The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-12
LaGuardia'S Tax Plans

WITH the danger of immediate re-
" prisals at the polls safely out of the
picture, and by raising the cry of another
''relief crisis, the La Guardia administra-
ton is preparing to bludgeOn the work
ing population into submission to program Of tax
alton on the masses and more relief cuts.
To put across this bankers program on relief,
LaGuardia poses the artificial dilemma-either sub
init to wage, sales and transit taxes the unem-
ployed will go unfed
The two most outspoken journals of the bankers
have wasted no words in the matter. Thus declared
the Sun in a leading editorial Business should
demonstrate that the transit fare tax is the measure
on which they are solidly united" The Wall Street
Journal and the Times, and other metropolitan
newspapers have also eampaigned for taxation on
the working population in the interest OF fair
spread of the relief taxation"
Three proposed taxes have received serious con-
sideration," states the Wall Street Journal They
are: a 2 per cent sales tax per cent payroll
tax and a two-cent transit fare tax'-au taxation
on the working population. Already scrapping OF
the entire plans naugurated last September-levies
on Federal income tax imposts and small tax on
business-is being considered.
MEANWHILE the sacred COW Of Wall Street. the
M debt service, goes unscathed-one- third of the
to be poured into the Golfers of the Wall Street
banks. The strangling Bankers Agreement carries
II million dollars in the same budget.
When presented with the demands Of the organ
lied employed and relief workers that these items
be allocated to relief financing, LaGuardia has
whined that he is bound by law" Yet abrogation
of the Bankers Agreement and moratorium on
debt payments, the last of which has been and is
being effected international scale, something
less than "conhscation," despite the winnings OF
the City Hall gentlemen to the contrary, could be
effected if they were actuated by motives other
than a continued service to Wall Street.
Immediate united front steps must be taken by
the New York working population to defeat the
bankers plans for further taxation the masses
and new cuts in relief. The Unemployment Coun-
ellis which have continually pressed for unity put
forward the program for no taxation on the work
ers increased relief enactment of the Workers IN
employment Insurance Bill and enactment of the
Workers Municipal Relief Ordinance. The last calls
for payment of cash rent and adequate cash relief
for each unemployed family and single unemployed
worker.
Nor is the crisis in New York relief an isolated
occurrence. Every important city in the country
faces the dilemma of either starving its unem-
ployed this Winter or cutting into the profits of
the banks. Retrenchments in relief are being car
red through with relentless disregard for the plight
of the jobless in such widely scattered centers as
Chicago New Orleans, the industrial cities of New
England, Ohio Michigan and Pennsylvania.
State, county and city marches of the unenl-
ployed have been the answer. And in almost every
case they have been met with terror The bloody
events of Albany and Denver are not isolated hap
penings but determined resolve to down the cries
of the jobless with police clubs and gunfre.
IN ANSWER every possible resource must be mobi-
liaed behind the National Congress for Unem-
ployment Insurance which will be held in Wash
ington on January 5, and 7, when the United
States Congress opens. Side by side with an in
tensive building of the Unemployment Councils and
intensified drive for support from the trade
unions and all workers organizations, the Workers
National Congress will reflect the bitter struggles
Of the joblesS, and the unified voice of the
ployed and unemployed for the enactment of the
Workers Unemployment Insurance Bill their only
measure of security in the present period against
recurent crises in relief and stoppage of the hunger
doles of the Federal Emergency Relief Admins
tradon.