Arkansas Employment Security Division v. National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc.

George Rose Smith, Justice.

The question is whether the respondent, National Baptist Convention U.S.A., Inc., is required to pay the state employment security tax upon the payroll of employees at the Convention’s combined hotel and bathhouse in Hot Springs.

The Convention is an association of some 7,000 Baptist churches throughout the United States. It owns the hotel-bathhouse. That establishment is run for profit and is open to the public except for a week every January when the Convention holds its midwinter meeting there. In this proceeding the Convention applied to the Employment Security…