancellor—So I see by this card.
Thackeray—I seek permission to lecture within
your precincts.
Vice Chancellor—Ah! ~ou are a lecturer. What
subjects do you undertake, religious or political?
Thackeray—Neither. I am a literary man.
Vice Chancellor—Have you written anything?
Thackeray—Yes, I am the author of “Vanity Fair.”
Vice Chancellor—I presume a dissenter. Has that
anything to do with John Bunyan’s book
Thackeray—Not exactly. I have also written “Pen-
dennis.”
Vice Chancellor—Never heard of these works. But
no doubt they are proper books.
Thackeray—I have also contributed to Punch.
Vice Chancellor—Punch. I have heard of that. Is
it not a humorous publication?—London Tit-Bits.
Going for Professor Lounsbury
Prof. Lounsbury’s slams at the revered English
language ar e not appreciated by Leila Sprague Learned
(speaking of names) and she hands him a few in the
slats (“usage” makes that good English) in the At
lantic. She culls a number of posies from his book,
“The Standard of Usage,” and adds her comment in
parenthesis. Lamp (use) these:
The process is liable (likely) to take place in
the future.
This was due (owing) to the ending.
How tame it would have been to have used (to
use), etc.
Such a desirable (so desirable a) result.
The opposition to new forms is apt (likely) to
assume, etc.
He accomplished feats full (fully or quite)
as difficult.
“Donate” has been pretty regularly shunned
(why “pretty?”).
One example is eo curious (queer).
No one seemed to think of or care for the other
adjectives—(No one seemed to think of the other
adjectives or care for them.—Chicago Tribune.
^OUAITRY
' rioME TtSicS
Comocra w.ms.-tfHjrELTOrt
MY VISIT TO ANNAPOLIS.
T HE school children who read The Journal will
recollect that Annapolis is the state capital of
Maryland. I will tell them why I was interested
in Annapolis and why I made a trip to that venerable
city on last Friday, May 23. I took a trolley car at
the corner of Ninth and G streets in Washington City,
and directly I was speeding along as I intended. I
spent nearly all the day over there and returned in a
violent rainstorm, but nevertheless in safety.
In th© year 1806 or ’07 my father’s parents (and my
grandparents) moved to Georgia and settled in War
ren county. My father had a trunk full of his moth
er’s letters and other valuable documents, but they
were burned in the year 1864 when General Sherman
traversed ueorgia.
As I was » namesake of that Maryland grandmoth
er, who died before I was born, I have always felt a
deep interest in Maryland, where she llveu the greater
part of her life. Her maiden name was Rebecca Mar
shall and her ancestral home was in Charles county,
Md., a large county named for King Charles of Eng
land. This Charles county was subdivided in after
years, but the early colonial and Revolutionary rec
ords were all accredited to Charles county. I found a
great mass of this county's records when I reached the
state house last Friday. I gave every minute of my
time to the search on that day with most satisfying
results so far as I am individually concerned. I also
traced the name of my Grandfather Latimer’s kindred
and was more than repaid for my trouble. There is a
deed on record in Charles county, Md.., where my grand
mother, Rebecca Marshall .Latimer, transferred some of
her paternal acres before removing to Georgia with
her husband ’and several children. My father, Charles,
was born in Charles county, Md., early in the year
1779, and was a boy of seven years when they crossed
the Potomac on their way south towards a new home.
My great aunt, Mrs. Beall, came to Georgia also and
settled in Warren eounty. There are scores of their
descendants i- Georgia and many more of • the name
still residing in Maryland and Virginia.
I found the Marshalls were in ’Charles county as
early as 1640. There were thirteen of this name, all
householders, from 1640 to 1572 recorded at Annapolis.
I found the Latimers were named .n the same
county as early as 1645. There was a Rebecca Mar
shall name' and recorded In 1643, and the names of
their plantations are recorded and abundantly testi
fied in the court records of that early date.
