Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance During the Great Depression
6. Selling the State through Radio: “You and Your Government”
The initial installments of “You and Your Government,” which ran from April to November 1932, concerned the upcoming general election and included a good mix of speakers from the Republican, Democratic, and Socialist parties. After the election, evenhanded-ness became a much rarer commodity. We should not be surprised by this apparent schizophrenia. The programs after Series I focused on the local and state issues that the Committee’s leaders cared most deeply about. To them, controversies of a federal and partisan nature took a back seat at least until the mid-1930s.
Even some of the titles in the series—“Constructive Economy in State and Local Government” and “Constructive Economy,” to name two—meshed uneasily with the claims of impartiality by the Committee. Much the same can be said for titles of individual programs. These included “Tax Dodging by Constitutional Amendment” (a critique of constitutional tax limitation), “Tax Paying Made Easier,” and “Taxation for Prosperity” (a defense of increased taxation).
The academics who appeared were generally not strangers to government service and civic reform. Reed, of course, was a veteran of these pursuits. Professor Joseph H. McGoldrick of Columbia University, one of the more frequent guests, not only had been active with NML but also had served as comptroller of New York City. Harold W. Dodds, the president of Princeton University, was a former president of NML. Charles Merriam had once been a city alderman in Chicago, Professors Fred Fairchild, Simeon Leland, and several other guests had served on tax commissions.
These facts could have easily escaped the attention of anyone who relied exclusively on “You and Your Government” for education on taxation issues. Not one of the politicians and bureaucrats in the series spoke up for tax-resistance causes like tax limitation, the election rather than appointment of assessors, or reduction of tax penalties. Those politicians who addressed these issues on “You and Your Government” supported NML’s goals of civic reform and rationalization.
Reed could not see the sense of refighting old battles. To him, the progress of civilization had long ago refuted the old anti-big-government doctrines. An expanding democratic government, which he believed by its nature to be beneficent, and civilization depended on each other. He simply could not understand why tax resisters held to a philosophy that, to him, seemed so irrelevant to the modern age. The people guided by expert opinion now had the tools, namely the powers of government, to solve age-old injustices. Given this outlook, it should be no surprise that he asked, Why be afraid to use them? Reed took it for granted that the facts gathered by experts demonstrated the need for more government. It was only a matter of educating the public.
