Tax Weapon

Federal prosecution for income tax evasion has become a sharp Governmental weapon against irregularities of men of high and low degree. 'Legger Alphonse ("Scarface Al") Capone is now serving eleven years at Atlanta for tax evasion. Bankster Charles Edwin Mitchell is awaiting trial on similar charges. Last week the weapon was used against a $700-a-month marriage license clerk in Manhattan and against a potent Chicago Democrat.

Clerk. Inquisitor Samuel Seabury unearthed, while delving into New York City scandals, that Deputy City Clerk James J. McCormick, Tammany figure, had illegally collected $69,000 in tips from couples he married at the City Hall in 1929-30. Clerk McCormick encountered real trouble only when the U. S. Attorney discovered that he had failed to pay enough income tax on his tips, and on $21,000 in interest on savings accounts with 24 banks.

Newlyweds who took a broad hint and dropped $2 or more into Clerk McCormick's open, cash-filled drawer, got a "God bless you." Those who paid nothing had "Cheap skate!" yelled after them. One man testified that when he gave $1, Clerk McCormick remarked with some disgust: "One lousy buck!"

Last week the marriage clerk, who had suffered paralytic strokes and was "a little bit confused," was fined $15,000, sentenced to four months at Fort Eustis, Va.

Politician, Moe Rosenberg has been a power in the now victorious Democracy of Chicago. He traveled with Illinois' new Democratic Governor, Henry Horner, to the inaugural at Washington, but he did not go there for fun.

Hanging over Politician Rosenberg's head for months had been the threat of Federal indictment for tax evasion. His income, according to Government investigators, had been $345,000 in 1929-30. On this he had failed to file a return. What was even more suspicious was that $190,000 of his income was not directly traceable to any of the Rosenberg business activities, chief of which is selling junk. It looked as though Mr. Rosenberg had been racketeering.

In Washington he was reported to have hired Mabel Walker Willebrandt to adjust his case with the Treasury Department. When these overtures failed, he was said to have offered $150,000 to Treasury representatives if they would drop prosecution.

Only when Moe Rosenberg was indicted by a Chicago grand jury for failure to pay $65,000 taxes, did the full light of publicity fall upon Mr. Rosenberg's lurid past: a confession of guilt to an arson charge in 1913; a 20-month sentence to Leavenworth in 1915 for stealing from freight cars. Last week Chicago papers promised that the Rosenberg trial "would rival that of Capone," would painfully air a basketful of local and Statewide dirty Democratic linen.

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