Existing inequalities ought to be mitigated; and they can be mitigated without doing the slightest injustice to their owners.

The means to such mitigation are, of course, to be found in a graduated inheritance tax--a tax which has already been accepted in principle by several American states and by the English government, which certainly cannot be considered indifferent to the rights of individual property owners.
At the present stage of the argument, no very elaborate justification can be necessary, either for the object proposed by a graduated inheritance tax, or for the use of precisely these means to attain it.
The preservation intact of a fortune over a certain amount is not desirable either in the public or individual interest.

No doubt there are certain people who have the gift of spending money well, and whose personal value as well as the general social interest is heightened by the opportunity of being liberal.

But to whatever extent such considerations afford a moral justification for private property, they have no relevancy to the case of existing American fortunes.

The multi-millionaire cannot possibly spend his income save by a recourse to wild and demoralizing extravagance, and in some instances not even extravagance is sufficient for the purpose.