Pacifist Says He Acted As Individual In Withholding Tax
Dr. Aleck Dodd, discharged
as head of pastoral relations of
the Toledo Council of Churches because of his refusal to pay federal income
taxes in full, will remain in the city and continue his counseling work, he
announced .
He was dismissed after the Internal Revenue Bureau had filed a tax lien for
$150.47 in unpaid income tax for against
him. Dr. Dodd said he was
refusing to pay that part of his income tax as a protest against the
country’s military expenditures.
In a statement to The Blade
,
Dr. Dodd said he and his wife
regretted the position in which his action had placed the Council of Churches.
“Acted As Individual”
“In this matter, I acted as an individual and on the basis of my obedience to
the will of God as I understand it,” he said.
“Our real reason for our action is a religious one,” the statement continued
in part. “Since we are seeking to put our whole selves in accord with the
purposes of God, we have to bring our finances in line. We believe that if we
are to draw nearer to Him, we must use our entire resources for the promotion
of ‘peace on earth, good will to men.’
“It is not government officials or bureaus, nor the government itself we are
opposing, though it may appear so. It is rather an evil system of thinking,
feeling and acting in which we all share.”
Seeks To Protect Family
Dr. Dodd said that the
transfer of his property at 727 Grove Place was made to his wife by him in
order to “protect my family from the possible results of my action, and not
to evade the collection of my tax by due process of law. While I could not
voluntarily pay this amount, $150.47, I made no attempt to prevent it being
taken from me.
“The part of our income tax we decline to pay, we paid to such organizations
as the American Friends Service Committee for use in the relief of the
distresses caused by war.”
The Rev. J. Kenneth Cutler,
president of the Toledo Council of Churches, commented on the Dodd case
before his congregation in Rosewood Presbyterian Church yesterday.
Climax Of Long Series
“The Dr. Dodd case is the
climax of a long series of things which have caused the confidence of many
ministers and laymen in the council to be shaken,” he said.
“In the last four and a half years, six major employees of the council have
resigned, some of them voluntarily but some of them were practically forced
to resign and those within the inner circle of the council know this to be
true. Such a turnover is not healthy to any organization. Furthermore, the
control and red tape of the council has been stifling to the free and
democratic spirit of the Protestant churches.
“The by-laws of the council have supposedly been under study for the past two
annual meetings but have never been reported back for adoption by the
official body of the council.
“Because of my deep personal concern, and the concern of many others, to have
a stronger and more effective Council of Churches in Toledo whose voice will
be listened to and respected, I am willing to risk my future as a pastor in
this city to see that this is brought about or to fail in doing it.
“My one and only concern is to see the council strengthened and to see that a
proper defense of Dr. Dodd to
the right to hold his position as a member of the Christian community in this
city is made.”
Rejects Explanation
The Rev. A. S. Carlson,
pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church and president of the council, declared
that what Mr. Cutler said is “beside the immediate issue. He is dealing with
various items that have preceded this action. If we want a united
Protestantism, a submarining attack is not going to bring it back.”
Cleric Refuses To Pay $150 Of Income For ‘War Purposes’
The Internal Revenue Bureau yesterday in County Recorder’s office filed a
tax lien for $150.47, representing unpaid income tax for
, against the
Rev. Aleck D. Dodd, 727
Grove Place, head of the Toledo Council of Churches pastoral services.
He is one of 43 pacifists who last March declared they would refuse to pay
all or a part of their income taxes this year as a protest against the
nation’s military expenditures.
At that time Mr. Dodd said that he and his wife “are paying part of our
income tax because we believe in supporting all constructive things the
Government is doing, but we are declining to pay that percentage of it which
we understand goes for purposes of war.”
Mr. Dodd said today the $150.47 represents that part of his income tax which
he believes would be used for war purposes. He added he did not know how the
Government intends to collect as all of his property is now in his wife’s
name.
County Recorder’s records show that on
parts of Lots 208 and 209, Scottwood Addition, were transferred by Mr. Dodd
to his wife, Ruth.
