The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-01-15
BY RAY BLACK
United Press STAN Correspondent

CHICAGO, Jan. ia taxpayers
revolt brought Chicago to the brink
Of bankruptcy.
Taxes are too high; assessments
are unfair" home owners, shop
keepers and business men protested.
we won't pay"
They did not pay. More than
S140,000,000 in taxes for the last
four years remain unpaid. While 88
per cent of the 1923 taxes was sent
in, only IS per cent Of the 1929 as
sessments was met, and the 1880
and 1881 tax statements lie on the
city treasurer's desks unsent.
The muddle dates from a re-
assessment a few years ago. Middle
class folk complained that $l5,000,-
100000 in personal property, trust
estates, bank deposits and other
holdings of the rich had been left
off the tax rolls. Irate home owners
organized, retained attorneys.
Test Case Won by Widow
A test case was brought in behalf
of Mrs. Lillian Cisar, an Oak Park
widow. She refused to pay taxes
on her home because the assessment
was unfair.
County Judge Edmund K. Jarecki
heard the case.
"Scandalous and a crying shame"
he said of the tax apportionment.
What can be fair about an assess
ment that deliberately omits $751;
000000,000 of taxable wealth."
Judge Jarecki declared the 1928
and 1929 tax rolls void. Since the
1880 roll was based on that of 1923,
it, presumably also, is illegal.
The decision was appealed to the
Illinois supreme court this week.
Unless the high court reverses Judge
Jarecki, the whole taxing scheme of
the city and county will have to be
revamped before taxpayers can be
compelled to pay.
Legislature Stumped
Last Tuesday, Superior Judge
Charles A. Williams issued a writ
of mandamus compelling the board
of review to place the $4,000 ,000,-
900 Of personal property in the tax
lists. If the supreme court upholds
that order, enough valuation would
be added to cut the tax rate in half.
But how soon the complicated
tangle of suits, appeals and writs
can be cleared up so money &C
tually will start pouring into mu-
nicipal Golfers again, is profile
NAUTICAL.
The state legislature, meeting in
special session to pass laws to re-
make the tax machinery, is at
loggerheads. One relief bill was
killed in test vote. 1t will be re-
considered next week.
AS the matter stands, citizens
howled about their taxes, refused
to pay them, and a court upheld
them. They are in revolt with
legal sanction.
Editorial BIames Graft
Appeals of officials and civic lead
ers that homeownerS pay now and
trust to later court rulings for re-
apportionment have gone unheeded
Not cent in taxes has been paid
since Judge Jerecki's ruling.
The Chicago Tribune, in an edi-
torial headed, "A Stout Thief on q
Starved JackasS," placed the blame
in these words:
THE voters elected officials to
steal the public funds. The officials
stole the funds. To replenish them,
they raised taxation and stole more
funds.
Theft and taxation climbed to-
gether. Corruption and collapse
were twins from one cradle.
This impossible structure of graft
was about to fall of its own weight
when bad times came to take the
taxpayer on the other flank. That
settled it. In Chicago the very ma
chinery for levying taxes had to
break down under its sins. Other
cities went to ruin without that
added cause.
Crisis Grows Acute
American democracy has given
its demagogic and dishonest poll
tical system enough rope, but the
system has hung, not itself, but the
democracy. Charlatans of reform,
brainless windbags, greedy alimon-
ers, sour bigots and fat scoundrels
have crossed the country as
plague of locusts and the fields are
bare"
Whatever the cause, the crisis
grows hourly more acute. There is
a tenderness even where want, cold
and hunger have not yet laid clutch.
Knowing that hundreds of thou
sands are existing from meal to
meal by charity, the millions who
have not yet suffered have begun to
wonder.
viii we be next, if the city goes
under?' is question none can an
Swer now.