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EDITORIAL, PAGE
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN
Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday
By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY
At 20 East Alabama St.. Atlanta, Ga.
Entered as second-class matter at postoffiee at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1579
Subscription Price -Delivered by carrier. 10 cents a week. By mail. $5 00 a year.
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• I —— " 1 ■ r # ' ' "
The Inheritance Tax Seems
Just
i But, As a Matter of Fact, It Is Often Unjust and Unfair. This
j Is Proved By the Case of Isidor Straus and John Jacob Astor.
-
The inheritance on lhe estates of the late Isidor Straus and ;
John Jacob Astor will amount to something like s(;.(i(Mi.(M>(> Os that
sum by far the greater part will come from the accumulated millions
of Astor, and only a small part comparatively from the estate of
Isidor Straus.
The inheritance tax is called fair and wise. But it is neither.
Isidor Straus worked hard up to the last year of his life. And
the sons who inherit his fortune worked beside him every day and
will continue to work.
They, of course, do not grudge the lax and will pay it gladly
to the uttermost penny
But that is not the question. The question is one of justice.
And there is no justice in taxing the inheritance of Isidor Straus as
heavilv in proportion as you tax the inheritance of John Jacob
Astor.
Astor was not a creator, a builder or a worker. He sal still
and watched his vast fortune increase he got richer ami richer
with the birth of every child and the arrival of every immigrant in
New York City.
His fortune was built up not by himself, but by other human
beings, whose arrival made his land more valuable. Astor was an
estimable*gentleman, well meaning, good natured. But the world
would have been absolutely no better and no worse if he had never
lived. If he had never lived some one else would have inherited his .
fortune, some one else would have watched it grow that is all that
Astor did.
Isidor Straus, on the other hand, was a worker and a builder
always.
He organized manufacturing, purchasing and distributing en
terprises, and he gave to the public, as other successful manufac
turers and merchants do, a great deal more than the public ever
gave to him.
He gave employment to thousands of human beings, his metlf
ods of merchandising added interest to the lives of hundreds of
thousands of women and helped them to manage their families
economically. ,
The work that Isidor Straus did was a necessary, useful work, i
building up the country, distributing wealth, which is our great
problem, providing employment, increasing prosperity.
Isidor Straus was a wise, conservative and constructive finan
cier He was a valuable and unselfish guide andjidviser He was
active in philanthropy, which look from his fortune many times over
more than the state will take in its inheritance tax.
In proportion to their respective fortunes. Isidor Straus
TAXED HIMSELE ON BEHALE <>E THE POOR AT LEAST A
THOUSAND BEK (ENT MORE THAN ANY ASTOR EVER
TAXED HIMSELE.
It is unjust to tax the inheritance of the hardworking man as
you tax the fortune lcl'l by the drone who receives ami produces
nothing
Isidor Straus, who leaves a fortune that the state now taxes,
was a worker every day of his life, beginning in early manhood
And the three sons who inherit his fortune have been hard
workers, earnest and conscientious business men every one of them j
since the day lie left college Those that were honored with the I
acquaintance of Isidor Straus know that the only anxiety his boy s
gave him was the extent Io which they overworked in the effort to
relieve him and take the load from his shoulders
There is no justice in taxing the fortune left by a man who has
worked hard and been a builder as heavily as you tax the fortune i
of a drone.
There is no justice in taxing the inheritance of hard workers i
and builders as heavily as you tax the fortune that is handed on
from one drone to another.
Lloyd George's system in England is the just system
TAX INCOMES IN PROPORTION TO THEIR SIZE, leaving
small incomes free of all taxation and increasing the percentage as
the income increases.
Just and sane is'the Lloyd George idea gaming ground in
Europe that taxation should fall heavily with double and treble j
weight upon the income I NEARNED BA HIM \V I|O RE< El VES IT
Let the tax fall upon the income of the idler, the income that
has not been earned by its possessor, the income that represents no ■
active, useful work.
