Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-08
Ex-U. S. Tax Chief Urges
Repeal of Income Lew
BY RODGER ID. GREENE
Associated Press Stan Writer

RICHMOND, Va, April TT
don't believe in the Government
reaching down into your pocket
and taking money by force, by
police state methods, but that's
what it is doing every day under
our tax system.
Federal income taxes should
be abolished"
Coming from almost anyone
else the words might be just
another cry in the wilderness as
millions of Americans face the
April Is income tax deadline
In this case, the speaker was
the man who directed Federal
tax collections for the first three
years of the Eisenhower ad-
ministration-T. Coleman An
dlews former United Ctates COM
missioner of Internal Revenue,
said he is convinced, on the
basis of his experience in Wash
ington, that the whole 43-year-
old Federal system of personal
income taxes should be wiped off
the books.
Has No Illusions
He has no illusions about a
tax-free Utopia. nor has he any
wlstful ideas of going back to the
days before World War l. when
it took only few million dollars
not billionS-to run the Gov
eminent.
The country has grown too big,
he said, and times have changed.
But he declared:
America today is in the death
grip of taxation. Taxes are too
high from top to bottom. Much
too high"
How does Mr.. Andrews square
such strong feelings on the SUBJ
ject with the fact that he was
United States tax commissioner?
My lob was to enforce the
law, not change it," he said in
an interview. I've opposed high
taxes for at least 20 years, but
in Washington nobody asked my
views on the subject. I did my
job and kept my mouth shut"
Calls 1t Shameful
Since his resignation last Oc-
tober. Mr.. Andrews has en-
barked on a crusade against the
income tax. In Cleveland
speech on February 10, he de-
scribed it as shameful" dis
criminatory' and a serious threat
to the middle-income group. He
defined this group as the $4,000
to $50.000-a-year bracket.
Riffling through a thick stack
of correspondence, Mr.. Andrews
said:
I've been getting hundreds
of letters from people all over
the country since I spoke in
Cleveland Not one has opposed
repeal. Nearly all agree that
our present taxes destroy mi
tlative-and of course are far
too high
The system has reached a
point where very few understand
1t and everyone is kept poor by
1t. When you talk to somebody
who came up the hard way as
did-who went to school bare
footed IN the wintertime and
never got a college education
you're talking TO a man who
doesn't believe in Government
handouts and believes every man
should earn his own way.
Cites Constitution
He also believes he shouldn't
be robbed of his honest wages.
And that's what he is being
robbed Of by today's taxes"
The Constitution, Mr.. Andrews
said, guarantees two privileges
TO every American:
/, The right to engage in bust
ness for a profit.
2. Protection of the Govern
ment in holding on to whatever
he manages TO make.
I'VE still have those proyi-
sions." he said. But the Gov
eminent now dictates what we
may keep. In some cases, it can
and does take as much as 81
per cent Of all a man earns.
can count nine of my friends
right here in Richmond who
have quit work and retired pre-
maturely to Florida because
they got fed up with paying
most of their salary in taxes"
Heads Insurance Firm
Now head of a big Richmond
insurance company, the 57-year-
old Mr.. Andrews said he has
paid my own way since he was
x.aoYc old ,r.y,a., - ,r,a~i,oI -.