Teil XXII – 1910 CE bis 1932 CE

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1910 CE – Portugal – Ein Volksaufstand zwingt den portugiesischen König Manuel II. Zum Abdanken und Portugal wird eine Republik.

1910 n. Chr. – Italien – Papst Pius X. weigerte sich, Ex-Präsident Theodore Roosevelt zu empfangen, weil er in einer methodistischen Kirche in Rom Vorträge gehalten hatte, was das amerikanische Volk verärgerte. Der Papst zwang alle Geistlichen, einen Eid zu leisten, der die Moderne ablehnte, was zu einer weltweiten Belästigung von Gelehrten führte, was den Bruch zwischen der Kirche und der Intelligenz vergrößerte. Die Leute nannten dies eine Form der Gedankenkontrolle. Pius X. glaubte, dass die Moderne das Ziel hatte, Jesus Christus in der Familie, in der Schule und in der Gemeinde im Allgemeinen zu ersetzen. Er verbot die Anwendung des Vetos bei künftigen Papstwahlen.

Kanonisches Recht 1325: Kein Katholik kann Glaubensfragen mit Nichtkatholiken diskutieren. Kanonisches Gesetz 1386: Kein Priester kann ohne Zustimmung des Bischofs ein Buch veröffentlichen, zu Zeitungen oder Zeitschriften beitragen.

1910 CE – USA – Acht Finanziers, einschließlich des Gastgebers, trafen sich im privaten Jagdclub von JP Morgan – dem Jekyll Island Club vor der Küste von Georgia – unter absoluter Geheimhaltung, um „Enten zu schießen“. Die Nachricht von diesem Treffen wurde sechs Jahre lang nicht veröffentlicht, aber von da an wurden Informationsschnipsel veröffentlicht. Zum Beispiel gab die New York Times am 18. Januar 1920 n. Chr. Eine äußerst aufschlussreiche Erklärung zum Federal Reserve System ab, dem Grundplan, den diese geheimen Banker bereits 1910 n. Chr. Entworfen hatten: „Die Federal Reserve ist die Quelle des Kredits , nicht vom Kapital. “ Dies bedeutete, dass Reserve Notes nicht durch Edelmetalle oder andere geeignete Rohstoffe gedeckt sind, die Kapital für die Verbesserung von Industrie und Handel bereitstellen würden, sondern durch Papier, das gegen Zinsen ausgeliehen wurde.

JP Morgan und seine „Entenschützen“ entwarfen den Grundplan für das Federal Reserve System mit fünf Zielen:

• Stoppen Sie die wachsende Konkurrenz durch die neueren Banken des Landes
• Besorgen Sie sich ein Franchise, um aus dem Nichts Geld zu verdienen, um Kredite zu vergeben.
• Holen Sie sich die Kontrolle über die Reserven aller Banken.
• Lassen Sie den Steuerzahler die unvermeidlichen Verluste des Kartells auffangen.
• Überzeugen Sie den Kongress davon, dass der Zweck der FRS darin bestand, die Öffentlichkeit zu schützen.

Es ist hervorragend gelungen. Wie Anthony Sutton über einen der offensichtlichsten Betrügereien in der Geschichte bemerkt –

„Das Federal Reserve System ist ein rechtliches privates Monopol der Geldmenge, das zugunsten der Wenigen unter dem Deckmantel des Schutzes und der Förderung des öffentlichen Interesses betrieben wird. „

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„Konstitutionell ist die Federal Reserve eine ziemlich seltsame Ente. “

Wright Patman (1)

„It is necessarily part of the business of a banker to maintain appearances and to profess a conventional respectability which is more than human. Lifelong practices of this kind make them the most romantic and the least realistic of men.“

John Maynard Keynes (2)

„Es gehört zwangsläufig zum Geschäft eines Bankiers, den Schein zu wahren und sich zu einer konventionellen Seriosität zu bekennen, die mehr als menschlich ist. Lebenslange Praktiken dieser Art machen sie zu den romantischsten und am wenigsten realistischen Männern. “

Martin Mayer (3)

„In der realen Welt gewähren Banken Kredite, schaffen dabei Einlagen und suchen später nach den Reserven. Es stellt sich dann die Frage, ob und wie die Federal Reserve die Nachfrage nach Reserven befriedigen wird. Kurzfristig hat die Federal Reserve keine oder nur eine geringe Wahl, um der Nachfrage gerecht zu werden. “

Alan Holmes (4)

Als Reaktion auf Beschwerden von Steuerzahlern verschärfte das Appropriations Act von 1910 die Offenlegungsvorschriften für die Körperschaftsteuer von Taft. Von nun an könnten Steuererklärungen „nur auf Anordnung des Präsidenten“ eingesehen werden. Es war ein Schlag für die Progressiven beider Parteien, die gehofft hatten, dass die Steuer als Mittel zur Regulierung privater Unternehmen dienen würde, indem sie die Verfügbarkeit genauer Finanzinformationen fördert.

Willis Van Devanter

Joseph Rucker Lamar

Willis Van Devanter und Joseph Rucker Lamar wurden von dem freimaurerischen Präsidenten William Howard Taft, 1910, zum Associate Justices des Obersten Gerichtshofs der Vereinigten Staaten ernannt. Sowohl Devanter als auch Lamar waren Freimaurer. Devanter diente sechsundzwanzig Jahre, vier Monate und neunundzwanzig Tage als Richter, bis er am 2. Juni 1937 in den Ruhestand ging. Lamar, der sechs Jahre auf der Bank gedient hatte, war 1885 CE Senior Warden der Webb Lodge Nr. 166 in Augusta, Georgia, gewesen, wurde aber anscheinend nie Meister der Lodge. Er starb am 2. Januar 1916 n. Chr. Im Alter von achtundfünfzig Jahren.

„Die menschliche Gesellschaft hat ihren Ursprung in Gott und besteht aus zwei Klassen von Menschen, arm und reich, die jeweils Kapital und Arbeit repräsentieren. „Die Neue Welt, das offizielle Organ der römisch-katholischen Kirche in der Erzdiözese Chicago, Ill, Kommentar zu die Föderation der katholischen Gesellschaften in New Orleans, November 1910.

911 CE – Iran – Russland fällt in die nördlichen Provinzen des Iran ein.

1911 CE – Portugal – Portugal erklärt aus Protest gegen den Vatikan die Trennung von Kirche und Staat. Zur gleichen Zeit unterstützte Papst Pius X. die katholischen Minderheiten in Polen und Irland und verärgerte die russische und britische Regierung.

The Dodecanese Islands

1911 n. Chr. – Griechenland – Italien erklärt dem Osmanischen Reich (Türkei) den Krieg, um Tripolitanien die Hand zu geben. Ihre Flotte eroberte Rhodos und die Dodekanes-Inseln.

1912 CE – Libyen – Italien nimmt Libyen und die Dodekanes-Inseln aus dem Osmanischen Reich.

1912 CE – Europa – Eine Balkanliga aus Montenegro, Serbien, Bulgarien und Griechenland erklärt dem Osmanischen Reich den als „Balkankrieg“ bekannten Krieg und vertreibt die Osmanen fast vollständig aus Europa.

1912 CE – England – Zweitausend Streiks in diesem Jahr in England spiegeln eine tief verwurzelte Unzufriedenheit mit den Bedingungen wider. Russland hatte im selben Jahr auch etwa 2.000 Streiks.

1912 – 1928 CE – Republik China – Der Beginn des republikanischen China war ein sehr fehlerhaftes Geschäft. Als am 10. Oktober 1911 n. Chr. Ein Aufstand ausbrach, kehrte Sun Yat-sen, der seit 1905 die „Revolutionäre Allianz“ [Tongmenghui] leitete, aus dem Exil zurück und wurde eingeladen, vorläufiger Präsident zu werden. Der Befehlshaber der Armee in Peking, Yüan Shih-k’ai [Yuan Shikai], der im November 1911 zum kaiserlichen Premierminister ernannt wurde, weigerte sich jedoch, den Kaiser abzusetzen, es sei denn, er wurde zum Präsidenten ernannt. Sun Yat-sen stimmte einem Kompromiss zu. Der Kaiser dankte ab und Sun Yat-sen wurde am 1. Januar 1912 CE der erste offizielle Präsident Chinas. Sun trat dann am 10. März zurück und Yüan Shih-k’ai wurde Präsident. Es dauerte nicht lange, bis Yüan Pläne hatte, sich als Kaiser zu etablieren. Er erklärte sich kurz zwischen Dezember 1915 und März 1916 zum Kaiser. Dies war nicht beliebt; er zog die Erklärung zurück und starb dann sowieso bald. Im Juli 1917 versuchte ein Kriegsherr (Chang Hsün, Zhang Xun), den Kaiser Pu Yi (der bis 1924 in der Verbotenen Stadt leben durfte) wiederherzustellen. Die republikanische Regierung wurde wiederhergestellt, aber Ende desselben Jahres begann Sun Yat-sen, rivalisierende Regierungen im Süden zu bilden. Ein gewisser Anschein einer verfassungsmäßigen Ordnung wurde beibehalten, aber die Zentralregierung verlor schnell die Autorität über den größten Teil des restlichen Landes. und Peking selbst wurde dies vor allem Chang Tsolin [Zhang Zuolin], der „alte Marschall“, Kriegsherr der Mandschurei. Ausländische Regierungen erkannten jedoch weiterhin die Titelregierung in Peking an, und der ausländische Zolldienst überwies dort seine Einnahmen.

Sun Yat-sen arbeitete daran, eine Gegenregierung im Süden aufzubauen. Nach einigen Fehlstarts gelang es ihm 1923 n. Chr. Obwohl Sun Yat-sen 1925 n. Chr. Starb, hatte sich seine Bewegung etabliert und ein Bürgerkrieg war die Folge. Chiang Kai-shek [Jiang Jieshi] führte die Northern Expedition an, die 1926 Nanking [Nanjing] besetzte und schließlich 1928 CE die Regierung von Peking stürzte. Er trat als Vorsitzender der Kuomintang-Partei auf.

Hull House

1912 CE – USA – Eine Gruppe von Sozialreformern, die an der Siedlung Hull House in Chicago beteiligt waren, forderte eine Bundesbehörde zum Schutz der in Armut lebenden Kinder. Nach mehrjähriger Kampagne wurde 1912 n. Chr. Das United States Children’s Bureau gegründet (das am 9. April verabschiedete Gesetz über das Kinderbüro (37 Stat. 79, Kap. 73)). Die Bemühungen wurden von Lillian D. Wald und Florence Kelley angeführt . Kelley, ein jüdischer Sozialist und Absolvent der Cornell University, wurde an der Universität Zürich stark vom Sozialismus beeinflusst. Sie übersetzte schließlich 1844 Friedrich Engels ‚Zustand der Arbeiterklasse in England, der 1887 in New York veröffentlicht wurde. 1909 wurde Kelley einer der Gründer der Nationalen Vereinigung zur Förderung farbiger Menschen (NAACP). Präsident Taft ernannte Julia Lathrop, ein Mitglied der Siedlung Hull House, zur Leiterin des Büros. In den nächsten neun Jahren leitete Lathrop Forschungen zu Kinderarbeit, Kindersterblichkeit, Muttersterblichkeit, Jugendkriminalität, Mütterrenten und Illegitimität. Die Geburtsurkunde war das notwendige Element, um die Daten für diese sozialistische Forschung zu erhalten. Sterling Edmunds sagte später in seinem 1940 erschienenen Buch Die Geschichte des erfolgreichsten Experiments, das jemals von Menschen durchgeführt wurde, um sich selbst ohne einen Meister zu regieren, dass das Kinderbüro das am schnellsten wachsende Regierungsbüro war, das zu dieser Zeit jemals existierte.

Die Aufnahme von New Mexico und Arizona markierte die letzten beiden Staaten auf dem nordamerikanischen Kontinent, die 1912 n. Chr. Der Union beitraten. Die Union bestand zu dieser Zeit aus 48 Unterunternehmen. 1913 n. Chr. Wurde die 17. Änderung verabschiedet, um Senatoren direkt von Bürgern der Vereinigten Staaten zu wählen. Indem sich Personen als „Bürger der Vereinigten Staaten“ registrieren, um sowohl für Senatoren als auch für Vertreter zu stimmen, wird die Autorität, die jede Landesregierung ursprünglich besaß, umgangen. Zuvor waren Senatoren innerhalb der staatlichen Gesetzgebung gewählt worden und vertraten die Regierungen der Unternehmensstaaten, nicht die allgemeine Bevölkerung. Da der Staat und die Bundesregierung mit Zustimmung der Regierten betrieben werden, haben die Wähler ihre Vollmacht in die Hände der gewählten Personen übertragen. Somit überlassen sich die Wähler den gewählten Regierungsvertretern.

