America's Sixty Families
Encyclopedia
America's 60 Families is a critical exposure by Ferdinand Lundberg
of the leading groups in business
and finance
from 1896 to 1936. It traces the rise of the biggest industrial trusts from 1900 to 1920 and how their control passed over to finance capital after 1920. It also deals extensively with how these groups control large parts of the Federal government of the United States
, press
, foundations
and education
.
In the first two chapters, Lundberg develops his thesis and names the 60 richest American families, based on the tax reports for the years 1924/25. His thesis is simple: the USA is a dollar democracy, ruled by a modern industrial and financial oligarchy
(3). The 60 families intermarry (9-22), and together use certain banks and bank alliances to control a large part of the industrial corporations of the U. S. The five most powerful banks or banking alliances are: the four banks of J. P. Morgan
, the National City Bank (NCB), the Rockefeller Chase Manhattan Bank, the Mellon
banks in Pittsburgh, and the Warburg
and Schiff
bank of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
Among the ten most powerful groups are also Lehmann Brothers, Dillon Read & Co., and Goldman, Sachs & Co.. These banks control large parts of U.S. industry through trust organization, through voting shares of the 60 families who deposit their shares and entrust their votes in these banks.
The major banks and their agents also control U.S. politicians, especially U. S. presidents. In chapters 3. to 6. Lundberg outlines the presidential Administrations from McKinley to Hoover to show how they are controlled by the leading banking alliances. His method, again, is simple: he looks a the early career of each president, identifying his backers; next he analyzes the nomination process and the donors for the campaign. Next, he studies the composition of the cabinet, and the institutional background of the Secretaries. Finally, he studies the main acts and scandals of each Administration to see who profits from each major presidential decision:
- Grover Cleveland
, his career created by Morgan, Whitney, Belmont, made trustee in the Equitable Life Insurance
by J. P. Morgan, participating in stock pool speculations with Whitney (55-57)
- William McKinley
, a creature of Rockefeller's Ohio machine, led by Mark Hanna
, Rockefeller's schoolfriend, who reorganized the influence on politicians from simple graft to a systematic control of government through senators and presidents; tariffs, war with Spain in Cuba, trust-building, rise of finance capital; Morgan and Mellon men in his cabinets (57-66)
- Theodore Roosevelt
; created by Morgan, ostensibly a trust buster, but protecting Morgan interests; annexation of Panama Canal Zone
, Aldrich-Vreeland Act
(central government underwriting finance capital up to 90% of their pooled assets), expanding the United States Navy
for an imperial foreign policy
(66-98)
- William Howard Taft
, a friend to Wall Street, redressing the balance in favor of Rockefeller and the Du Pont family
, hindering the Morgan group; tariff reform, continued imperial Foreign Policy; the Pujo Committee
reveals the bank alliances around Morgan (98-105)
- Woodrow Wilson
, a triumph for NCB and the Copper Trust (Anaconda Copper
, Guggenheim family
, etc.); Federal Reserve Act
(creating a central bank and handing over currency control to Wall Street alliances); interference in the Mexican Revolution
(copper, oil interests), entering World War I
under pressure from Wall Street (Loans to England), handing the War Industries Board
to Bernard Baruch
(NCB) which leads to widespread corruption (112-48)
- Warren G. Harding
, Rockefeller background (Standard Oil
), led by G. W. Harvey, a Morgan man; Navy oil reserve scandal, fostering monopolies through trade associations (Secr. H. Hoover), tax relief (Secr. Andrew Mellon, a key cabinet member together with Charles Evans Hughes
, a Morgan lawyer as Secr. of State), (151-69)
- Calvin Coolidge
, a Morgan attorney, who retains Mellon and Hoover in the cabinet; led by Dwight W. Morrow; vetoing any bill against the rich, but doing little else (169-76)
- Herbert Hoover
(177-88), "a Morgan puppet" (177), led by Morrow and Thomas W. Lamont
, a Morgan banker; the cabinet has four Morgan men; Hoover does nothing against the banking crisis in 1929 which benefits Morgan, but angers Rockefeller (Chase crisis).
