American
Water Works
Firestone-Rieck
& Electric (utility
50.
Firestone-Rieck
& Electric (utility
50.
Lundberg - The-Rich-and-the-Super-Rich-by-Ferdinand-Lundberg
The revolutionary potential, in sum, resides in the intellectual middle classes, not in the passive, dependent proletariat, who have no "historical task.
"
I see one possible flaw in Heilbroner's reasoning, which to my somewhat skeptical eyes is tinged with historical optimism. History, contrary to the devotees of the idea of progress, rarely produces solutions in accord with ideal aims, a lamentable fact. Historical solutions are, somehow, always flawed.
The fly I discern in this particular mixture is the presence of the new military elite who, although men of a different order from the old-time military spit-and-polish drillmasters, are nevertheless military men. And the military in any instance that comes to mind have never allied themselves with a New Order as opposed to an Old Order. Military people are usually essentially conservative if not reactionary and are usually socially naive. Professor Morris Janowitz of the University of Chicago, who directed two large-scale studies, the first of 465 American generals appointed between 1898 and 1940 and the second of 761 Army, Navy and Air Force general and flag officers appointed between 1910 and 1950, found that as of 1954 only 5 per cent of the generals identified themselves as "liberals" but 68 per cent declared they were "a little on the conservative side or plain "conservatives. " "Such a finding win startle no one familiar with the published political views of retired generals," as one writer observed. 25 It may be that such characteristics do not inhere in the new computer-automation jet-propulsion type of military person, who may indeed be above and beyond the authoritarian master- servant, mentality of the traditional military personality. If so, my doubts are beside the point.
But if the new military elite is anything like the old one it would, in any great crisis, tend to side with the Old Order and defend the status quo, if necessary, by force.
In the words of the standard police bulletin known to all radio listeners, "These men are armed--they may be dangerous. "
Historically, the established military have always fought and thrown their influence against all rising new social orders, whether capitalist or socialist, and have always been strong supporters of reaction. Where they have retained influence after any revolution, peaceful or violent, they have been Bonapartists. Like all conservatives, they take a pessimistic view of the human enterprise, are partial to the heavy hand. Devotees of
applied force, habituated to organizing their entire experience around its use, they are rarely men of peaceful persuasion and evolutionary transition.
As I freely admit, I may be wrong in thus looking at the new military elite, which by reason of the experience-broadening complex technology it now commands may be of an entirely new historical stripe. If it is, and no available evidence supports such a view, then Heilbroner's vision may be more penetrating than my own tentative doubts allow me to concede.
In any event, it cannot be denied that science and technology are already injecting much uncertainty into the demonic corporate thrust for profits. Allowed unrestrained and continued free play, that thrust cannot but disrupt the entire social system to an extent greater than yet ever seen.
Yet, as Heilbroner sees it, it is not the immediate needs of science and capitalism that are in conflict so much as a basic divergence of intent--of science to impose the human will on society and of capitalism to allow society to function by happenstance as if it were not subject to the will. Whereas science is socially active capitalism is socially passive and "In the end capitalism is weighed in the scale of science and found wanting, not alone as a system but as a philosophy. " 26
Savior of the World
American politicos, swelling with fatuous misbegotten pride, have increasingly taken to presenting the United States and the American people as the major guarantors of what remains of civilization in a world torn by shabby power struggles on every band. Whatever else the foregoing pages may portend, they should suggest that anyone looking to the United States for the solution to world problems is depending on a huge but weak reed. With a thoroughly antiquated, distorted political system--formally 178 years old but with many later dubious additions such as the universal franchise--the United States is unable even to begin solving its own many very serious domestic problems. How, then, can it take on those of Asia, Africa, Europe and South America?
Not unless it underwent a considerable amount of basic politico-economic revision would the United States be in a position to play more than a palliative international role. And as its inept, intrusion into Vietnam under the guidance of a strictly backwoods politician has shown very clearly, it may be capable of playing vastly destructive roles. What reasonable ground there is for believing that American presence in laggardly developed regions and political power-vacuums is more likely to achieve human gains than English, French, Japanese, Dutch or Russian presence has certainly not been shown.
If they prove nothing else the widespread American riots, increasing and spreading from the 1940's and 1950's into the 1960's, prove that the American ruling class, given the political instrumentalities of its rule through low-grade stooges, is unable to rule at home. The general cry goes out for law and order, yet there is steadily less and less law and order, more and more crime and insurrection as Lyndon B. Johnson calls for national days of prayer. For prayer rather than science or reason is the tool of the political medicine men. What is happening as the average citizen looks on in disbelief is that an outworn, patched politico-economic system is cracking, while no serious steps are taken to ascertain the causes and remedies. The causes of American insufficiency, at home and abroad, are political, not economic, or at least political before they are economic. Better put, they are cultural. Serious problems cannot be solved on the basis of a consensus of value-disoriented dolts.
APPENDIX A
LARGEST NET TAXABLE INCOMES SINCE 1940
(AFTER DEDUCTIONS)
1961"
$1 million plus
398
$500,000 to $1 million
985
$300,000-$500,000
$200,000-$500,000
6,104
$150,000-$300,000
$150,
5,457
$100,000-$150,000
16,786
$ 50,000-$100,000
110,476
$ 25,000-$ 50,000
496,591
626,797
1940* 1945** 1950# 1955## 1960'
$1 Million-Plus Income
1940* $ 87,746,000
1945** $105,184,000
1950# $374,670,000
1955## $452,713,000
1960' $455,501,000
1961" $589,220,000
$500,000 to $1 Million Income
$ 74,170,000
$146,657,000
$361,529,000
$335,849,000
$383,080,000
$520,171,000
49 112 252
1,066
219
623 528 1,290
2,871 6,716
267 306
628 735
4,022 4,848
71 258
3,946 4,413
1,866 5,530 11,564 12,260 14,221
10,285 33,495 62,689 77,604 101,272
36,176 120,220 220,107 190,707 441,401
49,806 162,973 303,208 289,434 557,196
In 1963 in New York State alone there were seventy-three incomes of $1 million or more ( New York Times, February 20,1965; 27: 1).
AGGREGATE NET TAXABLE INCOME OF LARGEST INCOMES
* Statistics of Income for 1940, Part I; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, p. 10.
** Statistics of Income for 1945, Part I; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 21-22.
# Statistics of Income for 1950, Part I (Preliminary); United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 14-27.
## Statistics of Income: 1955; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 18- 24.
' Statistics of Income. 1960 (Preliminary); United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 15-21.
" Statistics of Income: 1961 (Preliminary); United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, p. 14.
The main sources of aggregate incomes exceeding $1 million are as follows (all references from the Treasury Department's Statistics of Income for each year):
Partnership
Salaries
1940 $ 1,499,000
1945 $ 1,752,000
1950 $ 7,693,000
1955 $ 7,836,000
1960 $12,766,000
1961 $18,607,000
1962 $13,789,000
From Trust
Funds
1940 $27,624,000
1945 18,439,000 $ 1,940,000
1950 $94,943,000 $ 4,846,000 $ 1,031,000 $31,245,000
(profit)
1955 $ 5,005,000* $ 4,095,000 $ 3,208,000 $248,099,000*
1960 $ 3,966,000 $ 2,351,000 $ 7,345,000 $285,335,000
1961 $ 3,163,000 $ 2,371,000 $ 7,915,000 $434,272,000
1962 $ 3,431,000 $ 3,837,000 $ 3,289,000 $367,303,000
Main Sources of Incomes $500,000 to $1 Million Partnership
Salaries
1940 $ 3,110,000
1945 $ 7,545,000
Dividends
$ 45,187,000
$ 58,476,000
Interest
$ 1,994,000
(included in
Profit
$ 921,000
$ 23,720,000
Dividends Interest
Profit
$ 1,301,000
$ 8,013,000
$ 7,923,000
$11,613,000
$ 6,588,000
$10,503,000
$ 3,607,000
$ 60,561,000
$ 53,336,000
$179,203,000
$286,158,000
$274,848,000
$259,574,000
$276,946,000
Rents and
$ 1,290,000
(included in
dividends)
$ 6,148,000
$ 6,146,000
$ 9,648,000
$ 8,754,000
$ 9,490,000
Royalties
$ 115,000
Business Loss
$ 1,711,000
Capital Gain
$12,113,000
dividends)
1950 $27,827,000 $158,822,000 $ 7,035,000 $ 3,848,000
1955 $31,409,000 $187,071,000 $ 6,483,000 $ 15,393,000
1960 $31,674,000 $193,660,000 $10,620,000 $ 7,052,000
1961 $38,868,000 $216,469,000 $13,035,000 $ 21,662,000
1962 $37,378,000 $201,352,000 $13,898,000 $ 6,094,000
From Trust
Funds
1940 $20,291,000
1945 $20,983,000
1950 $64,426,000
1955 $ 4,765,000*
1960 $ 4,807,000
1961 $ 6,325,000
1962 $ 4,829,000
Rents and
Royalties
$ 1,286,000
$ 1,004,000
$ 7,546,000
$ 6,439,000
$ 5,314,000
$ 4,554,000
$ 9,460,000
Business
Profit
$ 1,958,000
$ 4,631,000
$ 3,848,000
$ 6,964,000(L)
$ 6,735,000(L)
$ 8,211,000(L)
$ 8,791,000(L)
Capital Gain
$ 12,550,000
$ 53,451,000
$132,287,000
$171,594,000*
$239,392,000
$357,066,000
$274,079,000
(Omitted: Sales of noncapital property, receipts from annuities and pensions and miscellaneous small items. )
* Between 1950 and 1955 the Treasury Department changed its method of reporting trust-fund income. While it previously reported the capital gains of trust funds as part of trust-fund income, it decided to report such capital gains in the total of capital gains, thus diminishing the reported income of large trust funds. In order to show the full participation of trust funds, the capital gains accruing to them should be specifically shown. It will be noticed that in 1950 trust-fund income was three times all capital gain income but by 1955, with the removal of trust-fund capital gains to the capital gain column, trust-fund income was only about 2 per cent of capital gain income. Most of the sudden rise in capital gain totals came about because most of these capital gains came from trust funds.
APPENDIX B
(minimum)
$ 3,462,000
$37,068,000
(profit)
COMPANIES WITH LARGEST TOTAL ASSETS
TNEC Fortune*
(1937) 1964
List source)
Dominant
Family
Groups--Fortune (by TNEC and SEC
*Fortune publishes these rankings in July and August of each year. These company names were taken from the 1965 issues reporting on 1964 performances under the categories of industrial, public utility, transportation and merchandising companies.
** Railroads and other types of public utility companies are generally dominated by small coalitions of several families, directly or through banks or other financial instrumentalities. This holds as well for many industrial companies.
1. American Telephone
& Telegraph
2. Standard Oil
Rockefeller
(New Jersey)
3. Pennsylvania RR
4. U. S. Steel
5. Southern Pacific RR
Haldane et al.
6. N. Y. Central RR
Gates, Lapham
al.
7. Consolidated Edison
Rockefeller
(N. Y.
8. General Motors
9. Commonwealth &
Southern (utility
properties distributed)
10. Baltimore & Ohio RR
Rockefeller
11. Santa Fe RR (ATSF)
et al.
12. Cities Service
Smithers
Fairchild
13. Union Pacific RR
Rockefeller
14. Socony Vacuum Oil
al.
15. Standard Gas & Gardner et al.
1. American Telephone
& Telegraph
2. Standard Oil (New
Jersey)
3. General Motors
4. Ford Motor
5. U. S. Steel
6. Texaco
7. Socony Mobil Oil
8. Gulf Oil
9. Sears, Roebuck
10. Standard Oil of
**
Du Pont
Ford
Phipps,
Hill,
et
Mellon
Rosenwald
Electric (utility prop-
erties distributed)
16. North American Co.
et al.
(utility properties
distributed)
17. Northern Pacific Ry
18. American Power &
James,
16. Pacific Gas & Electric
17. Pennsylvania RR
18. Southern Pacific
al.
Light (utility properties
California
11. General Telephone & Paine, La Croix
Electronics
12. International Business
Machines
13. Standard Oil
(Indiana)
14. Consolidated Edison
(N. Y. )
15. General Electric
Watson-
Hewitt-
Brady et White,
Crocker
Harkness, Dodge et
distributed)
19. United Gas Improve- 19. E. I. du Pont de Nemours
ment (utility properties
Du Pont
Chrysler-
Hutton-
Mellon-
Symonds,
Webster
Kirby-
et al.
(Royal
Kenan-
et al.
distributed)
20. Great Northern Ry
Bache
Hanna-Mellon
21. Standard Oil (Indiana)
Grace
22. Bethlehem Steel
Stone &
23. Ford Motor
Murchison
24. American & Foreign
Dutch) Power
25. E. I. du Pont de
Nemours
26. Electric Power & Light
Acheson
(utility properties
distributed)
27. Commonwealth Edison
(Chicago)
28. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry
29. Illinois Central RR
Phillips
30. Pacific Gas & Electric
Edison
31. Texaco
32. Standard Oil of
Goelet
California
Vanderbilt
33. Columbia Gas &
Electric
34. Anaconda
35. Southern Ry
36. Gulf Oil
McCormick-Deering
37. Niagara Hudson Power
38. Public Service
Electricity & Gas
39. National Power & Light
(Pennsylvania RR)
(utility properties
distributed)
40. Int'l Hydro-Electric
20. Chrysler
21. Bethlehem Steel
22. Tennessee Gas
Transmission
23. New York Central
RR
24. Shell Oil
25. Western Electric
26. Union Carbide
et al.
System (utility prop-
Mellon
Mellon
tion
erties distributed)
41. International Telephone 41. Cities Service
Rockefeller Founda-
& Telegraph
et al.
27. Santa Fe RR
28. Commonwealth Edison (Chicago)
29. Phillips Petroleum
30. Southern Calif
31. Southern Co.
32. Union Pacific RR
33. American Electric
Power
34. Public Service
Electric & Gas
35. International Tele
phone & Telegraph
36. International
Harvester
37. Sinclair Oil
38. Aluminum Co. of
America
39. Norfolk & Western Ry
40. Westinghouse Electric
Du Pont-
Crocker
Harriman-
42. United Light & Power
(utility properties
distributed)
43. Norfolk & Western Ry
44. Louisville & Nashville
Pitcairn et al.
RR
45. American Gas & Electric 45. El Paso Natural Gas
(utility properties
distributed)
46. International Harvester 46. Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Roebuck)
47. General Electric
Procter-Gamble
48. Empire Gas & Fuel Co.
Rochester,
(utility properties
Philipp,
distributed) Carter et al.
49. Middle West Corpora-
Gimbel,
47. Procter & Gamble
48. Eastman Kodak
49. Anaconda
(Sears,
U. of
M. I. T. ,
Clark,
Connor,
Mather Dow
Easton,
Meyer,
Nichols
Phipps-
Brown &
Payson
tion (utility properties
Guggenheim
distributed)
50. Philadelphia Electric
51. Reading
52. Shell Union Oil
53. Pacific Telephone &
Rosengarten
Telegraph
54. Republic Steel
Schoelkopf,
Machold,
Lewis et al.
55. New England Power
Association
56.
American Water Works
Firestone-Rieck
& Electric (utility
50. Republic Steel
51. Dow Chemical
52. Consumers Power
53. Philadelphia Electric
54. Niagara Mohawk
Power
55. General Public
Utilities
Woodworth
properties distributed)
57. Southern California
Weber,
Edison
et al.
58. Kennecott Copper
59. Consolidated Oil
Mills
60. Koppers
Root
61. Engineers Public
Service (utility
57. Allied Chemical
properties distributed)
62. Atlantic Coast Line 62. Detroit Edison
RR
63. Philadelphia Company 63. Armco Steel et al.
42. Continental Oil
43. Monsanto
44. Columbia Gas &
Electric
56. Firestone Tire &
Rubber
58. Radio Corp. of America
59. International Paper
60. Texas Eastern
Transmission
61. Celanese
(utility properties
distributed)
64. Armour (Illinois)
65. Swift
Reynolds
66. Western Union
Hanna
Telegraph
67. Detroit Edison
68. Union Carbide
Reynolds
69. Sears, Roebuck
70. American Tobacco
?
64. Texas Utilities
65. Reynolds Metals
66. National Steel
67. Northern Pacific Ry
68. R. J. Reynolds
Tobacco
69. Tidewater Oil
70. Great Northern Ry
M. A.
?
Getty
? In both these companies a strong interest was held by the late Arthur Curtiss James, who died without heirs. The late Vincent Astor was also a leading stockholder in Great Northern Railway.
71. New York, Chicago &
St. Louis RR
72. United Gas
73. Northern States Power
74. Pullman
Rockefeller
75. International Paper
76. New England
Mather
Telephone & Telegraph
77. Missouri-Kansas-Texas
RR
78. West Penn Electric
71. American Natural
Gas
72. American Can
73. Olin Mathieson
Chemical
74. Atlantic Refining
75. Sun Oil
76. Inland Steel
77. Southern Ry
Moore Olin
Pew Block-
Ryerson
Jones Kaiser
Earl
Penros
Grace-
Line
Deere Ward,
Avery,
78. Middle South Utilities
79. Aluminum Co. of America 79. Consolidated Natural Gas
80. Consumers Power
Laughlin-Horne
81. Allied Chemical
82. Westinghouse Electric
83. Delaware & Hudson
Matthews-Stewart
RR
84. F. W. Woolworth
Guggenheim
e et al.
85. Youngstown Sheet & Phipps
Tube
86. Jones & Laughlin
(Atlantic Coast
Steel
RR)
87. Montgomery Ward
88. Phillips Petroleum
89. Armour (Delaware)
Thorne,
McLennan
90. Lehigh Valley RR
Woolworth-McCann
80. Jones & Laughlin
Steel
81. Kaiser Aluminum
82. Virginia Electric & Power
83. Union Oil of
California
84. Kennecott Copper
85. W. R. Grace
86. Louisville & Nashville
RR
87. Sperry Rand
88. Deere
89. Montgomery Ward
90. F. W. Woolworth
e-Kirby
91. National Steel 91. Chicago, Burl. & Quincy RR
92. Tidewater Oil 92. Continental Can
93. National Dairy Products 93. Caterpillar Tractor
94. Duquesne Light Co.
95. Phelps Dodge
Singer-Clark
96. Goodyear Tire &
Miller-Volkman
Rubber
Schilling
97. Chrysler
Breyer
McInnerney
98. Central & South West
Elkins-Widener
(utilities)
99. United Fruit
Pont
100. Atlantic Refining
Hartford
101. Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea
102. Liggett & Myers
Tobacco
94. Youngstown Sheet & Tube
95. Singer
96. Pacific Lighting
97. National Dairy
Products
98. American Tobacco
99. U. S. Rubber
100. Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea
101. Peoples Gas Light &
Coke
102. Union Electric (St.
Mather
Rieck-
Du
Bell- Biddle
Stone
Dawes
Duke Share)
Post- Woodwa
Louis)
103. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco 103. American Cyanamid
Darby
-Duke
104. Eastman Kodak
Pitcairn-Mellon
105. U. S. Rubber
& Webster
106. Pure Oil McKnight
107. American Can et al.
108. Warner Brothers
109. Federal Water Service 109. Burlington Industries
110. Lackawanna RR
(absorbed by Erie RR)
111. Peoples Gas Light &
Coke
112. Central RR of N. J
113. Western Maryland Ry
114. Firestone Tire &
(Electric Bond &
Rubber
115. American Radiator &
Std. Sanitary
116. Union Oil of Cal.
Davies-Hutton
rd-Igleheart
117. Boston Edison
118. Singer
119. Inland Steel
110. New England
Electric System
111. Florida Power & Light
112. Illinois Central RR
113. Duke Power
114. American & Foreign
Power
115. United Air Lines
116. General Foods
117. Northern States Power
118. American Airlines
119. Northern Natural Gas
104. Pittsburgh Plate Glass
105. Transcontinental Gas
Pipe Line
106. Minnesota Mining & Mfg.
107. Pure Oil
108. Ohio Edison
Donohu
120. Duke Power
Weyerhaeuser
Bell
ht
121. Pere Marquette Ry
Zellerbach
120. Weyerhaeuser
(absorbed by
Chesapeake & Ohio Ry)
122. Virginian Ry
Rockefeller
123. Pacific Lighting
124. American Smelting &
Refining
125. Consolidated Gas,
122. Marathon Oil
(Armco)
127. Glen Alden Coal
Borden-Milbank
127. Borden
et al.
Horton
Childs
Swift
Howard Henry
128. Procter & Gamble
129. Loew's, Inc
130. Weyerhaeuser
131. Pittsburgh (Consolida- 131. Long Island Lighting
Phillips-Olmsted
tion) Coal
132. Ohio (Marathon) Oil
Penney-Ginn-Sams
Co.
133. B. F. Goodrich
134. Continental Can
Cheatham-Pamplin
135. Kansas City Southern
Ry
136. Long Island Lighting
137. Lone Star Gas Corp.
Panhandle Eastern
Pipeline
138. Sun Oil
139. Hearst Consolidated
Hughes
Publications, Inc.
121.
I see one possible flaw in Heilbroner's reasoning, which to my somewhat skeptical eyes is tinged with historical optimism. History, contrary to the devotees of the idea of progress, rarely produces solutions in accord with ideal aims, a lamentable fact. Historical solutions are, somehow, always flawed.
The fly I discern in this particular mixture is the presence of the new military elite who, although men of a different order from the old-time military spit-and-polish drillmasters, are nevertheless military men. And the military in any instance that comes to mind have never allied themselves with a New Order as opposed to an Old Order. Military people are usually essentially conservative if not reactionary and are usually socially naive. Professor Morris Janowitz of the University of Chicago, who directed two large-scale studies, the first of 465 American generals appointed between 1898 and 1940 and the second of 761 Army, Navy and Air Force general and flag officers appointed between 1910 and 1950, found that as of 1954 only 5 per cent of the generals identified themselves as "liberals" but 68 per cent declared they were "a little on the conservative side or plain "conservatives. " "Such a finding win startle no one familiar with the published political views of retired generals," as one writer observed. 25 It may be that such characteristics do not inhere in the new computer-automation jet-propulsion type of military person, who may indeed be above and beyond the authoritarian master- servant, mentality of the traditional military personality. If so, my doubts are beside the point.
But if the new military elite is anything like the old one it would, in any great crisis, tend to side with the Old Order and defend the status quo, if necessary, by force.
In the words of the standard police bulletin known to all radio listeners, "These men are armed--they may be dangerous. "
Historically, the established military have always fought and thrown their influence against all rising new social orders, whether capitalist or socialist, and have always been strong supporters of reaction. Where they have retained influence after any revolution, peaceful or violent, they have been Bonapartists. Like all conservatives, they take a pessimistic view of the human enterprise, are partial to the heavy hand. Devotees of
applied force, habituated to organizing their entire experience around its use, they are rarely men of peaceful persuasion and evolutionary transition.
As I freely admit, I may be wrong in thus looking at the new military elite, which by reason of the experience-broadening complex technology it now commands may be of an entirely new historical stripe. If it is, and no available evidence supports such a view, then Heilbroner's vision may be more penetrating than my own tentative doubts allow me to concede.
In any event, it cannot be denied that science and technology are already injecting much uncertainty into the demonic corporate thrust for profits. Allowed unrestrained and continued free play, that thrust cannot but disrupt the entire social system to an extent greater than yet ever seen.
Yet, as Heilbroner sees it, it is not the immediate needs of science and capitalism that are in conflict so much as a basic divergence of intent--of science to impose the human will on society and of capitalism to allow society to function by happenstance as if it were not subject to the will. Whereas science is socially active capitalism is socially passive and "In the end capitalism is weighed in the scale of science and found wanting, not alone as a system but as a philosophy. " 26
Savior of the World
American politicos, swelling with fatuous misbegotten pride, have increasingly taken to presenting the United States and the American people as the major guarantors of what remains of civilization in a world torn by shabby power struggles on every band. Whatever else the foregoing pages may portend, they should suggest that anyone looking to the United States for the solution to world problems is depending on a huge but weak reed. With a thoroughly antiquated, distorted political system--formally 178 years old but with many later dubious additions such as the universal franchise--the United States is unable even to begin solving its own many very serious domestic problems. How, then, can it take on those of Asia, Africa, Europe and South America?
Not unless it underwent a considerable amount of basic politico-economic revision would the United States be in a position to play more than a palliative international role. And as its inept, intrusion into Vietnam under the guidance of a strictly backwoods politician has shown very clearly, it may be capable of playing vastly destructive roles. What reasonable ground there is for believing that American presence in laggardly developed regions and political power-vacuums is more likely to achieve human gains than English, French, Japanese, Dutch or Russian presence has certainly not been shown.
If they prove nothing else the widespread American riots, increasing and spreading from the 1940's and 1950's into the 1960's, prove that the American ruling class, given the political instrumentalities of its rule through low-grade stooges, is unable to rule at home. The general cry goes out for law and order, yet there is steadily less and less law and order, more and more crime and insurrection as Lyndon B. Johnson calls for national days of prayer. For prayer rather than science or reason is the tool of the political medicine men. What is happening as the average citizen looks on in disbelief is that an outworn, patched politico-economic system is cracking, while no serious steps are taken to ascertain the causes and remedies. The causes of American insufficiency, at home and abroad, are political, not economic, or at least political before they are economic. Better put, they are cultural. Serious problems cannot be solved on the basis of a consensus of value-disoriented dolts.
APPENDIX A
LARGEST NET TAXABLE INCOMES SINCE 1940
(AFTER DEDUCTIONS)
1961"
$1 million plus
398
$500,000 to $1 million
985
$300,000-$500,000
$200,000-$500,000
6,104
$150,000-$300,000
$150,
5,457
$100,000-$150,000
16,786
$ 50,000-$100,000
110,476
$ 25,000-$ 50,000
496,591
626,797
1940* 1945** 1950# 1955## 1960'
$1 Million-Plus Income
1940* $ 87,746,000
1945** $105,184,000
1950# $374,670,000
1955## $452,713,000
1960' $455,501,000
1961" $589,220,000
$500,000 to $1 Million Income
$ 74,170,000
$146,657,000
$361,529,000
$335,849,000
$383,080,000
$520,171,000
49 112 252
1,066
219
623 528 1,290
2,871 6,716
267 306
628 735
4,022 4,848
71 258
3,946 4,413
1,866 5,530 11,564 12,260 14,221
10,285 33,495 62,689 77,604 101,272
36,176 120,220 220,107 190,707 441,401
49,806 162,973 303,208 289,434 557,196
In 1963 in New York State alone there were seventy-three incomes of $1 million or more ( New York Times, February 20,1965; 27: 1).
AGGREGATE NET TAXABLE INCOME OF LARGEST INCOMES
* Statistics of Income for 1940, Part I; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, p. 10.
** Statistics of Income for 1945, Part I; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 21-22.
# Statistics of Income for 1950, Part I (Preliminary); United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 14-27.
## Statistics of Income: 1955; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 18- 24.
' Statistics of Income. 1960 (Preliminary); United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, pp. 15-21.
" Statistics of Income: 1961 (Preliminary); United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Internal Revenue, p. 14.
The main sources of aggregate incomes exceeding $1 million are as follows (all references from the Treasury Department's Statistics of Income for each year):
Partnership
Salaries
1940 $ 1,499,000
1945 $ 1,752,000
1950 $ 7,693,000
1955 $ 7,836,000
1960 $12,766,000
1961 $18,607,000
1962 $13,789,000
From Trust
Funds
1940 $27,624,000
1945 18,439,000 $ 1,940,000
1950 $94,943,000 $ 4,846,000 $ 1,031,000 $31,245,000
(profit)
1955 $ 5,005,000* $ 4,095,000 $ 3,208,000 $248,099,000*
1960 $ 3,966,000 $ 2,351,000 $ 7,345,000 $285,335,000
1961 $ 3,163,000 $ 2,371,000 $ 7,915,000 $434,272,000
1962 $ 3,431,000 $ 3,837,000 $ 3,289,000 $367,303,000
Main Sources of Incomes $500,000 to $1 Million Partnership
Salaries
1940 $ 3,110,000
1945 $ 7,545,000
Dividends
$ 45,187,000
$ 58,476,000
Interest
$ 1,994,000
(included in
Profit
$ 921,000
$ 23,720,000
Dividends Interest
Profit
$ 1,301,000
$ 8,013,000
$ 7,923,000
$11,613,000
$ 6,588,000
$10,503,000
$ 3,607,000
$ 60,561,000
$ 53,336,000
$179,203,000
$286,158,000
$274,848,000
$259,574,000
$276,946,000
Rents and
$ 1,290,000
(included in
dividends)
$ 6,148,000
$ 6,146,000
$ 9,648,000
$ 8,754,000
$ 9,490,000
Royalties
$ 115,000
Business Loss
$ 1,711,000
Capital Gain
$12,113,000
dividends)
1950 $27,827,000 $158,822,000 $ 7,035,000 $ 3,848,000
1955 $31,409,000 $187,071,000 $ 6,483,000 $ 15,393,000
1960 $31,674,000 $193,660,000 $10,620,000 $ 7,052,000
1961 $38,868,000 $216,469,000 $13,035,000 $ 21,662,000
1962 $37,378,000 $201,352,000 $13,898,000 $ 6,094,000
From Trust
Funds
1940 $20,291,000
1945 $20,983,000
1950 $64,426,000
1955 $ 4,765,000*
1960 $ 4,807,000
1961 $ 6,325,000
1962 $ 4,829,000
Rents and
Royalties
$ 1,286,000
$ 1,004,000
$ 7,546,000
$ 6,439,000
$ 5,314,000
$ 4,554,000
$ 9,460,000
Business
Profit
$ 1,958,000
$ 4,631,000
$ 3,848,000
$ 6,964,000(L)
$ 6,735,000(L)
$ 8,211,000(L)
$ 8,791,000(L)
Capital Gain
$ 12,550,000
$ 53,451,000
$132,287,000
$171,594,000*
$239,392,000
$357,066,000
$274,079,000
(Omitted: Sales of noncapital property, receipts from annuities and pensions and miscellaneous small items. )
* Between 1950 and 1955 the Treasury Department changed its method of reporting trust-fund income. While it previously reported the capital gains of trust funds as part of trust-fund income, it decided to report such capital gains in the total of capital gains, thus diminishing the reported income of large trust funds. In order to show the full participation of trust funds, the capital gains accruing to them should be specifically shown. It will be noticed that in 1950 trust-fund income was three times all capital gain income but by 1955, with the removal of trust-fund capital gains to the capital gain column, trust-fund income was only about 2 per cent of capital gain income. Most of the sudden rise in capital gain totals came about because most of these capital gains came from trust funds.
APPENDIX B
(minimum)
$ 3,462,000
$37,068,000
(profit)
COMPANIES WITH LARGEST TOTAL ASSETS
TNEC Fortune*
(1937) 1964
List source)
Dominant
Family
Groups--Fortune (by TNEC and SEC
*Fortune publishes these rankings in July and August of each year. These company names were taken from the 1965 issues reporting on 1964 performances under the categories of industrial, public utility, transportation and merchandising companies.
** Railroads and other types of public utility companies are generally dominated by small coalitions of several families, directly or through banks or other financial instrumentalities. This holds as well for many industrial companies.
1. American Telephone
& Telegraph
2. Standard Oil
Rockefeller
(New Jersey)
3. Pennsylvania RR
4. U. S. Steel
5. Southern Pacific RR
Haldane et al.
6. N. Y. Central RR
Gates, Lapham
al.
7. Consolidated Edison
Rockefeller
(N. Y.
8. General Motors
9. Commonwealth &
Southern (utility
properties distributed)
10. Baltimore & Ohio RR
Rockefeller
11. Santa Fe RR (ATSF)
et al.
12. Cities Service
Smithers
Fairchild
13. Union Pacific RR
Rockefeller
14. Socony Vacuum Oil
al.
15. Standard Gas & Gardner et al.
1. American Telephone
& Telegraph
2. Standard Oil (New
Jersey)
3. General Motors
4. Ford Motor
5. U. S. Steel
6. Texaco
7. Socony Mobil Oil
8. Gulf Oil
9. Sears, Roebuck
10. Standard Oil of
**
Du Pont
Ford
Phipps,
Hill,
et
Mellon
Rosenwald
Electric (utility prop-
erties distributed)
16. North American Co.
et al.
(utility properties
distributed)
17. Northern Pacific Ry
18. American Power &
James,
16. Pacific Gas & Electric
17. Pennsylvania RR
18. Southern Pacific
al.
Light (utility properties
California
11. General Telephone & Paine, La Croix
Electronics
12. International Business
Machines
13. Standard Oil
(Indiana)
14. Consolidated Edison
(N. Y. )
15. General Electric
Watson-
Hewitt-
Brady et White,
Crocker
Harkness, Dodge et
distributed)
19. United Gas Improve- 19. E. I. du Pont de Nemours
ment (utility properties
Du Pont
Chrysler-
Hutton-
Mellon-
Symonds,
Webster
Kirby-
et al.
(Royal
Kenan-
et al.
distributed)
20. Great Northern Ry
Bache
Hanna-Mellon
21. Standard Oil (Indiana)
Grace
22. Bethlehem Steel
Stone &
23. Ford Motor
Murchison
24. American & Foreign
Dutch) Power
25. E. I. du Pont de
Nemours
26. Electric Power & Light
Acheson
(utility properties
distributed)
27. Commonwealth Edison
(Chicago)
28. Chesapeake & Ohio Ry
29. Illinois Central RR
Phillips
30. Pacific Gas & Electric
Edison
31. Texaco
32. Standard Oil of
Goelet
California
Vanderbilt
33. Columbia Gas &
Electric
34. Anaconda
35. Southern Ry
36. Gulf Oil
McCormick-Deering
37. Niagara Hudson Power
38. Public Service
Electricity & Gas
39. National Power & Light
(Pennsylvania RR)
(utility properties
distributed)
40. Int'l Hydro-Electric
20. Chrysler
21. Bethlehem Steel
22. Tennessee Gas
Transmission
23. New York Central
RR
24. Shell Oil
25. Western Electric
26. Union Carbide
et al.
System (utility prop-
Mellon
Mellon
tion
erties distributed)
41. International Telephone 41. Cities Service
Rockefeller Founda-
& Telegraph
et al.
27. Santa Fe RR
28. Commonwealth Edison (Chicago)
29. Phillips Petroleum
30. Southern Calif
31. Southern Co.
32. Union Pacific RR
33. American Electric
Power
34. Public Service
Electric & Gas
35. International Tele
phone & Telegraph
36. International
Harvester
37. Sinclair Oil
38. Aluminum Co. of
America
39. Norfolk & Western Ry
40. Westinghouse Electric
Du Pont-
Crocker
Harriman-
42. United Light & Power
(utility properties
distributed)
43. Norfolk & Western Ry
44. Louisville & Nashville
Pitcairn et al.
RR
45. American Gas & Electric 45. El Paso Natural Gas
(utility properties
distributed)
46. International Harvester 46. Goodyear Tire & Rubber
Roebuck)
47. General Electric
Procter-Gamble
48. Empire Gas & Fuel Co.
Rochester,
(utility properties
Philipp,
distributed) Carter et al.
49. Middle West Corpora-
Gimbel,
47. Procter & Gamble
48. Eastman Kodak
49. Anaconda
(Sears,
U. of
M. I. T. ,
Clark,
Connor,
Mather Dow
Easton,
Meyer,
Nichols
Phipps-
Brown &
Payson
tion (utility properties
Guggenheim
distributed)
50. Philadelphia Electric
51. Reading
52. Shell Union Oil
53. Pacific Telephone &
Rosengarten
Telegraph
54. Republic Steel
Schoelkopf,
Machold,
Lewis et al.
55. New England Power
Association
56.
American Water Works
Firestone-Rieck
& Electric (utility
50. Republic Steel
51. Dow Chemical
52. Consumers Power
53. Philadelphia Electric
54. Niagara Mohawk
Power
55. General Public
Utilities
Woodworth
properties distributed)
57. Southern California
Weber,
Edison
et al.
58. Kennecott Copper
59. Consolidated Oil
Mills
60. Koppers
Root
61. Engineers Public
Service (utility
57. Allied Chemical
properties distributed)
62. Atlantic Coast Line 62. Detroit Edison
RR
63. Philadelphia Company 63. Armco Steel et al.
42. Continental Oil
43. Monsanto
44. Columbia Gas &
Electric
56. Firestone Tire &
Rubber
58. Radio Corp. of America
59. International Paper
60. Texas Eastern
Transmission
61. Celanese
(utility properties
distributed)
64. Armour (Illinois)
65. Swift
Reynolds
66. Western Union
Hanna
Telegraph
67. Detroit Edison
68. Union Carbide
Reynolds
69. Sears, Roebuck
70. American Tobacco
?
