Inheritance and transfer tax

William J. Vanden Heuvel looks at the connections between Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, especially their shared commitment to American engagement with the world and promoting conservation. Vanden Heuvel highlights Theodore Roosevelt’s winning the Nobel Peace Prize and his support for an inheritance tax, and he notes that both Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to regulate corporations and the wealthy for the benefit of the working class. Two photographs and a drawing of Sagamore Hill supplement the address.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal

Creation Date

2003-10-24

Alfred L. Hutchinson sends Theodore Roosevelt a second copy of his book, The Limit of Wealth, to showcase the many things he said in his book that are now happening. Hutchinson handed a book to William H. Taft, and after becoming president, Taft enacted the corporation tax, which is something Hutchinson advocated for. Now Roosevelt is writing about the inheritance tax law, which is a step toward Hutchinson’s suggestion that there should be no limits on wealth, but that wealth should be redistributed after death.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-12-12

Judge Robert Grant writes to President Theodore Roosevelt congratulating him on continuously advocating for progressive tax reform. Grant knows that progressive taxes are very unpopular amongst the upper class, who prefer to maintain control over their wealth and dole it out to their inheritors as they wish. Grant maintains that progressive tax reform is more reliable in assisting society’s needs than relying on the upper class to voluntarily donate their money to useful causes.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-12-16

President Roosevelt looks over a fence at a farmer labeled “Congress” chopping the roast off a pig: “salary increase.” The rest of the pig is labeled, “inheritance and income tax,” “big warships,” “Panama Canal legislation,” and “currency reports.” He smokes a pipe as he says, “I’ll take this roast home. The rest will go in the smokehouse.” In the background stands “The Congressional Smokehouse” with a sign, “The Long Cure Process Used.” Four cuts of meat are in there: “Philippines Tariff Bill,” “Ship Subsidy,” “Santo Domingo Treaty,” and “Immigration Bill.”

comments and context

Comments and Context

The underlying point, or contemporary pertinence, of cartoonist Kirk L. Russell’s cartoon is in its title — “Planning a Raid On the Smokehouse” — despite not portraying President Roosevelt as anything but a casual observer over the fence.

President Roosevelt, drawn as a volcano, erupts and spews a dark cloud labeled “Tax on Wealth,” which causes an elephant labeled “G.O.P.” to race for safety. On the left is a mountain shaped like Charles W. Fairbanks, looking very stoic.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The spring of 1906 saw the most radical level of Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, and certainly his boldest and most radical initiatives to date. Yet an examination of his agenda reveals the distinctive Rooseveltian formula for advancing his positions — and possibly his formula for the success he enjoyed. That formula was to anticipate challenges that faced the country, incorporate solutions proposed by advocates, and in the process, soften the extremes but preserve foundational principles. In other words, compromise while moving forward. Roosevelt always thought, and said, that reform was the surest palliative against revolution, and all aspects of his public career — administrative, party leader, writer — worked toward that view of civic life, or as he came to call it, “social and industrial justice.”

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Marshall Stimson for the letter. However, he corrects the assumption about his being nominated in 1912. He expects all of his friends to do everything they can to prevent any movement looking toward his nomination. Roosevelt appreciates Stimson’s concern over some of Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt’s associates, but he “would not be a real man” if he refused to engage with others because of political differences. Indeed most of Roosevelt’s social friends regard him as “a violent and extreme radical.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1911-10-27

Theodore Roosevelt supports progressive and “well-nigh expropriatory taxation of swollen inheritance.” He does not care for the income tax and dislikes taxes on small incomes and inheritances. Roosevelt objected to Amos Pinchot and George L. Record because they took positions “too far off to one side.” He views the Industrial Workers of the World as representing destruction, not advancement.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-02-06

Theodore Roosevelt has always been in favor of an inheritance tax. Since there is now bipartisan support for an income tax, he did not oppose it. He thinks England and Germany provide a useful model for implementing the income tax.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1915-01-24

Theodore Roosevelt thanks Charles Edward Merriam for his work in the campaign and responds to Merriam’s observations about the Progressive Party. While he agrees with Merriam on social and industrial justice programs, the Progressives need to make sure not to “overpaint things” and appear insincere. He thinks the process for making the Progressive Party permanent should be by working with the rank and file of parties rather than with party bosses. Finally, while he does not believe that George W. Perkins should be called the “official and technical spokesman, the philosopher and exponent of progressive principles,” Perkins’ organizing power is a key part of the Progressive Party and their campaign.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-11-23