The 1920s administrations signify the triumph of finance capital over the national government. Lundberg shows this also in the impunity of the huge war profit scandals after 1918: overcharging the government for copper, steel, leather, nitrates etc.; non-delivery of air planes, shells. fly-by-night corporations. The scandals even continue after World I: ships, air planes, oil, and stock manipulation (by unloading inflated shares and bonds on the public), which leads to the crisis of 1929.
The remaining chapters show how the 60 families either directly own newspapers or magazines, or, how they control them through advertising, or, in case of the rural and small town press, through the Republican Party
. The Rockefellers mainly use advertising (247-51), the Morgan group owns important newspapers in New York, Philadelphia and Boston or handles the independent press through its spokesmen George W. Harvey and Thomas W. Lamont (252-58); the Mellons run the Pittsburgh press and share control with others in News-Week (now Newsweek
), Time and Fortune (259-60; the Du Ponts own a number of Delaware
papers (260-62) etc. They use their power to suppress news (291-302),to bias news in heir interests by bribing news or feature syndicates (302-08) which becomes especially clear in the Henry Luce
magazines Time
and Fortune
(308-12).
Chapters 9 and 10 outline how the families and their banks use shares in foundations and universities to influence public opinion, when under attack (Rockefellers), to retain power by not relinquishing their voting rights over the donated shares, and to escape taxes (especially inheritance taxes). These three intentions also govern university donations where an additional benefit is to gain influence through trustees over research and the recruitment for their corporations. Among the 20 leading schools, Morgan controls Harvard, Johns Hopkins
, and the University of Pennsylvania
; Rockefeller controls Yale
(together with Morgan trustees), Chicago University, and Cornell; NCB controls Columbia
and Princeton
; the Du Ponts have a strong influence in MIT etc.
After a short revue of the excesses of the 60 families in spending on dinners, yachts, railroads, horses, automobiles, airplanes etc.(408-46), Lundberg comes to an evaluation of the New Deal:
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
leads one of the most enlightened governments the U.S. has had in the post-Civil War industrial age, but is far from being revolutionary or radical; the New Deal
represents one faction of wealth - the light-goods industrialist - against another faction- the capital goods industrialists, i.e. retail-market manufacturers vs. Wall Street; Roosevelt's career, nomination, campaign finances, and the Acts from 1933 to 1937 substantiate this (447-91).
The book quotes from a detailed bibliography and mainly relies on findings of investigative committees in Congress.
Ferdinand Lundberg
Ferdinand Lundberg was a 20th century economist and journalist who studied the history of American wealth and power.-Background:...
of the leading groups in business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
and finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
from 1896 to 1936. It traces the rise of the biggest industrial trusts from 1900 to 1920 and how their control passed over to finance capital after 1920. It also deals extensively with how these groups control large parts of the Federal government of the United States
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
, press
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
, foundations
Private foundation
A private foundation is a legal entity set up by an individual, a family or a group of individuals, for a purpose such as philanthropy. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $38 billion in assets...
and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
.
Contents
- Golden Dynasties and their Treasures (3-22)
- The Sixty Families (23-49)
- The Politics of Pecuniary Aggrandizement, 1896-1912 (50-105)
- The Politics of Pecuniary Aggrandizement, 1912-1920 (106-48)
- The Politics of Finance Capital, 1920-1932 (149-88)
- Intrigue and Scandal (189-243)
- The Press of the Plutocracy (244-85)
- The Journalism of Pecuniary Inhibition (286-319)
- Philanthropy, or Non-Commercial Investment (320-73)
- Education for Profit and Tax Exemption (374-407)
- Danse Macabre: Extravaganzas amid Poverty (408-46)
- The "New Deal" - and After (447-91)
In the first two chapters, Lundberg develops his thesis and names the 60 richest American families, based on the tax reports for the years 1924/25. His thesis is simple: the USA is a dollar democracy, ruled by a modern industrial and financial oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
(3). The 60 families intermarry (9-22), and together use certain banks and bank alliances to control a large part of the industrial corporations of the U. S. The five most powerful banks or banking alliances are: the four banks of J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
, the National City Bank (NCB), the Rockefeller Chase Manhattan Bank, the Mellon
Mellon Financial
Mellon Financial Corporation, was one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth-individual asset management, including the Dreyfus family of mutual funds; business banking; and shareholder and...
