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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA„ FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEEY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NOBTX POlfYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter ot
the Second Class.
JAMBS »• OEAT,
President and Editor.
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The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our offloe. It has a staf»
of distinguished contributors, with strong departments
of special value to the home and the farm.
Agents wanted at every postoffioe* Liberal com
mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD-
LET, Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim
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sentatives.
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Atlanta, Ga.
How Georgia Can Attain
Economic Independence
The statement by Secretary Cooper, of the At-
»anta Chamber of Commerce, that Georgia lacks more
than thirty-seve million dollars annually of mak
ing enough money out of its cotton crops to pay for
the food supplies brought into the State brings home
•with particular forcefulness the vital need of such
work as is being done by the Boys’ Corn clubs and
kindred agencies. It is only through progressive
and businesslike methods of farming that the State
can become self-su: taming, as it she aid he, and at
tain that rich measure of economic independence
which is its natural due. Hence the importance of
the corn clubs whose quickening influence is not
limited to one iro.i or' to one generation but which
•extends to ail fields of agriculture and bestirs fa
thers as well as sons to more fruitful endeavor.
Authorities reckon that the people of Georgia
spent last year one hundred and seventy-two million,
four hundred and ninety-six thousand dollars in buy
ing from other States such produc.s as corn, oats,
hay, meat and other food supples which could have
been raised easily and cheaply at home. That is a
fact of far-flung consequence not to the farm alone
but to every sphere of industry and commerce, a
fact that bears upo . the interests of every household
in the commonwealth. Its connection with the high
cost of living is obvious. Its relationship to banks,
shops, stores, factories, railroads and all other fields
of business is no less manifest Upon the changing
of this fact for the better,* depend the progress and
welfare of our poopl. as a whole. And through sm *
influences as that of the Bays’ Corn clubs, the change
can most speedily and certainly be brought to pass.
Much has been said of late concerning Georgia’s
need of producing more livestock, a need that can
not be overestimated. But the i.rst step toward
solving thi? problem must be the production of more
corn and forage; for, as Secretary Cooper points out,
“We cannot have much in the way of animal prod
ucts until we have enough corn, oats, hay and forage
to feed the animals as well as the people. If we are
short forty-eight million dollars’ worth of corn, with
no animals to feed, how much more will we have to
produce to supply the present demand and furnish
food, as does Iowa, for two hundred million dollars’
worth of animals?” Iowa, it should be noted, whose
area is about the same as Georgia’s and whose soil
and climate are no more advantageous, if as much so,
as ours, is producing an average of thirty-six bushels
of corn to the a> -e and, in addition to that, sells
each year somethi—g like two hundred million dol
lars’ worth of animal products
The condition of affairs shown by # this compar
ison must be remedied, as Mr. Cooper says, by dou
bling the work of our corn clubs and all other agen
cies of agricultural education: "Where 1'iere are now
ten thousand boys in corn clubs, there must be a
hundred thousand; this means the economic salvation
of Georgia.” >
Such an achievement is in Ho wise fancicul, nor
will it be very difficult, if the energy* and good man
agement that have been put into the Boys’ Corn club
movement for the past few years are continued. Since
the organization of these clubs began, Georgia’s corn
crop has Increased twenty-five million bushels and
the average acre yield has increased from ten to fif
teen bushels. These results are bright tokens of the
greater things yet to be accomplished by the same
means. .
The Gratifying Growth
Of Georgia Truck Farms.
It is remarkable how frequently and in what num
bers Georgia planters are attesting the value of di
versified crops in general and of truck farming in
particular. From Brooks county comes the story of
an especially interesting example. A farmer near
■Quitman devoted twenty-five acres to cucumbers and
ten to Irish potatoes, largely as an experiment. Thus
far, it is said, he has shipped twenty-eight hundred
crates from his cucumber fields, receiving two dol
lars a crate; and this week he will market an addi
tional eighteen hundred crates at the same figure. The
price was less than that realized on the earlier Flor
ida crops but even at that the investment has yielded
a return of more than nine thousand dollars and at
the same time has left the soil free to be turned
to further use.