Das Master Key System, ein 24-teiliges Studienführungssystem, das die ultimativen Prinzipien, Ursachen, Wirkungen und Gesetze lehrt, die allen Errungenschaften und Erfolgen zugrunde liegen, wurde von Charles Haanel geschrieben.

1912 CE – Großbritannien – Frankreich – Großbritannien und Frankreich unterzeichnen einen Seevertrag, um die Bedrohung durch die deutsche Marine abzuwehren.

1913 CE – Deutschland – Deutschland begann zu mobilisieren, indem es riesige Geldsummen für Kriegsmaterial bereitstellte. Der Kaiser ist entschlossen, eine Marine zu bauen, die größer ist als England, um den Welthandel zu dominieren, wie es England getan hatte.

1913 CE – Griechenland – Das osmanische Protektorat Kreta wird in Griechenland eingemeindet.

1913 – 1918 CE – Türkei – Germanus V wird Patriarch von Konstantinopel. Nachdem Germanus V 1918 sein Amt niedergelegt hatte, blieb das Amt bis 1921 unbesetzt.

1913 CE – USA – Im Rahmen seines Steuerkompromisses (1909 CE) hatte Taft zugestimmt, eine Verfassungsänderung zur Genehmigung der Bundeseinkommensteuer zu unterstützen. Eine Änderung würde nicht nur Verfassungsfragen ein für alle Mal regeln, sondern auch wesentliche Maßnahmen in Bezug auf die Einkommensteuer verzögern, zumindest bis die Ratifizierung abgeschlossen ist. Und da die Ratifizierung ohnehin alles andere als sicher war, könnte die Änderung die Frage der Einkommensteuer auf unbestimmte Zeit entschärfen und es ihr ermöglichen, einfach in den staatlichen Gesetzgebungen zu verschwinden.

West facade of the United States Supreme Court

Taft sprach sich für die Änderung vorsichtiger republikanischer Gesetzgeber aus und betonte, wie wichtig es sei, eine Konfrontation mit dem Obersten Gerichtshof zu vermeiden. Ein solcher Kampf, warnte er, würde das Vertrauen der Öffentlichkeit in den Gerichtshof verringern und eine der Säulen der amerikanischen Regierung bedrohen. Der Kongress stimmte zu, und der Gesetzgeber stimmte der Änderung bald zu und sandte sie an die Staaten.

Während die Gegner den 16. Änderungsantrag nicht aufhalten konnten, sprachen sie sich lange und hart dagegen aus. Richard E. Byrd, Sprecher des Abgeordnetenhauses von Virginia, plädierte besonders leidenschaftlich dafür, den Änderungsantrag abzulehnen, und bot eine starke rhetorische Mischung aus staatlichen Rechten, begrenzter Regierung und Verurteilungen gegen Steuern. Die Ratifizierung, warnte er, würde ein neues und gefährliches Kapitel in der amerikanischen Regierung aufschlagen –

„Eine Hand aus Washington wird ausgestreckt und auf das Geschäft eines jeden Mannes gelegt; Das Auge des Bundesinspektors wird im Zählhaus eines jeden Mannes sein … Das Gesetz wird notwendigerweise inquisitorische Merkmale haben, es wird Strafen vorsehen, es wird komplizierte Maschinen schaffen. Darunter werden Männer in Gerichte gerufen, die von ihren Häusern entfernt sind. Schwere Geldstrafen, die von entfernten und unbekannten Gerichten verhängt werden, werden den Steuerzahler ständig bedrohen. Eine Armee von Bundesinspektoren, Spionen und Detektiven wird auf den Staat herabsteigen … Wer von uns, der Kenntnis von den Aktivitäten der Bundesbeamten im Internal Revenue Service hatte, kann blind sein für das, was folgen wird? Ich zögere nicht zu sagen, dass die Annahme dieses Änderungsantrags eine solche Hingabe an den Imperialismus sein wird, die es nicht gegeben hat, seit die Nordstaaten in ihrer Blindheit die vierzehnten und fünfzehnten Änderungsanträge der gesamten Schwesternschaft des Commonwealth aufgezwungen haben .“

Die Opposition von Byrd und gleichgesinnten Konservativen konnte den Änderungsantrag nicht aufhalten. Zur Überraschung vieler ratifizierten die Staaten die Änderung in relativ kurzer Zeit und im Februar 1913 wurde sie zur sechzehnten Änderung der Verfassung.

Portrait of Woodrow Wilson by F. Graham Cootes

Edward Mandell House

Woodrow Wilson wurde als Demokrat der 28. Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten. Seine Loyalität zur US-Verfassung wird durch seinen Mentor „Colonel“ Edward Mandell House in Frage gestellt, der der Hauptgründer des früheren amerikanischen Instituts für internationale Angelegenheiten war, das heute als Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) bekannt ist. Der CFR ist eine äußere Schicht des Royal Institute of International Affairs (Großbritannien), dessen Zweck es war, die Vereinigten Staaten als britische Kolonie zurückzuerobern und dann die Welt unter britischer Kontrolle zu vereinen, eine weitere äußere Schicht der Round Table Organization Dies ist eine äußere Schicht des Hauptkerns einer geheimen Einrichtung namens Circle of Initiates, die 1891 n. Chr. von Cecil Rhodes gegründet wurde. (A) Cecil Rhodes ist ein bekanntes satanisches Kultmitglied, das den Weg für die Neue Weltordnung geebnet hat. (5) Wilsons Vizepräsident war von 1913 bis 1921 Thomas R. Marshall. Edward Mandell House, ein Agent des Kartells Rothschild / Warburg / Rockefeller (bekennende Illuministen), erlangte als Chefberater von Präsident Woodrow Wilson nationale Bekanntheit. Es war House, der Präsident Wilson überredete, das Federal Reserve Act zu unterzeichnen. Präsident Wilson wird mit den Worten zitiert: „Ich habe mein Land unwissentlich ruiniert.“ (6) Woodrow Wilson hätte diese Nation und die Verfassung fast zerstört.

„[Sehr] bald wird jeder Amerikaner verpflichtet sein, sein biologisches Eigentum in einem nationalen System zu registrieren, das darauf ausgelegt ist, die Menschen im Auge zu behalten, und das unter dem alten System der Verpfändung funktioniert. Durch diese Methode können wir Menschen dazu zwingen, sich unserer Agenda zu unterwerfen, was sich auf unsere Sicherheit als Rückbuchung für unsere Fiat-Papierwährung auswirkt. Jeder Amerikaner wird gezwungen sein, sich zu registrieren oder zu leiden, wenn er nicht arbeiten und seinen Lebensunterhalt verdienen kann. Sie werden unser Eigentum sein, und wir werden das Sicherheitsinteresse für immer für sie behalten, indem wir den Gesetzeshändler nach dem Schema gesicherter Transaktionen betreiben. Amerikaner, die uns unwissentlich oder unabsichtlich die Frachtbriefe liefern, werden bankrott und zahlungsunfähig. für immer wirtschaftliche Sklaven durch Steuern zu bleiben, gesichert durch ihre Zusagen. Sie werden ihrer Rechte beraubt und erhalten einen kommerziellen Wert, der uns einen Gewinn bringen soll, und sie werden nicht klüger sein, denn nicht jeder eine Million Mann könnte jemals unsere Pläne herausfinden, und wenn zufällig ein oder zwei es herausfinden würden Wir haben in unserem Arsenal plausible Leugnung. Schließlich ist dies der einzig logische Weg, um die Regierung zu finanzieren, indem Grundpfandrechte und Schulden gegenüber den Registranten in Form von Vorteilen und Privilegien schweben. Dies wird uns unweigerlich enorme Gewinne einbringen, die über unsere wildesten Erwartungen hinausgehen, und jedem Amerikaner einen Beitrag zu diesem Betrug leisten, den wir „Sozialversicherung“ nennen werden. Ohne es zu merken, wird uns jeder Amerikaner für etwaige Verluste auf diese Weise versichern. Jeder Amerikaner wird unwissentlich unser Diener sein, wenn auch widerwillig. Die Menschen werden hilflos und ohne Hoffnung auf ihre Erlösung, und wir werden das hohe Amt des Präsidenten unserer Scheinfirma einsetzen, um diese Verschwörung gegen Amerika zu fördern..“

Gespräch zwischen Edward Mandell House und Präsident Woodrow Wilson in einem privaten Treffen. [c. 1913 CE]

House Ways and Means Chairman Oscar Underwood, D-Va. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

President Woodrow Wilson. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

Der neu gewählte Präsident Woodrow Wilson, ein Jarrano-Jude, hat in seiner Antrittsrede einen Aufruf zur Zollreform aufgenommen. Am 8. April bekräftigte er die Notwendigkeit einer Einnahmenreform mit besonderem Schwerpunkt auf niedrigeren Einfuhrzöllen. Vier Tage später führte der Vorsitzende von House Ways and Means, Oscar W. Underwood (D-Va.), Einen Gesetz ein, um die Zollsätze von durchschnittlich 40 Prozent auf rund 29 Prozent zu senken. Um entgangene Einnahmen auszugleichen, enthielt die Rechnung auch eine Einkommensteuer. Das Haus verabschiedete das Gesetz am 8. Mai, und der Senat folgte vier Monate später. Als Wilson die Rechnung im Oktober unterzeichnete, enthielt sie eine Einkommenssteuer von 1 Prozent auf individuelles Einkommen über 3.000 USD (4.000 USD für verheiratete Paare). Es gab auch eine progressive Zusatzsteuer zwischen 1 und 6 Prozent, je nach Einkommen.

Die Steuererklärungen für die neue Steuer sollten geheim gehalten werden, was das unglückliche Schicksal der Merkmale der Unternehmenswerbung im CE-Steuergesetz von 1909 widerspiegelte. Die neue Einkommensteuer sah auch die Erhebung an der Quelle vor, was bedeutet, dass einige Arten von Einkommen besteuert würden, bevor sie den Steuerzahler erreichen, wie dies beim modernen System der Steuereinbehaltung der Fall ist.

Das Bureau of Internal Revenue richtete eine Abteilung für Einkommensteuer ein, um die neue Steuer zu erheben. Es umfasste eine Korrespondenzabteilung mit 30 Mitarbeitern, die sich ausschließlich der Beantwortung von Fragen zur neuen Abgabe widmete.

Woodrow Wilsons Bild befindet sich auf der 100.000-Dollar-Note der Federal Reserve. Was ist das Besondere an diesem Präsidenten, dass sein Bild auf einer, wenn nicht der größten, jemals gedruckten Rechnung erscheint? Es stellt sich heraus, dass Woodrow Wilsons Mentor Oberst Edward Mandell House war, ein Agent des Kartells Rothschild / Warburg / Rockefeller (bekennende Illuministen), und der Gründer des heutigen CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) mit dem Vorsitzenden Henry Kissinger derzeit verantwortlich. Es war auch House, der Präsident Wilson überredete, das Federal Reserve Act zu unterzeichnen, wonach Präsident Wilson mit den Worten „Ich habe mein Land unabsichtlich ruiniert“ zitiert wird und später, wenn er sich auf die Illuminaten bezieht, mit den Worten „es gibt eine so organisierte Macht“ , so subtil, so vollständig, so allgegenwärtig, dass sie besser nicht über ihren Atem sprechen sollten, wenn sie es verurteilen. „

1914 setzte Präsident Woodrow Wilson Bundestruppen in Colorado ein, um einen Arbeitskampf zu unterdrücken. Olson-Wolls wies darauf hin, dass Wilson der US-Armee befahl, amerikanische Bürger zu entwaffnen – darunter Staats- und Kommunalbeamte, Sheriffs, die Polizei und die Nationalgarde; amerikanische Bürger zu verhaften; Überwachung des staatlichen Gerichtsverfahrens und erneute Festnahme (und Inhaftierung) von Personen, die von den staatlichen Gerichten freigelassen wurden; und von staatlichen Gerichten ausgestellte Habeas Corpus-Urkunden abzulehnen.

