The fool taxpayer

              1919
THE FOOL TAXPAYER
An Illustrated Chalk Talk Lecture

Mr. Regan interested in a unique way his large audience.—
Chicago American


He has won fame as a cartoonist or chalk talker.—
Chicago Herald


FRANK S. REGAN
With the Flying Squadron



Have followed you in many places and have always heard most kindly commendation on your work.—
Booth Lowrey


He is a clever cartoonist.—
Milwaukee Daily News

Barny Thompson Rockford


Hon. Frank Stewart Regan
Ex-representative, Tenth Senatorial District Illinois has won a reputation both as a CARTOONIST and as a platform speaker.  It has been well said of him:
He is One of the Few Men Who Combine the Skill of the Artist with the Power of the Orator


Figure



Tax Expert Gives Amazing Figures at Kiwanis Club—Mr. Regan, for years a lawyer and tax expert, is known from coast to coast as a lyceum and chautauqua lecturer on the subject of taxation.
Mr. Regan's talk was exceedingly well received, illustrated as it was with crayon drawings and figures, and the audience was continually chuckling over his witticisms and the humorous remarks with which he interspersed his more serious statements.—

Times Call, Racine, Wis.


The large audience was greatly impressed by the stirring address of Hon. Frank S. Regan on The Fool Taxpayer.  Some of his cartoons and anecdotes provoked gales of merriment.—
The Globe, Hartford, Conn.


Five Weeks in Washington—That the big crowd which thronged the First M. E. Church last night to hear Frank S. Regan deliver his lecture on The Fool Taxpayer, was not disappointed, was clearly apparent from frequent applause that greeted the speaker during the telling points of his chalk talk. Regan took the breath away from them with surprising regularity as he told of existing conditions in the taxation world that most people are ignorant of altogether.
Regan is a man of large experience in public life, having been a member of the Illinois legislature, and of the bar, and having lectured extensively in Chautauquas and is past master of the art of interesting an audience.—

Everett (Wash.) Tribune.

Mr. Regan has been before the American people with this lecture for twenty years in Chautauquas, Lecture Courses, Colleges, Universities, High Schools, Y. M. C. As. and in churches, from New York City to San Francisco.  He had seven weeks consecutive lecture dates in Chicago; five weeks in Los Angeles county, California.


Does it pay to talk sense?  Do audiences want to hear a lecture on an abstract subject?  Well, Hon. Frank S. Regan lectured every day, including Sundays, from June 10th to November 1st, on his favorite theme, The Fool Taxpayer.—
The Platform, Chicago, December, 1915.

National War Work Council, Central Department Headquarters, Association Bldg., Chicago.—Your work at Great Lakes was a great success.  The reports were very good.  In fact, so much so, they want to know if you can come out again for three days more.—Mason Slade, Assistant Director Entertainment Bureau.


Madison, Wis., January 31, 1919.

Mr. Frank S. Regan—We would like to have you plan on being with us at our annual convention, which will be held in Madison, February 19th and 20th.  * * *
I am figuring on advertising your address rather widely, as I consider the subject one of extreme importance.  We agree to pay you $50.00 for this lecture.—Wisconsin Association of Real Estate Brokers.  (Signed) P. E. Stark, President.


No Wonder Taxes Are High for Most Minneapolis Folks—Local Millionaires and Big Business Concerns Are Not Paying Their Share—Tax Expert Makes Interesting Report.—Alderman Chase and several real estate taxpayers retained the services of Frank S. Regan, of Rockford, Illinois.  Mr. Regan, after investigating, spoke before the Minneapolis Real Estate Board and showed that real estate was paying a heavy tax and a vast amount of personal property was escaping taxation.  The Real Estate Board was so astounded by Mr. Regan's disclosures that they immediately raised the sum of $1,500 and engaged Mr. Regan to investigate conditions in the city assessor's department and report his findings.
Thereupon Mr. Regan compiled his report, and upon its completion and presentation to the Minneapolis Real Estate Board, as rumor has it, the city assessor was called before the Real Estate Board and was not politely requested, but was instructed, and it was demanded of him that he get busy and place twenty million dollars of personal property which had escaped taxation on the tax list.
Mr. Taxpayer, this is the one real cause for high real estate taxes.
Mr. Regan states, in opening his report, that a vast amount of personal tangible property has, for some reason or other, either been overlooked by assessors or greatly undervalued.—

North East Argus, Minneapolis.

