PRUSSIAN FARMERS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 144, 21 June 1922, Page 16

PRUSSIAN FARMERS

FIGHT INCOME TAX,

When the GeVman Nationalist Deputies in the Reichstag voted against the Government's new taxation, measures on 4th April in a vain effort to keep Chancellor Wirth's programme from becominga daw, they faithfully reflected the antitax sentiments of the big- agrarians, who, according to items fou<iid in the German press, are determined to resort to sabotage oi" all the tax laws in order to foil the Government's attempts to get. a material part of its reparation expenses from the Junkers who have profited immensely by the rise in the cost of living which is appresskig the industrial porkers of the Republic. Writing in ' the Berlin Vorwarts, a correspondent in East Prussia tells jhow the tax officers there have just completed the income tax /oils after two years' work and1 how, in order'to speed up collections and! avoid going over the books of all the-landowners, they have ■avianged to average the yearly income of the estates at from 200 to 300 marks (about 20 to 30 cents at present exchange rates) per. "morgen" (about, two-thirds of an acre)._ Then ho continues:— "This income is an extraordinarily low estimate -when we remember that a 'morgen' of potato, land brings in about 6000 marks. Nevertheless, it- means in tha case of an estate of 10,000 'morgen' an amrual income of from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 marks, and an income tax of from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 marks. Consequently, there is great indignation among the agrarians. They hav.e all filed ■ protests and demanded that they be relieved from paying tho tax until the protests are settled. That means a delay of at least three years in collecting the taxes, and it is said that the Provincial Treasury is inclined to grant this -request. "The big agrarians declared- that they ■would do the same thing with all. the tax laws. In -Berlin the people might decree what pleased them, they (the agrarians) 'would not nay the taxes or subscribe to the compulsory loans. They want to sabotage the whole taxation .system that they hate, and consequently they want to make so much work for the Treasury officers that the latter don't know which way to turn. "During and after the war the agrarians have made enormous profits, which they_ have invested in automobiles, fine carriages and horses, improvements, to their houses, expensive carpets, fabrics, and works of art. Especially did their profits rise to the limit last year because of the suspension of food control. Considering the fearful financial need of the nation, the attitude of the agrarians appears positively criminal. They live in luxury, and, after two years' freedom, from taxes, now decline to" do their duty. They spend lajge sums tc maintain armed bands and to support reactionary organisations, while they would like to see the nation perish."-