This is but one among scores of instances that
testify to the possibilities of truck farming in Georgia
and that are persuading a larger and larger number
of progressive planters to avail themselves of these
fertile opportunities. On this basis, perhaps, we may
explain the fact that the State’s cotton acreage is
appreciably less this season than in years gone by.
Alert farmers ara realizing that there is a surer
and a larger profit ir. planting a variety of crops, eo
that if one fails, others will make up the loss, than
in staking all their money and labor on a single un
certain venture.
It is not necessary, however, that there should be
less cotton in order that there may be more food
products. It is only essential that really businesslike
methods be applied to agriculture. The fact that
farsighted farmer., in every part' of the State are
turning to the production of food supplies and are
proving the practical value of such a policy is one
of the most wholesome and cheering signs of the day.
It is cheering to note that the Atlanta Chamber
of Commerce, under whose auspices State corn
shows have been held for several years past, is pre
paring to make the 1913 Bhow more interesting to
corn growers and also to the general public than any
which has gone before. There were more than eight
aundred exhibits in the last exposition. Indications
are that for the show which is to be held during the
first week of next December that number will he
more than doubled and that every available foot of
the capitol corridors will be required for the Individ
ual and county displays.
There could be no surer evidence of the growing
enthusiasm among the members of tho Boys’ Corn
clubs, now organized in a majority of the counties—
en enthusiasm due very largely to the enterprise of
the Chamber of Commerce in inaugurating a State
corn exposition with its generous prizes and other in
centives to keen endeavor. Thousands of young
farmers throughout Georgia are now bending their
energy and Intelligence to make a new record with an
acre of corn, stimulated as they are by the honors
and rewards w r hlch await them in the State show to
be held next December. •
Surely, such a cause merits the interest and the
hearty support of all good Georgians, whether they ar e
engaged in farming or in business pursuits; for, as
this cause prospers and its influence widens, we shall
cease to lack more than thirty-seven million dollars of
making enough money out of cotton crops to pay for
our food supplies bought in other States. We shall
no longer have to spend over a hundred *and seven
ty-two million dollars annually for food products that
can be raised at home. We shall have a richer
State, and a more prosperous people.
THE SECOND-RATER
By DR, PRANK CRANE.
(Ccpyrisrht, 1913, by Frank Crane.)
The Wisdom of National Aid
In Reclaiming Swamp Lands.
The suggestion by Secretary of the Interior Lane
that the federal Government enter more largely than
heretofore into a plan of co-operation with the vari
ous States for the drainage of swamp and overflow
lands will doubtless enlist the hearty approval of
all sections of the Union and particularly that .of
the South.
The details of the Secreary’s proposal have not
been made generally public. It Is presumed, how
ever, that he contemplates a system similar to that
which the Government has employed so profitably in
reclaiming arid lands in the West. In those enter
prises federal aid was extended on terms which the
States could easily meet and which at the same
time protected the Government against ultimate loss
or ill planned ventures. As a result thousands of
acres that were formerly unsuited to agriculture
and, indeed, entirely worthless in their original con
dition have been irrigated and turned to productive
purposes.
If it was important and profitable to reclaim arid
lands, it is even more so to reclaim the vast areas
which are now in swamps or are subject to overflow;
for, as a rule, drainage could be more easily and
more cheaply accomplished than irrigation and its
benefits would be speedily realized. Furthermore,
such improvements would mean as much to public
health as to economic interests. It is a matter of
record that in those States where swamp lands have
been drained the death rate from malaria has been
reduced to a minimum.
It is to be hoped that Congress will find means
for carrying out the purpose of Secretary Lane’s
timely recommendation. Georgia will be especially
interested in these plans, for the reason that it has
a larger area of swamp and overflow lands, Florida
excepted, than any other State on the Atlantic coast.
The Folly and Danger of
Heedless Appropriations.
The time has come when the Legislature must
look Georgia’s -inancial problems squarely in the
face and renounce the old, slipshod policy of indulg
ing in appropriations which the State’s income is
obviously insufficient to meet. Despite the warnings
of successive governors and the prophetic facts and
figures adduced each year by the comptroller general,
our legislators have gone on handling the State’s
business after the manner of the hungry man in the
fairy tale who flung away his last penny and hoped
it would rain truffles by dinner time. It was inevi
table that sooner or later a day of serious reckoning
would come; and now it is here, so stark and grim
that it cannot be ignored.
