America's

60 Families

BY FERDINAND LUNDBERG

Author of "Imperial Hearst'

THE VANGUARD PRESS

NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1937, BY THE VANGUARD PRESS, INC,

No portion of this book may be reprinted in any form without

permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer

who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review

written for inclusion in a magazine or newspaper

Sixth Printing

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OFAMERICA BY H. WOLFF, NEW YORK

To

FRANKLIN M. WATTS,

Who first saw the urgent need of a book

on this phase of contemporary affairs

Acknowledgments

THE author owes a debt of gratitude for careful readings of the manu-

script to Mr. Henry Hart, Mr. Joseph B. Hyman, Mr. Randolph G.

Phillips, and Mr. Franklin M. Watts, and to Professor E. C. Linde-

man of the New York School of Social Work for a reading and

discussion of the chapter on philanthropic foundations. Material as-

sistance was given by Mr. Hubert Park Beck, of Teachers College,

Columbia University, who kindly allowed the author to use a por-

tion of material he has assembled for a forthcoming study about the

identities and economic status of the trustees of the great American

universities. Professor Lindeman graciously permitted the author to

delve into his capacious files of primary source material about the

foundations. Conversations with Mr. Max Lerner, Mr. Harvey O'Con-

nor, Miss Anna Rochester, M. R. Caine, Dr. William J. Shultz, of the

College of the City of New York, and a number of other authorities

in various fields helped materially in clarifying specific problems or

in bringing relevant sources to the author's attention. The comple-

tion of the work owes a good deal to the friendly encouragement of

Mr. James T. Farrell and Mr. James Henlc.

None of these individuals, however, is responsible for interpre-

tation, emphasis, or the inclusion or exclusion of material, and in

various details as well as in the whole of the argument they mayvii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSdiffer with the conclusions of the author. Such textual errors as mayexist must be attributed to the author alone.

The staff of the New York Public Library, and especially the staff

of the economics division, was unfailingly helpful in the location of

source material, and without this assistance the labor of assembling

these data would have been greatly increased. Aid in research and in

editing given by the author's wife makes the work in certain respects

the product of a collaboration.

Although most of the books consulted for first-hand facts are

set forth in the appended bibliography, special acknowledgment must

be made to certain publishers that have given permission to extract

quotations from their publications. The author is indebted to Covici-

Friede, Inc., for permission to cite from Society Circus, by Helen

Worden; to Doubleday, Doran and Company for permission to quote

from The Great Game of Politics, by Frank R. Kent; to Farrar and

Rinehart, Inc., for permission to quote from Capitalism and Its

Culture, by Jerome Davis, and from Forty years Forty Millions, by

George Britt; to Harcourt, Brace and Company for permission to

quote from Theodore Roosevelt, by Henry Pringle, from Wealth and

Culture, by E. C. Lindeman, from God's Gold, by John T. Flynn, and

from Dwight Morrow, by Harold Nicolson; to Harper and Brothers

for permission to quote from As I Knew Them, by Henry L. Stod-

dard, from They Told Barron and More They Told Barron, the notes

of Clarence Walker Barron, from The Measurement of American

Wealth, by Robert R. Doane, and from Rich Man, Poor Man, by

Ryllis A. and Omar P. Goslin; to Henry Holt and Company for per-

mission to quote from Roosevelt to Roosevelt, by Dwight Lowell

Dumond; to International Publishers Company for permission to

quote from Rulers of America, by Anna Rochester; to the Macmillan

Company for permission to quote from The Rise of American Civili-

zation, by Charles A. and Mary Beard; to William Morrow and Com-

pany, Inc., for permission to quote from Political Behavior, by Frank

R. Kent; to Science Press for permission to quote from University

Control, by J. McKeen Cattell; and to Charles Scribner's Sons for

permission to quote from Crowded Hours, by Alice Longworth, and

from The Saga of American Society, by Dixon Wcctcr, The bibli-

ography contains further acknowledgment of these and other sources.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX

The bibliography does not name the many government documents

and transcripts of government investigations which are cited in the

text Chief of these sources, however, are U. S. House Committee on

Banking and Currency (The Pujo Committee) Appointed ... to

Investigate the Concentration of Control of Money and Credit (1912-

13) ;U. S. Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, Hearings

on Stock Exchange Practices (1933); New York Legislative Com-

mittee to Investigate Life Insurance Companies (1905) ; U. S. Senate

Committee on Privileges and Elections, Hearings on Campaign Con-

tributions (1912-13); U. S. Industrial Relations Commission (1916);

