TAXATION: Publicity

Last year George W. Morris, Nebraskan Senator, succeeded in snaffling a certain rider* to the 1924 Revenue Bill; managed, with the aid of the LaFollette group, to ride it roughshod over the

President’s protest; and had the satisfaction of seeing the newspapers of the U. S. printing a sheaf of figures which set the public chattering for nine days.

The 24 individuals who, according to preliminary surveys, contributed most heavily to the income tax coffers this year were:

John D. Rockefeller Jr., New

York $6,277,669

Henry Ford, Detroit 2,608,806

Edsel Ford, Detroit 2,158,055

Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh 1,882,609

Payne Whitney, New York 1,676,626

Edward S. Harkness, New York…. 1,531,708

R. B. Mellon, Pittsburgh 1,180,699

Mrs. H. E. Dodge, Detroit 993,028

Frederick W. Vanderbilt, New

York 792,896

George F. Baker, New York 792,076

Thomas F. Ryan, New York 791,851

George F. Baker Jr., New York 783,406

Edward J. Berwind, New York 722,103

Vincent Astor, New York 642,600

James B. Duke, New York 641,250

Cyrus H. K. Curtis, Philadelphia…. 583,872

J. P. Morgan, New York 574,379

Claude H. Foster, Cleveland 569,894

Eldredge R. Johnson, Camden, N.

J 542,627

George Allan Hancock, Los Angeles 543,726

H. H. Timken, Canton, Ohio 540,336

Arthur W. Cutten, Chicago 540,000

Arthur Curtiss James, New York 524,388

Thomas W. Lamont, New York 480,000

Noted in addition were the following hundred persons whose income tax payments are of general interest:

J. Ogden Armour $ 0

Philip Armour 131,019

Lester Armour 185,408

Helen Astor 300,029

Newton D. Baker 4,891

Richard Barthelmess 24,803

Ethel Barrymore 9,500

David Belasco 8,056

A. J. Drexel-Biddle Jr 4,217

Senator Hiram Bingham 10

Constance Binny 911

Heywood Broun 232

W. J. Bryan 1. 2,583

Thornton W. Burgess 14,492

Nicholas Murray Butler 8,930

Mrs. Andrew Carnegie 66,853

Irvin S. Cobb 3,058

Tyrus R. Cobb 2,704

Robert W. Chambers 4,941

Jackie Coogan

Senator James Couzens 1,200

Richard T. Crane (Plumbing) 434,457

Clarence Darrow 3,900

William Harrison Dempsey 267

Edwin Denby

George Eastman 79,605

Thomas A. Edison 3.340

Charles W. Eliot

Douglas Fairbanks 182,190

Albert B. Fall

Louis A. Firpo 2,448

Edna Ferber 7,849

Henry Emerson Fosdick 1,443

Michael Friedsam 292,396

Elbert H. Gary 322,680

James W. Gerard 21,242

King C. Gillette 5,799

Mrs. K. C. Gillette 223,666

Dorothy Gish 1,004 Lillian Gish 36,967 George W. Goethals 2,719 Prank Jay Gould 196,813 E. H. R. Green (son of Hetty)…. 222,712 Walter Hampden 2,718 Will Hays 10,234 Howard Heintz 191,374 Myron T. Herreck 6,929 John Hertz (Yellow Taxi) 8,316 Mrs. John Hertz 5,215 Alanson B. Houghton 32,404 Charles E. Hughes 1,554 Mayor Hylan 0 Al Jolson 33,744 Otto H. Kahn 391,776 Rudyard Kipling 4,998 Sebastian S. Kresge (5 & lOc Stores) 188,608 William B. Leeds 57,445 Florence Pullman Lowden 14,736 A. Lawrence Lowell (Harvard)…. 36,566 Cyrus H. McCormick 269,036 Ganna Walska McCormick 12,632 Harold F. McCormick 168,276 John J. McGraw 2,544 Clarence H. Mackey 320,490 Edward B. McLean 255,729 Dwight W. Morrow 290,344 Pola Negri 15,108 Meredith Nicholson 1,586 Ignace Jan Paderewsky 16,161 Ann Pennington 1,641 Senator Lawrence Phipps 157,741 Mary Pickford 34,075 Col. William C. Proctor (Ivory Soap) 22,888 Sergei Rachmaninoff 8,026 John D. Rockefeller Sr 128,420 Theodore Roosevelt 1,061 Col. Jacob Ruppert 37,111 Babe Ruth 3,432 Mortimer L. Schiff 459,410 Charles Scribner 53,662 Zalmon G. Simmons (Beds) 250,378 Harry F. Sinclair 47,709 Governor Al Smith 0 Frank W. Stearns 43,156 James A. Stillman 167,085 Billy Sunday 10,111 Gloria Swanson 57,075 Charles P. Taft (Brother of W. H. Taft) 151,430 Mrs. Charles P. Taft 121,753 William Howard Taft 1,723 Booth Tarkington 8,478 Louis Tiffany (Jewels) 48,220 Reginald Vanderbilt 44,006 Frank A. Vanderlip 74,599 Henry Walters (Art) 475,851 George J. Whelan (Tobacco)…. 201,081 Mrs. Woodrow Wilson 349 Rabbi Stephen S. Wise 547 William Wrigley (Gum) 2,644 Adolph Zukor … 24,540

Last year “hundreds of creditors, credit houses, debtors, lawyers, wives and engaged persons of both sexes” stormed the Government tax bureaus. This year a mere handful, five or ten, were i bout all that tax officials in even the largest cities were called upon to satisfy. One hysterical woman searched through eleven volumes of statistics, seeking grounds on which to demand an increase in her alimony. The divorced one, ungallant, defied her; he has filed his returns in another city, dared her to guess its name.

* This rider provided that Collectors of Internal Revenue “shall cause to be prepared and made available to public inspection” the names and addresses of all taxpayers with the tax paid by each person.