Front of $100,000 Note

Back of $100,000 Note

Aufgrund dieser Aktivitäten verdiente sich Wilson sein Bild als führendes Unternehmen bei der Erreichung von Illiminatis Zielen mit seinem Gesicht auf der 100.000-Dollar-Note, die nie im allgemeinen Umlauf, sondern nur zwischen Federal Reserve Banks verwendet wurde.

Es drohte ein großer Weltkrieg, der sowohl die patriotische als auch die antipatriotische Stimmung förderte. England und die europäischen Bankiers brauchten eine Methode zur Finanzierung des Krieges. Das Federal Reserve Act war eine Erfindung mehrerer internationaler Banker, um die monetäre Kontrolle über die Regierung der Vereinigten Staaten zu erlangen, die sich ihnen so lange entzogen hatte. Sie hatten schließlich einen schwachen Präsidenten in Woodrow Wilson, der die Verabschiedung des Gesetzes am 22. Dezember 1913 CE überwachte. Das Haus verabschiedete die Gesetzesvorlage 298-60 am Abend des 22. Dezember 1913 n. Chr. Der Senat begann die Debatte am folgenden Tag um 10 Uhr und verabschiedete sie zwischen 43 und 25 Uhr um 14:30 Uhr. Die New York Times berichtete auf der Titelseite, dass Präsident Wilson (A) das Währungsgesetz in einer „enthusiastischen“ öffentlichen Zeremonie gesetzlich unterzeichnet habe am 23. Dezember 1913 CE.

Um die Art und Weise, wie das Federal Reserve Banking noch heute funktioniert, richtig zu verstehen, lesen Sie bitte Deconstructing Banking and Money Dynamics.

Arrest of Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on June 28th 1914, at 11 a.m.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Princess Sophie Von Hohenberg

1914 n. Chr. – Jugoslawien – Gavrilo Princip, 1895 – 1918 n. Chr., Ermordeter des österreichischen Erzherzogs Franz Ferdinand, 1863 – 1914 n. Chr., Und seine tschechische Frau Sophie in Sarajevo, Jugoslawien, lösten den Ersten Weltkrieg aus. Die Serben betrachteten Princip als Helden. Serbien weigerte sich, die Behörden dabei zu unterstützen, die Schuldigen vor Gericht zu stellen. Ferdinand war Feldmarschall der österreichisch-ungarischen Armee. Österreich glaubte, dass das neue Großserbien und Jugoslawien irgendwann angreifen würden, und so wird der Krieg erklärt. Deutschland ist ein Verbündeter Österreichs und wird in den Krieg hineingezogen. Die allgemeine Mobilisierung für den Krieg erfolgte in der folgenden Reihenfolge: Serbien, Russland, Österreich, Frankreich und Deutschland. Frankreich stellte sich auf die Seite der Serben und Russen. Deutschland mobilisierte in den nächsten vier Kriegsjahren fast 14 Millionen Männer. Karl I., François, 1892 – 1989 n. Chr., Der letzte der Habsburger, wird nach dem Tod seines Onkels zum Kaiser von Österreich und Ungarn ernannt.

Sophie and Franz Ferdinand lie in state

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk with his wife

1914 CE – Europa – Der Erste Weltkrieg bricht auf dem Balkan aus und stellt Großbritannien, Frankreich, Italien, Russland, Serbien, die Vereinigten Staaten und Japan gegen Österreich, Deutschland und die Türkei (Osmanisches Reich). Die Türkei trat unter den Mittelmächten in den Ersten Weltkrieg ein. Großbritannien entschied, dass es Zeit war, das Osmanische Reich abzubauen. Ein britischer Offizier, TE Lawrence (Lawrence von Arabien), wurde von der Familie der Haschemiten, den Herrschern von Mekka und den Hijaz, bei einem muslimischen Aufstand unterstützt. Die Briten, Australier und Franzosen führten eine lange und blutige Schlacht auf der Gallipoli-Halbinsel und mussten sich schließlich zurückziehen, wobei etwa 250.000 Opfer zu beklagen waren. General Allenby eroberte jedoch Palästina und Syrien, und die Türken zogen sich vor den Briten und den rebellischen Arabern sowie den aus dem Norden drängenden Russen zurück.

Die Türkei war 1919 gezwungen, in Sevres einen schändlichen Frieden zu unterzeichnen, aber Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, der die Regierung von den jungen Türken übernahm, weigerte sich, sie zu ehren und handelte 1922 in Lausanne bessere Bedingungen aus, nachdem er die einfallenden Griechen besiegt hatte. Atatürk hat das Kalifat im selben Jahr offiziell abgeschafft und mit der Modernisierung der Türkei begonnen.

Hussein Kamel

Ismail Pasha

1914 CE – Ägypten – Hussein Kamel wurde nach der Absetzung von Khedive Abbas durch die Briten zum Sultan Ägyptens ernannt. Er regierte Ägypten von Dezember 1914 bis Oktober 1917. Ägypten wurde 1914 n. Chr. Zu Beginn des Ersten Weltkriegs zum britischen Protektorat erklärt. Diese Schritte beendeten die nominelle Kontrolle Ägyptens durch die Osmanen. Sultan Hussein war der Sohn von Khedive Ismail (der von 1863 bis 1879 n. Chr. Herrscher über Ägypten war). 1917 n. Chr. Starb Hussein Kamel und wurde von König Fuad, seinem Bruder und auch Sohn von Ismail Pascha, abgelöst.

Benedict XV

1914 – 1922 n. Chr. – Italien – Benedikt XV. Alias Giacomo Della Chiesa wird zum Papst gewählt. Er behielt strenge Neutralität bei und verzichtete darauf, Teilnehmer am Ersten Weltkrieg zu verurteilen. Deutschland bot an, Rom nach dem Sieg über Italien dem Heiligen Stuhl zurückzugeben. Der Papst fürchtete die orthodoxe russische Expansion im Falle eines Sieges der Alliierten. Papst Benedikt XV. Hebte das Kirchenverbot der Moderne auf, in der Hoffnung, dass es einen Teil der verlorenen Autorität der Kirche wiedererlangen würde. Er ermutigte auch einen einheimischen Klerus und bat die Missionare, das Wohl des Volkes und nicht die imperialistischen Interessen ihres eigenen Herkunftslandes zu suchen. Die Missionare dienten jedoch weiterhin eher den imperialistischen Interessen der Kirche als den Interessen des Volkes. In Kanada ist der Glaube eines Gottes, einer Kirche und eines Königs fest im Dogma der französischen Kirche verankert. In der Praxis ist es ein König (französische Kultur), eine französische Kirche und vielleicht ein Raum für Gott.

1914 CE – USA – 1914 CE enthüllte das Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) seine Form für die neue Einkommensteuer. Es war vier Seiten lang und wurde im Rahmen des normalen fortlaufenden Nummerierungsprozesses der Agentur als Form 1040 bezeichnet. Im ersten Jahr wurde kein Geld gesammelt. Stattdessen gaben die Steuerzahler nur ein ausgefülltes Formular zurück, das dann von den Außendienstmitarbeitern auf Richtigkeit überprüft wurde.

The 1913 version of Form 1040.

1915 beschwerten sich mehrere Kongressabgeordnete darüber, dass Einkommensteuerformulare zu kompliziert seien. Der House Sergeant at Arms bot dem Gesetzgeber Unterstützung bei der Vorbereitung seiner eigenen Rückkehr an. Ein Kongressabgeordneter erklärte die Komplexität: „Ich schreibe ein Gesetz. Sie bohren ein Loch hinein. Ich stopfe das Ganze. Sie bohren ein Loch in meinen Stopfen.“

In der Rechtssache Brushaber gegen Union Pacific am Obersten Gerichtshof der Vereinigten Staaten wird erneut die Nichthaftung von Privatpersonen für die sogenannte Einkommensteuer bekräftigt. Es erklärte echte „Einkommensteuer“ zu einer direkten Steuer, die nicht durch die 16. Änderung genehmigt wurde, und dass die 16. Änderung überflüssig ist, da der Kongress bereits befugt war, die fragliche Steuer zu genehmigen, nämlich eine Verbrauchsteuer auf Körperschafts- oder Rechtsprivilegien, gemessen an der Höhe des Einkommens, das durch die Ausübung des Privilegs erzielt wird.

1915 CE – Arabien – Großbritannien erkennt das Königreich der Saudis in Südarabien an

Christian Victims of Turkish Genocide

1915 n. Chr. – Armenien – Unter dem Deckmantel des Krieges löschten die osmanischen Türken ein Drittel der armenischen Bevölkerung (Hayastan) aus. Schätzungen zufolge wurden 1,5 Millionen Armenier bei Zwangsmärschen, Deportationen und Internierungen in den syrischen Wüsten massakriert oder starben. Die Türkei, ein vorwiegend muslimisches Land, bestreitet bis heute, dass dieser Völkermord jemals stattgefunden hat, und bringt wirtschaftlichen Druck gegen Länder, die ihn erwähnen. Die Vereinten Nationen würden dieses Massaker in Zukunft anerkennen, ebenso wie zwölf andere Länder, einschließlich Kanada.

1915 CE – Deutschland – Dieses Jahr war der erste Einsatz von Giftgas während der Kriegsführung durch Deutschland. Die Alliierten waren sich mit Italien einig, dass der Vatikan in keinem Friedensvertrag eine Rolle spielen sollte. Papst Benedikt XV. Hielt dies für rachsüchtig

1915 n. Chr. – Italien – Wlodimir Ledochowski wird als Nachfolger von Franz Xavier Wernz zum Generaloberen der Jesuiten gewählt.

1916 n. Chr. – Arabien – Husayn (Hussein), Sharif von Mekka (Nordarabien) und Gründer der modernen Haschimitendynastie, führt einen Aufstand gegen das Osmanische Reich an, während Großbritannien und Frankreich sich heimlich darauf einigen, die arabischen Länder des Osmanischen Reiches zu teilen.

1916 CE – USA – Der Krieg brachte erneut einen starken Rückgang des internationalen Handels mit sich. 1914 n. Chr. Hatte Präsident Woodrow Wilson den Kongress um ein Gesetz über Notstandseinnahmen gebeten, und der Gesetzgeber reagierte mit dem War Revenue Act von 1914. Mit einer Reihe neuer Verbrauchsteuern versuchte das Gesetz, die sinkenden Zolleinnahmen auszugleichen – ein Nebenprodukt des Dämpfers Krieg gegen den internationalen Handel. Diese Verbrauchssteuern waren zwar lukrativ, konnten jedoch die Haushaltslücke nicht schließen. Wilson schloss sich bald den Demokraten im Kongress an, um eine steilere und produktivere Einkommenssteuer zu unterstützen.

Rep. Claude Kitchin, D-N.C. Picture courtesy of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Der Abgeordnete Claude Kitchin (D-NC) leitete eine Gruppe von Kongressaufständischen, die sich für steilere Einkommenssteuern einsetzten. Die knapp zweijährige Einkommensteuer hatte sich bereits als tragfähige Einnahmequelle erwiesen. Kitchin und seine Verbündeten – alle bequem zu Wilsons Linken – wollten die Steuer besser nutzen und die Steuerbelastung der Einkommensskala neu verteilen.

Der Kongress genehmigte eine neue Einkommensteuer als Teil des Revenue Act von 1916. Das Gesetz sah vor, neue Einnahmen in Höhe von 205 Millionen US-Dollar zu erzielen, wobei mehr als die Hälfte aus der Einkommensteuer stammt. Der Gesetzgeber erhöhte den „normalen“ Einkommensteuersatz von 1 Prozent auf 2 Prozent bei einem Nettoeinkommen von über 3.000 USD (4.000 USD für verheiratete Paare). Sie erhöhten auch die Zusatzsteuersätze und bewegten sie von maximal 6 Prozent bei Einkommen über einer halben Million Dollar auf maximal 13 Prozent bei Einkommen über 2 Millionen Dollar. Die Änderungen machten die Einkommenssteuer steiler, ließen aber ihre Basis ziemlich eng; Die Abgabe galt immer noch nur für die reichsten Steuerzahler des Landes.

Das CE-Gesetz von 1916 erhöhte auch die Körperschaftsteuer von 1 Prozent auf 2 Prozent und führte eine neue Nachlasssteuer mit einer Steuerbefreiung von 50.000 US-Dollar und Steuersätzen zwischen 1 und 10 Prozent ein. Das Gesetz enthielt eine neuartige Munitionssteuer, mit der Gegner der amerikanischen Kriegsbeteiligung beschwichtigt werden sollten. Es wurde von Herstellern militärischer Ausrüstung erhoben, um Kriegsprofite zu verhindern. Schließlich enthielt das Gesetz eine Vielzahl von Verbrauchsteuern sowie eine Kapitalsteuer auf Kapitalgesellschaften.

