Show conscription of inheritances one means of meeting war cost by THE RT irr REV CHARLES H BRENT budop of the mip philippine in the practical consideration of ways and means at the present time the question of inheritance conscription should be taken up in in detail the younger generation would be deprived of the individual wealth of their fathers fi but they would be beginning their lives with equal opportunities in a country of better opportunity not weighted down by an enor enormous debt and financial burden the idea of the abolition of inheritance is not new it has been suggested many times to be accomplished either by the imposition of very high inheritance taxes or the prohibition of legacies over a certain fixed sum I 1 am not urging it as my solution of the present situation but I 1 consider it worthy of the gravest consideration according to the charter of our liberties all men are arc born bom free and equal of course they are not all born bom equal some are allowed to start their careers with a tremendous handicap I 1 have in the fairly recent past spoken in a great many boys schools ech for the most part the students were rich boys and I 1 have always taken the position that it was a most unfortunate thing for a boy to have his own checkbook unless he had first learned to earn his hie own bread in nine cases out of ten it is an evil result of inheritance what it does is to debase the value of youth the boy depends on his checkbook instead of himself the wa idea of such abolition of large inheritance is the very antithesis of socialism socially socialism sm tends to decrease the freedom of the ina individual vidual the principle of making it impossible for any youth to inherit a large fortune is a principle of individualism it would act to increase the freedom of the individual in drawing nearer to actual equality it would offer offe r to the young man more opportunity of individual development and individual value it would make the individual more important to the state because of his own innate value it would proceed on a principle of individual democracy instead of on a principle of socialism it would mean equality of opportunity and that is the basis basia of democracy the basis of our nation what we are fighting for in the present time of need it would release an immense immense amount of money an and diree free the country from great future burden |