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* 4 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. SUBSCRIPTION TBIC1I Twelve months 7So \ Six months ....•••••• 40a Three months * 25o 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 brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling repre sentatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. • The label used for addressing your paper shows the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention yeur old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mall. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, 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.