“Nothing in Bible About It,” Refuse to Pay Tax

I’ve written before about the epidemic of tax resistance among newly-enfranchised rural women in Pennsylvania in . Here’s a story that may or may not be related. It comes from the Belmont Dispatch:

“Nothing in Bible About It,” Refuse to Pay Tax

 Because “there is nothing in the Bible that says women should pay taxes,” wives of Warwick township farmers refuse to pay per capita levies until forced by liens.

This was revealed by Jacob G. Conrad, township tax collector, and W.T. Wahls, state tax collector, after they filed liens against the properties of four women.

Thereupon the women paid the $4.20 per capita tax, and an additional $2.40 each for costs.

Conrad explained there is a strong faction of Mennonite farmers in the township, headed by Christian Landis, which fights continually against payment of taxes by women.

“They claim,” said Conrad, “that the Constitution of the United States is based on the Bible, and that nowhere in the Bible can they find any record of any woman having to pay taxes.

“This group will not pay until forced to do so, as a matter of principle.”

At first glance, this seems to me to have been a distinct phenomenon, though it may have been inspired by the earlier tax revolt.