Als Reaktion auf administrative Bedenken hob das Steuergesetz von 1916 die Bestimmungen der Steuer von 1913 über die Erhebung an der Quelle auf. Stattdessen forderte das Gesetz nun lediglich, dass Einkommensquellen der Regierung Informationen über die Höhe der an die Empfänger ausgezahlten Einnahmen liefern.

Mercury dime

Lincoln Memorial

Die Fasces, eine antike römische Darstellung der militärischen Autorität. Dieses Symbol des Faschismus erscheint auf der Rückseite des Merkur-Groschens (1916 – 1945 n. Chr.), Der Armlehnen des Lincoln Memorial und hinter dem Sprecher des Repräsentantenhauses. Ein Fasces ist ein Bündel von Ulmen- oder Birkenstangen, die durch einen roten Tanga miteinander verbunden sind und eine Axt mit einer seitlich vorspringenden Klinge enthalten, die von Lictors als Symbole der Macht vor den Königen, Konsuln, Pretoren und Kaisern getragen wurde.

1917 CE – United States – In March, Congress introduced a major innovation to the federal tax system: a corporate excess profits tax. This levy taxed any profits above a „reasonable“ rate of return. Initially, this rate was set at 8 percent; if owners made more than that, then they paid taxes according to a steep rate schedule.

Supporters defended the new tax on equity grounds, but it also turned out to be the biggest money maker among new wartime taxes. It attracted bitter opposition from business groups, who considered the tax a threat to managerial prerogatives. They were certainly justified in their suspicion, since both Wilson and his allies in Congress considered the levy a legitimate means of business regulation. Many supporters hoped to retain it after the war ended.

The excess profits tax applied to individual as well as businesses, taxing the former at 8 percent on incomes over $6,000. This last innovation prompted critics to label it a „tax on brains,“ since it generally only applied to professionals and other highly educated workers.

In addition to the new excess profits tax, 1917 CE brought hikes in the regular income tax as well. The War Revenue Act of 1917 imposed a 2 percent tax on incomes over $1,000 ($2,000 for married couples). It featured graduated surtaxes reaching as high as 63 percent. It also added an additional tax of 4 percent to the existing corporate income tax.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue struggled to cope with the massive tax changes. Federal revenues grew dramatically. The average collection for each year in the twelve years preceding 1915 CE was $281 million. For the twelve years between 1915 CE and 1926 CE, the average was $2.78 billion. As one congressional report later summarized the change: „[A]n organization which had collected slightly over a quarter of a billion dollars yearly suddenly was required to collect annually nearly ten times that amount.“

The estate, munitions, and capital stock taxes all required new administrative machinery. The agency added staff in all these areas to interpret and administer the taxes. The real work, however, came from the expansion of the individual and corporate income taxes, as well as the introduction of the corporate excess profits tax. To cope, the bureau expanded dramatically. In 1917 CE, as the agency began to gear up for war taxation, it employed 524 headquarters staff and 4,529 field staff. By 1918 CE, total staff had grown to 9,600, and it rose further to roughly 14,000, 18,000, 20,000, and 21,000 in each of the subsequent years.

The task almost proved too much for the agency. The expanded income tax deluged the agency in paper. When returns for 1918 CE began to arrive, those from 1916 CE had not been audited, let alone ones from 1917 CE. The number of returns filed in 1918 was five times greater than the number from 1917 CE. Subsequent increases only added to the burden. All told, the number of returns increased more than 1,000 percent between 1916 CE and 1921 CE, giving the BIR an impossible problem. „The enormous increase in the revenue,“ one BIR commissioner complained, „the overwhelming increase in the number of returns filed and increase in the work to be performed as a consequence thereof went by leaps and bounds. No one did or could foresee it, or prepare for it.“

The United States eventually became embroiled in World War I, and towards the end of the war, Congress passed the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 (A). This Act defined, regulated and punished trading with enemies, who were then required by that act to be licensed by the government to do business. It was designed to prevent the transfer of gold between enemy nations by President Woodrow Wilson in order that enemy governments would not wreak havoc with the currency of the United States by creating great fluctuations in the value of gold and silver.

Germany

1917 CE – Germany – Wettin [vet´in], was a German dynasty, which ruled in Saxony, Thuringia, Poland, Great Britain, Belgium, and Bulgaria. It takes its name from a castle on the Saale near Halle. The family gained prominence in the 10th cent. as leaders in the German drive to the east, which made Saxony and Lusatia German. It acquired (c. 1100 CE) the margravate of Meissen and soon expanded its domains to include most of Saxony and Thuringia. In 1423 CE, Frederick the Warlike of Meissen was granted Saxony and became (1425 CE) elector of Saxony as Frederick I. The Wettin holdings were repeatedly subdivided. The most important division (1485 CE) established the Ernestine line and the Albertine line, named for Frederick II’s sons Ernest and Albert. The electoral title and most of Saxony passed in 1547 CE from the Ernestine to the Albertine line. The Ernestine line retained its possessions in Thuringia but split into several collateral branches. In 1918 CE, when the house of Wettin was deposed in Thuringia and Saxony, its Thuringian holdings consisted of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, a grand duchy, and of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, and Saxe-Altenburg, which were duchies. From the branch of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha the Belgian, the English, and the Bulgarian dynasties were descended through, respectively, Leopold I of the Belgians, Prince Albert (consort of Queen Victoria), and Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The English house changed its name to Windsor to avoid anti-German sentiment following World War I; the Bulgarian branch was deposed in 1946 CE. A cousin of Prince Albert married Queen Maria II of Portugal and became king consort as Ferdinand II of Portugal. The Albertine line ruled in Saxony, obtaining hereditary royal rank in 1806 CE; it also ruled Poland from 1697 CE to 1763 CE.

The original maiden name of Queen Elizabeth II was determined to be Wettin, based on the royal lineage descending from Prince Albert.

1917 CE – England – The „Balfour Declaration“ by the British government promises a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Arabs remained bitter that the British did not immediately fulfill their promise for an independent Arab empire that included Syria, and for the granting of Palestine as a homeland for the Jews. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 called for part of Palestine to be under British rule, part to be placed under a joint Allied government, and for Syria and Lebanon to be given to the France. However, Britain also offered to back Arab demands for postwar independence from the Ottomans in return for Arab support for the Allies and seems to have promised the same territories to the Arabs. In November 1917 CE, before it had conquered Jerusalem and the area to be known as Palestine, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, stating Britain’s support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine, and leading to the League of Nations mandate for Palestine. The mandate, and subsequent creation of the State of Israel, led to the Arab Israel conflict, which has resulted in several wars.

Petrograd, 4 July 1917. Street demonstration on Nevsky Prospekt just after troops of the Provisional Government have opened fire with machine guns.

Vladimir Lenin

Leon Trotsky

1917 CE – Russia – The Russian Revolution began, 1917 – 1920 CE, and evolved into a civil war that would have a most profound impact on the world.

Lev (Leon) Davidovich Bronstein (Trotsky), 1879 – 1940 CE, a Jewish Russian returned to Russia as a member of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party led by Vladimir IIich Ulyanov (Lenin), 1870 – 1924 CE. Bronstein (Trotsky) created the Red Army.

1918 CE – Europe – World War I ends with the defeat of Germany (which has to cede several regions to France and Poland, and all the African colonies) and Austria (which has to cede regions to Italy and grant independence to Yugoslavia).

1918 CE – Germany – The Bauhaus opens in Weimar. Universal female suffrage begins in Germany.

1918 CE – Iraq – Jordan – Britain takes control of Iraq and Transjordan after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

1918 CE – Yemen – Yemen becomes independent from the Ottomans under Yahya, the imam of the Zaydis.

1918 CE – Yugoslavia – Yugoslavia is created from the Kingdom of Serb, Croat and Slovene assembled on the Balkan ruins of the Ottoman and Hapsburg empires. Acrimony soon erupted between Catholic Croats and Orthodox Christian Serbo-Croats. Iceland becomes a nation as does Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

Coronation of Catholic Emperor Charles I

Charles I

1918 CE – Austria – Hungary – Charles I, Francois, 1892 – 1989 CE, the last of the Habsburg’s, Emperor of Austria and Hungary, declared a Austrian Federative State in an attempt to hold his empire together. A grandnephew of the emperor Francis Joseph I, Charles became heir presumptive to the Habsburg throne upon the assassination of his uncle Francis Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 CE, whose children were barred from succession because of his morganatic marriage.

Hungary and Czechoslovakia however declared their independence. On November 11, Charles I, Francois, was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Switzerland. The Habsburg Austro-Hungarian dynasty that believed in the divine right of kings, effectively ended with the banishment of Emperor Karl (Charles I) Habsburg the following year.

1918 – 1921 CE – Turkey – The Patriarch of Constantinople is vacant.

1918 CE – United States – The Revenue Act of 1918, actually passed in early 1919 CE, made relatively few major changes in the tax structure, but it did raise rates on individual and corporate income, corporate excess profits, and estates. The law provided for normal and surtax rates that rose the dizzying level of 77 percent on the biggest incomes. Corporations were given an exemption of $2,000, but rates were raised to 12 percent on net taxable income. The law also rectified numerous mistakes in earlier revenue laws, most of which had been enacted in great haste.

The income tax now occupied a central place in the federal revenue system. In 1916 CE, income taxes had been providing 16 percent of federal revenue. From 1917 CE to 1920 CE, that percentage ranged as high as 58 percent. The tax was now a pillar of federal finance. Still, however, it remained a narrow levy. In 1920 CE, only 5.5. million returns showed any tax due.

William G. McAdoo, Wilson’s Secretary of the Treasury. Photo courtesy of National Archives.

On May 27, Wilson makes his famous „politics is adjourned“ speech to urge higher taxes, including levies on income, estates, and excess profits.

Meanwhile, the BIR began a massive recruitment campaign to help redress its chronic personnel shortage. More than 1,000 auditors were hired in the first six months of 1919 CE. The agency still struggled to keep up, however; delays in the printing of tax forms and instructions prompted an extension of the filing deadline from March 1 to April 1.

On October 27, the Volstead Act, providing for enforcement of the new Prohibition Amendment, passed over Wilson’s veto. BIR commissioner was charged with enforcing the act. A new Prohibition Unit was created on December 22, allowed a budget of 2 million under the Volstead Act.

Winston Churchill, Clementine Churchill and Bernard Baruch

1919 CE – France – The American President, Woodrow Wilson, was „advised“ at the Versailles Peace Conference near Paris by Colonel House and Bernard Baruch, both Jewish Rothschild clones and leaders of the Round Table in the United States; when the elite of the Round Table from Britain and the United States, people like Alfred Milner, Edward Mandel House, and Bernard Baruch, were appointed to represent their countries at the meetings which decided how the world would be changed as a result of the war these same people had created. The British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, was „advised“ by Alfred Milner, Rothschild employee and Round Table leader, and Sir Phillip Sassoon, a direct descendent of Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty; The French leader, Georges Clemenceau, was „advised“ by his Minister for the Interior, Georges Mandel, whose real name was Jeroboam Rothschild. (7)

1919 CE – Europe – European socialists split into „Communists“ and „Social Democrats.“

1919 CE – Afghanistan – Afghanistan gains independence from Britain.

1920 CE – Palestine – Palestine becomes a British protectorate.

1920 CE – Russia – The Russian Revolution had begun without violence, but by 1920 CE the victims of execution, famine and epidemics numbered almost 7 million.

1920 CE – Germany – The Nazi Party is formed this year in Germany called the National Socialist German Worker Party.

In Germany, psychiatrist Karl Binding and magistrate Alfred Hoche argue for the killing of those who are „Ballastexistenzen,“ i.e. whose lives are seen merely as ballast, or dead weight, within humanity; this includes Gypsy (Roma). The concept of Lebensunwertesleben, or „lives unworthy (or undeserving) of life,“ becomes central to Nazi race policy in 1933 CE, when a law incorporating this same phrase is issued by Adolf Hitler on July 14th that year. This policy is based upon the theory of „eugenics,“ which originated in England in 1883 CE.

Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945 CE, a Catholic Austrian, lists his position: revoke the Versailles Treaty, confiscate war profits, expropriate land without compensation, revoke civil rights for Jews and expel all Jews who emigrated into Germany after the war began.

