Its success as a mine owner, however, appears to be less marked than as a railway proprietor; experienced business men even assert that the State's coal and iron mines would be operated at a loss if proper allowances were made for depreciation and amortization of capital, as must be done in the case of private companies.

The State also derives comparatively small revenues from its forest and farming lands of some 830,000 acres, which were formerly the property of the Crown....
"The most important State tax is that on _incomes_, which is in all cases graduated down to a very low rate on the smallest income; in Prussia there is no tax on incomes less than $214.

The cities also collect the bulk of their revenues from incomes, using the same classification and sliding scale as the State.
"A highly interesting innovation in taxation is the 'unearned increment' tax on land values, first adopted by Frankfort-on-the-Main in 1904, and already applied by over 300 German cities and towns....
"The bill before the Reichstag [since become a law--W.

E.W.] extends sick insurance to farm laborers and household servants, a change which will raise the burden of this system for employers from $24,000,000 to $36,000,000.

The bill also provides for pensioning the widows and orphans of insured laborers at an estimated additional expense of about $17,000,000....
"A better result of the insurance systems than the modest pensions and the indemnities that they pay is to be found in their excellent work for protecting health and prolonging life.