Mr. Dodd has been associated with the church council for five years.
A typical government gambit in its battle against tax resisters is to say, “okay, if you won’t pay us taxes, we’ll seize your property instead.”
Some tax resisters have responded to this by taunting back: “you’ll have to find it first.”
And one way they have made good on this is by arranging to have other people hold their property in their names.
Here are some examples:
Some war tax resistance “alternative funds,” into which resisters pay their taxes into rather than submitting them to the government, have a dual purpose: they serve as ways to redirect tax money to causes the resisters find more palatable than government expenses, and they serve as a holding tank for funds that the resisters can later reclaim if back taxes are ever seized from them.
The tax collector was so frustrated trying to seize anything at all from tax resister Ammon Hennacy that, when Hennacy was picketing the IRS office one day, the agent assigned to his case walked up to him and seized his picket sign — telling him he planned to auction it off!
The next day, Hennacy was picketing again with some new signs that he and a friend had hastily made the night before… each one carefully marked “this sign is the personal property of Joseph Craigmyle.”
In the Irish Tithe War, farmers would give temporary pasturage to the livestock of people when seizures were impending:
An organised system of confederacy, whereby signals were, for miles around, recognised and answered, started into latent vitality.
True Irish ‘winks’ were exchanged; and when the rector, at the head of a detachment of police, military, bailiffs, clerks, and auctioneers, would make his descent on the lands of the peasantry, he found the cattle removed, and one or two grinning countenances occupying their place.
A search was, of course, instituted, and often days were consumed in prosecuting it.
Observers noted that during the resistance by British nonconformists against the taxes for sectarian education included in the Education Act, “they are taking the precaution of putting their property out of their own names, so that the collectors will not have anything to levy on.”
Resister John Clifford said, “In the hope of preventing the authorities from getting their money in this way I made over all my household effects to my wife, but the collectors seized them just the same.”
Another resister, Thomas Watson, foiled the collectors for at least eight years with the same technique.
Tax resister Karl Hess sold the rights to royalties from his book to a community organization he worked for, so as to get a more easily-concealable lump sum of cash instead of a more-seizable royalty stream.
War tax resister Aleck Dodd transferred his property into his wife’s name when he began to resist, in order to “protect my family from the possible results of my action, and not to evade the collection of my tax by due process of law.”
From the front page of The Sandusky [Ohio] Register
Star-News on :
Widow Defies Government — Mrs. Caroline Urie, 75-year-old Quaker widow, from Yellow Springs, O., deducted 32.3 percent of the first installment of her income tax for a second time because she said “war and preparation for war in the atomic era is a crime against nature.”
8 Ohioans Refuse To Pay Tax For “Financing War”
Columbus,
(UP) — Eight
Ohioans said today they will refuse to pay all or part of their
income tax because the money will be used to
“finance war preparations.”
The eight were among 41 persons in the nation who announced they will not pay
all or part of their income taxes. All are members of Peacemakers, a pacifist
group with headquarters in New York city.
In a prepared statement, the eight Ohioans renounced war and violence and said
they were “acting for peace by refusing to manufacture weapons of war,
refusing to serve in the armed forces, and refusing to finance war
preparations.”
The Rev. Ernest Bromley,
Wilmington, O. was
identified as chairman of the tax refusal committee of peacemakers. His wife,
Marion, also was listed among those who will refuse to pay income taxes.
Other Ohioans listed include Horace Champney, Caroline Urie, and Ralph
Templin, all of Yellow Springs; Max Sandin, Cleveland; Wallace Nelson,
Cincinnati, and Aleck D. Dodd, Toledo.
Mrs. Urie, a 75-year-old widow, attempted last year to deduct 34.6 percent of
her estimated tax for that year. Congress, however, reduced taxes in her
income bracket and her income fell enough below her estimate that at the end
of the year the government owed her money instead.
There had been a flurry of articles about Urie’s tax resistance. I’ve posted
some of these before.