U. S. Senate, Hearings on Brewing and Liquor Interests and German

and Bolshevik Propaganda (1918-19); U. S. House Committee on

Judiciary, Charges of Hon. Oscar E. Keller Against the Attorney

General of the United States (1922); U. S. Senate, Select Committee

on the Investigation of Hon. Harry M. Daugherty, Formerly Attor-

ney General of the United States (1924); U, S. Senate, Select Com-

mittee on Investigation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (1926);

U. S. Senate, Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, Leases UponNaval Oil Reserves (1924); Ibid., Leases Upon Naval Oil Reserves,

Activities of the Continental Trading Company of Canada (1928) ;

U. S. Senate, Committee on Judiciary, Lobbying and Lobbyists,

(1921) ; U. S. Senate, Special Lobby Investigating Committee (1935) ;

U. S. House, Committee on Merchant Marine, Radio and Fisheries,

Merchant Marine Investigation (1932); U. S. Senate, Committee on

Finance, Sale of Foreign Bonds or Securities in the U. S. (1932) ; U. S.

House, Select Committee to inquire into operations of the U. S. Ship-

ping Board and the U. S. Emergency Fleet Corporation (1924) ; U. S.

Senate and House, Joint Committee on Ship Subsidies (1922) ; U. S.

House, Special Committee to Investigate War Profiteering (TheGraham Committee), (1919-21); U. S. Senate, Special Committee

to Investigate Propaganda or Money Alleged to Have Been Used by

Foreign Governments to Influence U. S. Senators (1928); U. S.

Senate, Special Committee to Investigate the Munitions Industry

(1935-37) ; U. S. Senate, Committee on Interstate Commerce, Investi-

gation of Railroads, Holding Companies, etc. (1937), and reports and

hearings of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal

Trade Commission on railroads and electric power and light and

X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

telephone companies. Specific inquiries of these bodies are named in

the text.

Periodicals and newspapers most frequently consulted were The

New Yor^ Times, The Literary Digest, Time, Fortune, The Nation,

and The New Republic. Other periodical sources are mentioned in

the text.

In general approach this work owes most, perhaps, to the works of

Marx and Veblen, which alone provide the basic key to an under-

standing of the dynamic character of capitalist society. A more re-

fined and specific approach to certain aspects of the pecuniary phase

of contemporary society is provided by Berle and Means, The Mod-

ern Corporation and Private Property and E. C. Lindeman, Wealth

and Culture. The best approach to a statistical synthesis is found in

Robert R. Doane, The Measurement of American Wealth. The

memoirs, biographies, and histories mentioned in the bibliography,

however, provide, in conjunction with the government reports, the

necessary counterpoint of empirical fact for the checking and verifica-

tion of the theoretical approach.

F. L.

New Yor%, September 20, 79^7

Foreword

IN THIS work we arc not concerned with the methods, legal or illegal,

by which the great American fortunes of today were created. These

fortunes exist. Their potentialities for good or evil are not altered

whether we accept Gustavus Meyers' account of their formation or

whether we give credence to the late John D. Rockefeller's simple

statement : "God gave me m^ money."What this book purports to do is to furnish replies, naming names

and quoting book, chapter, and verse, to two blunt questions: Whoowns and controls these large fortunes today, and how are these for-

tunes used? To answer this second question it is necessary, of course,

to examine the role of great wealth in politics, industry, education,

science, literature and the arts, journalism, social life and philanthropy.

The reader is warned that this work is not predicated on the premise

of James W. Gerard, who in August, 1930, named fifty-nine men and

women that, he said, "ran" America. In Mr. Gerard's list were many

persons deemed by the author of slight importance, many of them

merely secondary deputies of great wealth and some of them persons

whom Mr. Gerard undoubtedly flattered by including in his select

list. The factor determining the inclusion of persons in this narrative

has at all times been pecuniary power, directly or indirectly manifested.

This work will consider incidentally the various arguments broughtxi

Xli FOREWORD

forward by the apologists of great fortunes. These arguments arc to

the effect that huge fortunes are necessary so that industry may be

financed; that the benefactions of great wealth permit advances in

science, encourage writers and artists, etc.; that the lavish expenditures

of wealthy persons "give employment" to many people; and that in

any case these big fortunes are dissipated within a few generations.