The appropriations passed by the last General
Assembly exceeded the visible revenues for the pe
riod to which applied, that is the years 1912 and
1913, by approximately half a million dollars. A
fortunate increase in tax assessments in 1912 served
to reduce this deficit for that particular year but the
fact remains that the excess of appropriations over
available treasury lunds is still embarrassingly large;
and as on e of the many distressing consequences, we
find the common schools begging hopelessly for the
money due them.
Surely, the incoming Legislature will not fail to
profit by this example and limit its appropriations
to the State’s calculable revenues. There is man
ifest need, to be sure, of providing well considered
means for a larger income; but the immediate and
ever present duty is to see to'it that appropriations
► are held within businesslike bounds.
Hon. Pleasant A. Stovall,
Minister to Switzerland.
The President’s nomination of Hon. Pleasant A.
Stovall, of Savannah, as United States minister to
Switzerland has been unanimously approved by the
foreign relations committee and will be duly con
firmed by the Senate. The appointment of Mr. Sto
vall to a mission so rich in honor and opportunities
is heartily gratifying to his friends throughout Geor
gia and the South. N< man has rendered truer serv
ice 11 the party’s best interests and no on e has been
readier than President Wilson to recognize his
merit. Th e appointment Is a particularly happy one.
Mr. Stovall is distinctly gifted in those qualities of
mind and character and personality that should be
required of one wL represents this nation abroad.
In the satisfactio- which his friends feel over
the honor he lias worthily been accorded, there is
a tinge of regrit over the fact that his new duties
will call him from the State to whose progress and
welfare his influence as a citizen and as editor of
the Savannah Evening Press has been so loyally given.
We congratulate him most cordially and trust that
his stay in the historic republic of the Alps will
be as much a pleasure to him as it will be, we are
sure, a credit to thj nation he represents.
On June 2 Alfred Austin, poet laureate of England,
died in his seventy-ninth year, at his residence in
Kent.
He did not impress the litera
ry world with <ne feeling that
he was of poet laureate calibre,
and was more generally criticis
ed than applauded.
There is much speculation as
to whom Pfemier Asquith will
appoint as - his successor. Kip
ling comes naturally first to
mind, as he is by common con
sent the English poet with the
most unmistakable genius. No
rhymester can equal him in put
ting into apt expression the pas
sion of Ills people. He is, how
ever, a violent partisan and his
nomination for the post would
be fought furiously. William
Watson is of Tennysonian rank
in the estimation of many, hut he is entirely too er
ratic for the place. Thomas Hardy is mentioned, but
his record upon certain themes is against him.
The probability is teat the honor will go to some
second rate man.
And, come to think of it, the honors usually go to
the second rater.
It may sound cynical, hut it is undeniable, that
the human race, as a rule, passes fcy its great men
and selects those of inferior grade for positions of
great dignity, authority, and emolument.
Weak-kneed Pontius Pilate was the ruler of the
Jews and tolerably well accepted; they found noth
ing better to do with the greatest man in the world
when He happened among them than to crucify
Him.
The Greeks ostracised one of their wised states
men because they were bored with hearing him
called "The Just;” and poisoned the greatest philos
opher of all time.
The Florentines banished Dante and burnt Savon
arola, hut willingly bowed their necks to the rule of
the corrupt Medici.
It is hard to find a bishop that ever amounted to
much; only such as cast out Luther, Wesley, and
Booth seem to have the divine fire we look for in
prophets.
The Hohenzollerns, Bourbons, Wettins, and Ro
manoffs, the grand life-job holders of Europe, might
possibly earn $50 a month on their own merits, but
it is doubtful. There has never appeared anything
resembling the superhuman among them.
The average millionaire in America is totally un
fit, by temper, genius, and morals, to be in posses
sion of the vast influence of money.
This is not. che^ap, railing language. It is plain
fact and common-’sense, which it would be well for
all aspiring yojuth who feel the lure of "greatness”
to heed.
