The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-08-17
Liberal Viewpoint
by DIR. HARRY ELMER BARNES

/ " the Republicans have staged in the effort
to discredit President Roosevelt is the organi-
cation in Boston of THE Minute Women Of
! 1885," who pretend to reproduce the spirit of
the Minute Men of 1776. They put on a second
Boston Tea Party" in the Old South Church
the other evening then assembled in the era
die of Liberty (Faneuil HalD where they de-
nounced "the vicious attempts to cheat or Cir
cumvent the Constitution"
Most of the agitation centered upon the
protest against the new tax policy of the Presi-
dent. but the whole show was an effort to
dramatic opposition to the New Deal in its
entirety. The appropriate committee of Min
ute Women" presented to Gov. Curry set of
resolutions with the request that he forward
them to President Roosevelt. They ran in part
as follows:
The spirit of 1885 is akin to that of 1776
which rebelled against taxation without repre-
sentation for do declare that when our
representatives in the Congress surrender the
powers vested in them by the Constitution to
! the Chief Executive and in servile obedience to
his demands propose to levy taxes that are bur-
densome to the degree of being confiscatory
they cease to represent the people, who are left
with no recourse save through public appeals"
D ARELY in the annals of propaganda has
IN there ever been anything more ridiculous
or unhistorcal than this effort of Back Bay
reactonaries to pose in the shoes of the radical
mob which threw the tea into the harbor of
Boston on the night of Dec. 16 1773.
However much they may have been secretly
egged on by the smuggling plutocracy of Bos-
ton, the tea party mob were revolutionaries
They wished a New Deal, and how And so
did the Minute Men of 1776. They would turn
in their graves at the thought of THE Minute
Women of 1885, taking their names in vain
Nothing can make this more clear than such
sentiments as those of Samuel Adams who was
the outstanding spokesman of personal---very.
Bostonian radicals
If the liberties of America are ever com
pletely ruined of which in my opinion there is
now the utmost danger, it will in all proba-
ollty be the consequence of mistaken no.
ton OF prudence, which leads men to acquesce
IN measures of the most destructive tendency for
the sake of present ease.
When designs formed to raze the very
foundation of free government those few who
are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon
the general ruin, will employ every art to sooth
the devoted people into state of incidence in
attention and security which is forever the fore
runner of slavery"
/ Equally preposterous is the effort to repre-
sent Mr.. Roosevelt's very moderate tax program
as taxation without representation" The
President is an elected officer and, theoretically
represents Massachusetts much as he repre-
Sents Texas or Wyoming If I am not mistaken,
Massachusetts voted rather heavily in favor of
Mr.. Roosevelt in November 1882. And certainly
the Minute Women" must recognize that
no tax bill will become law unless passed by
Congress- To compare the present situation to
that following 1865, when the colonists were
without any direct representation whatever in
the British Parliament is plainly absurd.
THERE is just one close analogy between the
l. Minute Women" of our day end their like
in the pre-Revolutionarv period. This consists
in the fact that there were ''pikers" and tax
dodgers in pre-Revolutionary Boston, and else
where, just as there are today. There are GER
tain Illuminating sinilarities between the reac-
ton to the Stamp Tax in 1865 and the present
protests against Mr.. RooSevelt's tax policy.
In 1765 and thereafter the British desired to
raise funds, in part in America, to police and or
ganize the vast frontier territory in the West
which had been taken over from the French and
Indians. The ColonistS were bound to profit
most from this policing and fertilization of the
frontier because they would ultimately settle
there. Hence it was certainly just to tax them.
And the Stamp Tax was surprisingly fair tax
But tax paying was no more popular then than
now So the wealthy raised great howl and
! tricked the "boobs' into supporting them.
Today, President Roosevelt proposes a new
4 taxation program designed to bolster up the
captalistic system. Those with property-espe
cially the rich-have the greatest stake in the
success of this plan. But, like the pikers of
/ 1865 they are attempting to dodge their respon-
siblties. They may be less successful. how
1 ever. than their predecessors were ITO years ago
in "trcking the boobs."