The Association of Real Estate Taxpayers (ARET) was an organization of real-estate taxpayers in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 2 ...

. Between 1931 and 1933, it organized one of the largest tax strikes in American history. The group had been founded in 1930 by several wealthy real-estate owners. The chief demand of ARET was that local and state governments obey a long-ignored provision of the Illinois Constitution of 1870 requiring uniform taxation for all forms of property.

John M. Pratt John Morgan Pratt (March 23, 1886, Sharpsville, Indiana – June 15, 1954, Chicago, Illinois) was a tax resistance leader, activist in the Old Right, publicist and newspaper man. Along with James E. Bistor, he led what was probably the large ...

and James E. Bistor charged that the failure to assess such personal property as furniture, cars, and stocks and bonds was not only illegal but left owners of real estate with excessive burdens. ARET's program also included support for sweeping rate reductions in the general property tax and retrenchment in local governmental spending. ARET functioned primarily as a cooperative legal service. Each member paid annual dues of $15 to fund lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of real-estate assessments. The suits, when finally filed, took the form of a 7,000-page, two-foot-thick book listing the names and tax data for all 26,000 co-litigants. The radical side of the movement became apparent by early 1931 when ARET called for taxpayers to withhold real-estate taxes (or "strike") pending a final ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court, and later the U.S. Supreme Court. Mayor

Anton Cermak Anton Joseph Cermak ( cs, Antonín Josef Čermák, ; May 9, 1873 – March 6, 1933) was an American politician who served as the 44th mayor of Chicago, Illinois from April 7, 1931 until his death on March 6, 1933. He was killed by an assassin, ...

and other politicians desperately tried to break the strike by threatening criminal prosecution and revocation of city services. ARET's influence peaked in late 1932, with a membership approaching 30,000 (largely

skilled worker A skilled worker is any worker who has special skill, training, knowledge which they can then apply to their work. A skilled worker may have attended a college, university or technical school. Alternatively, a skilled worker may have learned thei ...

s and small-business owners.) By this time, it had a budget of over $600,000 and a radio show in Chicago. But it suffered a demoralizing blow in October 1932 when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case it had brought. Buffeted by political coercion and legal defeats, and torn by internal factionalism, the strike collapsed in early 1933.

References

David T. Beito David T. Beito (born 1956) is a historian and professor of history at the University of Alabama. Beito is the founder and one of the key contributors to the group weblog Liberty and Power, which is located at the History News Network. He manages t ...

, ''Taxpayers in Revolt: Tax Resistance during the Great Depression'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989). * {{Tax resistance Tax resistance in the United States History of Chicago 1931 in Illinois Taxpayer groups

See also

References