More than virtue, greatness is strictly “its own re
ward.” It is quite sure to develop such idiosyncrasy
as to make it unpopular. It is rather eertain to raise
up such a storm of oppositfon that its possessor
could not be elfected keeper of the village pound.
Greatness oonsists in vision of the eternal truth,
which the populace eternally disbeMeve.
The desire to rule, to be prominent, to be the rage,
to control great wealth, to be served and flattered, is
small, and besets small souls.
It is the desire to express one’s self truly, to serve
men, to follow the gleam and to satisfy the exactions
of one’s own self-respect, that makes a man great.
Such men get no high offices.
"'It is easier for some men to sing a hymn than
speak the truth.
The Progress of the Tariff Bill.
Tht Democratic tariff hill,.7! "which was passed
r r '
overwhelmingly by' the House, and which for six
weeks has been under the review of the Senate
finance, committee, is nearing the final stage of its
progress toward enactment. Indications are that
within the next few days it will be ready for the
party caucus, where it seems assured of almost
unanimous support. Thence it will proceed to the
field of open debate and, tnough the encounters
there ifiay he sharp and prolonged, they will have
little or no effect on the outcome. The decisive vote
will he close, but, unless all omens fail, the Demo
cratic majority will he sufficient to pass the meas
ure unimpaired in any of its vital principles or
particulars.
This prospect, which means so much to the rank
and file of the American people, has been attained
despite the earlier predictions of doubtful Demo
crats and despite all that a cohesive Republican mi
nority, backed by strong and resourceful interests,
could do. When the bill first reached the Senate
there were rumors of defection from the Democratic
camp. It was said that sugar and wool would make
common cause and indefinitely hold up the measure
that purposed to place both these commodities on
the free list. It was said that irresistible pressure
would he brought to hear upon certain wavering
D:mocratic senators; and as a matter of fact very
powerful and seductive influences were turned in that
direction.
But, with the exception of two or three Demo
cratic senators, whose position is easily explained
and, indeed, was discounted far In advance, the
party’s strength in the Senate is as compact today
as it was in the House when the bill first came to a
vote.
The finance committees and the various sub
committees have recommended a number of changes
in the details of th. measure; and these will doubt
less be adopted. But invariably they have been
changes suggested by the friends of thorough tariff
revision with a view to strengthening the bill, not
to weakening it. They have been changes in behalf
of the consumer and (£ the country’s common inter
ests; and the bill that will go to the caucus and
later to the Senate as a whole will embody the great
principle that in r.o instance should the many be
taxed for the special benefit of the few.
When the Democratic party has given the coun
try such a law, it will have fulfilled its chief pledge
and it will have proved how well it deserved the peo
ple’s confidence. It is a wonderful tribute to the vitali-
ity, the practical efficiency and the leadership of the
Democratic party that it has brought the tariff bill
safely to a point where its enactment is virtually as
sured.
Aside from the specific good that will he accom
plished by a reduction of the now exorbitant tax on
the necessaries of life, aside from the many partic
ular benefits that will come from a law that will
strike down the old barriers of high protection and
open the way for wholesome competition and for free
business initiative, the progress of the tariff hill is
significant for this additional reason: it shows that
there is at length in this country a political party
which is strong enough and honest enough to serve
the people instead of the old bosses and the special
Interests.
The election of Woodrow Wilson to the Presi
dency and of a Democratic majority to the House
and the Senate was an event the full import of which
we are just beginning to realize. It foretold a new
era of government, a new advent of political and
economic freedom.
THE INCOME TAX
I I XVIII.—INHERITANCE TAXES.
V#W/N I IV T by FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
Atjp timeu
OME T0PIC3
Comocra w.m&v:HJrEcra*
A HIGHLY PRIZED LETTER.
McIntyre, Ga., June 10, 1913.
Mrs. W. H. Felton, Atlanta, Ga.
Dear Mrs. Felton:—I am a rural letter carrier and
have been reading your valuable articles in The Jour
nal for several years, and admire them so, have been
benefited by them so much, that I just want to pen
a few lines to tell you so. Sometimes I wonder if you
ever imagine how many readers, young and old, are
influenced by your wise articles on any subject on
which you write.
