TAX DEFAULTERS

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 13

TAX DEFAULTERS

■ NEW MOVE IN CHICAGO MAYOR’S PLAN FOR BOYCOTT. NEW YORK, April 2. The attempts of the Chicago city authorities to break the tax strike, which is reducing the city to a state of total insolvency, entered a new phase, when the mayor (Mr Cermak) initiated a campaign for the general boycott of those who refuse to pay taxes. The adoption of direct action by the city government follows its failure to win a case brought against tax strikers in the courts. The courts held that the city taxes are “ unfair, fraudulent, and confiscatory.” The city government meanwhile finds itself increasingly harassed by urgent appeals and threats from its unpaid employees. Mr Cermak’s method was to enclose in the pay (jfivelopes sent out to 20,000 school teachers an appeal to teachers to trade with those who have paid their taxes. It is suggested that the city government, in conjunction with this, will issue posters to be prominently displayed by business men who have paid. At the same time the mayor is considering the possibility of farniing out the taxes to collectors wdio will bid against one another for the concession and take their chance of making something on the deal. The pay envelopes to the teachers contained only two weeks pay instead of the seven months’ which is due.