The French Chamber on Friday week committed itself by a
large vote to a sweeping extension of the system of progres- sive Death-duties which has already become law as part of the Budget. The scale for bequests under 200,000 francs varies from 1 to 15 per cent., and in the case of a sum of 1,000,000 francs from 24 to 184 per cent., according to relationship. But according to the proposed legislation, a millionaire in our sense might have to pay 50 per cent. This " anti- millionaire " Bill, as it is called, enacts that "when the net share devolving on each beneficiary exceeds one million francs, the succession-duty from death or gift in lifetime, as provided by Clauses 1 and 17, shall be increased by a twelfth ; for an inheritance of two millions and over, by a tenth; for .three millions and over, by an eighth ; for five millions and over, by a fourth ; for ten millions and over, by a half; for twenty millions and over, it shall be double; it shall be two and a half times as great for fifty millions and over, and shall be tripled for a hundred millions and over." An analysis of the division list reveals the signifi- cant fact that the majority of 375 included 41 so- called Moderates, 38 Reactionaries, 23 ./Cationalists, and 15 "Rallies." Only 7 " Rallies " and Reactionaries voted against the Bill, while 22 remained neutral. M. de Blowitz, who declaims against the Bill as sheer confiscation, calcu- lated to expatriate capital and ruin France, predicts that the Cabinet, though summoned by the Chamber to support the Bill in the Senate, will only nominally defend it and that the Senate will reject it unceremoniously. That we take to be certain. It is all very well to worry the Government, but we do not believe that any such extreme anti-capitalist measure will ever become law in France,—the natural home of accumulation.
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