From the Real Estate Board of Akron, Ohio—It was my pleasure to hear your very splendid address at the national convention of real estate men at Milwaukee.  Your talk met the approval of the Ohio real estate men, particularly because of its favorable spirit toward the one per cent tax rate, which we, as real estate men, have been fighting to continue in Ohio.
We are very anxious to have you appear at one of our noon luncheons.—H. C. France, Secretary.

Mr. Regan gave his lecture before this board and was given a fine and appreciative audience—including members of Congress and influential business men of Akron.


Here is a man with a vital theme.  'The Fool Taxpayer' strikes us all, and he hits the subject hard.  He tells us things we all ought to know and tells them with both tongue and crayon.  His auditors laugh and learn.—
Eureka, Ill., Chautauqua Herald.

Mr. Regan's home address is 1201 North Church street, Rockford, Illinois.


Hon. Frank S. Regan Proves Eye-Opener on Tax Question—The sensation of the Chautauqua—the most really useful address ever given in Williamsfiled—was Hon. Frank S. Regan's on 'The Fool Taxpayer.'  When Mr. Regan showed clearly that concerns worth from ten to fifty millions paid less taxes than would a farmer on a dog, and how the legislature keeps on upholding them in their exemptions—even wanting a new state constitution in order to do better by the millionaires—we felt that there was little else to do but to go out with a club on a man hunt for both the millionaires and the legislators.—
Williamsfield Times, Illinois.


No speaker has appeared in Rochester of late who has the qualifications for his own particular subject in greater proportion than has Frank S. Regan, who spoke at the Metropolitan Theatre.  * * *
Mr. Regan is a lawyer, legislator, an orator and an artist, and a lecture on the subject of 'The Fool Taxpayer' could not have been more interesting, instructive and convincing.  * * *
His message was to every taxpayer without discrimination.  * * *
Throughout his lecture his hand was working rapidly drawing pictures, realistic and convincing.  This gift of Mr. Regan's is a remarkable one.  * *
More than 1,500 heard him.—

The Post and Record, Rochester, Minn.

From the Real Estate Board of Denver, Colorado—Our members who attended the Milwaukee convention were so favorably impressed with your address on 'The Fool Taxpayer,' that I am instructed to write and ask your terms for delivering the lecture in Denver under the auspices of the Denver Real Estate Exchange.  An early reply will be greatly appreciated.—R. H. Fant, Secretary.

You can feed the poor without charity and give work to the unemployed and not raise the taxes of the honest taxpayers one cent.  Regan discovered $10,000,000.00 taxes not being paid in Chicago.  Hear' Regan expose frauds in tax exemptions and learn why your taxes are so high.  He is a thunderbolt of facts and figures.—Y. M. C. A. advertisement of his lecture at the 23d Street Branch, Y. M. C. A., New York City.


By means of his artistic skill he presented his arguments graphically to his audience.—
Idaho Statesman, Boise.


National Association of Real Estate Boards—Mr. Frank S. Regan: The executive committee of the National Association of Real Estate Boards authorized me to invite you to address our tenth annual convention, which will be held in Milwaukee July 24 to 27.  It was my pleasure to hear you when you addressed the Minneapolis Real Estate Board, * * and I think a talk along similar lines, using your drawing paper and chalk, would be interesting to our members.  * * *—Tom Ingersoll, Executive Secretary, March 28, 1917.

