People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1893 — LABOUCHERE'S REMEDY. [ARTICLE]

LABOUCHERE'S REMEDY.

Why Not Apply the Knife to the Root* of the System That Breeds Millionaires and Paupers. Editor Laboucbere, of London, denounces millionairism in America, and proposes as a remedy the following: “Were I an American, I should meet this tendency by a progressive death duty on all bequests. What I mean is, that the duty would not progress on the sum total left by the individual, but on the sum inherited by the individual. Suppose that a man left £l,000,000, and that by progressive duty doubled itself on every £IOO,OOO inherited by any of his heirs. My plan would work out in this way: If the duty on the first £IOO,OOO were 5 per cent., and he should leave one person £200,000, £15,000 would have to be paid; £35,000 by any one getting £300,000, and

so an until the effect of leaving an excessive amount to one individual would be that the state would become the sole heir. This would prevent the perpetuation of accumulations, and oblige a millionaire to so spread his money on his death that a large number of individuals would profit by it” Why wait till a man becomes a millionaire? Why wait till he dies before applying a remedy for mill ionair ism? For every good reason that can be found for a tax on bequests there can be found ten for a graduated income tax The graduated income tax is not only a prevention, but it is a cure. In fact, why not' have both —the bequest tax and the graduated income tax? If one is good, both are better.— Chicago Sentinel. Why simply prescribe for the symptoms of the disease? Why not abolish the conditions that make millionaires? No man ever earned a million dollars by honest labor. In all cases great fortunes, are the result of special privileges. Why not make a correct diagnosis and apply the remedy to the disease rather than to a symptom of it?— Topeka (Kan.) Advocate. The Advocate, as usual, is on the right trail. If actual use and occupancy were made a prerequisite to a legal claim to land; if usury (interest} were destroyed by the inauguration of the sub-treasury plan and the nationalization of the banking system; if the people themselves owned and operated at cost all public utilities; if, in addition, laws were enacted and enforced which would render it impossible to oft ganize and maintain a trust; if all these things were done an individual would find it difficult to pile up a million dollars in the course of a lifetime. Then if all revenues were raised by a graded tax upon net incomes above a certain sum, say 81,000, and upon estates and legacies, all men would be sure of a living, at least, free of rent, interest and taxes. George C. Ward.