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 1.-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 Ora
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 we 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"
= ARELY in the annals of propaganda has
~ there ever been anything more ridiculous
or unhlstorical than this effort of Back Bay
reactionaries to pose in the shoes of the radical
mob which threw the tea into the harbor of
Boston on the night of Dec Is, 1773.
However much they may have been secretly
egged on by the smuggling putocracy of Bos-
ton' the tea party mob were revolutionaries
They wished New Deal And so did the Min
ute Men of 1776. They would turn in their
graves at the thought of 1.-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
! fhn frfo r1f,,1,
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 uroba
olllty be the consequence of a mistaken NO.
tlon OF prudence, which leads men to acouiesce
IN measures of the most destructive tendency for
the sake of present ease
When designs are formed to rae the vow
| foundation of a free government, those few who
are 10 erect their grandeur and fortunes unon
the general ruin, will employ every art to soothe
the devoted people into state of Incidence. in
dCCehClon ana security which is forever the fore
runner of slavery"
Equally preposterous is the effort to renre-
sent Mr. RooSevelts very moderate tax program
as taxation without representation" The
PRESIDENT is an elected officer and, theoretically
represents Massachusetts, as much as he repre-
Sents Texas or Wyoming. If 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 1765, 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 and their like
IN the pre-Revolutionary 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 1865 and thereafter the British desired to
raise funds, in part in America to police and or
ganlze the vast new 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 ratification 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
taxation program designed to bolster up the
capitalistic 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-
sbilities. They may be less successful, how
in ''tricking the boobs."