More and more it is becoming plain that the major political and

social problem of today and of the next decade centers about the taxa-

tion of great wealth. It is hoped that this book, the first objective study

of the general social role of great fortunes, will shed at least a modicum

of light upon this paramount issue.

RL.

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii

FOREWORD xi

I. GOLDEN DYNASTIES AND THEIR TREASURES 3

The inner circle of great wealth and the government of the United

States. Unprecedented power of American multimillionaires exceeds

that of Indian princes and European peers. Democracy and plutoc-

racy.Control of industry and finance through dynastic interlockings.

The family the fortress of great fortunes. Contemporary economic

lords born of upper-class marriages. Some European-American mar-

riages. Corporation executives related to ruling families. Nepotism.

Women worth $25,000,000 and more. Women multimillionaires

have given no contribution to society. Rigidity of class lines makingcaste system inevitable.

II. THE SIXTY FAMILIES 23

Huge fortunes most significant when viewed on family basis. Fami-

lies have many branches. The biggest family fortunes in U. S.

named. Basis for computing the sixty wealthiest families. Those not

included, and why. Ford, Fisher, Dorrance, Chrysler, and Odiumfortunes relatively new. Others rooted in nineteenth-century grab-

xiii

Xiv CONTENTS

bing. Functions of Owen D. Young, Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Thomas

W. Lamont, and others, as deputies of gold. Families mobilized in

phalanxes behind massive banking institutions. The affiliated bank-

ing blocs of finance capital. Morgan, Rockefeller, Mellon, Du Pont,

and National City Bank coalitions. The trust companies. Rich versus

poor. Concentration of productive property in few hands. Why the

largest fortunes multiply, and the social consequences of their con-

tinued growth.

III. THE POLITICS OF PECUNIARY AGGRANDIZEMENT,1896-1912 50

Government historically the servant of private wealth. Wealth and

the U. S. government since Colonial days. Hanna, Rockefeller agent.

Hanna inaugurates outright control of government by industrialists

and bankers. Graft the cornerstone of plutocracy in democratic

framework. Whitney, Morgan, Belmont direct the Cleveland Ad-

ministration. Standard Oil leads the wealthy in sponsoring McKin-

ley. Biased legislation of McKinley Administration. The richest

families and the Spanish-American war. An obscure section of

American history. The richest families and the "trusts." Political

counterpoint of trustification. McKinley's assassination frightens

Morgan and Rockefeller. Theodore Roosevelt and his long Morganaffiliation. Theodore Roosevelt consults the magnates on contents of

his state papers. The Northern Securities farce. Fake trust-busting.

The Panama Canal swindle and the wealthy families. The 1904

political slush funds. The insurance scandals and the wealthiest fam-

ilies. Roosevelt versus Rockefeller; origins of the feud. LaFollette,

the first insurgent. The Morgan-Rockefeller role in the synthetic

panic of 1907. More light on an obscure situation. The raids on F.

Augustus Heinze and the Trust Company of America. George W.Perkins and the role of The New Yor% Times. The theft of Ten-

nessee Coal and Iron by Morgan. Roosevelt's clandestine function as

a Morgan agent. Harriman and Roosevelt. The Roosevelt-Harriman

feud. The damning Harriman letters. Standard Oil and wholesale

political corruption. Rockefellers, at odds with Roosevelt, revealed

as supporters of Parker. Tart installed in White House by Morgan.Taft permits first bank affiliates to be formed. Approves highest tar-

iff on record. Why Taft got a hostile press. The Ballinger scandal.

Taft forced to sue U. S. Steel, angering Morgan and Roosevelt.

CONTENTS XV

Standard Oil ordered "dissolved." The Pujo Committee reveals

absolute power of "The Money Trust." The warning of Brandcis.

IV. THE POLITICS OF PECUNIARY AGGRANDIZEMENT,1912-1920 106

Taft wields patronage club and Roosevelt fails to obtain Republican

nomination. Morgan agents back Roosevelt, Rockefeller-Mellon

agents back Taft. J. P. Morgan out to destroy Taft. Progressive

party conceived under Morgan auspices. George W. Perkins and

Frank Munsey, Morgan deputies. Munsey as politician, newspaper

publisher, and secret stock-market operator. Perkins produces Will

Hayes. Cleveland H. Dodge, copper and munitions magnate, spon-

sors Wilson. Republican and Democratic slush-fund contributors.

