THE LIMITATION OF FORTUNES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 133, 8 June 1906, Page 1

THE LIMITATION OF FORTUNES.

President Roosevelt's recent utterance on the limitation of fortunes startled America. "As a matter of personal conviction," he said, " and without pretending to discuss the details ,or formulate the system, I feel that we shall ultimately have to consider the adoption of some such scheme as that of a progressive tax on all fortunes, beyond a certain amount," either given in life or devised or bequeathed upon death to any individual—a tax so framed as to put it out of the power of the owner of one of these enormous fortunes to hand over more than a certain amount to any one individual; the tax, of course, to be imposed by the National and not the State Government. Such taxation should, qf course, be aimed merely at the"'inheritance or transmission in their entirety of those fortunes swollen beyond all healthy limits." This was all, but it is said to have caused more comment than any unofficial utterance of his since he declared five years ago that new conditions necessitated " a change from the old attitude of the State and the nation towards property.'' Opinion in the world of business is strongly against the President on this point, but the correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph writes that throughout the country there in a feeling of distrust and exasperation at the accumulation of enormous fortunes by a comparatively small number of men. John D. Rockefeller's private fortune is estimated at £200,000,000. This, of course, is quite exceptional, and probably an exaggeration, but no one in New York is deemed wealthy whose fortune does not run well into seven figures in dollars. The Daily Express makes an interesting comparison between the rich Americans and the richest Britons. Among the former Carnegie comes second with £50,000,000, and then comes W. K. Vanderbilt with £25,000,000. J. J. Astor with £20,000,----000, and William Rockefeller with the same. J. Pierpont Morgan, who once filled the public eye, has only £10,000,----000. No one seems to know what John D. Rockefeller is really worth, for against the estimate given above the I>aily Express puttj his fortune down at £110,000,000. Among Englismmen Alfred Beit heads the list with £100,000,000, and then comes J. B. Robinson £80,000,000, W. W. Astor (who is a naturalised American) £40,----000,000, Lord Stratheana £25,000,006, the Duke of Westminster £16,000,000, Lord Mountstephen £15,000,000, Lord Iveagh £14,000,000, the Duke of Devonshire £10,000,000, and the Duke of Btdford £m;6QO/,00,0. Ife is said that if the President cannot win public opinion to his side on this question during his term of office, he will continue to put forward .hj§ arguments as a United States senator, a position he hopes to occupy when he retires from White House.