EDITORIAL 173 



direction of promoting- a movement an income tax; and, fifteen years ago, 



which may lead, in time, to partial in the face of a situation far less omin- 



checking of some small percentage of ons than the one under consideration, 



the annual loss of which these billions Congress again, by legislation, provided 



represent only a modest estimate, the for the taxing of incomes. True, the 



President urges "that an appropriation Supreme Court of the United States, by 



of at least $50,000 be made to cover a vote of five to four, held that that par- 



the expenses of the National Conserva- ticular law was unconstitutional ; but it 



tion Commission for necessary rent, as- by no means held, as many seem to 



sistance and traveling expenses." He imagine, that income taxation, in and 



adds : "This is a very small sum. I of itself, and however framed, is, save 



know of no other way in which the ap- for war purposes, unconstitutional. The 



propriation of so small a sum would re- field still lies wide open to Congress to 



suit in so large a benefit to the whole enter at will. 



Nation." Again, from a multitude of sources, 



In comparison with the yearly waste, from the President down, comes the 



and the interests, present and future, demand for the taxation of inheritances, 



involved, the amount asked is, obvious- Mr. Andrew Carnegie, whose personal 



ly, a sand grain by the seaside, a drop estate, if left to-day, would contribute 



in a rainstorm, a satellite in a solar so bounteously under such a policy, 



system ; yet there seems ground to ap- urges the enactment of an inheritance 



prehend that even this crumb will not tax law. In England, the "death duty" 



be allowed. has, for many years, been a regular 



And why? Because, forsooth, of the SOU rce of income. With the accumula- 



"lack of money." tion of great fortunes to which, in in- 



We hear, sometimes, of "saving at crea sing degree, attention is to-day 

 the spigot while wasting at the bung- called, the propriety and effectiveness 

 hole," and of permitting fields to lie of an inheritance tax law must grow in- 

 fallow and grow up in weeds in order creasin^lv evident. 



to "economize" on seed corn. In com- But without attempting, here, to dis- 



parison with the case in hand, however, cusg in detail the principles of taxation, 



all such figures shrivel into hopeless in- attent ion is simply called to the follow- 



adequacy; and, for historic examples {nf , facts . First " that the need for 



of legislative helplessness, the mind re- ac ' tion ig paramO unt; -second, that our 



verts to decaying Oriental govern- count ry, the richest on the globe, is 



merits, or to Old France, tottering to abundantly ablCj from any O ne of three 



* sources loans, income taxes and in- 



The remedy suggested is a loan. In heritance taxes _ to provide the funds 



comparison with sitting idly and watch- . ... r 1 u 



ing this inconceivable waste continue wlth whlch a hopeful beginning in con- 



and multiply, a bond issue would be servation may be made ; and third, that, 



wisdom and economy themselves ; for so far ' Congress has not seen fit to ap- 



what were the interest on the bonds in propnate even the pittance of $50,000 



comparison with the wealth which, like which the President urges for the mam- 



another Niagara, is pouring yearly into tenance of the National Conservation 



the all-consuming maelstrom of waste Commission, 



here depicted ! JS &' % 



But have we no other resource than Forestry and Dry Farming 

 bonds? Assuming that our present 



sources of National income, including T T OW to grow crops in the semi-arid 



tariff duties, are yielding their maxi- 11 belt lying east of the Rock Moun- 



mum, does statesmanship here reach its tains has long been a question. A solu- 



limit? When National safety was men- tion, it is claimed, has now been found 



aced by civil strife resort was had to in dry farming. The land is first deeply 