Eree from taxation or tax most lightly the income of which the
dollars represent service rendered to the public and of which the
' sum total is given back to the public in work well done
There would lie no trouble in doing this if we really intended
in this country' to tax non-productive wealth and non producing,
wealthy' individuals. A wise government would encourage with
freedom from taxation wealth that is productive and constructive
and that gives back to Hie nation that which it gets from the nation
The contrast offered by the inheritance tax upon the fortunes of
Isidor Straus and John Jacob Astor is so glarifig that it is used as a
Hasis for this editorial in spite of the fact that the sons of Isidor
Strati- would resent the faintest suggestion of a willingness on their
par* to escape taxation or legal demands of any kind, however
The Atlanta Georgian
tvEiix v in v in
WAITING
By UAL COKEMAX.
I
■- I
MBs ■ <
Hh It//'* [ -
W I • .
Wo A- / - ~~ — _ < ' _
r • "'. A \ ~ ~
H - ■ zy
SKY CLAIMS TOLL Jy
In Hie past It-ii days a ivoman and 'tif' 111
nine men have met death while per- 'mil llil
farming aerial J
■ tuly I. Miss Harriet Quimby ami s|! <
VV. A I’ Willard fell from aeroplane ’
near Boston. Benno Koenig was killed jL
near Altona, Prussia. ■aiV.jwW
Uil' Melvin ami Calvin Vani .\ , A * ' "A-■
man. George Bout iilion and ICUner ami ■ ■. ..
Walter Guest were killed near Allan ' ' >. Uli I lift -j
lie t’iiy when the dirigible balloon > l"'
Akron exploded Mh-IOUI
July 4 Tlmmas Moore, parachute ‘
jumper, killed near Bellville, N. J. x
Kieut. I’asansa. of the Roumanian '
army, killed making flight at Huehar-.
I T I\4 I A Insect "Scourge of God" More Terrible Than the
1 ne ivioaern /Alula Ktngofthe Hun 'By GARRETT P. SERVISS
EwVKRj day the reasons for
making war upon the house
Hy increase in number. One
of tlie latest indictments against
tills disseminator of tnfei tion and
death is that he i-arries about with
him the germs of infantile paraly
sis. as wall ns those of typhoid,
consumption and other communi
cable disease. It is now believed,
-ays Dr. Thomas l>. Wood, in Good
Housekeeping Magazine for July,
tltat germs of infantile paralysis
may live for 1k hours, al least, in
the body of a llv.
This insect Attila, whose march
is more destructive titan that of
tlie wourger of dying Rome, who
declared that grass could not grow
w fieri' fits horse had passed, docs
not appear in his true character,
wlwn we sec him quietly sitting in
a window, caressing his sheeny
wings witli his liind logs or bob
bing his head while lie fondles th.
Here is a pic
ture of a fly re
produced by per-
I mission from
Good House
keeping Maga
zine for July.
This picture ac
companies a val-
I uable article on
'the dangers of
the fly pest,
i written especial
ly for Good
TTnnr.c
•keeping by
Thomas D.
Wood, M D
back of his neck. if he were tak
ing a sunbath and hugely enjoying
it. His diminutive body covers too
small an aven in the Held of^the
eye Io enable us to see its formid
able details. We must get optical
ly near him. with the aid of a mi
croscope. in order to see him as he
really Is.
Then, when all his dimensions
ale magnified many diameters, we
behold a monster as terrifying fl-' 1
any of the dinosaurs of geological
antiquity. Look, in the photo
graph above, at the hairy body,
covered with sharp spines: at the
powerful fegs with thei, spreading
spikes at the joints: at the huge.
repul»iv< hi ad. with its gigantic
hemispheres tilled with the glitter
ing fae.h ~f the great compound
eyes, the most extraordinary or
gans of visions in tlie animal king
dom: at tlie big, hairy, elublike. ex
tensible feeler, with which the un
clean beast explores tlie sources of
its poisonous diet, and finally, at
the strong wings ready spread for
instant, veritiginous Hight, which
enable it to carry’ the germs of dis
ease that it has absorbed with ex
press train speed to its destina
t ion.
Gibbon lias described the histori
cal Attila as exhibiting tlie "genu
ine deformity of a modern t'almuek.
w ith a large head, a swarthy com-
A common house
fly magnified so
that you can see
how one really
looks.
zl > ! wy : 7 W
W *mW isL .
From a model in
j/z the Milwaukee
(Wis.) Public
Museum.
plexion * • - an( j a custom of
fiercely rolling his eyes, as if he
wished to enjoy the terror which he
inspired." The description is not
inapplicable to this Attila of the in
sect Wo: Id.
If. after all that has been said by
medical science, you yet have any
doubt about the duty of destroying
every fly you meet, then consider,
for a moment, these unquestion
able facts: "On one fly as many
as 6.6C0.000 disease - causing bac
teria have been found, and in a re
cent experiment the average num
ber of germs found on the bodies
of each of 414 flies was 1.250.000."
Every female fly that is allowed to
live usually becomes, in the course
of the summer, the progenitor of
8.000.000 descendants that actually
survive as carriers of disease!
Keep your house clear of flies,
and above all, keep them out of tlie
kitchen and the pantry. Destroy,
or disinfect, or cover with screens,
every garbage pail or pan and
every heap of refuse in which they
van bleed. After all. it is not so
very difficult to get rid of flies. It
costs something, in time and
money, but there could be no bet
ter way to expend either. Because
SOME flies manage to get inside,
your screens, don't condemn the
defenses on that account.
We are now too far advanced
' Zb Z
<3
upon the summer to hope to arrest
Hie scourge Ivy' life slaughter of
individual flies T,,n many were
allowed to escape, through neglect,
or through mistaken mercy, in the
first warm days of spring. The
personal warfa’e must still lie kept
up. with ever-increasing vigor, but
now the large measures must also
be employed -screens. fly traps
and disinfection. Still, a great
deal has been gained.
You will find in GOOD HOUSE
KEEPING MAGAZINE directions
for driving away flies from the
outside of your screen doors, so
that they will not even attempt the
assault of your defenses. And you
may gather a vivid impression of
the critical necessity of ctetna!
vigilance in this matter from read
ing this warning of Dr. Wood's:
Let everything that goes into any
one's mouth spoon-, tumblers- and
baby's nursing bottles RE
'AI DED aft-• a fl. has w alked
on them!
THE HOME PAPER
Dorothy D i x
Writ e s
—OF—
The Reckless
Way
We
Marry
Bv DOROTHY DIN
a PRETTY young bride has just
AA been deserted in. a hotel in
New York after a honey
moon that had lasted only four
days.
Detectives are out hunting the
recreant bridegroom, who disap
peared owing the hotel and an au
tomobile /otieern. and even a tailor
from whom he had rented a swell
dress suit to be married in. and the
poor little bride has gone tearfully
back hoin>' to reflect, upon the un
certainty of matrimony.
Site is even wondering what, her
name is. because she doesn't know
whether the man she married was
named what he said lie was or not.
as she has found out that he was
not rich, as she supposed, or con
nected with a big hospital, as he
told her. nor had he ever been
heard of at a famous medical school
where he professed to have grad
uated.
These Marriages Could
Have Been Prevented.
The girl and her family are doing
a. lot of investigating now into the
pedigree and record of the ex-hus
band. but it's a trifle late after all
the harm has been done, it's like
locking the stable door after the
horse is stolen. All of the good
they can get out of finding out
about this scurvy villain will be
the gratification it will afford their
curiosity, but if they had spent
one tithe of the effort in turning
tlte spotlight on the gentleman's
let old before marriage the poor
girl would have been saved from
making her fatal mistake.
