French Catholics Should Refuse to Pay Taxes to Hostile Government

A London Times/New York Times “Special Cablegram” from :

A Paris Paper’s Suggestion.

It Wants Frenchmen to Refuse to Pay Taxes, as a Protest Against the Closing of Church Schools.

The Paris correspondent of The Times says that the Libre Parole publishes an article appealing to Frenchmen to refuse to pay any direct taxes by way of protest against the Government’s measures in regard to the Catholic schools. The paper says that peoples like the British and American, possessing habits of liberty, contemplate what is going on in France with disdainful pity.

This, says the correspondent, is rather amusing, coming as it does from men who abuse the Dreyfusards for appealing to the opinion of foreigners.

The correspondent says it is a good thing that there is no intention to refuse to pay indirect taxes, because MM. Copée and Lemaitre, who are prominent Nationalists, are great smokers, and would either have to leave France or give up cigarettes, as well as tea, coffee, and alcohol.

Libre Parole was a right-wing, overtly antisemitic newspaper, now largely remembered for its role in whipping up public sentiment against Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew falsely accused of treason. It was allied with conservative Catholicism in France.


When a tax comes between someone and their dog, they’re bound to get upset. From the Cornwall Chronicle of Launceston, Tasmania:

The Dog Act.

If the irresponsible Legislature of this colony think proper to make oppressive Laws, it is the duty of the people to resist them, which can be done most effectually by passive resistance. The colonists universally admit the necessity for a Legislative enactment to suppress the useless increase of dogs, and the keeping of those animals by persons who under the pretense of kangaroo hunting employed them in the destruction of sheep, subjecting thereby the flockmasters to inconceivable loss; but the interest of the flockmaster cannot be injured by permitting householders in the town to have a watch dog on the chain exempt from duty: it is so in England, and however much inclined people may be to submit to the necessary infliction of taxes similar to those imposed on the subject in England, they cannot sanction an excess of taxation here, not recognized there.

The wool kings expunged the clause in the draft of the Dog Act which permitted every householder to keep a watch-dog on the chain free from tax, on the grounds that they, the wool kings, were willing to pay for their sheep-dogs, and that therefore the householders in the towns should pay for their watch-dogs; if by any reasoning it could be made to appear that dogs kept on the chain in the town of Launceston could injure flocks of sheep in the country, we should say that householders were bound to submit quietly to the tax, but, as it is impossible for such a thing to occur, we think householders should not submit to the payment of a tax for their watch-dogs; it is repugnant to the law of England, and an oppressive tax which will fall harshly upon the industrious and needy portion of householders.

For dogs kept for pleasure no reasonable objection can be made against a tax upon them — it is necessary for the public safety that the number of dogs running at large should be lessened, or that they should be kept under a proper controul; on the luxuries of the rich taxes should be raised, not on the necessities of the poor; dogs kept for pleasure are fair game for taxation — those kept to protect the homestead of householders of all classes are exempt from taxation in England and should here be sacred from the merciless hand of the tax gatherer.

We recommend every householder who keeps a dog for the purpose of protecting his property, not to pay a tax for the animal; let this passive resistance be general, and if the police choose to lay informations against the owner, let them call in an auctioneer and sell for the tax and police costs, and if a bidder can be found for any property seized upon for such a purpose, we think we do not know the people of Launceston. If this righteous resistance to an arbitrary tax, be general, the law will become a dead letter — it is for the inhabitants to oppose their solid phalanx to the executioners of an unjust, tyrannical and most oppressive tax.

From the New York Herald:

Refuses to Pay Dog Tax Where There Are No Police

Yonkers Man Writes City Clerk to Come After His Animal, Which Is Kept for Protection Which He Is Taxed For but Doesn’t Get

“The more I look at some policemen the better I like my dog,” is the sentiment expressed by Robert H. Miller, of № 43 Hillside avenue, Wakefield Park, in a letter anent the tax on dogs that was sent to the City Clerk, James W. Howorth. In the letter Mr. Miller states his refusal to pay the tax on the dog and instructs the clerk that he may call for Ami (the canine) any time he desires.

“I wish to state that I consider said tax a unjust burden for owners who have dogs for their home and families’ defence, not for luxuries, as the cost of living to raise five children is expensive enough without feeding a dog if he was not necessary in the wild section of this town, as we have no benefit from all the taxation with which we are burdened, no open streets, no police, no sewers, and many more necessities that I could mention,” he complains. After threatening to move from the suburb into the city proper, he goes on:—

“Coming back to the dogs, I consider a dog which is kept on the chain or on the premises in wild sections as a saving to the city. If it would not be for the dogs there would be more crimes, and that would mean more police and more taxes. But the time will come when the city will buy dogs and feed them to look after tramps who hang out in these sections, as they are more efficient than the police.”

From the Adelaide Mail:

Tax Resisted

As a protest against the £4 tax imposed on dogs in Breslau (Germany), 5,000 yelping canines of every Imaginable breed were paraded outside the town hall by their indignant owners, and much to the delight of the onlookers. The astonished city fathers agreed to investigate the complaint.