There were three brothers of the Marshalls who
came over the big water together, and they had a
tract of land called “Three Brothers.”
One William Marshall also owned a part of “St.
William” and “Bird’s Eye,” as well as a part of “Three
Brothers.” There are recorded land deeds in the same
family up to 1772 and 1774, showing their continued
ownership nor more than 100 years in Charles county.
Richard Marshall owned a part of "Three Brothers,” a
part of “St. William’’ and “Point Marshall.”
John Marshall owned*a part of “Three Brothers”
and a part of “St. William.” Samuel Marshall owned
a part of “Eltham” and “Tote All” plantations.
The Fendalls intermarried with the Marshalls, and
they owned parts of “Three Brothers,” “Point Mar
shall” and “Marshall’s Upper Tract.”
Richard Fendall owned part of “Three Brothers.”
“James Latimore owned in the year 1753 “Point Put
ney” and “Cock’s Rest.” Jacob Latimer owned part
of “Daniel’s Conclusion” and “Robey’s Help”—166 acres.
Benjamin , Latimer owned “Green Chance”—100 acres.
“Ardington Hill”—50 acres—an# “Hal© Enlarged”—80
acres.
The Latimers owned a plantation called “Saturday’s
Work,” aria James Latimer, on December 30, 1790,
sold a part to George Kreech fo 87 pounds.
James Latimer also sold to Gerard Wood a part of
“Saturday’s Work” on October 6, 1801, for 309 pounds
3 shillings. Samuel Latimer and Ann P. Latimer:, on
Decembert 8, 1802, sold to Nicholas Fenwick, for the
sum of $2,037.92, a tract of land called “Bergen of
Zoom,” containing 108 acres.
This is part of a long, voluminous record, and the
Marshalls wer« owners of plantations called “Hull,”
“Charley,” “Therrick,” “Pasture” “Marshall’s Adven
ture,” “Laurel Branch,” “Little Mousey,” “Mistake,”
etc.
Perhaps the most interesting part of^ these records
was the list of patriots, who took the solemn oath in
March, 1776, to support the colonial gvernment and de
fend Maryland against British aggression, etc.
The Declaration of Independence was signed July
4, 1776, but I find there were six Marshalls who signed
in March, 1776, and five Marshall^ who signed in 1778.
There were six Latimers who signed in 1778. I am
so delighted to know that my forbears were genuine
Revolutionary patriots, and th e proof Is perfect and
absolute, according to the established records.
John Howard Marshall sold a tract of land in 1787,
May 3, called “Archbold’s Desert,” to Daniel, of St.
Thomas Jenifer.
He sold on August 23, 1789, “Parender’s Lot.” Sam
uel Marshall bought from John Bateman, March 1,
1792, two tracts called “Wakefield” and “Ratsdale.”
Samuel Marshall sold “New Alford,” on November 19,
1795. Thomas Marshall, on August 4, 1791, leased Hez-
ekiah Johnson “Laurel Branch” and “Run at a Ven
ture,” for fifteen years, to be paid as renJal 2,600
pounds of .obacco to be delivered at Pomenky and Pis-
cataway warehouses, or otherwise 32 pounds 10 shill
ings in gold or silver.
Early in the year 1800 these changes were being
made. These Maryland settlers were getting ready to
go further south to get mor e land.
Some of the Latimers settled in South Carolina;
others cam© to Georgia, among them my father.
I will tell the readers of The Journal of my next
day’s trip into Maryland where I found large families
of the Maryland Latimers. If I have time I intend to
visit Charles county, Md., and gather the data in that
old court house before I return to Georgia. The in
terest increases the farther I go. There can be no es
timate as to the value of those Revolutionary records
to their descendants.
