The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-11
TROUBLES OF THE PERSONAL
 TAX COLLECTORS
Names of Influential Delinquents
 Don't Get Into Print Collector Patrick Cuddy Dis cusses Typical Case - Poor
 Foreigners Are Marks

A good example of the great amount 1 of confusion which exists over the
 personal tax assessment and the diff lectors find themselves each day, was
 given in an incident which occurred
 yesterday in that office. Much loud talking and bit of heated argument emanated from this room and attract ed the attention of a Farmer report CT. 1t appears that the name of a 1 man prominent in the business life of 1 the city appeared on a list of delin- quents handed to the prosecuting at- ! torney. The personal tax collectors claim that the fact that only the out influence appear on the delinquent list, Is due to no fault of theirs. The collectors guess some one makes it a point to get in touch with anyone of prominence or influence whose name | is on the list and informs him that his
 name has been presented for prosecu- ] tion. .
 At any rate they aver that this has
 happened once or twice. Recently a man whose name was sent to the prOs- ecutor showed up immediately and paid his tax, whereas the foreigners whose names were on the list were hauled into court
 "A similar thing happened ,yester-
 day, said Patrick Cuddy one of the collectors, "and don't think it is fair. It shows. too much discrimination. A l man who happens to. be a manufac-
 turer was delinquent. When I went | to his home to collect the money he
 was in bed He got up and when I told him who I was and what I was after he said that he didn't owe any tax because he was over 6d years of age and therefore exempt.
 T told him that we had to. have some proof of that and that every
 told me very impertinently to go and get the proof. He didn't treat me very courteously but I was civil to him. I asked him if he was born in I this city and he said he was born in
 New York city. I then asked him If
 he had been married in this city and he replied that he had, so said that l would do and I would look up the rec ords and if his age was what he said, he would not have to pay the money. When I looked on the town clerk s records I found that he was rnistak- en- He was married on June 25, 1892 when he was 61 years of age. That
 made him less than 60 years old so
 we sent tax bill to him. He didn't come in to- pay it and when we called for him we could never find him or get any satisfaction from the people dC the mousse. 50 naCufdlly we sent his name to the prosecuting attorney,
 along with other names
 When the cases, came up in court
 this morning. we discovered that this
 man had not been arrested and that
 his case had been withheld don't consider it fair to discriminate in that manner and when he appeared in our office and questioned us as to why he was subjected to the tax why we explained to him. He came in com- pany with an Attorney. His attorney began to question me and I told him that if he had appeared in court and had been called to testify would have readily answered the questions, but didn't consider it necessary for me to do so now. The rest of the difficulty you heard"
 The manufacturer became consider ably worked up and MT. Cuddy wasn't altogether at his ease. The climax
 was reached when the affair became personal. The manufacturer accused
 MT. Cuddy of lacking intelligence. Mir. Cuddy replied that he had intelligence enough to be gentleman at all times | and that that intelligence was very
 much lacking on the part of the man. l ufacturer.
 MT. Cuddy deplored the fact that
 there was such rank discrimination being exercised. The manufacturer said that some discrimination was necessary. The attorney finally inter- vened and after the money was paid
 and the bill receipted the manufactur- CT. with a blush of anger in his face,