TR ON THE ESTATE TAX

From the reprint of v. 19 of the Memorial ed. of The works of Theodore Roosevelt published in 1923-26 by Scribner, New York.

The Campagn of 1910, Chapter 3, The New Nationalism, pp. 20 -21


No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of service rendered – not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective – a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.