Notes from the Foreign Press
Tax Resistance
No Vote — No Tax! This question seems to have become all at once the burning
one with French feminists, and a large portion of space has been devoted to
it by French and Swiss women’s publications. Logical as the French nation
reputedly is, this aspect of the case must surely come home very strongly to
them. Apparently the position is so unassailable that the “Anti’s” are
reduced to the feeble contention that, if women do pay taxes, they don’t do
it properly. As, it seems, the greater part of French taxation is indirect
(by means of duties, stamps,
etc.), it is
difficult to see how women are able to evade it, however much they, not
unreasonably (seeing their lack of representation), might wish to do so.
Frenchwomen do not find much difficulty, therefore, in repudiating so
unworthy an assertion.
At a recent meeting of the Central Committee for Women’s Suffrage,
Mme. [Cécile?]
Brunschwig tells us in a leading article in “La Française,” there was at
first division of opinion as to the propriety of “profiting by the confusion
in which the country found itself, and the difficulties the Government were
encountering in balancing its Budget, to stir up a movement of agitation and
revolt that might risk complicating things still further.” Oh, the old, old
story! Are there still indeed among us some who are still so (politically)
young and fresh of heart? However, it appears that the doubters were soon
convinced, by reasoning too familiar to need recapitulating here, and the
following was issued to the Press:—
Considering that Frenchwomen have always shown themselves citizens worthy of
the nation’s confidence; that they are ready once more to make all necessary
sacrifices for the State in the form of the considerable fiscal effort now
required of all citizens; but considering that it is iniquitous that women
pay taxes without being able to discuss them through their representatives
in Parliament, or to control their expenditure, that they have in vain
demanded their political rights for a great number of years, and have
always, to this end, adopted the most peaceful methods; while regretting
profoundly having to modify this attitude, they nevertheless decide, should
their political rights not be accorded to them with the least possible
delay, to organise methodically all over the country among tax-paying women
a collective refusal to pay.
Cheers! And from the remainder of the article one gathers that the Union is
really going at it hammer and tongs. An article quoted from “La République,”
written by Mme.
[Marcelle?] Kraemer-Bach, concludes:—
Men alone declare war. They say to women, “Give your children!”
Men alone lead the country to the verge of bankruptcy. They say to women,
“Make a fiscal sacrifice!”
Frenchwomen have had enough of it. They are quite willing to pay, but they
demand the right to control.
Good luck to the tax resisters of France, and may the spirit of glorious John
Hampden watch over them!
