which are that no other formality is necessary if the will is written, signed and dated exclusively in the handwriting of the testator. The comment was made by opposing counsel in the argument that we might next have a case from the Fiji Islands where the rubbing of two sticks together is said to be sufficient to transfer title to real estate, but the court, commenting upon that proposition said:

"Our statute provides for wills made according to law, and it will be time enough to determine whether one made according to the customs of barbarians or savages is embraced in that term, when some person having property in Maryland attempts to follow such custom."

Now the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws have carefully considered what requirements are essential. They have determined them to be the writing and the signing. There should be no difficulty in our accepting for the Association the conclusions of the Commissioners reached after threshing out the whole matter for several years, adopted by them unanimously and already the law of five states of the Union.

The President:

Before putting the question I desire to say for the information of the Association that the principle in question has been the law in Louisiana since it was admitted to the union.

George Whitelock, of Maryland:

I might add that the Court of Appeals of Maryland has sustained both a Swiss and a French will in which the grossest injustice would have been done if adherence to the requirements of the law for wills executed in Maryland had been necessary. The second resolution was then adopted.

Walter George Smith, of Pennsylvania:

I now move the adoption of the third resolution, which is that these acts, together with other acts heretofore approved by the Association be recommended for adoption by the states that have not yet adopted them.

Amasa M. Eaton, of Rhode Island:

I second the motion.

The third resolution was then adopted.

(See the Report in the Appendix, page 430.) Theodore Sutro, of New York:

The Committee on Taxation has not printed its report. Our committee submitted a report in Detroit asking for a sufficient appropriation to enable it to compile and digest the laws of the several states providing for taxation of inheritances, preliminary to framing a model inheritance tax law. The Association voted to appropriate one thousand dollars for this committee for this preliminary work. Under this resolution the Executive Committee early in 1910 decided to vote $250 to this Committee. The committee, however, deemed this sum too small to enable it to secure competent assistance for the proposed work, and did not draw the money. In the meantime similar work was taken in hand by a Committee of the International Tax Association, and that committee submitted a report at the Conference on Taxation held in Milwaukee on September 1, 1910, suggesting a draft of a model inheritance tax law and containing a summary of the main provisions of the inheritance tax legislation of the several states. In January, 1911, a Conference on Taxation was held in the city of Utica, N. Y., at which a resolution was adopted approving the general features of the model inheritance tax law of the International Tax Association; and at the last session of the New York Legislature the model law recommended by the Utica Conference was in substance adopted, and was approved by the Governor on July 21st of this year.

The committee does not desire any action of the Association at this time looking to approval of a model inheritance tax law. It does ask, however, that the resolution passed at Detroit in 1909, appropriating $1000 to the committee, be readopted.

It ought thus to be able to present to the next annual meeting a form of inheritance tax law which the Association can approve and recommend for adoption by the legislatures of the various states.

which are that no other formality is necessary if the will is written, signed and dated exclusively in the handwriting of the testator. The comment was made by opposing counsel in the argument that we might next have a case from the Fiji Islands where the rubbing of two sticks together is said to be sufficient to transfer title to real estate, but the court, commenting upon that proposition said:

"Our statute provides for wills made according to law, and it will be time enough to determine whether one made according to the customs of barbarians or savages is embraced in that term, when some person having property in Maryland attempts to follow such custom."

Now the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws have carefully considered what requirements are essential. They have determined them to be the writing and the signing. There should be no difficulty in our accepting for the Association the conclusions of the Commissioners reached after threshing out the whole matter for several years, adopted by them unanimously and already the law of five states of the Union.

The President:

Before putting the question I desire to say for the information of the Association that the principle in question has been the law in Louisiana since it was admitted to the union.

George Whitelock, of Maryland:

I might add that the Court of Appeals of Maryland has sustained both a Swiss and a French will in which the grossest injustice would have been done if adherence to the requirements of the law for wills executed in Maryland had been necessary. The second resolution was then adopted.

Walter George Smith, of Pennsylvania:

I now move the adoption of the third resolution, which is that these acts, together with other acts heretofore approved by the Association be recommended for adoption by the states that have not yet adopted them.

Amasa M. Eaton, of Rhode Island:

I second the motion.

The third resolution was then adopted.

(See the Report in the Appendix, page 430.)

Theodore Sutro, of New York:

The Committee on Taxation has not printed its report. Our committee submitted a report in Detroit asking for a sufficient appropriation to enable it to compile and digest the laws of the several states providing for taxation of inheritances, preliminary to framing a model inheritance tax law. The Association voted to appropriate one thousand dollars for this committee for this preliminary work. Under this resolution the Executive Committee early in 1910 decided to vote $250 to this Committee. The committee, however, deemed this sum too small to enable it to secure competent assistance for the proposed work, and did not draw the money. In the meantime similar work was taken in hand by a Committee of the International Tax Association, and that committee submitted a report at the Conference on Taxation held in Milwaukee on September 1, 1910, suggesting a draft of a model inheritance tax law and containing a summary of the main provisions of the inheritance tax legislation of the several states. In January, 1911, a Conference on Taxation was held in the city of Utica, N. Y., at which a resolution was adopted approving the general features of the model inheritance tax law of the International Tax Association; and at the last session of the New York Legislature the model law recommended by the Utica Conference was in substance adopted, and was approved by the Governor on July 21st of this year.

The committee does not desire any action of the Association at this time looking to approval of a model inheritance tax law. It does ask, however, that the resolution passed at Detroit in 1909, appropriating $1000 to the committee, be readopted.

It ought thus to be able to present to the next annual meeting a form of inheritance tax law which the Association can approve and recommend for adoption by the legislatures of the various states.

This question has attracted the attention of the whole country. It is of the greatest importance. Under the existing conditions there is not only double taxation, but sometimes triple and even quadruple taxation.

The President (interposing):

What report does your committee make otherwise than that it has done nothing?

Theodore Sutro, of New York:

We ask for a readoption of the former resolution appropriating to us the sum of one thousand dollars, and we report progress and ask for further time to report a model inheritance tax law.

The President:

Will you formulate such resolution as you desire?

Seneca N. Taylor, of Missouri:

This is a report that the committee has done nothing. I move it be laid on the table.

Joseph R. Edson, of District of Columbia:

Let the report be received.

Seneca N. Taylor, of Missouri:

Has the committee done anything?

Albert W. Biggs, of Tennessee:

I am a member of the committee. There has never been anything done, and, as I understand the substance of the report made by the Chairman, it is that it is not now necessary for the committee to expend the money of this Association for the work, because some other organization has done the work and a model inheritance tax law has been passed in the State of New York approved only a few weeks ago. Therefore, the Chairman of the committee says to the Association that it is desirable to have the New York law observed in its workings, and that at some future meeting of this Association the committee may get busy and make a report, but that at the present time it simply reports nothing done.