When Campbell Soupmaker John Thompson Dorrance died in 1930 leaving a $100,000,000 estate, two States greedily claimed him as a native son. New Jersey asserted his residence was Cinnaminson Township, N. J.; Pennsylvania protested that he officially lived in Radnor, Pa. First to win out in this long litigation was Pennsylvania which last year received a juicy $14,500,000 slice of inheritance taxes.
Last week when the U. S. Supreme Court refused the harried estate executors a rehearing, implicitly approved was the first double state death-tax payment on record. To Camden rushed New Jersey's Inheritance Tax Bureau Supervisor William D. Kelly to pick up a $15,620,793.45 check from the disconsolate executors. Hastily stuffing it in his vest pocket, he bustled off to Trenton, triumphantly deposited it.
More than ordinarily grateful for this money was New Jersey. For the first time in 50 years the State faced a deficit, $13,000,000. Persistently loud has been the demand for additional taxes for Relief (TIME, May 4). Equally loud has been the Legislature's reluctance to legislate a tax bill. That the Dorrance largess, one-fourth of which was interest on the original amount due, was a beautifully-timed blessing seemed apparent to everyone but State Senator Charles E. Loizeaux. Snapped he: "This is just staving off the evil day. . . . Next year there won't be any Dorrance money."