Personal Property Tax 



In Chicago Vs. Country 



High Percentage of Rural Folk 

 Pay Their Taxes 



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The Chicago American of July 28th 

 published an article on "Taxes in Farm 

 Country," from which it draws some un- 

 warranted conclusions. 



Referring to the published personal 

 property assessments in Alden, Dunham 

 and Hartland townships, McHenry Coun- 

 ty, the American comments in part as 

 follows: 



; r "From a glance at the personal 

 property assessments, we are in- 

 clined to the conclusion that these 

 McHenry County citizens — farmers 

 with livestock and implements, busi- 

 ness men with merchandise stocks, 



>; bankers, etc. — pay less in proportion 

 to the wealth and population of the 

 .towns than the citizens of Chicago > 

 are paying under Assessor J. L. /: 



:; Jacobs." 



,The three townships to which the 

 American refers are almost exclusively 

 agricultural, all having a population of 

 between 800 and 900 in 1930. Not one of 

 them has an incorporated city, village or 

 town. Alden township has a small unin- 

 corporated town, also named Alden, a 

 place of perhaps 100 people, the chief 

 business houses of which are two stores, 

 both of which are assessed and pay 

 taxes on their stock of goods. Some of 

 the families living in Alden are engaged 

 in farming. Others, often aged, residing 

 in Alden, or scattered here and there in 

 the three townships, have ^ gardens or 

 small tracts of land, usually with poultry 

 and some with a few livestock. There is 

 no bank in the three townships. 



The American further comments on 

 the small number of citizens having per- 

 sonal property assessments, which it 

 gives as "less than 300" in Alden town- 

 ship, "some 260" in Dunham township, 

 and "180 assessments" in Hartland town- 

 ship. All these estimates are unduly 

 generous. Excluding corporations and 

 counting all assessments against the 

 same person as one assessment, the Al- 

 den assessor listed 251 citizens. This is 

 surely a high score for a township which 

 had only 129 farmers in 1930, besides 

 other residents, mostly in the small 

 town of Alden. The assessors in the 

 other two townships scored about as 

 high. With no town, the Dunham assess- 

 or, with only 165 farms, listed 225 citi- 

 zens. Also with no town, the Hartland 

 assessor, with 141 farms, listed 159 citi- 

 zens. It is evident that the assessors 

 missed no farm or non-farm residents. 

 Has the Cook County Assessor done as 

 well in listing the residents of the City 



of Chicago? n--.:-. ■■■■ :;..v:.s-v^.. .• 



It is one thing to assess personal prop- 





gv: fc« .:*!.. / 



WM\mm 





"Producers Day'* Coming 

 Watch For Announcement 



THE EKTERPKISIKO OBOSSMAKV BB0TEEB8. 

 Oscar and Armin of the St. CUir County Farm 

 Bureau, made use of the opportunity to put in 

 some good licks for organization and the Farm 

 Bureau at the Smithton homecoming attended by 

 more than 2,500 people. 



Another float featured a horse and a pony hitched 

 to an old buggy. The horse was labeled *'Farm 

 Bureau 1984"— the pony "Farm Bureau 1927.»* 



erty and another to collect the taxes 

 thereon. It is still too early to say what 

 proportion of the 1933 personal property 

 taxes will be collected in McHenry Coun- 

 ty. Of the 1932 personal assessments, 

 28 are delinquent in Alden township, 28 

 in Dunham township and 27 in Hart- 

 land township. The percentage of 

 assessment items which are delinquent 

 varies between eleven and seventeen, 

 mostly on the smaller amounts of taxes 

 charged. The percentages are probably 

 even smaller on the basis of the amounts 

 charged. 



What are the facts in Chicago? While 

 Assessor Jacobs is doing better than his 

 predecessors, the county collector is do- 

 ing a poor job of getting the money in 

 on personal property assessments. Less 

 than 30 per cent of Chicago people have 

 been paying personal property taxes. 

 Most Chicago residents are in the habit 

 of tearing up their personal property tax 

 bills or giving them to a neighbor poli- 

 tician to be "fixed.'' 



■.V 



Secretary Wallace ^^^^^^'^ 



At No. Illinois Gathering 



<: (Continued from page 15) 



Some of the folks who are against regi- 

 mentation want to lower the tariff dras- 

 tically to bolster up foreign purchasing 

 power. Such men as Ogden Mills, Henry 

 L. Stimson and another who may be a 

 presidential candidate for the Republican 

 party, have suggested that this be done. 

 I agree with them. But how rapid can 

 or should this be done? Democrats are 

 just as sensitive about the tariff as Re- 

 publicans. ;\^:-'';.^;^v-■. ;;•;-.■■.'" •'■'■";, c.:>^'-; 



Must Control Acreage ; 



"If we greatly reduce the tariff and 

 start importing large quantities of for- 

 eign goods so foreigners can take our 

 farm products it would mean a tre- 

 mendous readjustment in many indus- 

 tries. The way it looks to me we may 

 have to continue for some years to cur- 

 tail production. The farmer is getting a 



A state-wide "Producers Day" featur- 

 ing livestock marketing at township and 

 community meetings to be held simuK 

 taneously in every county and commu- 

 nity in Illinois is on the program for 

 late September, probably the 27th or 

 28th. 



The Livestock Marketing Department 

 of the I. A. A. under the direction of 

 Ray Miller is sponsoring the event in 

 co-operation with the County Farm Bu- 

 reaus, Producer Commission agencies, 

 and I. L. M. A. 



Following the plan of last year, a 

 radio program from WLS will be broad- 

 cast during the evening. The unit meet- 

 ings will tune in and have this broad-^, 

 cast as a feature of the program. )l 



County meetings in charge of the 

 County Farm Bureau livestock com- 

 mittees will be held preliminary to "Pro- 

 ducers Day" to plan for local meetings 

 in the various townships and commu- 

 nities. Accomplishments, problems, and 

 future goals in co-operative livestock 

 marketing will be reviewed and con-; 

 sidered. 



The effectiveness of cooperative organ- 

 izations is to a great extent in propor- 

 tion to the volume of the product han- 

 dled. It is well recognized that volume 

 handled by cooperatives is greatly de-;; 

 pendent upon the extent to which pro- 

 ducers of livestock, grain, butter-fat, etc., 

 understand and appreciate the accom- 

 plishments and possibilities of concerted 

 action in marketing farm products* 

 Plans for the state-wide livestock "Pro- 

 ducers Day*' are designed to stimulate 

 interest in cooperative marketing and to 

 bring to the attention of producers the 

 necessity of following up the production 

 control program with equally effec- 

 tive co-operation in marketing farm 

 products. . ^ . 



lot of pity because of this so-called regi- 

 mentation, but just remember it is self- 

 imposed. No farmer was forced to cut 

 production. ' v > :^ < 



"Some people think it is sinful to re- 

 duce acreage and livestock. Yet they 

 seem to think it all right for industrial- 

 ists to close their factories and throw 

 people out of work. It's more necessary 

 that farmers control production than in- 

 dustrialists. People can only eat about 

 six bushels of food a year but everyone 

 could use two automobiles if they were 

 produced in unlimited numbers and sold 

 relatively as cheaply as farm products. 



"If farmers don't plan their production 

 and regain their lost purchasing power ., 

 our entire civilization is imperiled. We 

 don't want communism nor fascism but 

 we do want a balanced economic order." 



16 



1. A. A. RECORD 



