The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-29
Sales Tax Looms
In Many Cities
Continued from Page y

Twenty five percent of those on
relief rolls are chiselers and aliens. -
Within the home relief bureaus, a
veritable reign of terror to which
the liberal Welfare Commissioner
William Hodson is a partner goes
on. Police slugging of unemployed
delegations at the bureaus are a
commonplace. Relief workers
within the bureau apparatus who
protest police brutality and dis
elimination against Negroes are dis
charged, transferred or otherwise
intimidated. Honest social work
ers within the city relief organiza-
ton who demand a progressive So
cial outlook towards the unemployed
are rebuffed. A vicious drive, led by
Mr.. Hodson, to smash the organi-
cations of relief workers, the Home
Relief Bureau Employees Associa-
ton and the Association of Office
and Emergency Employees has been
going on for some months.
Prices Go up
While relief is being cut, prices
going up and, to top it all, new
taxes are imposed on an already
half starved populace-all in the
name of aiding the unemployed
the Wall Street bankers are not
touched. On the contrary, they die
tate the very policies, using La
Guardia today as they used Walker
yesterday.
The infamous Bankers Agreement
drafted by Samuel Untermyer, spe-
cial financial advisor to the Tam
many administration preceding the
La Guardia regime, is still in force.
La Guardia is living up to the letter
of this pact religiousIy. =
BY the terms of the Bankers
Agreement, signed in october 1888,
a bankers syndicate was to lend the
city $70,000,000 to be used for work
and home relief. This was to be
repaid by the city with interest over
a period of ten years. 1t will cost
the city about twice that sum when
the entire thing has been paid off.
And it is this agreement which is
the sacred COW Of City Hall, which
La Guardia lives up to, the abroga-
ton or suspension of which he re-
fuses to demand.
Aids Bankers
This agreement, among other
things, stipulated that savings banks
could not be taxed. Real estate in
the city cannot be taxed, according
to the terms of the contract, over
$438, 100000 in the years of 1885
1886 and 1887.
1t is to meet terms such as are
found in the Bankers Agreement
that the city set aside in its 1885
budget, approximately $180,000,00C
for interest and principal payments
to the bankers. What this means
can be understood when it is pointed
out that the $1S0OoO,Oo0 is about
three times as much as all the three
taxes recently adopted would net.
The firms making up the bank
ers syndicate are the Bankers Trust
Company, The Chase National Bank
The First National Bank, The
Guaranty Trust Company, The Ma
tional City Bank, and J. P. Morgan
81 Company.
Morgan Company Is Agent
j. P. Morgan & Company arr
the agents of the entire group.
Power to investigate the book
and financial statements of the city
at all times is given the bankers
syndicate by the Bankers Agree,
ment.
This is but tiny inkling of thu
degree of control the Wall Stree
Shylocks exercise over city's finance
and, thus, over the masses of thu
city.
Two principles were opposed II
the entire tax and relief question
The first was that of the bankers
placing new taxes on the masses
to pay for relief (while at the same
time slashing relief. The seconc
was that advanced by the Commu.
mist Party and supported by mill
tant labor organizations: taxation
of the bankers, the large corpora
tons to pay for relief.
The Communist Party as an i'm
mediate measure, has proposed tn,
suspension of the debt service t,
the bankers, the $4,000 900 thu
rescued to be used for unemploy
ment relief. This debt service is tt
be suspended pending the passage o
adequate Federal Unemployment In
surance, that is, the Workers I'm
employment Insurance Bill.
BY his support of the sales tax
LaGuardia has shown himself agail
a tool of the bankers.
The fight will not be ended will
the passage or defeat of the sale
tax. 1t will continue, with tn
Communist Party leading the resis
/ lance to the efforts of the bank
ers and their agents to place tn
burdens of Tie crisis on the back
/ of the masses.