The Forgotten City of Cuzco
The ancient city of Cuzco, when first viewed by
European eyes, was, according to the best authorities,
a great and wealthy municipality of perhaps 300,000
souls. How old It was at that time we have scant
means of knowing. Garcilasso would have us believe
that there were only thirteen Incas in the royal line
from Manco Capac to Iluayna Capac; Montesinos, on
the other hand, assures us that th© Incas ruled for
1,000 years! Which are we to believe? No written
history of the race exists—only the records of the
quipus, those queer knotted strings that were the In
cas’ sole documents, and for which no archaeologist
has as yet discovered the key, the Rosetta stone.
Cuzco's original plan was, singularly enough, that of
the Roman camp, a quadrangle divided by two inter
secting streets into quarters, with a gate on each face
and towers at the angles. Ramusio gives an interest
ing wood cut of the city as it appeared to the con
querors.
The Incas, like the citizens <of the United States,
had no mor© definite name for their country than
Tavantinsuyu, the empire of the four provinces. The
four strets of the capital, prolonged by great roads,
divided it into four main provinces, each under the
dominion of its governor. vVhen their people came to
Cuzco they lodged in their own quarter, where they
adhered to their national costumes and the customs
of their own province.
The city today retains th© same general plan, its
two principal Streets being practically the old main
thoroughfares. Its two eastern quarters lie upon steep
hillsides; the two western are In the valley, where runs
a little river, the Huatanay, spanned by bridges.
The northeast quarter was the Palatine Hill of this
South American Rome, and contains the palaces of the
kings, for each Inca, after the manner of the Roman
emperors, built his own abode, scorning to live in that
of his predecessor.—Ernest Piexotto. in Scribner’s
Mazagine.
THE INCOME TAX
VII.—Exempting Small Incomes.
BY FREDERIC J.* HA SKIN.
The first problem in passing an income tax is to
determine what limit shall be fixed below which in
comes shall not be taxed. It is always recognized
that people have a right to an
income large enough to main
tain themselves under decent
standards of living, free from
taxation. To deny them this
right is practically to force
them upon the charity of others
or the alms of the state. The
exemption is generally known
to economists as the "minimum
if existence,” and, of course,
it varies with the many stand
ards of living in the several
countries. What would be low
exemption in the United States
would be a rather high one in
England and a very high one
in Germany. There is a ten
dency in England and its colo
nies in favor of high exemp
tions, since there is a desire to
shield from undue burden the
people whose incomes but little more than suffice for
the needs of their families.
On the continent, on the other hand, the tendency
is to tax everybody, but to make the rates for tha
people of small income so low that their taxefc are
only large enough to teach them a proper interest in
the government and a proper appreciation of its pow
ers. In some countries there is a system of abate
ments which lowers the tax rate as the ability to pay
grows less in the individual.
« • •
Ther e is usually a limit, however, below which any
country will not go in taxing incomes. This not only
arises from the fact that money taken from people
who have no margin of profit above the most pressing
needs and peremptory requirements may have to be
refunded to them in the form of charity, but more
so from the fact that the cost of collecting and keep
ing the record of vdry small sums is greater than the
amount collected. As no government cares to pay out
more than it gets in for the mere purpose of getting
it in, there is limit beyond which reasons other than
consideration for the taxpayer prompt the taxing
power not to go.
• • •
On the other hand, when exemptions are raised to a
point too far up the scale it tnrows the burden upon
such a comparatively few people that it comes to be
dangerous class legislation. In a republic such a poli
cy so restricts the number of taxpayers that the masses
never feel the tax, and often it leads them to unjust
discrimination against the well-to-do. When the ma
jority, and especially an overwhelming majority of the
voters, are not affected by an income tax law, it is but
natural that they should, in the beginning, look with
equanimity upfcn heavy taxes against the minority, and
finally come to be dissatisfied with anything but tha
heaviest burdens for the shoulders of the rich, in order
that the burden may be taken off their own.
