David Cay Johnston notes that this is just the continuation of a long trend of reduced IRS budgets:
“, the IRS will spend 20 percent less per capita in real terms than it did in ,” he says.
“That means a lot of tax money is being left on the table because the IRS lacks the resources to identify cheats, to pursue those who owe taxes, and to make cases the Department of Justice can prosecute.”
La Arena has a brief article about “a violent act and its cover-up.” The violent act in question came when someone fired 23 shots into a vehicle carrying tax inspectors in the Entre Ríos province of Argentina (the inspectors were saved by their paperwork-filled briefcases). The cover-up went something like this:
The violent attack happened, the police quickly identified the aggressor
and raided his home, where they found a small arsenal of weapons of
war — it is not clear if they were registered. They also found proof in
his truck of recently-fired gunpowder residue. With these (and other)
details the case merited at least preventative detention, but the
prosecutor [Juan Sebastián Blanc] intervened in spite of the overwhelming
evidence from the attack, putting the attacker at liberty, judging that
there was not sufficient evidence for such a determination.
Non-Co-operation Movement and Attack on Financial System Rapidly Growing
in East
Plans are under consideration by leaders of the movement for Indian
independence to strike at the British Government of India in the surest
possible way — to undermine its finances, according to the latest word
received by the Friends of Freedom for India, 799 Broadway.
The dispatch states that Mahatma K. Gandhi, leader of the nonco-operation
or Swaraj movement, will shortly issue a proclamation calling an the people
of India to refuse to pay taxes to the British administration.
Before this step is taken, according to the dispatch, Gandhi will urge every
native Indian policeman and soldier to leave the service of the British
Government, in order that when the inevitable bloodshed results the
responsibility may be placed squarely upon the English police force and
soldiery.
Non-Co-operation Movement Spreads.
Meanwhile, the government has taken official cognisance of the rapidly
spreading non-co-operation movement by calling upon all citizens and Indian
officials to avow their active opposition on the ground that the movement is
“frankly anarchical or revolutionary,” according to the same news sources. A
United Provinces Government communique, dated
, is as follows:
“The position taken by the government is that opposition to the
non-co-operation movement is the duty of all citizens, without regard to their
political views, as the movement is frankly anarchical or revolutionary. Any
existing prohibitions to government officers regarding participation in
political movements cannot apply to them when actively opposing
non-co-operation, and it is the policy of the government to encourage all
officials to declare themselves openly and actively against the movement.”
Taraknath Das, executive secretary of the Friends of Freedom for India,
explained that the British Government had always prohibited its officials in
India from engaging in the politics of the country, at that this rule had been
voided in view of the growing strength of Swaraj.
Government Officials Resign.
The response to the proclamation, the dispatch states, is that many government
officials have resigned, including many who were not active participants in
the non-co-operation movement, but who refused actively to oppose it. As far
as the populace is concerned, the order has been ignored completely.
Promulgation of the order was immediately followed by scores of arrests in the
province of Behar. Known followers of Gandhi were subjected to restrictions
which forbade them from leaving the province, and in some cases the city, and
prohibited their making any public addresses.
Strikes of railwaymen, general strikes, revolts in the agrarian districts, and
the winning of support from the loyalist faction mark the progress of India’s
struggle far independence, other dispatches state.
A strike of 25,000 railway workers in the province of Bengal was in progress
when the Friends of Freedom for India received its last word. Starting from
Calcutta, the strike spread rapidly through the province. English engineers,
however, refused to join the strikers, and went so far as to equip their
trains with machine guns.
Lloyd Comes in — Workers Go Out
When Sir George Lloyd, governor of the province of Bombay, went to the City
of Karachi all the workers walked out in a general strike and remained out
during the continuation of his stay, which was a week. Karachi is the second
largest port in India, according to Mr. Das.
Four persons were killed and 11 injured when the police at Raebarli fired on
a crowd of peasants, the dispatches state, For some time previously the
peasants of this and other districts had been in a state of revolt against an
increase in taxes.
Loyalists, who had previously taken a position analogous to that of the
liberals in England, have gone over to the support of Gandhi’s program of
complete independence for India, according to the dispatches. An example of
their support has been accorded in the legislative council of Gengal, where
they forced through a measure cutting down the appropriation for the police
force one-third. This has caused apprehension in England, according to Mr.
Das, coming as it does at a time when the police and military of India are
being strengthened against possible revolt rather than decreased in number.
