One World, One Tax

For 50 years Harvester Heiress Mrs. Anita McCormick Elaine, cousin of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, was Chicago's Lady Bountiful. Before she died last February at 87 (TIME, Feb. 22), "Aunt Anita" had given away more than $10 million; even so, her estate topped $35 million. Her largess was distributed left and right, though in recent years, mostly left, e.g., $50,000 to Henry Wallace's Progressive Party presidential campaign.

One of her favorite beneficiaries was the Foundation for World Government, started in 1948, she said, to "do something for the human 'family.' " At the time it was assumed that her $1,043,475 gift was tax deductible. Among the foundation's efforts in behalf of the human family: a grant of $500 to "World Citizen" Garry Davis so that he could read Tolstoy and Gandhi on a "needed vacation," $15,000 to a group drafting a world constitution.

Last week in Washington, the U.S. Tax Court held that Aunt Anita's foundation was "not organized and operated exclusively for educational purposes," slapped income and gift taxes of $571,674 on her estate.

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