The synthetic Progressive Party. Wilson nominated amid compli-

cated convention intrigue. The strange career of Woodrow Wilson

in the shadow of Wall Street. George W. Harvey, Thomas Fortune

Ryan, Cyrus McCormick, and Cleveland H. Dodge put Wilson

over. The questionable origin of the Federal Reserve Act. Dodge's

copper interests behind the Mexican imbroglio and shelling of Vera

Cruz. Huerta ousted. Some overlooked Dodge-Wilson documents.

Wall Street demands Elihu Root or "a blank sheet of paper" in 1916.

Pierre S. du Pont heads Republican war-time slush-fund givers,

Dodge and Doheny lead Democratic list. The collapse of the NewHaven Railroad and the near-collapse of J. P. Morgan and Com-

pany. Plutocrats take lead in mobilizing nation for war. Fresh docu-

mentation on Morgan motivation for American war participation.

An old suspicion incontrovertibly proven. Ambassador Page in the

pay of Dodge. Du Pont, Morgan, Mellon, Rockefeller war profits.

Wall Street patriots seize strategic wartime posts. Acts as purchasing

agents for the government. Costs padded. Political role of the Red

Cross in Europe and Russia. J. P. Morgan and Company and the

Versailles conference.

V. THE POLITICS OF FINANCE CAPITAL, 1920-1932 149

Postwar Presidents surveyed. The triumph of finance capital in

1920. Wood, first choice of ruling families, disqualified by prema-

ture revelations. Need for "Oil Administration" indicated by rise

of automobile industry. Ruling-class need for revision of wartime

profits tax rates. All clans contribute to mammoth Republican slush

fund. Its ramifications hidden for eight years. Harding nominated

XVI CONTENTSin "smoke-filled room" of George W. Harvey, Rockefeller satrap.

Coolidgc, Morgan puppet, gets Vice-Presidential nomination. His

curious rise to eminence. Mellon installed in Treasury. Harding's"Black Cabinet." The "Poker Cabinet" and White House de-

bauches. Hoover, as Secretary of Commerce, fosters illegal trade

practices. The rape of the Treasury under Andrew W. Mellon. Tax

rebates to the richest families investigated by Couzens Committee.

The tax scandals. The mysterious Barco Concession. Death of Hard-

ing. Unsavory background of Charles G. Dawes. J. P. Morgan and

Company again in full control of White House. Morrow, ex-Morgan

partner, takes over strategic diplomatic post. Coolidgc on Morgan"slush list." Hoover's zigzag climb to the White House. William

Boyce Thompson, Morgan secret agent. Du Pont money backs

Alfred E. Smith. Ascendency of the "moneybund" under Hoover.

His cabinet. Senator Morrow functions like a Morgan partner.

Telephone wire from White House to J. P. Morgan and Company.Comment by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Economic crisis engulfs

Hoover. His policies, trimmed to suit J. P. Morgan and Company,incur Rockefeller ire. Debacle.

VI. INTRIGUE AND SCANDAL 189

Need for ruling class to resort to methods illegal and extralegal to

retain power in a democratic political context. The war-profits

conspiracies. Guggenheim-agent Bernard M. Baruch held person-

ally to blame for most wartime irregularities. The grave charges of

the Graham Committee and the proofs. Airplane scandals. Hughesrecommends courtmartial for Edward A. Deeds, of the National

City Bank. Newton D. Baker quashes recommendation. Aviation

industry today dominated by men who took huge government war

subsidies and failed to deliver planes. Nitrate program found unnec-

essary. Du Pont Old Hickory plant also unnecessary. Du Ponts

charged with defrauding government on war contracts. Charges

secretly quashed. Corporations involved in scandalous failure to

deliver huge quantities of ammunition and ordnance, for which

payment had been made. Rockefellers implicated in fly-by-night

profiteering companies. Attorney-General Harry M. Daughcrty

acts as "fixer" for wealthy Republicans and others under accusation.

Daugherty quashes all war-profiteering cases and engages in mis-

cellaneous deviltry. Fraud under Alien Property Custodian. The

American Metal Company case. The Teapot Dome scandal and the

CONTENTS XViit

Rockefeller participation. Nearly everyone in Wall Street involved.

The Shipping Board scandals. Government subsidy of Dollar ship-

ping interests. The gigantic airplane grab, recalling Standard Oil

grabs of nineteenth century. Hoover's Postmaster General Walter

Brown used by Mellon-Vanderbilt-Morgan companies to seize all

airways. Airmail contracts withheld by Hoover Administration to

ruin independents. Airmail contracts canceled by Franklin D.