A caption to a wire service photo of Urie published in many papers around
reads: “Mrs. Caroline Foulke Urie,
74-year-old Yellow Springs, Ohio, widow [“of a navy World War Ⅰ officer,” some
versions add], has paid $294.30 of her income
tax, but has refused to pay the remaining 34.6 percent, because it would be
allocated for military purposes. Crippled by arthritis for 14 years, Mrs. Urie
is bedridden most of the time.”
And here’s a United Press dispatch from that adds some more details to the story:
Quaker Refuses to Pay Tax for War Expenditures
Yellow Springs, O., (UP) — The
elderly widow of a career Navy officer refused to pay 34.6 per cent of her
income tax because “I’ll never pay
any more money for war.”
Mrs. Caroline Fouke Urie, 74-year-old Quaker, wrote President Truman and the
Internal Revenue Department that she would pay only 65.4 per cent of her
income tax.
“If they want to send me to jail because I won’t pay, that’s all right with
me,” she said. “I’m perfectly willing to go to jail. I’ll never pay any more
money for war.”
She would donate the other 34.6 per cent, she said, to non-profit agencies
“engaged in practical efforts toward removing some of the causes of war.”
Mrs. Urie said her husband, a Navy medical officer, retired before World War Ⅰ
because of injuries suffered in a target practice blast on a battle ship.
In her letter to Mr. Truman, Mrs. Urie explained that in previous years “I
have affixed to my income tax return, and to the check in payment of the tax,
a typed or printed protest stating that the tax is paid under duress because
most of it goes to military expenditures.
“Now that the atomic bomb has reduced to a final criminal absurdity the whole
war system… I have come to the conclusion that — as a Christian, a Quaker, a
religious and conscientious objector to the whole institution of organized
war — I must henceforth refuse to contribute to it in any way I can avoid.”
She said the atomic bomb has involved the United States in the “shame and
guilt” of having been the first to exploit its criminal possibilities.
“It’s time for people to start thinking,” the modest and retiring widow said.
Once expelled from Italy by the Mussolini government because of anti-fascist
statements, Mrs. Urie was a social worker for the Society of Friends in
England, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Germany, and Italy.
Her friends said that even though crippled by arthritis, Mrs. Urie keeps
abreast of community and world activity by reading and maintaining a large
volume of correspondence.
I haven’t yet visited any archives that hold material from the Peacemakers,
that group that coordinated the early modern American war tax resistance
movement beginning in the . But while I
was following another thread, I found the following article which gave the most
complete membership run-down of the tax refusal committee of Peacemakers that I
have yet seen:
43 Pacifists Won’t Pay U.S. Tax in Arms Protest
Special in The [Philadelphia] Inquirer and New York Herald Tribune
New York, . — Forty-three pacifists throughout the United States
declared that they would refuse to
pay all or a part of their Federal income taxes this year as a protest against
the Nation’s military expenditures.
The group, including a number of Quakers, conscientious objectors, and several
who have refused payment of taxes before, issued a statement through
Peacemakers, [a] national pacifist group with headquarters here, in which they
said:
“Believing that men are accountable for their actions, and that laws requiring
immoral acts should not be obeyed, we have after serious consideration
determined upon a course of civil disobedience with relation to the income tax
laws of the United States.”
Headed by Pastor
Forty-one of the tax refusers acted under a tax refusal committee of
Peacemakers, headed by
Rev. Ernest Bromley, of
Wilmington, O. Their
statement was issued by
Rev. A.J. Muste,
secretary of the organization, and also secretary of the Fellowship of
Reconciliation. Mr. Muste, former director of the Presbyterian Labor Temple,
and one-time president of the defunct Brookwood Labor College at Katonah,
N.Y., has long been
known in the labor movement, and as a pacifist and campaigner against military
conscription.
Two additional persons were listed as tax refusers in a statement issued on
behalf of 11 Philadelphians by Walter C. Longstreth, Philadelphia lawyer. The
other nine were all included in the Peacemakers list.