banks in Pittsburgh, and the Warburg
Warburg
Warburg is a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia on the river Diemel near the three-state point shared by Hessen, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. It is in Höxter district and Detmold region...
and Schiff
Schiff
Schiff is a German surname meaning "ship" and may refer to:* Adam Schiff, American politician* András Schiff, Hungarian pianist* Arthur Schiff, Infomercial copywriter who coined the term "But wait, there's more!"...
bank of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
Kuhn, Loeb & Co. was a bulge bracket, investment bank founded in 1867 by Abraham Kuhn and Solomon Loeb. Under the leadership of Jacob H. Schiff, it grew to be one of the most influential investment banks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, financing America's expanding railways and growth...
Among the ten most powerful groups are also Lehmann Brothers, Dillon Read & Co., and Goldman, Sachs & Co.. These banks control large parts of U.S. industry through trust organization, through voting shares of the 60 families who deposit their shares and entrust their votes in these banks.
The major banks and their agents also control U.S. politicians, especially U. S. presidents. In chapters 3. to 6. Lundberg outlines the presidential Administrations from McKinley to Hoover to show how they are controlled by the leading banking alliances. His method, again, is simple: he looks a the early career of each president, identifying his backers; next he analyzes the nomination process and the donors for the campaign. Next, he studies the composition of the cabinet, and the institutional background of the Secretaries. Finally, he studies the main acts and scandals of each Administration to see who profits from each major presidential decision:
- Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
, his career created by Morgan, Whitney, Belmont, made trustee in the Equitable Life Insurance
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company
AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, formerly The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, also known as The Equitable, was founded by Henry Baldwin Hyde in 1859. In 1991, AXA, a French insurance company, acquired majority control of The Equitable...
by J. P. Morgan, participating in stock pool speculations with Whitney (55-57)
- William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
, a creature of Rockefeller's Ohio machine, led by Mark Hanna
Mark Hanna
Marcus Alonzo "Mark" Hanna was a United States Senator from Ohio and the friend and political manager of President William McKinley...
, Rockefeller's schoolfriend, who reorganized the influence on politicians from simple graft to a systematic control of government through senators and presidents; tariffs, war with Spain in Cuba, trust-building, rise of finance capital; Morgan and Mellon men in his cabinets (57-66)
- Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
; created by Morgan, ostensibly a trust buster, but protecting Morgan interests; annexation of Panama Canal Zone
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone was a unorganized U.S. territory located within the Republic of Panama, consisting of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending 5 miles on each side of the centerline, but excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of...
, Aldrich-Vreeland Act
Aldrich-Vreeland Act
The Aldrich–Vreeland Act was passed in response to the Panic of 1907 and established the National Monetary Commission, which recommended the Federal Reserve Act of 1913....
(central government underwriting finance capital up to 90% of their pooled assets), expanding the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
for an imperial foreign policy
Foreign policy
A country's foreign policy, also called the foreign relations policy, consists of self-interest strategies chosen by the state to safeguard its national interests and to achieve its goals within international relations milieu. The approaches are strategically employed to interact with other countries...
(66-98)
- William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
, a friend to Wall Street, redressing the balance in favor of Rockefeller and the Du Pont family
Du Pont family
The Du Pont family is an American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours . The son of a Paris watchmaker and a member of a Burgundian noble family, he and his sons, Victor Marie du Pont and Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, emigrated to the United States in 1800 and used the resources of...