This ease, does not stand alone as
an illustration of the monumental
folly with which people marry with
out taking the trouble to find out
a single tiling about the individ
ual with whom they propose to
spend the next thirty or forty years,
and on w hose good faith and worth
iness their whole happiness and
welfare depend. Ever.' day ws
read in the papers about girls who
have married bogus noblemen or
bigamists with another wife in the
next block, or ex-eonvicts. or men
whom they believe to be prosper
ous and who are swamped in debt
and have no way of making a liv
ing. or men who have some terrible
mental or malady, or men
who have some hideous blot on
'heir past that easts its sinister
shadow over the w hole Ilves of their
w ives.
The tragedy of these marriages is
that almost et erj one of them could
have been prevented had the girl
and her parents used as much ordi
nary prudence in the matter as they
would about acquiring a new horse,
instead of a new member of the
family.
Will Let. Girl Marry and
Not Know Man's Family.
They would not have bought a
S2OO horse without finding out what
sort of stock it came from, w Ito had
raised it. who was its former own
er. w hat sort of a temper and dis
position it had, and getting a vet
erinary's certificate that it was
sound in wind and lintb.
But people will let a girl marry
a man without making a move to
find out what kind of family he be
long* to. whether Ills people are
honest or jail birds; whether he
has tainted blood in his veins or
not: w hether he has got a wife
somewhere else or not; whether
he Is a drunkard or a gambler or
not; whether he has any .settled
and honest way of supporting a
family or not.
'.'f course |t'.7 cgiv enough to
DOROTHY DIX.
why a girl with no experience of
life, and infatuated with a man -
agreeable personality, might think
that it didn't make any difference
who lie was. o: what he had don*
She might be willing to buy a pig
In a poke, as it were, and marry
a man without any investigation
of his standing and character, but
there is nothing else on earth
amazing as the indifference of fa
thers on this subject, and that a
father would permit his little, unso
phisticated daughter to marry a
man of whom he knew absolutely
nothing.
Yet they’ do it continually. Many
a man sees his prospective son-in
law for the first time when ths
youth comes to go through the
meaningless form of asking for
Mamie’s hand in marriage. For
Mamie has told papa to say “yes."
and papa is so busy and so carelc
that he hands over Mamie, soul
and body, w ith every’ one of her po
tentialities for misery or happiness,
to the stranger, with as littl®
thought as he would a pound of tea
across the counter. Worse; H*
wouldn't let the stranger have th*
tea unless he could show that he
could pay for it. but lie lets him
have Mamie without finding out
w hether lie can support her or not.
And this isn’t because father ha ■
such respect for Mamie’s judgment.
He wouldn't trust her in make '
thousand-doilar investment alone.
If stie had that much money to pui
into a stock or real estate or to
lend lie would take upon himself
the task of looking up the title or
security and seeing that It waa
gilt-edge before he permilted her
to part with her money, without
bothering to see if she is swindled
and gold-bricked in the trade or
not.
No Excuse Can Be Offered
For This Attitude.
In this day’ of telegraphs and tel
ephones and newspapers, we all
live in the glare of publicity, and
thete is no difficulty whatever In
finding out all that it Is necessary
to know about anybody else. I
postal card written to the hospital
with which the young man men
tioned at the beginning of tills ar
ticle said he was connected would
have brought out the truth about
him. but none of the girl * family
took the trouble to write it. A da v
spent in a man's home town a ten
minutes talk with his employer 1
few judicious inquiries among hi«
friends would show any father
whether the man who wanted to
marry bis daughter would make her
a good husband or not An in
quiry through Dun or Bradstre*t
will give accurate information a.®
tn any young fellow 's past and pre
sent performance.- and abilities *o
support a w’ife.
With these sources of information
at hand, is it not simply incredible
that any father would be so crimi
nally negligent as not to at lea f
find put what sort of a life part
ner his daughter is getting when
she marries?
No possible excuse can be offered
for their attitude in the matter.
Before a father gives his consent
to his daughter's marriage he
should have gone over the young
man's record with a magnifying
glass and a search warrant. It ”
his business to protect his littl*
giri, and he * , ignally fails to do it
unless lie does his best to keep her
from making a mistake in th° mo»<
i important a*’t of her life.
