Joseph Maizlish of Southern California War Tax Resistance was interviewed earlier on the Spirit In Action radio show about war tax resistance, conflict resolution, and his life of activism:
War Tax Resister Joseph Maizlish
Tax Resistance.
A Successful Protest.
A number of members of the Women’s Tax Resistance and Men’s League rallied at
Messrs. Harding’s sale-rooms, Wilton-street, Victoria,
, to support Mrs. [Caroline]
Louis Fagan in her protest on behalf of unrepresented tax-payers. A diamond
ring has been impounded, and was the first item on the catalogue. Mrs. Fagan
took advantage of the opportunity afforded to make a very telling statement of
her position in respect of paying for the upkeep of unrepresentative
government.
The ring was brought in by Miss [Gertrude?] Eaton, and the “protestors”
repaired to a handy pitch, where a street-corner meeting was held at which
Mr. Sergeant presided, and Mrs. Fagan spoke again from a dog-cart decorated
with the brown and black of the W.T.R.L.
Mrs. Fagan called attention to the fact that she was not an habitual offender
by stating that her recent appearance before Mr. Fordham was the first, and
that it was the women who were not in such urgent need of the vote who were
coming out to fight for the right to help the others. Mrs. [Margaret] Kineton
Parkes made one of her lucid and logical appeals, and the following
resolution was passed:— “That this meeting protests against the seizure and
sale of Mrs. Louis Fagan’s goods, and is of opinion that the tax-paying
women of this country are justified in refusing to pay all Imperial taxes
until they are allowed a voice in deciding how those large sums of money
shall be spent.”
The light relief was supplied by an irate dame who scolded Mrs. Fagan for not
keeping to her place “in the home,” which brought down on her devoted but
misguided head the remark that if that was how she felt, it was strange that
she should not be there herself instead of at the meeting.
Sold at the Cross.
A “roup” was held at Mercat Cross of the seized goods of
Dr. Grace Cadell, of
Leith-walk, Edinburgh, who is also “out” against taxation without
representation.
Dr. Cadell and her friends
arrived on the scene of action in a decorated dray, and a large crowd
assembled, which was addressed at the sale and at a subsequent meeting in
Parliament-square, by the undaunted resister, and by Miss M. Burn Murdock.
To-Day’s Sale.
Mrs. Fyffe’s goods will be sold for Tax Resistance
, at
Whiteley’s Auction Rooms, Westbourne-grove, about
A procession will start at from Roxburghe Mansion,
Kensington-court, to Westbourne-grove, where a Protest Meeting will be held
at the corner of Chepstow-place, and the speakers will be Mrs. [Anne] Cobden
Sanderson, Mrs. Louis Fagan, Mrs. Kineton Parkes,
Rev. Charles Baumgarten
(Rector of St. George’s,
Bloomsbury), and Mr. Laurence Housman, if he arrives in time from the North.
Mrs. Fyffe hopes that all who can will come and walk with her and attend the
meeting and sale.
Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage.
…
At the monthly meeting of the Executive Committee of the Men’s League the
following resolution was passed on the motion of
Dr. Drysdale, seconded by
Mr. J.M. Mitchell:—
“The Executive Committee of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage desires to
record its sympathy with Mr. Mark Wilks in his imprisonment, and to point out
that this imprisonment is the logical outcome of the law of coverture and of
the non-recognition of women as responsible citizens. In the interests,
therefore, of men as well as women, it calls for the immediate enfranchisement
of women, and for such alteration of the law as shall put women on an equality
with men, as regards both the rights and duties of citizenship and
responsibility before the law.”
And more news of indefatigable income tax foe Vivian Kellems, from the Lakeland Ledger:
Tax Reform Sought
A 75-year-old Connecticut woman who claims the government owes her $83,000 in tax refunds is opening the first round of a court battle she hopes will lead to a better tax break for single people.
“This is the beginning of a crucial test,” said Vivian Kellems of East Haddam, Conn., in a telephone interview.
Miss Kellems, who made good in the electrical industry, said her appearance in a federal tax court, scheduled , marks the first test of constitutional issues surrounding single taxpayers.
Miss Kellems has refused to pay income taxes for three years, claiming instead that the government owes her more than $83,000.
Exemptions granted married taxpayers for their dependents are unconstitutional unless somehow offset by a tax break for single men and women, she said.
Failure to show similar exemptions to single tax payers, she said, violate[s] the 5th, 14th and 16th amendments.
Federal Tax Court Judge Graydon Withey will hear a suit filed by Miss Kellems in which she is appealing an IRS ruling on an entry in her tax return. The IRS turned down her attempt to claim $813.30 in “special food” as a medical expense.
Miss Kellems stands by what she says is a valid deduction, but beyond that says the government owes her a refund, plus interest, for money it has collected simply because she’s single.
“I’m quite sure I’ll lose in the tax court,” she said, but considers that just the first step in an appeal process she expects to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
Before beginning her battle with the IRS, Miss Kellems sold the small manufacturing plant that made her independently wealthy.
The years since then “have been the happiest of my life,” she said.
Miss Kellems travels frequently, appearing wherever she can on television or radio talk shows to promote her cause.
Recently, she found an ally in the Rep. Wilbur Mills D-Ark., who has promised to hold hearings on IRS relations for unmarried persons.
Mills is the single most powerful figure in Congress on tax matters.
Miss Kellems stresses that she holds no animosity toward the officials who enforce the tax laws.
When IRS Commissioner Johnnie M. Walker took office earlier she sent him a note outlining their differences but congratulating him on his appointment.
“He sent back a nice thank you note,” she said.
Walker’s boss, Secretary of the Treasury John B. Conally, appears to be a “worthy opponent too,” she said.
