Part Way with Thoreau

One thing about Henry David Thoreau, when he talked about civil disobedience, he wasn't kidding. Because of his opposition to the Mexican War, he refused to pay a tax and was hustled off to jail. To express their own hostility to the Viet Nam war, 448 contemporary writers and journalists went along with Thoreau last week--or rather part of the way. Quoting Thoreau's ringing challenge to the state, the signers* announced in full-page ads in the New York Post and the New York Review of Books that "1) None of us voluntarily will pay the proposed 10% income tax surcharge or any war-designated tax increase. 2) Many of us will not pay that 23% of our current income tax which is being used to finance the war in Viet Nam."

That is not exactly the stuff of which martyrs are made. Chances of the tax surcharge being enacted are still doubtful. Even the one-third of the signers who refuse to pay present taxes are not likely to go to jail. Some of them haven't paid taxes for years on grounds of pacifism. Since they have reported their income and paid part of their tax, the Internal Revenue Service does not take them to court. It attaches their bank accounts or other assets to recover the rest of the tax, plus a penalty of 6% a year. With this in mind, some pacifists keep enough cash in their checking accounts to save themselves and the IRS a lot of trouble.

Eight newspapers felt that the ad advocated violation of U.S. law and refused to carry it. One of the papers to turn it down was the New York Times --much to the chagrin of the ten signers who work for the paper.

* Among the quasi-Thoreaus: Nelson Algren, James Baldwin, Eric Bentley, Allen Ginsburg, Paul Goodman, Betty Friedan, Dwight Macdonald, Henry Miller, Terry Southern, Benjamin Spock, William Styron.

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