1920 CE – Ireland – Ireland was partitioned by two enactments of the British government which (1) made the six counties of Northern Ireland part of the United Kingdom in 1920 CE and (2) gave dominion status to the Irish Free State in 1922 CE. The Irish Free State became an independent republic in 1949 CE.

Left to right: Sec. of the Interior John Barton Payne, Moreven(?) Thompson of Washington, D.C., Sec. of the Treasury David F. Houston, ex-Senator Willard Saulsbury, photographed at the Chevy Chase Club. Photo from Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-101983)

1920 CE – United States – A broad consensus held that steep wartime tax rates were unsustainable. Two of Woodrow Wilson’s Treasury secretaries, Carter Glass and David Houston, suggested cuts. Even Wilson himself – the architect of the progressive wartime tax system – seemed to agree. In his 1919 State of the Union Address, he had suggested the possibility of reducing taxes.

Still, many Democrats and progressive Republicans were unwilling to roll back wartime tax reforms. Pleased with the newly progressive cast of federal revenue policy, they sought to retain some of its more progressive elements, including the excess profits tax.

Supporters believed that the profits tax – which imposed a graduated levy on business profits above a pre-determined „normal“ rate of return on capital – to be a blow for egalitarian ideals. Rep. Claude Kitchin led the campaign to retain the tax. As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee in the years leading up to World War I, he had helped craft the highly progressive wartime tax system. Now in the minority, he insisted that the tax should be made permanent, arguing that it would shift the fiscal burden to the individuals and corporations whose wealth posed a threat to American society.

Kitchin and his allies were not destined to succeed. Republican lawmakers joined with a series of GOP presidents to engineer tax cuts in 1921 CE, 1924 CE, 1926 CE, and 1928 CE. Andrew Mellon – who moved into his Treasury office in 1921 CE and stayed their until 1932 CE – was the principal architect of these reforms. As one wag remarked,  „three presidents served under Mellon,“ and when it came to taxes, he was certainly correct.

The Independent Treasury Act of May 29, transferred the office of the Secretary of the Treasury over to a private corporation – the Federal Reserve and their agents. The bulk of the ownership of the Federal Reserve System (8), a very well kept secret from the American people, is held by the following banking interests –

• Rothschild Bank of London
• Rothschild Bank of Berlin
• Warburg Bank of Hamburg
• Warburg Bank of Amsterdam
• Lazard Brothers of Paris
• Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
• Chase Manhattan Bank of New York
• Goldman, Sachs of New York
• Lehman Brothers of New York
• Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York

The Federal Reserve Bank was neither Federal, nor does it have any reserves. The monetary policy was to create an „elastic“ currency that was to be based on the labor of the American public using their property as collateral.  The major banks of Europe were the sole shareholders in the stock of the Federal Reserve, which makes this particular banking monopoly a foreign corporation contractually bound with the United States government to supply currency which is created out of thin air and tracked simply as bookkeeping entries of debits and credits. Equity proceedings still maintain use of charge and discharge regarding the „account“ of each „person.“

The sole rise of Jews in the financial systems of America caused Henry Ford to make the following comment in the Dearborn (Mich) Independent regarding international banking –

„How does the Jew so habitually and so resistlessly gravitate to the highest places? What puts him there? Why is he put there? What does he do there? What does the fact of his being there mean to the world? That is the Jewish Question in its origin. Fifty years ago, international banking, which was mostly in control of Jews as the money brokers of the world, was on top of business. It exercised the super-control of governments and finance everywhere. The significance of this is that the type does not grow anywhere else than on a Jewish stem. There is no other racial or national type which puts forth this kind of person. It is not merely that there are a few Jews among international financial controllers; it is that these world controllers are exclusively Jews. Since world-control is an ambition which has only been achieved by Jews, and not by any of the methods usually adopted by would-be world conquerors, it becomes inevitable that the question should center in that remarkable race.“       The International Jew, Henry Ford Sr., p. 191, 1921.

Henry Ford

A few years later Mr. Ford said „It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.“ In his book „The International Jew,“ Henry Ford Sr. wrote the following –

„When the powerful Jew is at last traced and his hand revealed, then comes the ready cry of persecution and it echoes through the world press. The real cause of the persecution (which is the oppression of the people by the financial practices of the Jews) is never given publicity.“       The International Jew, Henry Ford Sr., p. 229, 1921.

Wary of the unpopularity of „German-sounding“ names after World War I, August Beuck begins using the name Buick rather than Beuck as he christens the new post office in his Colorado hometown. The new name of the GM marquee seemed assuredly all-American in a time when anti-German feelings dominated the nation. The wave of intolerance had begun with the United States entrance into World War I, resulting in many a Schmidt becoming a Smith. Throughout the country, hundreds of German newspapers and publications were forced to shut down, and German language instruction came to an end in most states.

1921 CE – Jordan – The British install Abdullah, fourth son of Sharif Hussein of the Hashemite dynasty, as king of Transjordan.

1921 CE – Persia (Iran) – General Reza Khan seizes power with a coup.

1921 – 1923 CE – Turkey – Meletius IV Metaxakis becomes Patriarch of Constantinople.

Warren G. Harding

1921 CE – United States – Warren G. Harding becomes the 29th President of the United States as a Republican. Brother Harding became a Freemason when he was initiated on June 28, 1901 CE in Marion Lodge No. 70 in Marion, Ohio. Because of some personal antagonism, Brother Harding’s advancement was hindered until 1920 CE, by which time he had been nominated for President. Friends persuaded the opposition to withdraw the objection, and on August 27, 1920 CE, nineteen years after his Initiation, Brother Harding achieved the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, in Marion Lodge. At his request, Brother Harding took the Oath of Office of President of the United States upon the same Bible as was used by Brother George Washington for the same purpose on April 30, 1789 the Altar Bible of St. John’s Lodge No. 1, New York City. (9) Harding remarked privately to his wife while on a cross country trip – „I have no trouble with my enemies … but my … friends … keep me walking the floor nights!“

William H. Taft, a Freemason, was nominated by Masonic President Warren G. Harding as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Taft held this position from 1921 CE until 1930 CE, after previously serving as 27th president of the United States from 1901 CE until 1913 CE.

The series of Mellon tax cuts began in 1921 CE, as legislators from both parties set about revising the wartime tax system. On April 30, Mellon asked Congress for a variety of tax changes, including elimination of the excess profits tax, a modest increase in the corporate income tax, a reduction in personal income tax rates, and the retention of most wartime excise levies.

Repeal of the excess profits tax was almost a foregone conclusion, enjoying broad, bipartisan support. In 1919 CE, President Wilson had told Congress in 1919 CE that the levy „should be made the basis of a permanent tax system which will reach undue profits without discouraging the enterprise and activity of our business men.“ But fiscal experts had since begun to question the tax.

Thomas S. Adams was arguably the most important tax policy expert of his day, a trusted adviser to both Democratic and Republican administrations. He was also one of the original champions of excess profits taxation. In 1920 CE, however, he dealt the levy a heavy blow, calling for its repeal. Having once defended the tax as a means to „allay hostility to big business,“ Adams now derided it as burdensome, complicated, and inequitable. Business leaders, he warned, understandably resented its „intricacy and capricious inequalities.“ Government officials, moreover, had found the levy hard to administer.

Columbia University economist Edwin Seligman was another vocal critic. More conservative than Adams, Seligman was a leading light of the economics profession and a pioneer in the study of taxation. With strong support from the business community, he argued that the excess profits tax posed a threat to corporate autonomy and economic efficiency. While supporting progressive taxation generally, Seligman argued that the excess profits tax was unwise. Instead, he favored broader use of the federal income tax.

Economist Edwin Seligman. Photo courtesy the History of Economic Thought Website.

Sen. Reed Smoot. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Not every economist, however, was a critic of the excess profits tax. Robert M. Haig, a Seligman protégé and colleague at Columbia, offered a compelling case for retention. The excess profits tax, he insisted, was both just and practical – or at least it might be, if Congress would enact several key reforms to simplify its administration. Compared with its alternatives, including higher income taxes or a national sales tax, the profits tax was far superior. Policymakers should „continue the policy of skimming the richer crocks of milk,“ he counseled, rather than opting for less progressive alternatives.

Expert debate notwithstanding, the forces arrayed against the excess profits tax proved irresistible. Even Democrats joined the campaign for repeal. Wilson’s Treasury Secretary Carter Glass insisted that the tax „encourages wasteful expenditure, puts a premium on overcapitalization and a penalty on brains, energy, and enterprise, discourages new ventures, and confirms old ventures and their monopolies.“ Business leaders, meanwhile, agitated aggressively against the levy.

When Congress began consideration of the 1921 revenue bill, the sales tax proved to be a sticking point. Mellon’s proposals, including excess profits repeal, sailed through the House of Representatives, arriving in the Senate almost intact. In the upper house, however, the bill ran into trouble. Sen. Reed Smoot, R-Utah, proposed a national retail sales tax, and he had considerable support among Senate leaders. Sen. George Higgins Moses, R-N.H., offered a colorful, if intemperate, appeal, insisting that a sales tax would „strike down the vicious principle of graduated taxation which appears in the pending [House] tax bill, and which is but a modern legislative adaptation of the Communistic doctrine of Karl Marx.“

Moses failed to persuade his colleagues, especially after Mellon sided with opponents of the sales tax. Meanwhile, a strong coalition of Democrats and progressive Republicans challenged the bill on the Senate floor, opposing the sales tax and insisting on higher income tax rates. This „agricultural block“ – derided as the „wild asses of the desert“ by their enemies – also pushed for steeper estate tax rates, as well as higher corporate income taxes.

Nearing the end of the session, harried lawmakers agreed to a relatively moderate package of reforms. They eliminated the excess profits tax, but replaced some of the lost revenue with a hike in corporate income tax rates. They also lowered the top marginal income tax rate on individuals to 50 percent – a dramatic reduction from wartime highs but far less than Mellon had requested. Legislators increased the exemption for heads of families and for dependents, making the tax base somewhat narrower and lightening the burden for many middle income taxpayers. And they introduced preferential treatment for capital gains income.

As passed, the 1921 revenue act pleased almost no one. Critics complained that it was a pastiche of unrelated, politically driven compromises. Republicans were disappointed in its modest rate reductions; as Sen. Smoot observed, „When the bill becomes law it will be the present revenue baby merely dressed in pink instead of red.“ But at least one contemporary observer thought the country had dodged a bullet. „The leaders of each of the contesting parties,“ observed economist Roy Blakey, „as well as the nation at large had cause to be thankful that the law was no worse than it was.“

 Andrew Mellon

Generally speaking, Mellon argued that tax burdens were too high. Steep rates, he insisted, served only to stifle incentive and foster tax evasion. „Any man of energy and initiative in this country can get what he wants out of life,“ he wrote. „But when initiative is crippled by legislation or by a tax system which denies him the right to receive a reasonable share of his earnings, then he will no longer exert himself and the country will be deprived of the energy on which its continued greatness depends.“

President Calvin Coolidge, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, and Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. Photo courtesty of the Library of Congress.

Worse yet, Mellon argued, high rates didn’t even raise money. By encouraging both legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion, they eroded the tax base and reduced overall revenue. Lower rates, he said, would actually raise money by spurring economic growth and reducing the incentive for tax avoidance. „It seems difficult for some to understand,“ he complained, „that high rates of taxation do not necessarily mean large revenue to the government, and that more revenue may actually be obtained by lower rates.“ In particular, Mellon insisted that high rates distorted investment decisions, boosting the popularity of tax-free state and local government bonds. Indeed, Mellon made these tax-free bonds a regular target of his reform attempts, but Congress resisted his plans to eliminate them.

In general, Mellon offered a consistent and politically compelling case for tax reduction, impressing even his opponents with his passion for sweeping cuts. „There was a mystical righteousness about tax reduction,“ observed Randolph Paul, a leading tax expert who would figure prominently in Roosevelt-era tax policymaking. That sense of righteousness even extended to specialized tax breaks for specific industries. Mellon and his supporters believed that tax reductions – almost any tax reduction – would help spur growth. A convenient side-effect of such narrow tax incentives, of course, was the power they conferred on policymakers, who used them to reward friends and political allies.