I know one gentleman who although cannot
read himself has his wife to read for him, says “he
would not want Tbe Semi-Weekly Journal were it not
for Mrs. Felton’s articles.”
Your advise always makes one feel like it’s the
loving council of a mother, and no one knows better
how to take it to heart than one whose mother has
long since passed into the great beyond.
May the good Lord long preserve and keep you, and
may Providence some day make it convenient for me
:o look on that dear familiar face which I have learned
to love so much. With apologies I am most respect
fully yours, A. A.
(Chicago Tribune.)
The camel postman in the Sahara hasn’t any cinch
—that is, if he has a family he’s anxious to live for
or happens to be leading a carefree bachelor existence
—for he needs all the nerve that he can possibly sum
mon on every trip that he makes, for the wild tribes
regard him as their particular prey, and he never does
know when he starts out whether or not he ia going
to reach his destination.
Neither has the postman in some parts of Switzer
land the safest job in the world. In fact, in several
places in that country it is considered just about the
most dangerous profession that a man can enter.
You see some of the postoffices are situated at a
height of 7,000 feet. There is even a letter box at the
summit of Languard, which is nearly 10,000 feet above
the sea level. Here all sorts of disastrous things have hap
pened to unfortunate carriers of mail. There have been
crushed to death by avalanches and a large number, it Is
rumored, have been swooped down upon and carried away
by fierce eagles.
Then in India th© postman always has to be op the
lookout for snakes. It is asserted that within the
last year 150 were killed by snake bites and twenty-
seven eaten by tigers.
Queer, isn’t it, when in this country the business of
being a postman seems about the most harmless and
least dangerous of any a man could pick out?
In Siberia they have only two mail deliveries a
year, while in the interior of China they have no reg
ular delivery or regular postmen.
When the income tax law of 1894 was passed it
contained a provision which made it something else be
sides what it purported to be—a national inheritance
tax law. It provided that a tax
of 2 per cent should be assessed
upon all inheritances and gifts
received during the year. It ap
plied only to personal property,
it is true, and it is said that the
exemption of real property was
made because of a feeling that
the land owners already bore
their fair share of the country’s
taxes.
ALFALFA IN GEORGIA LANDS.
The success of Mr. Betts with alfalfa in Turner
county should convince and farmer that alfalfa can be
grown anywhere north of Turner county in the state
of Georgia. He sowed his seed in October, 1912, and
Mr. Hunnicutt, of the' Southern Cultivator, reports the
success of Mr. Betts. v
The first cutting will yield from a ton to a ton
and a half per acre, and several cutfings can be made
in a season. Perhaps the land was selected with great
care,' as it should be, and was excellently well pre
pared, as all farming land ought to be. Georgia farm
ers should raise a great deal of hay and feed stock on
it, and save their corn for other purposes, because hay
is a crop easily made, and corn crops are largely de
pendent on the seasons, and must have considerable
cultivation.
If our farmers cannot cultivate a big patch of al
falfa they may cultivate enough to make a healthy
experiment with this forage plant.
You can set it down, in your mind if not in your
book, that no farming operations can long be success
ful unless you raise cattle and return fertility ‘to the
soil after you raise crops of cotton, corn and other
grain. We are buying western alfalfa to feed stock
upon by the thousand ^carloads in Georgia. Why not
raise alfalfa here at homeland save freight and money
outlay? *
Southern farmers must raise good beef cattle or
cease eating high priced beef. They must raise mules
and quit buying mules abroad. They can raise hay if
they will take pains to prepare the land and have suf
ficient energy to save the crop. Why not alfalfa?
UNITED STATES AND JAPAN.
As we are duly informed, Japan is seeking to enter
the United States under a commercial treaty, and de
mands to be privileged to buy land and make estates
for their descendants. This condition of affairs be
came acute in California. The legislature and the gov
ernor have forbidden the entrance of Orientals into the
state of California, and we are now waiting to see
what will come out of the scrimmage. For my part
(and,* perhaps, I am not wjsll informed) my sympathies
are all with California.