Roosevelt as fraudulent and collusively obtained. The Hoover-

Morgan airplane conspiracy disclosed. Speculative boom fueled byrichest families and their Wall Street agents. How the boom was

secretly launched under political auspices in 1923. J. P. Morgan and

Company and Benjamin Strong. The rape of the Federal Reserve

System. The richest families direct the speculative boom from their

banks. Directors of big banks members of richest families. For-

tunes behind boom all rooted in nineteenth century. Antisocial role

of the National City Bank in stock pools, in foreign securities deals.

Destructive role of Chase National Bank in stock market, in Cuba,

in Fox Film Corporation. J. P. Morgan and Company and the

Guaranty Trust Company inflate the Van Sweringen bubble. Politi-

cal and financial figures get share of Alleghany Corporation, Stand-

ard Brands, Inc., and United Corporation stock gifts. The Morgan"slush list." Ivar Kreuger and Samuel Insull, agents of the rich

families who failed to make good. Some agents who made good.

Financial juggling of David Milton, Rockefeller son-in-law. Vari-

ous miscellaneous swindles in astronomic sums. Recent history of

the Van Sweringen pyramid.

VII. THE PRESS OF THE PLUTOCRACY 244

Press lords of America all found among the nation's richest families.

Truth versus power in journalism. American and European press

discussed. The three strata of American journalism. Politically sub-

sidized county press. The dwindling "independent" stratum. Vast

newspaper interests of the wealthiest families. The pro-banker

press. The Rockefellers and their publications. Morgan, Laffan,

Munsey, Shaffer, Bennett, Perkins, Stoddard, Lamont, the Crowell

Publishing Company, Time, Inc., etc. Ford. Harriman, Harkness,

Whitney, Mellon, Astor and their publications. Du Pont news-

papers. Guggenheim and coordinated propaganda campaigns. Mc-

Cormick and the Chicago Tribune. Curtis-Bok. Lehman. Hearst

and Paul Block. Mills-Reid and the New York Herald Tribune.

xviii CONTENTS

Taft, Hanna, Metcalf, Clark, Gerry. The Anaconda Copper Com-

pany. The Phelps Dodge Corporation. Various newspapers owned

by the plutocratic dynasties today. Secret press interests of the

wealthy. Their press deputies. Some hidden newspaper interests

traced. The public utilities corrupt the press. The Procter (Ivory

Soap) chain of newspapers. Some other little known chains. Miscel-

laneous wealthy publishers and their connections. Some magazines

owned by the wealthy clans. The "independent" press briefly sur-

veyed. Ambiguities in Scripps-Howard policies. The Baltimore

Sun and its ostensible liberalism. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch under

Joseph Pulitzer, Jr. The Nation and The New Republic models for

the future. Press not primarily influenced by advertising control.

Most of the press directly subsidized by big fortunes.

VIII. THE JOURNALISM OF PECUNIARY INHIBITION 286

Freedom of the press, when it appeared and what it consists of.

Class control of U. S. press demonstrated in unified periodic cam-

paigns. First utilized against Bryan and Free Silver. Why Hearst

supported Bryan. Mobilizing words for war. Seen again in cam-

paign to defeat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. The role of the radio

in current political jousts. Broadcasting stations largely under news-

paper ownership. The Wall Street Journal indulges in some plain

speaking on the newspaper publisher and his lack of obligation to

the public. Press censorship invoked to protect wealthy individuals

like Andrew W. Mellon, Marshall Field family, and William

Randolph Hearst. Press censorship employed for political purposes.

LaFollette. The 1924 income tax figures suppressed. Teapot Domerevelations. General press hostility to labor explained by press

ownership. Exploitation by the press of workers, farmers, small in-

vestors, and retail buyers in the interest of huge mercantile and

financial combinations. Why American newspapers are not news-

papers in a real sense. Exploitation of Lindbergh and his flight.

Unreliability of newspapers accounts for mushroom growth of pri-

vate news services and news-letters from Washington, Wall Street,

European capitals, subscribed to by business men. Press venality

widespread and authenticated on the record. Utilities, shipping in-

terests, brewers, coal barons pay for propaganda campaigns. J.

David Stern and his pro-New Deal backers, and the economic bias

in favor of reform. The Saturday Evening Post betrays its class bias.