But for all his tax cutting zeal, Mellon was not quite singleminded in his pursuit of lower taxes. He split with some of his GOP colleagues to support the retention of both corporate and individual income taxes. When some Republicans tried in 1921 to advance a plan for a national sales tax, Mellon resisted the idea. And even while promoting repeal of the excess profits tax, he supported an increase in corporate income tax rates to compensate for the lost revenue. Perhaps most important, he advocated rate cuts for individuals but endorsed retention of the income tax. „The income tax,“ he assured lawmakers, „is firmly embedded in our system of taxation and the objections made are not to the principle of the tax but only to the excessively high rates.“ The comment reflected Mellon’s assessment of political and economic realities. The income tax, he had concluded, was here to stay.

Mellon had a few distinctly progressive ideas. Of particular note, he suggested taxing „earned“ income from wages and salaries more lightly that „unearned“ income from investments. As he argued –

„The fairness of taxing more lightly income from wages, salaries or from investments is beyond question. In the first case, the income is uncertain and limited in duration; sickness or death destroys it and old age diminishes it; in the other, the source of income continues; the income may be disposed of during a man’s life and it descends to his heirs.“

Surely we can afford to make a distinction between the people whose only capital is their metal and physical energy and the people whose income is derived from investments. Such a distinction would mean much to millions of American workers and would be an added inspiration to the man who must provide a competence during his few productive years to care for himself and his family when his earnings capacity is at an end.

It was a striking argument, especially coming from a friend of wealth and capital. But it was not out of character. Mellon believed that some degree of progressivity was necessary to forestall more radical attacks on capital. Such an argument did not sit well with many of his Republican colleagues, who longed to eliminate income taxes. Mellon remained committed, however, to taming the income tax, saving it from the excesses of its more ardent supporters, as well as its most bitter critics

On 25 July 1921 CE, Senator Owen stated in the New York Times –

„The Federal Reserve Board is the most gigantic financial power in the world. Instead of using this great power as the Federal Reserve Act intended that it should, the board … delegated this power to the banks, … „

The Children’s Bureau was eventually made responsible for administering financial aid to the States to help them improve conditions for children. In 1921 CE, the Congress passed the Maternity and Infancy Act, popularly known as the Sheppard-Towner Act [Pub. L. No. 97-67, 42 Stat. 224], which was „for the promotion, the welfare and hygiene of maternity and infancy and for other purposes,“ It passed in the senate with a vote of 63 to 7, by the house with a vote of 279 to 39, was finally signed by the president and became law on Nov. 23, 1921 CE. The act authorized $1,200,000 to be given each year to the States to help them improve their health services for infants and for mothers during childbearing. The bill was a direct outgrowth of a nine year study made by the Federal Children’s Bureau, with the Bureau being administrator of these history-making grants-in-aid. This act and the acceptance of its benefits by the States created the „United States birth registration areas.“ (10)

The constitutionality of conditional federal grants came before the U.S. Supreme Court in the form of a challenge to the Sheppard-Towner Act, which established an innovative federal program authorizing annual grants to states that met certain conditions for the improvement of maternal and infant health. The Act was characterized as „a usurpation of power not granted to Congress by the Constitution – an attempted exercise of the power of local self-government reserved to the states by the 10th Amendment.“ It was said to deploy federal spending power „for purposes not national, but local to the States,“ and to be unconstitutional because it was „an effective means of inducing the States to yield a portion of their sovereign rights.“ In Massachusetts v. Mellon, [262 U.S. 447 (1923 CE)] however, the Court repulsed this attack on the Act. The Court crafted standing and political question doctrines that to this day have essentially precluded judicial oversight of the federalism implications of the national spending power.

Challenges to the legality of such grants were rejected by the court on the grounds that participation in the programs was voluntary on the part of the states and thus did not violate separation of powers. 

Grace Abbott, another member of the Hull House settlement, replaced Julia Lathrop when she resigned in 1921 CE. The Sheppard-Towner Act expired in 1929 CE, but –

… it established the national policy that the people of the United States, through their Federal Government, share with State and local governments responsibility for helping to provide the health and welfare services children need for a good start in life. It also provided the blueprint for Title V of the Social Security Act, passed in 1935 and in operation continuously since then, which authorizes financial aid to the States to help them extend and improve their maternal and child health, crippled children’s, and child welfare services. By delegation, the Children’s Bureau administers these grants.

The Federal Children’s Bureau was transferred to Department of Labor in 1913 CE. The Children’s Bureau continued to be part of the Department of Labor until 1946 CE. As part of the same reorganization that created the Social Security Administration, the Children’s Bureau was transferred to SSA, effective July 1946 CE. This was done, according to President Truman’s executive order, because –

„The transfer of the Children’s Bureau … will strengthen the child-care programs by bringing them in closer association with the health, welfare, and educational activities with which they are inextricably bound up.“

In 1968 CE the Children’s Bureau became part of the Social and Rehabilitation Service; in 1970 CE it was submerged in a new Office of Child Development; later in the 1970s it became part of the Public Health Service; it is currently part of the Department of Health & Human Services‘ Administration for Children and Families.

The Federal Children’s Bureau was concocted, campaigned for, implemented and maintained by socialists. Congressional speeches denounced the origins of the Federal Children’s Bureau and the socialists who control and operate it. It was forerunner of the current government agencies that are responsible for the guardianship of all children by the State and Federal governments, constituting the basis of modern-day socialism through Social Security.

The rights of the individual are not derived from governmental agencies, either municipal, state or federal, or even from the Constitution. They exist inherently in every man, by endowment of the Creator, and are merely reaffirmed in the Constitution, and restricted only to the extent that they have been voluntarily surrendered by the citizenship to the agencies of government. The people’s rights are not derived from the government, but the government’s authority comes from the people.       City of Dallas v. Mitchell, 245 S.W. 944 (Tex.Civ. App. Dallas 1922).

1922 CE – England – Britain receives a mandate from the League of Nations to create a homeland for the Jews in Palestine, which starts large-scale Jewish immigration from Europe.

Winston Churchill – Time Magazine Cover 1923

King Fuad I

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England, a Freemason and Druid, stated to the London Press in 1922 CE –

„From the days of Sparticus Weishaupt, Karl Marx, Trotsky, Belacoon, Rosa Luxenburg, and Ema Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a recognizable role in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th century. And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.“

1922 CE – Egypt – Egypt declares its independence under Fuad I and a secular constitution is proclaimed to create a parliamentary monarchy.

Pius XI

1922 – 1939 CE – Italy – Pius XI, alias Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, is elected pope. His motto is: Christ’s peace in Christ’s kingdom, meaning that the Church and Christianity should be active in, and not insulated from, society. Using the term kingdom, however, is already against the social trend toward democracy, placing the church at odds with Christian principles. His actions of introducing Catholic Action groups, however, inadvertently introduced the beginning of democracy into the church. He established the Vatican City as an independent neutral state with Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, the Italian Prime Minister. The Vatican had to recognize Italy as a kingdom with Rome as its capital, and Mussolini had to accept Catholicism as the official religion.

Benito Mussolini, Il Duce

1922 CE – Italy – Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, (1883 – 1945 CE) a socialist, gains power in Italy. He promises to have the trains run on time. He achieves this objective by shooting someone if it doesn’t run on time. The news was full of his brutality but all countries choose to look the other way.

Faisal I

1922 CE – Iraq – The British install Faisal, third son of Sharif Hussein, brother of Abdullah of Transjordan, as king of the newly created state of Iraq.

1922 CE – Germany – The cost of a newspaper in Germany rises from 0.30 marks (1921 CE) to 70 million marks (1922 CE).

1922 CE – Russia – Russia is renamed as the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic.

1922 CE – Syria – Lebanon – Syria and Lebanon become French protectorates.

1922 CE – United States – The culmination of the codification of the Revised Statutes and the laws of the United States was adopted as the United States Code. The code combined all the laws into fifty categories, which task had originally been authorized under the Grant administration in 1871 CE.  The Law Revision Counsel lists the Titles of the United States which have been enacted into positive law, and those which are not positive law. Of the 50 titles, only 23 have been enacted into positive (statutory) law. When a title of the Code was enacted into positive law, the text of the title became legal evidence of the law. Titles that have not been enacted into positive law are only prima facie evidence of the law. In that case, the Statutes at Large still govern. Title 26 – Internal Revenue Code has never been enacted into positive law. See Title 44, Section 1505 as to documents required to be published in the Federal Register.

The applicable citation rule is that U.S.C. positive laws must cite to the U.S.C.; however, a different rule applies to non-positive enactments. Non-positive law may (permissively) be cited to the U.S.C. provided no „material“ variance exists from the Public Law (published in the Statutes at Large); however, given such variance, the official law being the Public Law, citation must, in that event, be to the Statutes at Large. This issue is discussed in somewhat more detail in „Statutes at Large = Official – U.S.C. = Presumptively Official.“

Mustafa Kemal

Miguel Primo de Rivera

1923 CE – Turkey – Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) abolishes the Ottoman empire and declares Turkey a republic.

1923 CE – Spain – Miguel Primo de Rivera installs a dictatorship in Spain. After a rapid and brilliant military career in Cuba, the Philippines, and Morocco, he became governor of Cádiz (1915 CE), then in turn captain general of Valencia, Madrid, and Catalonia. From Catalonia he staged a coup in Sept. 1923 CE, dissolving the Cortes and then establishing, with the full approval of King Alfonso XIII, a military directory. The constitution of 1876 as well as civil liberties were suspended. The military dictatorship was replaced by a civil one (1925 CE); both ruled quite moderately, without the brutalities and extreme repression that characterized later dictatorships. Primo de Rivera ended the war in Morocco (1926 CE), introduced many measures aimed at economic modernization and administrative reform, and launched an ambitious program of public works, but his rule aroused the opposition of anarcho-syndicalists, Catalan regionalists, and all liberals. An uprising in 1929 CE by the liberals did not succeed, but various political and economic failures of the regime soon led to his resignation in January 1930 CE. He died in exile in Paris.

1923 CE – Germany – Hyper-inflation is rampant in Germany, where the mark goes down from 2000 DM for $1 to 4.2 trillion DM to $1.

French and Belgian troops marched into Germany to settle a reparations dispute. This further humiliated the German people thereby generating more support for the Nazi movement.

On November 8, 1923 CE, Adolph Hitler led his Nazi followers in an abortive attempt to seize power in Munich in what became known as the „Beer Hall Putsch“. Although the plan failed, and Hitler was imprisoned, the notoriety the Nazi leader gained laid the groundwork for the rise of the Nazi party. While in prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, the book that described his political philosophy and planned conquest of Europe.

1923 – 1924 CE – Turkey – Gregory VII becomes Patriarch of Constantinople.

Warren G. Harding

Florence Harding

1923 CE – United States – President Harding visited Alaska and receives a „long ciphered message“ which visibly upset him, causing him to ask what a president could do when friends betrayed him; he died soon after among conflicting rumors about the cause of his death. He developed pneumonia and died suddenly on August 2, 1923 CE. Within minutes of Warren G. Harding’s death at either 7:10, 7:20, or 7:30 p.m. on August 2, 1923 CE, rumors began to circulate. No one present at his demise could give the correct time of death. No one seemed to be sure who was on hand in the San Francisco hotel room when he breathed his last. Most of all, the four physicians who had been caring for Harding for the previous week could not agree on the cause of death. It had something to do with his heart. On the other hand, perhaps it was a stroke. Alternatively, it could have been both, exacerbated by the ptomaine poisoning that he may or may not have experienced a few days earlier in Vancouver. Despite the confusion over the time of death, surely an autopsy would resolve the uncertainty about what killed Warren G. Harding.

Except – there was no autopsy. Mrs. Harding – the „Duchess,“ as her husband called her – would not permit it. Within an hour of his death, he was embalmed, rouged, powdered, dressed, and in his casket. By morning, he was on a train, headed back to Washington, D.C.

Calvin Coolidge became the 30th President of the United States as a Republican following the untimely death of Harding. His Vice-President was Charles G. Dawes from 1925 CE until 1929 CE. The status of both men as Freemasons is unknown. Coolidge was related to the following Presidents: William Henry Harrison, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Harry Truman, and Lyndon Johnson. (11)

1924 – 1925 CE – Turkey – Constantine VI becomes Patriarch of Constantinople.