I can foresee, without aid of a microscope, that the
time is coming, maybe near at hand, when we must
either declare the United States to be a white man’s
country or give way to mixed and hybrid nationalities,
with all that such giving way stands for. The South
American countries have given way to hybrid races,
ard they have a mixture of yellow, red and white, ne
groes, mestizoes and mixtures of all colors, that choose
to come over and settle in this lower part of the west
ern hemisphere. I examined a history of the United
States and I find that President John Adams’ adminis
tration became very unpopular because of the passage
of “alien and sedition laws.”
The president was given authority to order out of
the country any foreigner whom he deemed dangerous
to the public peace, and lengthened the term of a for
eigner’s residence in this country before he could be
naturalized.
But this action was unpopular because it concerned
Anglo-Saxon races, and nothing was said about races
of other colors, red, brown or black. Negroes were
considered as slaves to the white race, and as slaves
did not enter into this alien and sedition difficulty a
hundred years ago.
General Washington had been dead but a short
time, and the country felt the need of his patriotism
and experience. Feeling ran high, especially in the
northern states. Jefferson’s second administration be
came so unpopular and the situation became so acute
that Hon. John Quincy Adams informed President Jef
ferson that New England had taken steps to join her
self to Canada.
This condition of political affairs precipitated war
with England and France—the War of 1812. “Free
trade and sailors’ rights” was heard everywhere.
To make a long story short, political disturbances
over slavery eventuated, and the federal government
made citizens of the African race in the United States
and beat down the southern states into forced submis
sion to the sword. California helped to do it. They
sent troops to force submission There was no ,objec
tion to the black race as citizens. Therefore, it is un
derstood that California has become strangely incon
sistent in regard to colored races. It was California
which abrogated the treaty made with China. China
had as firm a foothold on the Pacific slope such as
that now claimed by Japan. But the yellow man was
driven out and debarred from owning land or becoming
a bona fide citizen. This year has witnessed similar,
legislation on the part of California as before stated
in regard to Japan.
With ten millions of black people, mostly in the
southern states, granted the privileges of citizenship,
why is it that no southern representative has courage
to rise in his place and demand an explanation of this
patriotism for the African and this hostility to the
brown and yellow?
How nearly the American peo
ple came to getting a full-
fledged inheritance tax law in
1909 will never be known, but
it Is known that some heroic
work was done to induce Presi
dent Taft to give up the ‘idea
and to take up the corporation
tax instead. It will be remem
bered that when the constitu
tionality of the inheritance tax provision of the law
of 1894 was attacked in the case of Knowlton against
Moore, the supreme court declared an inheritance tax
to be constitutional without apportionment. When
President Roosevelt was still in office and saw the
revenues of the government steadily falling below the
expenditures, h© cast about for a vehicle through
which to replenish the treasury, and he hit updn the
inheritance tax with a graduated rate that would take
a small toll from the small inheritance and a heavy
one from the swollen fortune as it would pass from
one to - another by inheritance.
• • •
When Mr. Taft became the nominee of his party
for the presidency he did not accept the Roosevelt
idea at the outset. Rather, in his speech of accept
ance he came out with the statement that he believed
that a constitutional income tax law could be enacted,
leaving the general impression that he would be in
favor of such a law. However, when he came to
jvrite his inaugural address he reached a different
conclusion, this tim© holding that It would be most
unfortunate to pass such a law in the face of the de
cision of the supreme court in 1895, the effect of
which, he thought, would be to undermine the public
faith in the nation’s highest tribunal, which would
either have to reverse itself in whole or in part, or
else stand by its own reversal of a hundred years of
Interpretation. Therefore, he recommended the enact
ment of an inheritance tax. His recommendation did
not arouse the general support for the proposition
that he had hoped, and finally it became evident that
the inheritance! tax sentiment was not as strong as
the sentiment in favor of an income tax. It was then
that he gave up. his advocacy of an inheritance tax
and came out for a corporation tax and a constitu
tional amendment making certain the constitutionality
of income taxation.
• • •
There seems to be a general feeling in the United
States that the national and local taxes ought to be
raised wholly and distinctly from different sources,
and the inheritance tax seems to be one that the
states themselves have felt they could levy with suc
cess and constitute a domain which the federal gov
ernment ought not invade.