Some Withhold 36.4 Pct.
Mr. Muste, who said he personally would refuse to pay any income taxes
, as he did
, declared that some of the signers would
follow his course of action; while others will withhold the 36.4 percent
estimated by the Bureau of the Budget as that portion of tax money expended
for military purposes.
Others on the list issued by the Peacemakers were:
Ross Anderson, of Portland
Ore.; B. Bargen, of Newton,
Kas.; Marilyn Blaise, religious
education director, New York City; Marion Bromley, of Wilmington,
O.; Lindley Burton, of Bryn Mawr,
Pa.; Horace Champney, of
Yellow Springs, O.; Miriam Keeler
Cornelius, labor economist, Washington
D.C.; Aleck
D. Dodd, clergyman, of Toledo, O.;
Margaret E. Dungan, of Wallingford,
Pa.; William Bacon Evans,
of Morrestown, N.J.;
Caleb Foote, of Arden, Del.;
Hope Foote, of Arden, Del.;
Marion C. Frenyear, clergyman, of Plainfield,
Mass.; Robert C. Friend,
religious education director, of Schenectady,
N.Y.; Walter Gormly, of
Mt. Vernon,
Ia.; J. William Hawkins, of
Winters, Calif.; Ammon
Hennacy, of Phoenix, Ariz.;
George M. Houser, of New York City; Sander Katz, of New York City; Raymond E.
Kinney, of Los Angeles; Emily Longstreth, of Philadelphia; Walter Longstreth,
of Philadelphia; Mary Bacon Mason, of Newton Center,
Mass.; Milton Mayer, of
Chicago; Mary McDowell, of Brooklyn,
N.Y.; Wallace Nelson, of
Cincinnati; James Peck, of New York City; Paula Beck, of New York City;
Caroline Philips, of Wilmington,
Del.; Lydia Philips, of
Wilmington, Del.; Grace
Rhoads, of Moorestown,
N.J.; Francis B. Riggs,
of Cambridge, Mass.;
Valerie Riggs, of Cambridge,
Mass.; Igal Roodenko, of
Bronx, N.Y.; Max Sandin,
of Cleveland; Laurence Scott, of Kansas City,
Mo.; Ralph Templin, of Yellow
Springs, O.; Louise Thomas, of
Cherry Valley, N.Y.; Mrs.
Caroline Urie, of Yellow Springs,
O.; Beverly White, of Wichita,
Kas..
Many of these names I’ve encountered before, but several were new to me.
There were fewer than 3,000 people living in Yellow Springs, Ohio at the time,
and three of them were among the 43 public war tax resisters in the United
States. I wonder what that was all about.
This is the ninth in a series of posts about war tax resistance as it was reported in back issues of The Mennonite.
Today we watch as The Mennonite participates in the birth of the modern war tax resistance movement.
In our last episode, I speculated that the arrival of new editor Jacob J. Enz may have been the catalyst for a new interest in war tax resistance at the magazine.
Two brief editorials in the issue seem to confirm my suspicion:
…And speaking about transparent honesty, what about our income tax returns, many of which are in the process of being made out?
The government has gone to considerable trouble to help people to keep their taxes as low as possible within the law.
Yet, how many sell out their souls on a piece of paper on or around March 15!
―JJE
Others who are ready to pay every penny of their tax are asking the question as to whether they may be contributing consciously and directly to the next war when it is known that 60 cents out of every tax dollar goes to military purposes and that the major portion of all government income is from income taxes.
They feel it is a matter of personal responsibility.
Some have actually taken that percentage of their taxes which will be used for defense and have sent it to relief agencies, notifying the government accordingly.
―JJE
Another such editorial
appeared in the issue in which Enz complains that people demand too much conformity from the church to their own opinions before giving the church their support.