1924 CE – United States – Mellon took another run at tax reduction in 1924 CE. He urged lawmakers to further cut income tax rates, arguing – as he had in 1921 CE – that lower rates would actually raise revenue. Existing taxes were simply too high, he told the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. „Ways will always be found to avoid taxes so destructive in their nature, and the only way to save the situation is to put the taxes on a reasonable basis that will permit business to go on and industry to develop,“ he wrote. „The alternative is a gradual breakdown in the system and a perversion of industry that stifles our progress as a nation.“

The secretary proposed a top rate of 25 percent, insisting that lower rates would stem tax avoidance. He also proposed his special tax break for earned income, amounting to a 25 percent reduction for wage and salary income. Finally, he supported reductions in estate taxes, which Mellon considered a „levy upon capital,“ since it allowed lawmakers to extract capital from accumulated fortunes and use it for current operating expenses.

An unusual photo series of John Nance Garner from his time as vice president. Photos by Theodor Horydczak, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Mellon met stiff resistance on Capitol Hill. With a smaller congressional majority than they had enjoyed in 1921 CE, Republicans had less room to maneuver. Rep. John Nance Garner (D-Tex) seized the opportunity to launch a Democratic attack, contending that the Mellon plan cut rates too much. „This is the time to determine the policy of who is going to pay the taxes,“ he told one observer. „The crux of the fight is the surtax. The Mellon 25 percent maximum is at least 10 or 15 per cent too low.“

Republican stalwarts attacked Garner’s substitute bill as a mishmash of bad economics. „You have heard of great musicians sitting down at a piano and improvising a tune,“ declared Rep. Ogden Mills (R-N.Y.) „Mr. Garner sits down at a table in this chamber and improvises a tax bill.“ But Garner was gaining ground, securing the votes of virtually all Democrats and even some progressive Republicans. Within three weeks, Republican leaders were ready to capitulate. Speaker Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio) agreed to accept higher income tax rates, and even swallowed a hike in estate tax rates.

In the Senate, Republican leaders knew they had a weak hand, and they offered only limited resistance to the Democratic onslaught. President Calvin Coolidge reluctantly signed the 1924 act, complaining that Congress had ignored his recommendations. The law granted an immediate 25 percent rebate on taxes paid for 1923 income. It also reduced the top marginal income tax rate to 40 percent – a substantial cut but, again, much less than Mellon had sought. The secretary got his 25 percent earned income credit, but he also had to swallow a hike in estate tax rates from 25 percent to 40 percent.

Iran

1925 CE – Iran – Reza Khan, 1925 – 1941 CE, appoints himself as Shah of Persia, the Qajar dynasty ends and the Pahlavi dynasty begins. He began his career as an army officer and gained a reputation for great valor and leadership. He headed a coup in 1921 CE and became prime minister of the new regime in 1923 CE. He negotiated the evacuation (1921 CE) of the Russian troops and (1924 CE) of the British forces stationed in Iran since World War I.

Reza Shah

Virtually a dictator, Reza Khan deposed Ahmad Mirza in 1925 CE, the last shah of the Qajar dynasty, and was proclaimed shah of Iran. He changed his name to Reza Shah Pahlevi, thus founding the Pahlevi dynasty, and in 1935 CE officially changed the name of Persia to Iran. Reza Shah introduced many reforms, reorganizing the army, government administration, and finances. He abolished all special rights granted to foreigners, thus gaining real independence for Iran. Under his rule the Trans-Iranian RR was built, the Univ. of Tehran was established, and industrialization was stepped-up. In World War II his rapprochement with the Germans was protested by the Allies, and in 1941 CE, British and Russian forces invaded and occupied Iran. Forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi, he died in exile in South Africa.

1925 CE – Italy – Benito Mussolini Il Duce, a socialist, becomes dictator of Italy and is slowly turning into a Fascist.

1925 – 1929 CE – Turkey – Basil III becomes Patriarch of Constantinople.

Josef Stalin

1926 CE – USSR – Iosif Vissarionovich aka Joseph Stalin (1879 – 1953 CE) takes power in the USSR, he was a ruthless man responsible for millions of deaths.

1926 CE – Switzerland – The Swiss Pro Juventute Foundation begins, „in keeping with the theories of eugenics and progress,“ to take children away from Gypsy (Roma) without their consent, to change their names, and to put them into foster homes. This program continues until 1973 CE, and is not brought to light until the 1980s. Switzerland has apologized to the Gypsy (Roma), but adamantly refuses to allow them access to the records which will help them locate the children taken from them.

1926 CE – England – Knights of St. Columba instigate the ‚Roman Catholic Relief Act‘ abolishing many of the anti-catholic clauses of the Penal Laws. The Roman Catholic Relief Act repealed virtually all legal disabilities of Catholics in England.

1926 CE – United States – All in all, the 1924 tax act amounted to half a loaf – or less – for Mellon. By 1926 CE, he was ready for another try. Energized by GOP victories in the presidential and congressional elections, he offered a new plan, including immediate elimination of the gift tax, gradual elimination of the estate tax, and a broad reduction in individual income tax rates, bringing the top marginal rate to just 20 percent.

A major lobbying effort sprung up in support of Mellon’s proposals, featuring Capitol Hill appearances by a number of „tax clubs.“ The clubs claimed to be grassroots organizations, giving prominent voice to popular opinion. Critics, however, considered them ill-informed, partisan mouthpieces for the rich.

As it happened, Congress needed little convincing; lawmakers of both parties rushed to sweeten the Mellon proposals. With the progressive wing of the Republican party in disarray, and many Democrats throwing in their lot with GOP tax cutters, the success of the Mellon proposals was never in much doubt.

Democrats managed to stave off elimination of the estate tax, but only after agreeing to a 50 percent rate cut, as well as a credit for state inheritance taxes. Rep. John Nance Garner successfully resurrected his plan to raise income tax exemptions. The law raised exemptions across the board, eliminating roughly a third of the nation’s 7.3 million income taxpayers; higher exemptions moved many taxpayers off the rolls entirely.

President Calvin Coolidge signs the 1926 revenue act. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon is on the far left. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The exemption hikes were not part of Mellon’s plan. Indeed, he opposed the idea, insisting that the tax base was already too small. „To narrow it further,“ he told one Republican senator, „would make the whole tax structure unstable and its continued usefulness as a source of revenue uncertain.“ In Mellon’s view, the higher exemptions also created a political hazard. „As a matter of policy,“ he said, „it is advisable to have every citizen with a stake in his country. Nothing brings home to a man the feeling that he personally has an interest in seeing that government revenues are not squandered, but intelligently expended, as the fact that he contributes individually a direct tax, no matter how small, to his government.“

Progressives in both parties bridled at Mellon’s suggestion that poor Americans had no fiscal stake in their government. „Surely the Secretary of the Treasury can not intend, with a stroke of his mighty pen, to expatriate 96 per cent of us,“ noted the Omaha World-Herald, „We pay taxes on our coats, on our shoes and socks, on our hats, on our shorts and underwear, on the food on the breakfast-table, on the materials of which are homes are constructed, on the furniture in them, on the vehicles we ride in, on the amusements wherein we seek surcease-on practically everything, indeed, that we have and do. Do not these payments entitle us to feel equally with Mr. Mellon, that we have a stake in our country?“

Poor Americans did, indeed, pay a host of taxes, most of them on consumption. Many excise taxes enacted during World War I remained on the books, imposing their regressive burden on a host of consumer goods and services. But as a few lonely liberals pointed out, the consumption tax burden was really an argument against higher exemptions, not for them.

Nonetheless, 1926 CE was a year for tax cuts, and Garner’s exemption hike became part of the package. Mellon accepted the higher exemptions as the price of his marginal rate cuts. In a few years, he would have cause to regret that decision, but for the time being, it seemed a reasonable expedient.

Abdul al-Aziz

1926 CE – Saudi Arabia – In 1902 CE, Abdul al-Aziz Ibn Saud captured Riyadh, the Al-Saud dynasty’s ancestral capital, from the rival Al-Rashid family. Continuing his conquests, Abdul Aziz subdued Al-Hasa, the rest of Nejd, and the Hijaz between 1913 CE and 1926 CE. Abdul al-Aziz conquered north Arabia from the Hashemites. On January 8, 1926 CE, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud became the King of Hejaz and renamed it Saudi Arabia. The Treaty of Jedda was signed on May 20, 1927 CE, making Saudi Arabia independent of the United Kingdom. In 1932 CE, these regions were unified as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The discovery of oil on March 3, 1938 CE, transformed the country.

1927 CE – Iraq – Oil fields are discovered near Karkuk in Iraq and king Faisal grants oil rights to the British.

Adolf Hitler

1927 CE – Germany – Hitler publishes „Mein Kampf.“

1927 CE – USSR – Lev (Leon) Davidovich Bronstein (Trotsky) a Jewish Russian is expelled from the USSR by Iosif Vissarionovich aka Joseph Stalin (1879 – 1953 CE), a Socialist.

1928 CE – Egypt – Hassan Al-Banna creates „Al-Ikhwan Al-Moslemoon,“ the „Muslim Brotherhood,“ in Egypt, a quasi-monastic movement that advocates for the entire Arab world a fundamentalist Islamic society like the one created by the Wahabites in Saudi Arabia and therefore advocates rebellion against the westernized Egyptian government.

1928 CE – Indonesia – Achmad Sukarno founds the Nationalist Party with the mission to gain independence for Indonesia from Holland.

1928 CE – Italy – Pius XI had originally encouraged discussion between Roman Catholics and Anglicans but this year stated the Roman Church could never be a federation of independent bodies holding differing doctrines and forbid Roman Catholics to take part in conferences with non-Romans.

1928 CE – Turkey – Mustafa Kemal Ataturk introduced religious freedom in Turkey and Islam ceased to be the state religion.

1928 CE – United States – The tax cut parade was not quite over. In 1928 CE, Mellon took another run at reduction, again suggesting estate tax repeal, as well cuts in the corporate income tax. Lawmakers agreed with the latter but not the former. It was the last time for a long while that legislators would have a free hand in cutting taxes.

As Mellon surveyed his seven years in office, he must have been pleased. The income tax had grown more central to the federal revenue system; Prohibition had dried up alcohol excise revenue, making the income tax even more important than it had been at the end of World War I. But rates had declined dramatically since 1921 CE. And while Mellon never succeeded in his quest to eliminate the estate tax, he did manage to keep its rates relatively modest. All in all, taxes were less burdensome for many Americans, particularly those in the upper strata of society. These were happy years for tax policymakers of both parties. They had the pleasant task of choosing among various tax cuts, their deliberations buoyed by a fat and happy Treasury. As Franklin Roosevelt later pointed out, „it was all very merry while it lasted.“ But in 1929 CE, the party came to a crashing end.

1929 CE – Palestine – Hundreds of people die in clashes between Arabs and Jews in Palestine.

Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek

1929 CE – China – Chiang Kai Shek becomes president of China. In the early 1920s, he became chief of staff to Sun Yat-Sen, founder of the Chinese Kuomintang, or Nationalist party; after Dr. Sun’s death in 1925 CE, Chiang took over Kuomintang, subdued feudal warlords, and became ruler of mainland China from 1928 CE to 1949 CE, when the Chinese Communists won the civil war. Chiang, together with the remaining Nationalist forces, moved to the island of Taiwan (Formosa), where he set up a government-in-exile.

1929 – 1935 CE – Turkey – Photius II becomes Patriarch of Constantinople.

1929 CE – United States – Herbert Hoover becomes the 31st President of the United States as a Republican. Hoover’s Vice-President was Charles Curtis from 1929 CE until 1933 CE. The Masonic status of both men are unknown. Hoover refused to implement the Emergency Banking and Relief Act in early 1933 CE prior to Roosevelt being inaugurated. Hoover was a member of the all-male ultra-exclusive Bohemian Club to which every Republican President since Herbert Hoover has belonged.

Herbert Hoover

The Federal Reserve Bank raised the reserve rates in October which called for the payment of all accounts made on margin. As a high percentage of stock-ownership was on margin accounts, the investors did not have the money to pay the margin calls and the market crashed. The amount of money in circulation was available to run the country, but people refused to put their money into the banks, thereby diminishing the reserves the banks needed for fractionalization. If the banks had lower financial holdings, they could not make as many loans or establish credit for the people.

The secret machinations and malfeasance, including the Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, was organised by Montague Norman, Governor of the Bank of England from 1916 CE to 1944 CE, and Benjamin Strong, with a little help from their friends. Nor is there room to examine the wider implications of the actions of these Robber Barons and their support for Germany in the First World War (Nurse Edith Cavell was shot by the Germans upon the insistence of the British authorities for her „inconvenient“ exposure that „Belgian Relief“ supplies were being shipped to Germany to feed its army), and for Hitler’s subsequent rise to power.

