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37 Buff. L. Rev. 685 (1988-1989)
Class Tax to Mass Tax: The Role of Propaganda in the Expansion of the Income Tax during World War II

handle is hein.journals/buflr37 and id is 693 raw text is: Class Tax To Mass Tax: The Role of Propaganda In The Expansion of the Income Tax During World War II* CAROLYN C. JONES* I said to my Uncle Sam Old Man Taxes here I am And he - was glad to see me Lower brackets that's my speed Mr. Small Fry yes indeed But gee - I'm proud as can be. I paid my income tax today I'm only one of millions more Whose income never was taxed before A tax I'm very glad to pay I'm squared up with the U.S.A. You see those bombers in the sky Rockefeller helped to build them so did I I paid my income tax today.1 I. INTRODUCTION DURING the 1930s, no more than five percent of Americans were income taxpayers.2 The tax was viewed as a class tax directed toward the rich-those President Roosevelt referred to as economic royalists.3 The individual income tax accounted for only between ten * Professor of Law, University of Connecticut (on leave, St. Louis University). The author would like to thank David Beito, W. Eliot Brownlee, Mary Dudziak, Daniel Ernst, Mary Louise Fellows and Sandra Johnson for their comments on earlier drafts. This research was supported by a Beeke-Levy Research Fellowship from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and by the St. Louis University School of Law. It was prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History, October 21-22, 1988. Copyright Carolyn C. Jones 1989. The Buffalo Law Review has attempted to adhere to conventions of the National Archives and Records Administration when citing information from the national archives. I. I. Berlin, I Paid My Income Tax Today,(Dec. 26, 1941), 480 MORGENTHAU DIARIES 83 (available in Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.). 2. L. SELTZER, THE PERSONAL EXEMPTIONS IN THE INCOME TAX 62 (1968). 3. See infra notes 33,34 and accompanying text.

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