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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.
•Altered as second-class matter at postoftice at Atlanta, under act of March 3, 1879
Subscription Price—Delivered by carrier, 10 cents a week. By mail. $5.00 a year.
Payable in advance.
The Inheritance Tax Seems
Just
». n
But. As a Matter of Fact, It Is Often Unjust and Unfair. This
Is Proved By the Case of Isidor Straus and John Jacob Astor.
The inheritance tax on the estates of the late Isidor Straus and
John Jacob Astor will amount 1o something like $6,000,000. 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 tax 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
heavily in proportion as you tax the inheritance of John -Jacob
Astor.
Astor was not a creator, a builder or a worker. He sat still
and watched his vast fortune increase—he got richer and 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 meth
ods of merchandising added interest to the lives of hundreds pf
thousands of women and helped them to manage their families
economically.
The work that Isidor Straus did was a necessary, useful work,
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 and adviser. He was
active in philanthropy, which took 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 HIMSELF ON BEHALF OF THE POOR AT LEAST A
THOUSAND PER CENT MORE THAN ANY ASTOR EVER
TAXED HIMSELF.
It is unjust to tax the inheritance of the hardworking man as
you tax the fortune left by the drone who receives and 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
since the day he left college. Those that were honored with the
acquaintance of Isidor Straus know that the only anxiety his boys
gave him was the extent to 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
nf a drone.
There is no justice in taxing the inheritance of hard workers
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 gaining ground in
Europe that taxation should fall heavily with double and treble
weight upon the income UNEARNED BY HIM WHO RECEIVES 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.
Free 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 be 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 the nation that which it gets from the nation.
The contrast offered by the inheritance lax upon the fortunes of
Isidor Straus and John Jacob Astor is so glaring that it is used a.s a
basis for this editorial in spite of the fact that the sons of Isidor
Straus would resent the faintest suggestion of a willingness on their
pan to escape taxation or legal demands <»f any kind, however
unjust
The Atlanta Georgian
WAITING
By HAL COFFMAN.
M* < * X. 1 J" ~ ---
IT *
ul. ' - ■ .
x '■ : - —'—
J. x _nx 7
SKY CLAIMS TOLL
In the past ten days a woman and
nine men have met death while per
forming aerial feats.
•July I.—Miss Harriet Quimby and
vV. A. P. Willard fell from aeroplane
near Boston. Benno Koenig was killed
near Altona, Prussia.
July 2.—Melvin and Calvin Vani
nian, George Boutfllion and Elmer and
Walter Guest wi re killed near Atlan
tic City when the dirigible balloon
Akron exploded.
July 4.—Thomas Moore, parachute
Jumper, killed near Bellville, N. .1
Lieut. Casansa, of the Roumanian
army, killed making flight at Buchar
est.
i\/D<Drr» Ai-frila mect “Scourge of God" More Terrible Than the
111 U IVIOUCIU CAlllld King of the Hun By GARRETT P. SERVISS
EVERY day the reasons for
making war upon the house
fly increase In number. One
of the latest indictments against
this disseminator of infection and
death is that he carries about with
him the germs of infantile paraly
sis, as well as those of typhoid,
consumption and other communi
cable disease. It is now believed,
says Dr. Thomas D. Wood, in Good
Housekeeping Magazine for July,
that germs of Infantile paralysis
may live for 48 hours, at least, in
the body of a flv.
This insect Attila, whose march
is more destructive than that of
the scourger of dying Rome, who
declared that grass could not grow
where his horse had passed, does
not appear in his true character,
when we see him quietly sitting in
a window, caressing his sheeny
wings with his hind legs or bob
bing his head while he fondles the
Here is a pic ______
ture of a fly re
produced by per
mission from
Good House
keeping Maga
zine for July.
This picture ac
companies a val
uable article on
the dangers of
the fly pest,
written especial
ly for Good
House
keeping by
Thomas D.
Wood, M. D.
back of his neck, as if he were tak
ing a sunbath and hugely enjoying
it. His diminutive body 'covers too
small an area in the field of the
eye to 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
are magnified many diameters, ive
behold a monster as terrifying as
any of the dinosaurs of geological
antiquity. Look, in the photo
graph above, at the hairy body,
covered with sharp spines; at the
powerful legs with their spreading
spikes at the Joints: at the huge,
repulsive head, with its gigantic
hemispheres filled with the glitter
ing facets of the great compound
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 1912.
x^'f ’
A common house
fly magnified so
that you can see
how one really
looks.
|i 7 //I// “1
plexion * • • and 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 world.