CONTENTS XIX

Time-Fortune, proud apologists for the money lords that own them

and for the upper class in general. Thomas W. Lament, Morgan

partner. His singular influence behind the scenes of American

journalism. How Morgan theses blanket the country. What some of

the theses are. Walter Lippmann and J. P. Morgan and Company.An amusing reversal of emphasis.

IX. PHILANTHROPY, OR NON-COMMERCIALINVESTMENT 320

Public misconceptions regarding ostensible benefactions of the

wealthy are carefully fostered. Percentage given away by the

wealthy never more than two per cent of income. Cultural im-

portance of moneys distributed through legacies and gifts negligible.

Downward trend of giving traceable to growth of corporations and

trusts. The poor are not niggardly, factual study shows. Twenty

largest foundations. Foundation grants and their distribution.

Comparison of social value of Sage, Rosenwald, Carnegie and

other funds. Reports of Rockefeller gifts represent confusion com-

pounded. Analysis shows them to be greatly exaggerated. Some

trustees of the Rockefeller, Carnegie, Guggenheim, and Falk

Foundations. Fields in which foundation money is spent and in

what proportion. The penetrating Lindeman study. Self-interest ap-

parent in most philanthropies. Some unphilanthropic aspects of

New York's two big medical centers. Social welfare a vague field.

Constructive suggestions for fund allocations. Foundations found

to have support of existing institutions as basic aim. The power-serv-

ing aspect of philanthropies. A means of perpetuating industrial

control through trustees. Rockefeller allocations synchronized with

political attacks, incidence of war profits, and rises in tax rates.

Increase in foundations parallels each fresh imposition of tax re-

strictions on wealth. Insidious effects of foundation money on re-

cipients before and after it is granted. Guggenheim fellowships.

More obvious pseudo-philanthropies. James B. Duke. Richard Mel-

lon. The Mellon Institute. George F. Baker. Fictitious accounts of

his benefactions. Hershey and Hayden foundations. The Andrew

W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust unmasked. The inside

story of art collections "given" to the public. The Metropolitan

Museum's unesthetic side. Basic indifference of the rich to art and

the artists. Some miscellaneous pseudo-benefactions analyzed briefly.

XX CONTENTS

X. EDUCATION FOR PROFIT AND TAX EXEMPTION 374

Education of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich a manifestation of

class consciousness. Government the largest supporter of education

in America. Twenty universities and colleges having the largest

endowments, and the wealthy families that control them. Function

of these schools in society. Mellon, Colgate, Drexel and other mil-

lionaire donors to education. Most heavily endowed schools the

adjuncts of the big corporations. Why this is so. Occupational

status of college trustees. Predominance of bankers and commer-

cially minded trustees significant. Contrast with democratic Eng-lish system at Oxford and Cambridge. Philanthropic character of

privately endowed schools questionable. Cornell shows how to

"give" and save taxes. Millionaires and the universities they dom-

inate. What the trustees do with college endowments. The univer-

sities as great financial institutions. Why the rich concern them-

selves with higher education. What was behind the founding of

technical institutes in the iSoo's. The social sciences and the uni-

versities. Social thinkers penalized. Professors in politics. Nicholas

Murray Butler, indefatigable defender of the status quo. The role

of the university president. Professor Jerome Davis. Other professors

ousted and why. What the clans of great wealth obtain from the

endowed schools. The specialist versus the non-intellectual amongalumni. Self-interest of donors to educational institutions. Massa-

chusetts Institute of Technology favorite of the Du Ponts. Is GeorgeF. Baker's gift of a School of Business to Harvard a philanthropy?

Partiality of rich for Eastern schools and its effect on other poorer

regions. The Harkness Plan at Yale and Harvard. What other

millionaires have given to these universities. The egocentric social

task of these two schools. New emphasis on pecuniary motive in

fields of study. Preparatory schools that feed the Eastern colleges.

Their class inhibitions. The Eastern women's colleges, their small

endowments and their benefactors. A prediction.

XI. DANSE MACABRE: EXTRAVAGANCE AMID POVERTY 408

Excesses of the Mauve Decade modest compared with present ex-

travagances. Present-day millionaires do not flaunt their riches.

