The poor and needy could be better provided for by state and municipal taxation than they are now provided for by organized charity through voluntary contribution, declared Henry Nias, president of the Lily-Tulip Cup Corporation of New York, who is himself a liberal contributor to charities and a director of the Brooklyn Orphan Asylum, in an interview appearing in the “Brooklyn Examiner” of last week.
Not only would taxation by the government distribute the burden of caring for the destitute equally among the population according to its means, said Mr. Nias, but it would also eliminate the glorification of individuals who, he believes, contribute to charities only because they want to be in the public eye.
“It is a well known fact,” said Mr. Nias, “that the responsibility for our indigent Jews falls upon the shoulders of comparatively few individuals. A graduated tax, levied according to the means of every citizen, would create funds sufficiently large to care for every one in want. The man who owns a delicatessen store may pay several dollars a year. The man who owns a bank, several hundred or thousands.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