• • •
There are two methods of making exemptions undei
various income tax laws. Under the one method tha
law says that incomes below a certain sum shall be
exempt, while ' ll incomes above that amount shall be
taxed at their full amount. Under the other method
the exemption applies to all Incomes, no matter what
their amount. Under the former plan, where there was
an exemption o£ $1,000 and Incomes above that were
taxed at 2 per cent, an income of $999 might pay noth
ing, while an income of $1,001 would pay $20.02. Wher
ever the income exceeded the exemption the entire'in-'
come would be assessed at the regular rate. Under the
latter plan, where there is an exemption of $1,000 and
a man s income is $2,000, the man would have to pay
his 2 per cent on the second 1,000 only. There arj
many cases where the laws have been entirely ambigu
ous upon the subject, and judicial construction had to
be obtained. In the United States it has been the prac
tice to exempt everybody from the payment of a tax
upon the portion or their income below the point of
exemption. In other words, if there be an exemption
of $4,000, as there was under the last income tax law,
and a man have an income of $6,000, he would have to
pay his tax only upon the difference between his total
income and the legal exemption, or, in this case, upon
only $1,000.
• • •
Exemptions from the payment of taxes extended
to people of small means are by no pieans a new devel
opment. As far back as 1708 France began to exempt
first individuals and then whole classes. These ex
emptions became so numerous that after awhile it al
most wholly undermined ,the existing system of taxa
tion. In 1803 England established a scheme of exemp
tions that not only exempted all incomes below $300,
but which also,allowed a sliding scale of further ex
emptions for all children in the home above two. For
ty years later Great Britain increased the exemption to
$760 and made It apply to all incomes, instead of to
personal exertion incomes as had been the practice.
Exemptions, even when very low, absolve the great
majority if the people from the payment of Income
taxes. If the United States should decide to exempt
all incomes of $4,000 and less, the number of people
who would have to pay the lax would be very small
indeed, when compared with the total population. The
government service affords a criterion of what might
be expected under such an exemption. There are some
400,000 civilian workers in the employ of Uncle Sam.
Yet, when one goes to count those who have incomes
of more than 4,000 he finds them few and far between.
Considering their salaries alone—and few government
employes ever get a chance to save enough to enjoy
much other income—one mignt assume that the number
of people who enjoy incomes of $4,000 a year from their
work for Uncle Sam is certainly not more than 4,000.
There are a large number of presidential appointees
whose incomes do not amount to $4,000 a year, and
there are some who are not presidential appointees
who get more than $4,000, but they probably approxi
mately balance and, therefore, we are justified in as
suming that the workers for Uncle Sam in the $4,000
class approximately equal and certainly do not exceed
the number of presidential appointees outside of the
second and third-class postoffices.
• • •
as will be explained more fully in a subsequent ar
ticle, when the constitutionality of the law of 1894 was
attacked, it was more upon the ground that the exemp
tion of $4,000 was too high, so high as to destroy all
the claim it might have to being uniform within the
meaning of that word as used in the constitution. Page
after page of argument was brought forward to prove
that the tax was levied upon such a small number of
people as to put it without the pale of constitutionality,
and the lawyers who attacked the act predicated their
main fight against it upon that idea. It so happened,
however, -hat the court did not pay much attention
to their arguments on that score, but finally declared
that the $4,000 exemption was not a valid constitutional
objection against the law.
If the United States should adopt a $4,000 exemp
tion it will declare to the world that its living standard
is higher than that of any other nation, for no other
nation that le\. s an income tax makes such a wholesale
exemption. Not many countries fail to tax incomes
that are only a fourth as large, and some of them go
much farther down the line. To say that $4,000 is the
"minimum of existence" in the United States would be
to fly in the face of fact, for certainly nineteen out of
twenty families in the United States live and grow
up with much smaller Incomes than that. When con
gress fixes the exemption it will probably have a two
fold aim In mind—to make It high enough so that all:
question of the burdensomeness of the tax o«n be cBm-
inated, and yet low enough that sufficient inoomes are.
reached to make the tax yield enough revenue to insure
the treasury against a deficit.