Upper-class periodicals reveal much. The rich a psychopathic class*

What incomes accrue to the top and bottom of the social ladder in a

boom year. Widener testimonial dinner. Miss Doherty's $250,000

debut. Barbara Hutton's $100,000 party. Evalyn Walsh McLean

CONTENTS XXI

gives a New Year's Eve party. Mrs. Joseph E. Davies brings coals

to Newcastle in Moscow. Average cost of social affairs. What the

"patrons" of symphony orchestras and opera get in return. The ex-

cessive generosity of John B. Ryan. Christmas parties at the GeorgeF. Baker mansion. Jewels of fabulous worth and who owns them.

The Romanov-Donahue gems. Emerald collectors. The bathrooms

of the mighty and how they are glorified. The swimming pool, an

irreplaceable adjunct to the millionaire's estate. Hetty Green's son

collects stamps at $18,000. Country demesnes: Hearst's San Simeon,

St. Donat's, Wyntoon; Du Fonts' Wintcrthur, Longwood, Ne-

mours, Henry Clay, Chevannes, Owl's Nest, Louviers, Guyencourt,

Granogue, Centerville; Vanderbilts' Biltmore, The Breakers, Mar-

ble House; the Rockefellers' Kijfait (Pocantico), Golf House, The

Casements, Villa Turicum, Geralda Farm; the Morgans' Wall Hall

Castle. Estates incorporated to evade taxes. Vincent Astor's estates.

Gardens worth a king's ransom and their millionaire owners.

Islands the private property of many wealthy families. Yachts. DuFonts world's largest collective owner of yachts. Other yacht owners,

their yachts and their costs. Pipe organs and for whom built. Pri-

vate railway cars and railroads on many estates. Horses, polo, horse

shows, and their wealthy adherents. The Jockey Club. Automobiles.

Fleets of them owned by each family. Airplanes, a new thrill for mil-

lionaires. Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and other costly children.

Clothes, men's and women's. A composite Park Avenue family

budget. What rich babies cost. E. F. Hutton's remedy for the de-

pression. Self-justification.

XII. THE "NEW DEAL" AND AFTER 447

The "New Deal's" reception by political factions of Right and Left.

"New Deal" born of crisis. Why its defenders found it to their lik-

ing. The "New Deal" subject to criticism despite some progressive

ingredients. Not radical nor revolutionary. Are "New Deal" motives

philanthropic? Lowest 1936 wage averages paid in industries sup-

porting Roosevelt campaigns. "New Deal" represents one camp of

great wealth pitted against another: light goods and merchandis-

ing versus heavy industry and banking. Why "New Deal" policies

attract labor leaders and farmers. Republicans afraid to disclose

true "New Deal" aims. Forced to invent false radical issue* Nothingin Roosevelt career to presage Presidential passion for "forgotten

man." Nominated by political deal. Du Fonts in recent elections.

XXU CONTENTSRoosevelt always backed by wealth. Revealed bias toward status

quo in bank crisis* His task as he saw it. Spectacular early "NewDeal" measures: suspension of the gold standard, the AAAf the

NIRA and Section ?A. Public works program stimulates buying

power. Measures designed to hamper banks and heavy industry.

Banking Act, sought by Rockefellers, hurts Morgans. Securities

Exchange Act hinders stock promoters. Wheeler-Rayburn Act. The

"death sentence." Source of opposition the same in all measures.

"New Deal" tax rates analyzed. Facts behind Roosevelt's tax

proposals. Loopholes in gift and philanthropic provisions. Novel

measures used by the rich to cut tax liability. "New Deal" unconven-

tional only in "experiments." Value of TVA, Resettlement Admin-

istration, Social Security Act, WPA cultural projects. Progressive

policies in tariff revisions, neutrality. Policies in Latin America,

Russia. Repeal of Prohibition most popular accomplishment. Presi-

dent fails to support measures he champions: Tugwell Bill, Child

Labor Amendment. Why cry of "Dictator" is raised. Rockefeller

and Astor hostility. Administration assails A. W. Mellon Charitable

and Educational Trust and establishes a precedent. "New Deal"

labor policy foisted on it. John L. Lewis, Roosevelt, and the CIO.

Administration favoritism to wealthy partisans in labor disputes.

Campaign contributors in 1936 show split between heavy and light

industrialists and their allies. "Economic royalists" in Democratic

ranks. Democratic Convention book sales. Other money-raising

devices. Avalanche of hostile Republican money offset by unprece-

dented labor funds thrown to Roosevelt. Defections from Roose-

velt camp. Roosevelt cool toward CIO, endorses legislation favor-

ing his backers. President's court proposal not inherently progres-

sive. Possible course of "New Deal" program. The task before the

country today briefly discussed.