John Morgan Pratt (March 23, 1886, Sharpsville, Indiana – June 15, 1954, Chicago, Illinois) was a tax resistance leader, activist in the Old Right, publicist and newspaper man.
In 1913, Pratt began a long political career when the counselors of Lost River, a rural municipality, elected him as their secretary treasurer.
The life of a tax collector did not suit Pratt who moved to Winnipeg in 1917 to accept a position as municipal editor of The Grain Growers Guide, which spoke for the nascent cooperative movement in Canada.
In 1921, Pratt moved permanently to Chicago, where he took a job with the Universal Feature and Specialty Company, a national newspaper syndicate.
The chief demand of ARET was that local and state governments obey a long-ignored provision of the Illinois Constitution of 1870 requiring uniform taxation for all forms of property, Pratt charged that the failure to assess such personal property as furniture, cars, and stocks and bonds was not only illegal but left owners of real estate with excessive burdens.
ARET's program also included support for sweeping rate reductions in the general property tax and retrenchment in local governmental spending.
Mayor Anton Cermak and other politicians desperately tried to break the strike by threatening criminal prosecution of Pratt and other ARET leaders and revocation of city services.