Property and Inheritance. 
The obvious administrative objection to this 
proposal is the difficulty of distinguishing between 
the elements in a single fortune which are at different 
stages in their progress towards the national 
exchequer. Dr. Dalton, who has familiarised English 
readers with Rignano’s proposal, considers that they 
can be overcome, but, to lessen them, he proposes a 
modified and simplified application of the principle. 
He would confine the scheme to differentiating 
between personally accumulated and inherited pro- 
perty ; these, he suggests, might be called Earned 
and Uneamed Property, to correspond with the 
distinction between Earned and Unearmned Income 
for purposes of Income Tax taxation. Estate Duty 
would be levied on both categories of property, but 
the scale of duty would be much higher on the 
Unearned than on the Earned Property. In addition, 
in order to make the tax effect a more rapid equalisa- 
tion of property, he proposes to add a succession 
or legacy tax, levied on the recipients of legacies, 
and graduated progressively according to the size 
of the legacy. 
There are obvious administrative difficulties, quite 
apart from the political difficulties involved, in giving 
effect to either of these schemes. They tum chiefly 
on the difficulty in preserving the distinction between 
“earned ” and “inherited ”’ elements in an estate, 
and, in Rignano’s scheme, between property in its 
first, second, and subsequent hands. It would not 
be sufficient to register the money value of the 
original estate, because capital values vary with the 
state of business and the rate of interest; an estate 
consisting of a couple of tramp steamers might have 
been worth half a million in 1919, and aimost nothing 
in 1922. A high exemption limit to the taxes would 
simplify the problem, but not remove it, 
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