Ingersoll, the progressive taxer, the progressive taxer of legacies, the denigrator of charity:
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Ingersoll thought that "the end, so far as land is concerned, could be reached by cumulative taxation — that a man with a small amount of land paying a very small percent, with more land, an increased percent; and let that percent increase rapidly enough so that no man could afford to hold land that he did not have a use for."
He believed in "cumulative taxation with regard to any kind of wealth"; that "a man worth ten million dollars should pay a greater percent than one worth a hundred thousand, because he is better able to pay it." The Colonel said that a man he knew advocated "having the dead pay the expenses of the Government; that whenever a man died worth say, five million dollars, one million should go to the Government; that if he died worth ten million dollars, three million should go to the Government, and so on." And Ingersoll, endorsing this idea, and thereby anticipating by many years our present-day estate and inheritance taxes, added: "I should be in favor of cumulative taxation upon legacies — the greater the legacy, the greater the percent of taxation."
While I may not entirely agree with your theories — probably because I am not well acquainted with them — still, I am satisfied that the children of Nature are entitled to the essentials of life — that is to say, to water, to air, and to land. I am satisfied that the time will come — and I have been long of this opinion — when no man will be allowed to own land that he does not use.
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Some people say that the idle should not live on the labor of the industrious; that nothing can be more infamous than for those who do not produce, to make those divide who do. And yet, this is exactly what happens in every monarchy of the world. The idle do live on the labor of the industrious, and those who do not produce, make those who do, divide with them.
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For a great many years the world has been hearing about "the brotherhood of man." For centuries, poverty was declared to be a virtue. The world was taught to rely on the goodness of the gods, and the charity of the rich. At last, people are beginning to find that they must rely upon themselves; that charity is not what they want; that, as a rule, the giver becomes arrogant, and the taker, servile, cringing, and doubly helpless. The world should be governed on a scientific basis. We should turn our attention, not so much to the relief of the individual cases as to the prevention of want. The world should be so governed, that a healthy man should have no excuse for wanting bread. The rich should become intelligent enough to know, that nothing is as costly, nothing as extravagant, as to reduce wages below a liberal living point. The value of the property in the City of New York depends on the prosperity of the people. If the people are satisfied; if in the homes of the poor you find plenty of food, you find contentment.
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The time has come for the world, as I have said, to be controlled by science — that is to say, by wisdom, by intelligence, by justice. No man can be rich enough to be independent of his fellows, and no man can be so poor as to absolve his fellows from all responsibility towards him.
I have an idea that land to a certain amount and value should be set apart as a homestead, and that such homestead should be exempt not only from levy and sale, but from taxation, to the end that everybody in the state may have a home.
I do not believe that anything in the world would so add to the prosperity of a State as to have the humble homes of the working people exempt from taxation.
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