• • •
The inheritance tax Is by no means a new engine
of government finance. Before the Star of the East
had shone over the hills of Judea the Romans w«*e
using it as a means,of filling their public treasuries
and keeping their legions in the field. There is evi
dence that even back further than the Romans the
Egyptians used it as a source of public revenue. From
those times forward it has been utilized more and
more widely until today it is employed either locally
or nationally by nearly all of th; nations of- the civil
ized world.
see r
Its friends laud it in glowing terms. They say
that no other tax is easier to defend or has in it more
to commend. Pointing out that it does not touch pri
vate property during th© life of the owner, tLey as
sert that it thus places no tax upon justness activi
ties. The simplicity of its administration, its free
dom from placing burdens on the poor, the impossi
bility of its being shifted, all commenu it to its
friend^
• • •
Under one name or another it exists In the Aus
tralasian states, in Great Britain, France, Germany,
Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Den
mark, Austria-Hungary, Italy and nearly all other Eu
ropean countries. In the United States less than ten
of the states have failed to enact Inheritance tax laws.
In many of them there is a graduated tax, which per
mits small estates to be exempted, moderate ones to
be taxed lightly, and big ones to be required to pay
heavy taxes to the government.
• • •
Perhaps no other state in the union has had such
trouble to get an inheritance tax law upon its statute
books to stay as Minnesota. It enacted its first law
in 1885, in the shape of a probate fee whose size
should increase with the siz© of the estate to be pro
bated. This law was declared unconstitutional. In
1897 another law was passed, and it, likewise, was de
clared contrary to the constitution, in that it exempted
real estate, did not apply to certain corporations, pre
scribed a higher exemption to lineal than to collateral
heirs, and on other grounds. A third law was passed
in 1901, and it likewise discriminated in favor of lineal
heirs and was declared unconstitutional. Nothing
daunted, the legislature passed another law in 1902,
fixing the rate at 10 per cent, and this was declared
unconstitutional also, the ground being that an amend
ment to the constitution in 1894 legalizing the inher
itance tax idea, provided that the maximum rate
should be 5 per cent. The fifth attempt at making a
constitutional inheritance tax resulted better—the Illi
nois statute was borrowed and incorporated In the
state laws.
. . .
T1 is tax law exempts inheritance up to $10,000,
and adopts a graduated scale above that. For any exobss
over the exemption up to $50,000 the rate is 1 1-2 per
cent. Up to $100,000 It becomes 2 per cent, and above
$100,000 It is 5 per cent. In 1906 the constitution was
again amended, and in 1909 another act passed the leg
islature fixing a sliding scale of exemptions starting
with $10,000 for the wife and going dowi. to $100 for
distant relatives, and those who were no kin. It also
provides a sliding scale of tax rates beginninc at 1
per cent in the case of the widows with an inheritance
not exceeding $16,000 and rising to 15 per cent In the
case of a distant relation or no relation Where the
estate exceeds $100,000. The governor vetoed the law,
although it conforms generally to the Wisconsin law.
and to the laws of California and Idaho.
...
The laws of these states exempt $10,000 in the case
of a widow, $2,000 in the case of a child or husband,
and on down to $100 for remote kin and strangers. 1
The rate on the excess over the exemption up to $26,-
000 is 1 per cent for husband, wife or child, and rises
to 3 per cent where the estate exceeds $500,000. In
the case of distant relatives and strangers it begins
at 5 per cent and climbs as high as as 15 per cent.
... •
It is said that the highest* inheritancs tax rats In
the United States is to be found in New York, where •
a law was enacted in 1910 with the approval of Gov
ernor Hughes. The rate goes as high as 25 per cent
on estates of over $1,000,000 left to any more distant
relation than brother or sister, or the wife or widow
of a son or the husband of a daughter.
...
There is an organization known as the International
Tax association, which is made up of tax experts and
economists from all parts of the world. A few years
ago it met in Milwaukee and drew up a model sched
ule for taxing inheritances. This schedule followed
the New York law rather closely, except that the rates
were lower, the nighest rate being 15 per cent to those,
more distantly related than those cited in tbe New
York law.