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“Dynastic America and Those Who Own It”
by Henry H. Klein (1921)
In
his "Dynastic America and Those Who Own It", published in 1921, Henry H.
Klein analyzes the, in his eyes unacceptable, economic influence of the
top American wealth holders and their families. Unlike Ferdinand Lundberg,
who quickly derives on the interference of wealth and politics (in
"America's Sixty Families"), Klein essentially focuses on his analysis of
the estates left by some 240 individuals who died (mostly) in the twenty
years before his book and on the pecuniary interest the leading American
capitalists and their families had in 1920. His work thus contains
valuable details which helped us complete and correct our own wealth
classification lists, both of 1900 and 1925.
H.
H. Klein also lists (but does not explicitly cover) some 500 American
families with fortunes of more than $20 million in 1920 ($200 million if
expressed in dollars of 2004). Led by the [John D.] Rockefeller family
($2.5 billion) and four families with some $500 million accumulations
(Astor, DuPont, Guggenheim and Vanderbilt), Henry Klein's summarized list
helps us identify the wealthiest families of the period, which corresponds
roughly to the end of the Gilded Age, an era known for unprecedented
wealth creation and concentration. We have now analyzed Henry Klein's list
top down to the level of family fortunes of $50 million or more (ie $500
million plus expressed in nowadays money), leaving the $20 million
fortunes for a later update.
The
resulting new historical list "The Wealthiest US Families (1920)" is based
on Klein's summarized listing and our more explicit American Wealth
database, in which we indicate the founders of the families' wealth, their
(main) activities and major properties. As a comparison, we also indicate
our own [AW] estimates of the family fortunes in 1925. More details,
notably genealogical information and the identities of the wealthy
individuals aggregated in our [AW] family wealth classification lists, can
now be found in this list [AW Family Fortunes 1925], which at the occasion
has been thoroughly updated.
Mr
Klein’s original lists
does not contain any specific information other than family name and
fortune (expressed in categories of $20 million, $50 million, $75 million,
$100 million, etc.) but in his work (Dynastic America and Those Who
Own It) delivers detailed information on the most important fortune
founders (estates) and some of the families. Our data [AW
family fortune list 1925] is an aggregation of the individual
fortunes pertaining to the richest families and takes into account all
knowledge we have on the subject (including Mr Klein's work).
Like
all our lists, “The wealthiest US families (1920)” draws on the data of the
American Wealth database. This forced us to make certain adaptations, which are
documented in the footnotes of Mr Klein's
original list.
When
comparing the 1920 list with our list of family fortunes in 1925, you should bear in mind that :
-
Certain rather new fortunes grew very fast during the 1920's, explaining a
higher figure in our 1925 list, as compared to Mr Klein's list (1920).
Examples are Ford and Mellon.
- From 1920 to 1925 the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) Index rose
some 54%, also explaining the rather higher family fortunes in our 1925
list. On the other hand Mr Klein apparently disregarded estate taxation
completely, whereas we took into account a 25% maximum inheritance tax for
estates left between 1918-1923 and 40% for estates left between 1923-1925.
- Mr Klein seems quite in awe of the huge [John D.] Rockefeller
accumulation (which he estimates at $2.5 billion). He rightly assessed the
value of the Rockefellers' Standard Oil (off-springs) shares at $1 billion
or so. But he overestimates the impact of generated dividends and their
investment in (other than oil) securities. After 1920, John Davison
Rockefeller had given away half of his fortune to his philanthropic
foundations, which generously dispensed the income (and even some of the
principal) of its assets to numerous charitable works. Mr John D
Rockefeller jr, who received most of the remaining Rockefeller fortune
from his father, was equally generous with his revenues. We can thus
assume that our lower estimate (of $1,4 billion) for the entire
Rockefeller family, is just reasonably conservative. (Note that in today's
money, $1.4 billion of that era is about $140 billion). He also
overstated in my opinion some of the Jewish banking fortunes of his days (eg
Kahn, which is aggregated in our Kuhn-Loeb family).
- In some cases our combined family fortunes exceed the scope
of Mr Klein's, although we have taken care of aggregating his figures
along our family groups. Examples include the Haggin-Tevis family, we
consider as one, because the two founders were brother-in-law and
throughout their careers, permanently associated in most of their
ventures. Mr Klein has completely disregarded the Tevis family, for which
we did not so far find a reasonable justification.
- Our 1925 family list has presently 131 entries. As a result of a
reconciliation prior publication on the web site, it contains all entries
of the “The wealthiest [100] US families (1920)” list
Find
out who were “The [100] wealthiest US
Families (1920)”
inspired by Henry H. Klein,
including the 400+ listed families worth $20 million or more in 1920
(in The original list of Henry H. Klein
entitled "Estimated Wealth of Richest Familes")
Compare this significant historical list with the American Wealth [AW] lists of
wealthy families 1925 or
1900 and seek more details in the AW lists of
wealthy individuals 1925 and
1900.
Or browse through “Encyclopedia of American Wealth”
for additional information (lists or profiles) on wealthy Americans or
wealthy American families of the past.
Books by Henry H. Klein :
Note : Mr Klein was First
Deputy Commissioner of Accounts of the City of New York, at the time he
wrote that book. In 1933 he was an unsuccessful candidate to the office of
Mayor of New York City.
Dynastic
America and Those Who Own It
(1921)
Standard Oil Or the People: the End of Corporate Control in America
Frankfurter
Over the White House; Baruch Over Congress; Rockefeller Over the World
(reprint 1976)
My
Last Fifty Years An Autobiographical History Of "inside" New York
(1935)
A
Jew Exposes The Jewish World Conspiracy
Search at BN :
Out of Print, Used & Rare
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