tom the effect of the present system of inheritance upon
the inheritors and upon society; and in so far as the system brings with
it the creation of a class of economic parasites, it can scarcely be
defended. But such is precisely its general tendency. The improbability
that the children will inherit with the wealth of the parent his
possibly able and responsible use of it is usually apparent to the
father himself; and not infrequently he ties up his millions in trust,
so that they are sure to have the worst possible moral effect upon his
heirs. Children so circumstanced are deprived of any economic
responsibility save that of spending an excessive income; and, of
course, they are bound to become more or less respectable parasites. The
manifest dissociation thereby implied between the enjoyment of wealth
and the personal responsibility attending its ownership, has resulted in
the proposal that fathers should be forbidden by the state to arrange so
carefully for the demoralization of their children and grandchildren.
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. Considerations of
practical efficiency make it necessary that the tax should be imposed
exclusively by the Federal government. State inheritance taxes,
sufficiently large to accomplish the desirable result, will be evaded by
change of res