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 6,600 000 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!
eyes, the most extraordinary or
gans of visions in the animal king
dom; at the big, hairy, clublike, ex
tensible feeler, with which the un
clean beast explores the sources of
its poisonous diet, and finally, at
the strong wings, ready spread for
instant, veritiginous flight, which
enable it to carry the germs of dis
ease that it has absorbed with ex
press train speed to its destina
tion.
Gibbon has described the histori
cal Attila as exhibiting the “genu
ine deformity of a modern Calmuck,
with a large head, a swarthy com-
From a model in
the Milwaukee
(Wis.) Public
Museum.
Keep your house clear of flies,
and above all, keep them out of the
kitchen and the pantry. Destroy,
or disinfect, or cover with screens,
every garbage pall or pan and
every heap of refuse in which they
can breed. 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
z/7/
upon the summer to hope to arrest
the scourge by the slaughter of
individual flies. Too many were
allowed to escape through neglect,
or through mistaken mercy, in the
first warm days of spring'. The
personal warfare must still be 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 frorn 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 eternal
vigilance in this matter from read
ing this warning of Dr Wood's:
"Let everything that goes into any
one's mouth—spoons. tumblers and
baby's nursing bottles BE
SCALDED after a fly has walked
on them!
THE HOME PAPER
Dorothy Dix
Writ e s
—OF—
The Reckless
Way
We
Marry
a PRETTY young bride has just
jAA 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 concern, 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 home to reflect upon the un
certainty of matrimony.
She is even wondering what her
name is, because she doesn’t know
whether the man she married was
named w.*a<. ne said he 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
the spotlight on the gentleman’s
record before marriage the poor
girl would have been saved from
making her fatal mistake.
This case 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 thing about the individ
ual with whom they propose to
spend the next thirty or forty years,
and on whose good faith and worth
iness their whole happiness and
welfare depend. Every day ws
read in the papers about girls who
have married bogus noblemen or
bigamists with another wife in the
next block, or ex-convicts, or men
whom they believe to be prosper
ous and w'ho are swamped in debt
and have no way of making a liv
ing, or men who have some terrible
mental or physical malady, or men
who have some hideous blot on
their past that casts its sinister
shadow over the whole lives of their
wives.
The tragedy of these marriages is
that almost every 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, who had
raised it, who was its former own
er. what sort of a temper and dis
position it had, and getting a vet
erinary’s certificate that it was
sound in wind and limb.
But people will let a girl marry
a man without making a move to
find out what kind of family he be
longs to; whether his people are
honest or jail birds, whether he
has tainted blood in his veins or
not; whether 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.
Os course it s easy enough to see
''l
DOROTHY DIX.
By DOROTHY DIX
why a girl with no experience of
life, and infatuated with a mans
agreeable personality, might think
that it didn’t make any difference
who he was, or what he had done
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, bur
there is nothing else on earth so
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 the
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 careless
that he hands over Mamie, soul
and body, with every one of her po
tentialities for misery or happiness,
to the stranger, with as little
thought as he would a pound of tea
across the counter. Worse: He
wouldn’t let the stranger have the
-- tea unless he could show that he
could pay for It, but he lets him
have Mamie without finding out
whether he can support her or not.
And this isn’t because father has
such respect for Mamie’s judgment
He wouldn’t trust her to make a
thousand-dollar investment alone
If she had that much money to put
into a stock or real estate or to
lend he would take upon himself
the task of looking up the title or
security and seeing that it was
gilt-edge before he permitted her
to part with her money, without
bothering to see if she is swindled
and gold-bricked in the trade >r
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
there is no difficulty whatever in
finding out all that it is necessarv
to know about anybody else. 4
postal card written to the hospital
with which the young man men
tioned at the beginning of this ar
ticle said he was connected would
have brought out the truth about
him, but none of the girl’s family
took the trouble to write it. A day
spent in a man's home town; a ten
minutes talk with his employer: a
few judicious inquiries among lii»
friends would show any father
whether the man who wanted to
marry his daughter would make her
a good husband or not. An in
quiry through Dun or Bradstreet
will give accurate information i’
to any young fellow s past and pre
sent performances and abilities to
support a wife.
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 least
Qnd out 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 consen
to his daughter’s marriage he
should have gone over the young
man's record with a magnifying
glass and a search warrant. Il ■
his business to protect his little
girl, and he signally falls to do it
unless he does his best to keep her
from making a mistake in the mo»t
Important act of her lite.