Agnes: April 27 – Explaining proper method of taxation

Early Saturday morning, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent for me and I dress and go down in fifteen minutes. I found Mrs. Belmont fitting His coat, which she was making for Him. He said some very sweet things about her and asked me to look after her.

The night before I had seen Mrs. Katherine Nourse at the Continental Hall and invited her to lunch on Saturday. Mr. Parsons had a talk with Mrs. Elise Cabot. She was in Baltimore and left her telephone number with Mr. Parsons so I called her up and invited her to lunch also, on Saturday. Mrs. Cabot had a lovely talk with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

During the luncheon, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá talked of the proper method of taxation. He said a great deal — this much I remember clearly that if a man owned only one house and land the products of which supported his family, he should not be taxed for that; but if he owned a second house, a certain rate should be levied on that, if a third, a greater rate, etc., etc. By this method a man could not accumulate a colossal fortune. We appealed to Dr. Fareed to put all that was said regarding taxes into English for us. He said it would be better for him to write it off in Persian, correct and then translate into English.[see ‘Foundations of World Unity’, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá]