March 29: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1918, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Churches, synagogues, department stores, transit corporations, newspapers and political organizations were called upon yesterday to join in an intensive drive to bring in the more than 100,000 tardy income tax returns of the district before Monday night, the end of the last day of grace. Collector Harry P. Kieth said before the Income Tax Enlightenment Committee yesterday that only about 60,000 returns had been filed and that with midnight Monday as the last minute allowed for filing them, more than 100,000 were still outstanding. In the belief that to penalize a majority of the taxpayers would be a mistake, Collector Kieth has asked Washington for an extension of time, but said that he had received no answer to his plea. ‘The publicity given by the newspapers has done wonders,’ he said. ‘Today alone brought in 10,000 returns.’ Upon motions by James F. Quigley and Harris M. Crist, the committee passed resolutions requesting every clergyman and rabbi in Brooklyn to urge promptness in making returns upon their Friday and Easter Sunday congregations. Mr. Crist suggested that the department stores enclose printed income tax slips in every package sent out today and tomorrow.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1925, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON, MARCH 28 — Secretary of Labor James J. Davis has no idea how many aliens are being smuggled into the United States at the present time. It may be a hundred a day or it may be a thousand. To get the facts on this smuggling problem which is bothering immigration officials more than anything else today, Secretary Davis has called a conference here this summer to formulate an improved policy for stopping the leaks and to collect data to use before Congress at the next session to put through more drastic immigration legislation.”