In closing up our business relations for the year, I want to thank you for the interest you have taken in our work and for the efficient way in which you have handled your own.  You have undoubtedly pleased ninety per cent of your hearers, which means you have pleased one hundred per cent of the business officials of our system.  We find ourselves on the right side of the balance sheet, and we give you due credit for your share in placing us there.  Looking forward to another year's Chautauqua business with you, we are sincerely yours, Meneley Chautauqua System.

Kansas City, Mo., January 22, 1918.

Mr. Frank Regan—This is to confirm my recent telegram to you, agreeing to your terms of $50.00 for delivering your address, The Fool Taxpayer, to the Real Estate Board of Kansas City at Hotel Muehlebach, January 29, 1918.—Ward C. Gifford, Executive Secretary.


Kiwanis Club Host at Big Banquet—Frank S. Regan Pleases Business Men With Graphic Talk on Taxes—Presenting astonishing figures, graphically illustrated, Frank S. Regan, tax expert, caught and held the interest of his listeners at a banquet given by the Kiwanis Club at Hotel Racine last night.  The club was the host for many prominent business men and public officials who were interested in what Mr. Regan had to tell of the tax situation.
To present a discourse on a subject of this nature and hold the undivided attention of his audience was a task that Mr. Regan found comparatively easy.  By means of a huge drawing pad he illustrated his points, drawing carbon sketches and writing his figures so that they could be remembered.  It was a case of the eye conveys the thought quicker than the ear, and in this manner he was able to illustrate his points to a great advantage.—

Racine Journal-News, April 26, 1918.

Oceanside, California.—Mr. Regan opened our eyes to things we had never dreamed of, and it started people to thinking.  We did not know the big concerns were skinning the life out of us in taxes until we heard 'The Fool Taxpayer.'—Charles G. Borden.

The Bureau of Tax Research, Minneapolis, has this to say:Mr. Frank S. Regan is a tax lawyer.  He is a tax expert.  He is a 'chalk talker,' who uses his crayon to let in the light on tax laws and tax dodgers.

Some years ago he went to Chicago.  Marshall Field had been one of the largest taxpayers in the city, but Mr. Regan found that he had gone off to heaven and forgot to pay on millions.  The Tax Payers' Association collected $1,700,000 taxes from his estate for the Treasury.

When the street car companies of Chicago sought to sell out their lines to the city, they wanted for their property $93,000,000.  Mr. Edward W. Bemis, as expert for Chicago, examined their property and reported to the city the property was worth $53,000,000.  Meanwhile, Mr. Regan on the platform showed that they were on the tax books under their own estimate of value at $7,240,000.  The deal fell through.

A dozen years ago Mr. Regan came to Minnesota and found that James J. Hill was paying taxes on about $157,000 of personal property, although he owned millions in stocks and bonds.  His valuation was raised to $223,000 and later to $9,173,000.  After his death the courts found over $50,000,000 taxable in his personal estate.

Mr. Regan went into Sioux Falls, S. D., and in five days uncovered over fifty million dollars of taxable property that was not paying a cent taxes.  He came into Minneapolis and in twenty days uncovered over twenty million dollars taxable property that was not paying as much as the cost of a chew of gum, though it should pay $392,000 annually.  The Hennepin County assessor promised to assess this and he did.


Tuesday was a great day at the Chautauqua.  Dr. Green's lecture was one of the finest presented in the entire course, and Mr. Regan, in a very different vein, was equally good.—
The Coshocton Daily Age, Coshocton, Ohio.

The Realtor, which is the official paper of the Minneapolis Real Estate Board, discusses the subject editorially, as follows:

Problems of taxation are always with us and we have fallen into the habit of considering them so complex as to be practically insoluble.  The talk which Mr. Frank S. Regan gave to our members, however, did much to dispel this notion.  He showed very clearly that the principles which underlie taxation are simplicity itself, and once we really grapple with the question of distributing the cost of government more equally, we can not fail to get results.

Mr. Regan is an expert in matters of taxation and he presented in a graphic and startling manner the gross inequalities in our tax system.