Excerpt:
The Reformation emphasis on individualism in the Church brought untold blessing, but where pressed to its logical conclusion it makes people do the completely irrational thing of denying their gifts or their interest and prayers to a part of the body of Christ because of some complaint while at the same time uncritically giving large sums in tax money to earthly organizations of a much more questionable nature.
The support of the Church is much less optional than the support of these other organizations if comparisons are in order.
Yet there are literally thousands of Christians who religiously pay every cent of their taxes knowing that part of it will go for such unquestionably wrong uses as buying whiskey to help the State department entertain foreign diplomats while they draw up agreements that will lead the world straight to war; at the same time they refuse to give to the Church… because some aspects are not quite in line with their own conceptions, and (in this area for some unknown reason) God holds them responsible for every penny.
―JJE
Enz is back with an editorial in the issue.
Excerpts:
The almost dogged determination with which our leaders of state are encouraging an arms-for-Europe program is clear evidence of the moral insanity of our age.
The way in which Britain is egging on this program is indication of the universality of this spirit.
All of this makes it a bit more clear why a number of individuals in this country are putting themselves in awkward positions by refusing to pay income tax, the larger portion of which inevitably goes for war — past, present, and future.
It raises the question anew as to the exact nature of a Christian’s relation to the state.… When governments tend to produce chaos rather than order — the kind of order as revealed in our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ and in His teachings — then our subjection as Christians will be one of obeying God rather than man and human governments and accepting the suffering that may come as the result of our higher obedience.
Just how this higher obedience is to express itself raises a number of questions.
In many of our circles non-registration and non-payment of war taxes is questioned as an effective method.
It would seem quite obvious that if enough people used this method this wickedness of war would be seriously hindered.
It would seem however that something much more fundamental is needed…
The darkening picture of world events is calling for radical solutions to the world’s deep problems. Our leaders of state are leading us into policies of foreign entanglements heretofore unknown as their radical answers.
The world again needs an Amos, an Isaiah, and a Jeremiah to stand up and speak to his country concerning the inevitable doom that will come when we trust in man and his reliance upon treaties and covenants with man apart from God.
At this point the idea of “the universal prophethood of believers” ought to come into play.
This will be an extremely costly process as is evidenced by some few who have chosen the method of refusing to pay part or all of their income tax the larger portion of which goes for war.
Most people reject this method, but one inevitably hastens to raise the question as to where and how we should take our stand and say “no further!”
Is it enough to send resolutions and letters to Congress and preach and talk against a system to whose continued operations we contribute.
―JJE
“It is difficult to conceive of a point where a person has the opportunity of a more powerful projection of his beliefs than at this point where he meets the government in the person of the tax collector, and say ‘No!’ ”
“The use of tax money in preparation for war completely overshadows the consideration of the manner in which taxes are obtained.
If one favors paying taxes, no matter for what they are asked… he may just as well favor conscription which is equally democratic in its impressment of men.”
Toledo. In one of the “longest and most spirited meetings in its history,” the Toledo Ministerial Association adopted a set of resolutions supporting the right of Dr. Aleck D. Dodd to follow the dictates of his conscience in refusing to pay a portion of his taxes, and sharply criticized the Toledo Council of Churches for dismissing Dr. Dodd as director of Pastoral Relations.
The Council’s action followed the Internal Revenue Bureau’s garnishee of Dr. Dodd’s salary to collect $150.47, the portion of his taxes comparable to the part of the budget which he feels goes for war purposes.
The statement of the Ministerial Association read in part: “While we have not felt impelled to take the step Mr. Dodd has taken in refusing to pay that part of his income tax which he feels is devoted to furthering the cause of war, yet we are of the opinion that he should follow the dictates of his conscience.”
―Fellowship
“For Lent,” in the issue, Jesse Zigler wrote up “A Heart-Searching Confession” in the form of a confession by the “People” to God, with a minister periodically interjecting a prayer for mercy.
Among the confessions:
We have been participants in war-making society.
We tried to stay out of participation, but thou knowest how far we failed.
We helped to maintain high morale, we paid taxes on income, on railroad fares, and in many other hidden places.