Prior to assuming real power, Montague Norman had had a nervous breakdown in 1912 CE and, as was fashionable, had gone to Switzerland to be treated by Jung.

„When people of this class are stricken by guilt feelings while plotting world wars and economic depressions which will bring misery, suffering and death to millions of the world’s inhabitants; they sometimes have qualms. These qualms are jeered at by their peers as „a failure of nerve.“ After a bout with their psychiatrists, they return to their work with renewed gusto, with no further digression of pity for „the little people“ who are to be their victims.“

On Thursday, October 24, 1929 CE, – a day that will live in infamy as „Black Thursday,“ 12.9 million shares changed hands (a new record – 4 million shares was considered a busy day back then). Most of the panic took place in the morning hours. The ticker tape machine fell behind by an hour and a half leaving investors madly scrambling to sell their investments without even knowing the current prices. Panic set in. People gathered outside the exchanges and brokerages, police were dispatched to insure peace. Rumors were flying. By 12:30 pm, the Chicago and Buffalo Exchanges closed down, eleven well-known speculators had already killed themselves and the NYSE closed the visitor’s gallery on the wild scenes below. Reporters learned that an important meeting was taking place at the office of J.P. Morgan and Company, involving many of the most important men in banking. After the meeting broke, Thomas Lamont, senior partner at Morgan – a company founded by a man who had help stop a panic in 1907, made the following statement to newspaper reporters: „There has been a little distress selling on the Stock Exchange … due to a technical condition of the market“ and that things were „susceptible to betterment.“

Combine the worst features of Black Thursday with the worst features of Black Monday (October 28) and you get Black Tuesday (October 29). On Thursday, a record 12.9 million shares traded and the ticker tape fell behind one and a half hours. On Black Tuesday, a new record of 16.4 million shares were traded and the ticker tape fell behind by two and a half hours! On Monday, the stock market suffered a record one-day loss of around 13 percent. On Black Tuesday, the market suffered a loss of about 12 percent. The resultant losses precipitated the beginning of „The Great Depression.“

The Great Depression wrought havoc on the federal budget; as one observer recalled, „The sun was sinking in a cloudy western sky.“ By 1930 CE, Andrew Mellon was warning Congress that declining revenues would produce a deficit of $200 million. His projection proved optimistic, and lawmakers watched fiscal gap soar to more $900 million that year. Despite the prospect of even larger deficits to come, Mellon and President Herbert Hoover continued to resist tax increases. But with national income falling from $87.8 billion to $42.5 billion between 1929 CE and 1932 CE – and tax revenues falling at an even faster rate, thanks to the progressive rate structure of the individual income tax – such intransigence could not last.

1929 CE – Germany – Unemployment in Germany is 1 million.

1929 CE – Italy – The so-called Roman Question was only resolved in 1929 CE by the Lateran Treaty, which, among other things, established the Vatican City.

However the new Italian control of Rome did not wither, nor did the Catholic world come to the Pope’s aid, as Pius XI expected. In the 1920s, the papacy abandoned its demand for a return of the Papal States and signed the Lateran Treaty (or Concordat with Rome) of 1929 CE, which created the State of the Vatican City, forming the secular territory of the Holy See.

Ica Stone

Stone Balls

1930 CE – Peru – Beginning in the 1930s, the father of Dr. Javier Cabrera, Cultural Anthropologist for Ica, Peru, discovered many hundreds of ceremonial burial stones in the tombs of the ancient Incas. Dr. Cabrera, carrying on his father’s work, has collected more than 1,100 of these andesite stones, which are estimated to be between 500 and 1,500 years old and have become known collectively as the Ica Stones. The stones bear etchings, many of which are sexually graphic (which was common to the culture), some picture idols and others depict such practices as open-heart surgery and brain transplants. The most astonishing etchings, however, clearly represent dinosaurs – brontosaurs, triceratops (see photo), stegosaurus and pterosaurs. While skeptics consider the Ica Stones a hoax, their authenticity has neither been proved or disproved. [about]

1930 CE – Costa Rica – Workmen hacking and burning their way through the dense jungle of Costa Rica to clear an area for banana plantations in the 1930s stumbled upon some incredible objects: dozens of stone balls, many of which were perfectly spherical. They varied in size from as small as a tennis ball to an astonishing 8 feet in diameter and weighing 16 tons! Although the great stone balls are clearly man-made, it is unknown who made them, for what purpose and, most puzzling, how they achieved such spherical precision. [about]

Ho Chi Minh shortly before his death in 1969.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Viet Nam

1930 CE – Viet Nam – Vietnamese intellectual Ho Chi Minh founds the Indochinese Communist Party and organizes anti-French riots in Vietnam.

1930 CE – Germany – Unemployment in Germany is 3 million.

1930 CE – Italy – Pius XI defined Christian marriage and condemned contraception.

1931 CE – Spain – Miguel Primo de Rivera resigns and Alfonso XIII abdicates which allowed Leftists to proclaim Spain a republic and proceed to disestablish the Church, confiscate church property, deny salaries to the clergy, expel the Jesuits and ban teaching of the Catholic faith. These actions were preludes to the civil war of 1936 – 1939 CE.

1931 CE – Italy – Pius XI attitude toward Italian fascism is shaken when Benito Mussolini, Il Duce, a socialist, dissolved the Catholic youth movements. The Church failed to speak out about his atrocities so they should not be surprised.

1931 CE – United States – On May 3, when commenting on the death of one of J. P. Morgan’s closest associates, The New York Times remarked – „One-sixth of the total wealth of the world was represented by members of the Jekyll Island Club.“ This reference was to just those men who were part of Morgan’s group and members of his Club. It excluded the Rockefeller group and the European financiers. Among those „duck shooters“ present back in November 1910 CE were Benjamin Strong, head of J. P. Morgan’s Bankers Trust Company, and from 1914 CE till his death in 1928 CE, Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank; and Paul Warburg, who not knowing one end of a gun from the other, had carried a borrowed shotgun onto the train that night at Hoboken, New Jersey. Warburg, who had exceptionally powerful banking connections in New York, England, France, Germany and the Netherlands, was the real power behind the Federal Reserve throne. His brother Max was head of the German Secret Service during World War I.

1932 CE – Portugal – Salazar becomes prime minister of Portugal and turns Portugal into a dictatorship.

1932 CE – Iraq – Iraq becomes independent under the rule of King Faisal.

1932 CE – Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia becomes independent under the rule of King Abdul al-Aziz.

1932 CE – Germany – Unemployment in Germany is 6 million. The Nazist party wins 37% of the votes and becomes the largest party in Germany.

Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon (left) and his deputy, Ogden Mills. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

1932 CE – United States – Early in the year, Mellon appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee to ask for a tax hike. It was a painful request for this inveterate tax cutter, but one dictated by fiscal orthodoxy. In a sign of things to come, Mellon asked Undersecretary of the Treasury Ogden Mills to read his statement; within a month, Mellon would be eased out of the Treasury building, dispatched to London as an ambassador. This towering figure of the 1920s was being put out to pasture.

Ogden Mills took the reins at Treasury, offering the Hoover Administration both his financial expertise and his political acumen. An upper-class New York Republican of generally orthodox fiscal inclinations, he had served on the Ways and Means Committee during the early 1920s. „Little Oggie,“ as he was known in the liberal press, enjoyed a reputation as a tax expert.

In presenting the administration’s proposals, Mills warned that the deficit was soaring above $2 billion. Excessive expenditures, coupled with falling tax revenues, had opened a huge hole in the budget. The decline in revenue was particularly dramatic. Corporate income taxes, which had yielded $1.1 billion in fiscal 1930, were likely to raise only $550 million in 1932 CE. Individual income tax rates were plummeting even more dramatically, from just over $1 billion in 1930 CE to $370 million in 1932 CE. The only relatively bright spot was excise revenue, which Mills expected to decline from $628 million to $544 million over the same period; the moderate decline, he pointed out, was due largely to the stable revenues of the federal tobacco tax.

Altogether, the revenue shortfalls were nothing short of cataclysmic. The problem, Mills declared, was inherent in the revenue structure. „The truth of the matter is that our revenue system rests on a comparatively narrow base,“ he explained, „and that our tax receipts are susceptible to the widest variations in accordance with variations in business conditions. This is particularly true of current individual income-tax collections.“ The progressive nature of the income tax made the problem worse, he said. Large incomes were the first to rise in good times and the first to fall in bad times. The graduated rate structure ensured that revenues would rise faster than overall income when the economy was doing well. But it also guaranteed that when depression struck, revenues would fall faster than incomes.

Given this reality, Mills counseled against steep increases in the rate structure, predicting that they would not raise adequate revenue. While acknowledging that rates must necessarily rise, especially on the richest Americans, he emphasized the need for an increase in the number of people paying income taxes in the first place. Congress must recognize, he said, that „the weakness in our revenue system is, as I have already stated, the narrowness of the base on which it rests.“ Broadening that base was crucial to securing adequate, and dependable, revenue. It was also, he said, manifestly fair. „Many not now taxed are very definitely in a position to make some contribution to the support of Government,“ he declared. „The should be asked to do so, taking into consideration ability to pay.“

To close the budget gap, Mills suggested a package of tax hikes that would together raise about $920 million. First and foremost, he asked legislators to restore income tax rates to their 1924 CE levels. Surtax rates, he said, should increase across the board, topping out at 40 percent – twice their existing level. Even more important, Congress should reduce exemptions to $1,000 for individuals and $2,500 for married couples. These reductions would broaden the tax base, bringing 1.7 million new taxpayers into the system. The tax, Mills emphasized, would still be confined to a narrow slice of American society. „There would be only some 3,600,000 Federal taxpayers in a Nation of 120,000,000 people, and of this number less than 300,000 would contribute 90 percent of the tax.“ Indeed, Mill’s plan would still have left the tax much narrower than it had been before the 1926 CE exemption hike.

Ultimately, leaders of the new democratic Congress refused to adopt the lower exemptions that Mills suggested. Instead, they chose to embrcae a new federal sales tax. This was a striking departure, given the party’s traditional opposition to sales taxes.

A rebellion among rank and file Democrats forced party leaders to backtrack. Abandoning the sales tax, they resorted to a slew of narrow excise taxes, as well as higher rates on incomes and estates.

As ultimately passed by Congress, the Revenue Act of 1932 was predicted to raise $1.1 billion in new revenue. A substantial chunk of this revenue – some $178 million-was expected to come from a combination of steeper rates and lower exemptions in the personal income tax. But fully $457 million was expected from new or increased excise taxes. The list of consumption levies was long, including taxes on lubricating oil, malt syrup, brewer’s wort, tires, toilet articles, furs, jewelry, automobiles, trucks, radio and phonograph equipment, refrigerators, sporting goods, cameras, firearms, matches, candy, chewing gum, soft drinks, and electricity.

Taxed goods were disparate, their selection dependent on a variety of factors, including the political influence – or lack thereof – associated with an industry. Most important, however, was a preference for articles of wide consumption, with a secondary concern for their relative necessity. Lawmakers preferred to tax items that people had some choice about consuming, rather than, say, table salt or flour. Some levies, however, were selected because they clearly seemed to indicate a capacity to pay – hence the luxury tax on jewelry, for instance. But others, like the car tax, were selected at least as much for the revenue they promised. Long the target of progressive tax reformers, the car tax survived the legislative battle because it promised to raise money.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Indeed, revenue was the name of the game in 1932 CE. All other concerns were secondary. The pitched battle over the sales reflected not so much an argument about whether to increase taxes – that was never in doubt – but exactly how. The rank and file Democrats who shaped the debate made clear their preference for isolated excise taxes, strongly preferring them to more general sales levies. In large part, this preference reflected a conviction that people could choose whether to consume taxed goods. Under a general sales tax, no such choice was possible.

Of course, the excise taxes were highly regressive. But regressivity was only one measure of fairness, and in the face of a gaping deficit, it was not the most important one. Democrats made consumer choice a central aspect in their definition of fair taxation.

During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, June 27 – July 2, 1932 CE, Frankling Roosevelt had flown to Chicago from Albany to deliver his nomination acceptance speech in person (the first time this was ever done) in which he declared, „I pledge you, I pledge myself, a new deal for the American people.“

Just five months after the 1932 revenue act was signed into law, Franklin Roosevelt won his campaign for the presidency.

1932 CE – Italy – Pope Pius XI as well as condemning contraception, ordered German Catholics to drop their hostility towards Hitler. He also backed Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia.