FAST DISAPPEARING

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 389, 25 November 1932, Page 2

FAST DISAPPEARING

american wealth | DWINDLING FORTUNRS OF REPUTED AMERICAN MILLIONAIRES. ROCKEFELLER' DISPLACER New York, October 12. "American millionaires," said a prominent New York banker, "are like the North American Indian — fast disappearing; indeed, I am not certain that they have not already disappeared. It is certain that to-day there are very few wealthy men." Revelations with regard to the Rockefeller fortune — held by John D. senior, aged 93, and his son, John D. junior, aged 58 — which have just been. made corroborate the banker's statement. When John D. senior retired in 1896 his fortune amounted to £40,000,000 at par. By wise investment he increased it to £200,000,000. He controlled this vast sum with his son, and between them they gave away hy th'e iend of 1928 ahout £115,000,000.

But by investment they made as much as they gave away, with the result that in the summer of 1929 before the great slump began, their fortune still amounted to nearer £200,000,000 than £100,000,000. But it was all represented by investments and since then has come the Wall Street landslide with ■ the result that to-day those investments are not worth more than £30,000,000. At least, that is the estimate of Mr. John T. Flynn, the eeonomist who has just published a biography of John D. Rockefeller. Now that the Rockefeller fortune has been so displaced from its proud position as the greatest in the world, those who like doing these things are endeavouring to compute who is the richest man. So far as the United States is concemed, Mr. Henry Ford is conceded to be the wealthiest citizen. No one know— -except himself— exactly how much Mr. Ford is worth. It is known that his annual income exceeds £1,000,000, but by how much has never been disclosed. It may be by another £1,000,000, but only Mr. Ford and the income tax people "know. On the other hana Mr. Ford's fortune is certain to have suffered bv the

slump. Even so, however, it is certain that it must exceed the £40,000 000 recently l-eft by Mr. Payne Whitney. Other American subjects who were leputed millionaires in the boom days are now just ordinarily wealthy, if j that ,and there is nobody put forward fiom the United States as a contestant for the title of the world's richest man other than Mr. Ford. It is, however, admitted that there may be in South America men who can command a larger fortune, and there are knowledgeable people who ass'ert that the richest man, is to be found in Great Britain.According to the Somerset House (London) returns there were 540 millionaires in Great Britain last year, that bemg the number of incomes exceeding £50,000— the income at 5 pe? cent. on £1,000,000— assessed for surtax. £100 nnn WelY157 incomes exceeding £100,000, os there were at least that numb'er of taxpayers with £2,000,000 , Seyjal people in Great Britain are leputed to be the possessors of for- I tunes running into millions, but they I in common with the millionaires of the United States, have suffered the sligs and arrows of outrageous fortune.