Even if we are not prepared to acquiesce in so radical an impairment of
the rights of testators, there can be no doubt that, under a properly
framed system of inheritance taxation, all property placed in trust for
the benefit of male heirs above a certain amount should be subject to an
exceptionally severe deduction. Whatever justification such methods of
guaranteeing personal financial irresponsibility may have in
aristocratic countries, in which an upper class may need a peculiar
economic freedom, they are hostile both to the individual and public
interest of a democratic community.
Public opinion is not, however, even remotely prepared for any radical
treatment of the whole matter of inheritance; and it will not be
prepared, until it has learned from experience that the existing freedom
enjoyed by rich testators means the sacrifice of the quick to the
dead--the mutilation of living individuals in the name of individual
freedom and in order that a dead will may have its way. Until this
lesson is learned the most that can be done is to work for some kind of
a graduated inheritance tax, the severity of which should be dictated
chiefly by conditions of practical efficiency.
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