William Loeb tells Henry L. Stimson that President Roosevelt has received his letter and thanks him for his attention. The check has been sent to Douglas Robinson for deposit in Roosevelt’s account. Loeb reminds Stimson that he asked him to forward the transfer tax bill to Robinson for payment.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-05

William Loeb sends Douglas Robinson a letter from Henry L. Stimson transmitting a draft from the estate of Lulu Grover to be deposited in Theodore Roosevelt’s account. He also asked Stimson to send Robinson the transfer tax bill for payment.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-05

William Loeb sends Henry L. Stimson a transfer tax bill related to the estate of Lulu Grover. If it is all right, Stimson should transfer it to Douglas Robinson payment.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1909-02-02

Thanks to Wayne MacVeagh, President Roosevelt “was able to go through both the act and the decision.” Roosevelt is familiar with the idea of H. H. Asquith, Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, to introduce a graduated income tax and thinks it is amusing to see the “yells of fear and rage with which my proposition has been greeted.” Roosevelt plans to mention the possibility of an graduated income tax as well as a graduated inheritance tax in a message to Congress in the coming year.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-05-10

President Roosevelt thanks Outlook publisher Lawrence F. Abbott for the letter, and reiterates that in working to produce reform and reduce the size of the largest fortunes, he wants to set out explicit steps and avoid vague language. He also wants to make sure that it is clear that he does not encourage “what is wicked among the labor people,” referencing “the hundreds of murders perpetrated under the foulest and most infamous circumstances by the members of the Western Federation of Miners,” which he considers Big Bill Haywood and Charles H. Moyer guilty of. While it is possible to go too far in the enforcement of order, Roosevelt considers it worse to encourage crime.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-28

President Roosevelt responds to Outlook editor Lyman Abbott’s comments on the sections of Roosevelt’s recent “muck-rake speech” dealing with the inheritance tax. Roosevelt did not mean to suggest that such a tax would be the only measure necessary to deal with the amassing of large fortunes, but wished to bring attention to the fact that it would help. He believes that a progressive income tax would also be good, but feels that it is harder to frame such a measure, while modifying the tariff would have a minimal effect on such fortunes. Roosevelt is puzzled by Abbott’s comments about taxing land, and asks if he is trying to revive the theories of Henry George, or if he is referring to something else. Regardless, Roosevelt feels the language is too vague to be useful, while he was trying to bring attention to specific measures that could be accomplished. He was surprised the portion of his speech dealing with labor leaders has received little attention; while he feels that the amassing of great fortunes is harmful to the United States, so too is the sort of violence resulting from “unhealthy sentimentality and morbid class consciousness” like that of socialist leader Eugene V. Debs.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-23

President Roosevelt asks Judge William P. Potter if he truly believes that it will require a constitutional amendment in order to institute an inheritance tax, and points out that there was a statute for a federal inheritance tax shortly after the adoption of the Constitution. Roosevelt does not believe that much can be done by the individual states in matters concerning the entire nation, and says that “while I am a Jeffersonian in my genuine faith in democracy and popular government, I am a Hamiltonian in my governmental views, especially with reference to the need of the exercise of broad powers by the National Government.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1906-04-23

Although William Dudley Foulke has an “utter abhorrence” of President Woodrow Wilson, he fears that the Republican Party offers even worse alternatives. Foulke disagrees with the Republican Party about tariffs and the formation of the League of Nations and discusses the challenges facing railroad and communications privatization now that the war has ended. He also believes that momentum is with the nationalization of industries and that America cannot go back to “reduced wages, longer hours.” As when he was advocating for Theodore Roosevelt’s progressive principles, Foulke believes that the greatest security against “the menace of socialism” is offering equal opportunity.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1918-12-24

Senator Dixon encloses his remarks from three years ago on the inheritance tax. Senator Bristow will be sending a statement regarding parcel post.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-05-30

At the suggestion of Senator Dixon, Senator Bristow provides his views on the parcel post, income tax, inheritance tax, and Mississippi River improvements. He adds a suggestion that railroads could be built to the Alaskan coal fields to supply coal to the western United States and the Navy’s Pacific fleet.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-05-30

Jennie Staine, a high school student, writes that she will be debating about income and inheritance taxes in school and would like Theodore Roosevelt’s arguments about them.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1912-03-29