64. Texas Utilities
65. Reynolds Metals
66. National Steel
67. Northern Pacific Ry
68. R. J. Reynolds
Tobacco
69. Tidewater Oil
70. Great Northern Ry
M. A.
?
Getty
? In both these companies a strong interest was held by the late Arthur Curtiss James, who died without heirs. The late Vincent Astor was also a leading stockholder in Great Northern Railway.
71. New York, Chicago &
St. Louis RR
72. United Gas
73. Northern States Power
74. Pullman
Rockefeller
75. International Paper
76. New England
Mather
Telephone & Telegraph
77. Missouri-Kansas-Texas
RR
78. West Penn Electric
71. American Natural
Gas
72. American Can
73. Olin Mathieson
Chemical
74. Atlantic Refining
75. Sun Oil
76. Inland Steel
77. Southern Ry
Moore Olin
Pew Block-
Ryerson
Jones Kaiser
Earl
Penros
Grace-
Line
Deere Ward,
Avery,
78. Middle South Utilities
79. Aluminum Co. of America 79. Consolidated Natural Gas
80. Consumers Power
Laughlin-Horne
81. Allied Chemical
82. Westinghouse Electric
83. Delaware & Hudson
Matthews-Stewart
RR
84. F. W. Woolworth
Guggenheim
e et al.
85. Youngstown Sheet & Phipps
Tube
86. Jones & Laughlin
(Atlantic Coast
Steel
RR)
87. Montgomery Ward
88. Phillips Petroleum
89. Armour (Delaware)
Thorne,
McLennan
90. Lehigh Valley RR
Woolworth-McCann
80. Jones & Laughlin
Steel
81. Kaiser Aluminum
82. Virginia Electric & Power
83. Union Oil of
California
84. Kennecott Copper
85. W. R. Grace
86. Louisville & Nashville
RR
87. Sperry Rand
88. Deere
89. Montgomery Ward
90. F. W. Woolworth
e-Kirby
91. National Steel 91. Chicago, Burl. & Quincy RR
92. Tidewater Oil 92. Continental Can
93. National Dairy Products 93. Caterpillar Tractor
94. Duquesne Light Co.
95. Phelps Dodge
Singer-Clark
96. Goodyear Tire &
Miller-Volkman
Rubber
Schilling
97. Chrysler
Breyer
McInnerney
98. Central & South West
Elkins-Widener
(utilities)
99. United Fruit
Pont
100. Atlantic Refining
Hartford
101. Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea
102. Liggett & Myers
Tobacco
94. Youngstown Sheet & Tube
95. Singer
96. Pacific Lighting
97. National Dairy
Products
98. American Tobacco
99. U. S. Rubber
100. Great Atlantic &
Pacific Tea
101. Peoples Gas Light &
Coke
102. Union Electric (St.
Mather
Rieck-
Du
Bell- Biddle
Stone
Dawes
Duke Share)
Post- Woodwa
Louis)
103. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco 103. American Cyanamid
Darby
-Duke
104. Eastman Kodak
Pitcairn-Mellon
105. U. S. Rubber
& Webster
106. Pure Oil McKnight
107. American Can et al.
108. Warner Brothers
109. Federal Water Service 109. Burlington Industries
110. Lackawanna RR
(absorbed by Erie RR)
111. Peoples Gas Light &
Coke
112. Central RR of N. J
113. Western Maryland Ry
114. Firestone Tire &
(Electric Bond &
Rubber
115. American Radiator &
Std. Sanitary
116. Union Oil of Cal.
Davies-Hutton
rd-Igleheart
117. Boston Edison
118. Singer
119. Inland Steel
110. New England
Electric System
111. Florida Power & Light
112. Illinois Central RR
113. Duke Power
114. American & Foreign
Power
115. United Air Lines
116. General Foods
117. Northern States Power
118. American Airlines
119. Northern Natural Gas
104. Pittsburgh Plate Glass
105. Transcontinental Gas
Pipe Line
106. Minnesota Mining & Mfg.
107. Pure Oil
108. Ohio Edison
Donohu
120. Duke Power
Weyerhaeuser
Bell
ht
121. Pere Marquette Ry
Zellerbach
120. Weyerhaeuser
(absorbed by
Chesapeake & Ohio Ry)
122. Virginian Ry
Rockefeller
123. Pacific Lighting
124. American Smelting &
Refining
125. Consolidated Gas,
122. Marathon Oil
(Armco)
127. Glen Alden Coal
Borden-Milbank
127. Borden
et al.
Horton
Childs
Swift
Howard Henry
128. Procter & Gamble
129. Loew's, Inc
130. Weyerhaeuser
131. Pittsburgh (Consolida- 131. Long Island Lighting
Phillips-Olmsted
tion) Coal
132. Ohio (Marathon) Oil
Penney-Ginn-Sams
Co.
133. B. F. Goodrich
134. Continental Can
Cheatham-Pamplin
135. Kansas City Southern
Ry
136. Long Island Lighting
137. Lone Star Gas Corp.
Panhandle Eastern
Pipeline
138. Sun Oil
139. Hearst Consolidated
Hughes
Publications, Inc.
121.
