THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1935. "WEALTH-SHARING"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22609, 28 June 1935, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1935. "WEALTH-SHARING"

At this distance the American administrative machine conveys the impression of operating in explosive spasms. Upon the social security and work-creating programme, and the stir created by it, now supervenes, with dramatic effect, the Administration's " drive " to force a wealth-sharing or wealth-distributing programme through Congress. The details of the plan as regards the rates for imposts on inheritances and incomes are certainly arresting. The calculation is to secure a return of 340,000,000 dollars annually, and bring about the partial distribution of large fortunes. The inheritance levy would range from 4 per cent, on estates of 300,000 dollars to 75 per cent, on those of 7,000,000 dollars or over. But more startling may appear the income tax proposals under which, beginning at 4 per cent, on incomes of 400 dollars, the rates would increase to 80 per cent, in the case of incomes amounting to over ten million dollars. It would seem from the figures supplied in a Washington message that the number of persons in the United States possessing enormous incomes is not quite as large as is popularly supposed. Where there is, however, so much evidence of the existence of great wealth alongside dire poverty, there must, of course, be a strong temptation for the Administration, in face of the existing economic situation, to attempt a process of levelling of conditions. The scope of Mr Roosevelt's scheme may yet in some respects astonish even his own countrymen. When incomes of 400 dollars are directly taxable the net is spread at a level below that at which any part of the British Empire starts its taxation of incomes. In the higher gradations the tax proposals, which would entitle the State to take three-fourths of an inheritance, are exceedingly severe. The process of the imposition of high death and succession duties has been so long in operation in Great Britain as materially to have curtailed many of the large estates, but nothing so stringent as the plan now promulgated in the United States has been deemed desirable. The " drive " which the Administration in the United States has instituted savours somewhat of desperation. In his so-called " wealthsharing " taxation programme, Mr Roosevelt may even be charged with stealing the thunder of one of the Administration's most assertive opponents. A share-the-wealth plan has been one of the principal mediums of Senator Huey Long's self-advertise-ment and appeal to the masses. In one of his recent attacks on the Ad ministration he declared that under the New Deal the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. He estimated that 4 per cent, of th'e people owned 85 to 90 per cent, of the wealth in the United States, while about 75 per cent.

" did not own anything." The middleclass, he declared, had been all but liquidated, and his solution was a share-the-wealth plan whereby all citizens would be guaranteed a decent existence through progressive taxation of large incomes. It will be interesting to observe the reactions to President Roosevelt's proposals. u Our people are not ready," declared Mr Hoover recently, " to be turned into a national zoo, our citizens classified, labelled, and directed by a form of selfapproved keepers." But the Democrat supporters of the President appear to be convinced that his ability to secure re-election to the Presidency will depend on the extent to which his reemployment programme really works.