Our hearts sank when we heard of reverses to our armies and we secretly felt hope when our armies were winning.
We had our expenses paid in college or seminary or C.P.S. with profits of war making.
And then we looked at the fellows in the army and thanked thee that we were better than they while closing our eyes to our own participation.
Enz, who as “Acting Editor” had reintroduced debate about war tax resistance to The Mennonite readers, stepped aside as a new Editor, J.N. Smucker, came on board in .
The “Young Peoples Union” met at Freeman, South Dakota, in .
Among the things they did was to ratify a set of recommendations.
Number six on the list was this:
[We recommend] that, in view of the critical and complex problems in the social, economic, and political spheres on both the national and international levels… that a resolution be introduced into the current session of the General Conference calling on the Board of Christian Service to appoint a study group to study the relations and implications of Mennonite principles to such current problems as the Christian position on conscription, registration and cooperation with the draft, payment of war taxes, attitudes toward Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism, church-state relations, etc.
On the basis of present tax laws, in every man, woman, and child in the United States will pay on the average $461 in Federal taxes, of which $267 will be required for military services.
The best estimate of benevolent per capita giving for our entire population for the same period is $23.33. In other words, Caesar gets twenty times as much as God, and ten times as much for military services.
So for every dollar you give to share the Gospel of peace and express your love for your fellow-man, Caesar demands his ten dollars to run his war machine.
Caesar is ahead twenty to one, and Mars, his war-god is ahead ten to one!
Will we be content at this inequality?
Will God be satisfied with us if we are?
The issue included an article about the sorts of questions draft boards ask people who are applying for conscientious objection status as a way of determining whether their objections are sincere enough to pass the legal test.
One of these was: “Do not your taxes indirectly aid the war effort?”
The common people of the world do not want war.
They are rightly alarmed by the tremendous build-up in military power.
They distrust the leaders who seem to think the only way to peace is by preparation for war.
They object to giving their eighteen-year-old sons to be trained as killers.
But what can we do?
People answer this question in various ways.
Some refuse to pay income tax, reasoning that, since much of this money goes for war purposes; this is one way to show our disapproval of war.
Some young men refuse to register, regarding this as a first step into the military way of life.
Some see little hope in continuing the present major political parties, since both seem drifting towards war.
Perhaps our Peace Committee could give us some directive as to how to best make our strength felt for the cause of peace.
We have worked hard to help overthrow Universal Military Training, now let us work even harder for the cause of a Christian peace.
A “Perplexed Reader” wrote in to the issue as follows:
The Mennonite is emphasizing Christian education, relief, and missions, and is advocating tithing to finance these projects.
We agree, that is good.
We think God will look with favor on such a program.
Another thing The Mennonite is stressing is peace; that war cannot be justified with Christianity; war does not settle problems, only create more.
That also, we think is sound reasoning and is in harmony with the spirit and teaching of Christ.
Many of us feel the best contribution we can make to Christianity is to finance these above-named projects.
In order to finance these projects we have to earn money; and if we earn money we have to pay income tax, and very little of that money is used for other than war purposes.
In the writer made contributions to these above-named projects.
He tried to do his part, but after the year was over, mailed his check to the internal revenue collector, he found that he had contributed more to the god of war than to all church contributions combined.
If a couple without dependents and without any other deductions has a net income of $1,325, they use that money for family living.
Many use more.
If they have a net income of 52,325, the tithe would amount to $232.50, and the income tax $184. If they have an income of $4,999, the tithe is $499.90 and the income tax is $669. If the net income increases the tithe is higher also, but the income tax increases faster than the tithe.
Shall we arrange our financial affairs so that our income will be so low that there is no income tax to pay and discontinue all mission.
Christian education, and relief?
Or shall we refuse to pay income tax and have the government confiscate our property?
Or shall we give all of our property to these good causes and go on relief, or if we are old enough, ask for old-age pension?
Or shall we continue to build with one hand and tear down with the other?
What shall we do?