, hindering the Morgan group; tariff reform, continued imperial Foreign Policy; the Pujo Committee
Pujo Committee
The Pujo Committee was a United States congressional subcommittee which was formed between May 1912 and January 1913 to investigate the so-called "money trust", a community of Wall Street bankers and financiers that exerted powerful control over the nation's finances. After a resolution introduced...
reveals the bank alliances around Morgan (98-105)
- Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, a triumph for NCB and the Copper Trust (Anaconda Copper
Anaconda Copper
Anaconda Copper Mining Company was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century. The Anaconda was purchased by Atlantic Richfield Company on January 12, 1977...
, Guggenheim family
Guggenheim family
The Guggenheim family is an American family, of Swiss Jewish ancestry. Beginning with Meyer Guggenheim, who arrived in America in 1847, the family were known for their global successes in mining and smelting . During the 19th century, the family possessed one of the largest fortunes in the world...
, etc.); Federal Reserve Act
Federal Reserve Act
The Federal Reserve Act is an Act of Congress that created and set up the Federal Reserve System, the central banking system of the United States of America, and granted it the legal authority to issue Federal Reserve Notes and Federal Reserve Bank Notes as legal tender...
(creating a central bank and handing over currency control to Wall Street alliances); interference in the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
(copper, oil interests), entering World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
under pressure from Wall Street (Loans to England), handing the War Industries Board
War Industries Board
The War Industries Board was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies. The organization encouraged companies to use mass-production techniques to increase efficiency and urged them to eliminate waste by...
to Bernard Baruch
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters and became a philanthropist.-Early life...
(NCB) which leads to widespread corruption (112-48)
- Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
, Rockefeller background (Standard Oil
Standard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
), led by G. W. Harvey, a Morgan man; Navy oil reserve scandal, fostering monopolies through trade associations (Secr. H. Hoover), tax relief (Secr. Andrew Mellon, a key cabinet member together with Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
, a Morgan lawyer as Secr. of State), (151-69)
- Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
, a Morgan attorney, who retains Mellon and Hoover in the cabinet; led by Dwight W. Morrow; vetoing any bill against the rich, but doing little else (169-76)
- Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
(177-88), "a Morgan puppet" (177), led by Morrow and Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas W. Lamont
Thomas William Lamont, Jr. was an American banker.- Biography :Lamont was born in Claverack, New York. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1888 and earned his degree from Harvard University in 1892. He became a generous benefactor of the school once he had amassed a fortune, notably...
, a Morgan banker; the cabinet has four Morgan men; Hoover does nothing against the banking crisis in 1929 which benefits Morgan, but angers Rockefeller (Chase crisis).
The 1920s administrations signify the triumph of finance capital over the national government. Lundberg shows this also in the impunity of the huge war profit scandals after 1918: overcharging the government for copper, steel, leather, nitrates etc.; non-delivery of air planes, shells. fly-by-night corporations. The scandals even continue after World I: ships, air planes, oil, and stock manipulation (by unloading inflated shares and bonds on the public), which leads to the crisis of 1929.
The remaining chapters show how the 60 families either directly own newspapers or magazines, or, how they control them through advertising, or, in case of the rural and small town press, through the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
. The Rockefellers mainly use advertising (247-51), the Morgan group owns important newspapers in New York, Philadelphia and Boston or handles the independent press through its spokesmen George W. Harvey and Thomas W. Lamont (252-58); the Mellons run the Pittsburgh press and share control with others in News-Week (now Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
), Time and Fortune (259-60; the Du Ponts own a number of Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
papers (260-62) etc. They use their power to suppress news (291-302),to bias news in heir interests by bribing news or feature syndicates (302-08) which becomes especially clear in the Henry Luce
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
magazines Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
and Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
(308-12).
Chapters 9 and 10 outline how the families and their banks use shares in foundations and universities to influence public opinion, when under attack (Rockefellers), to retain power by not relinquishing their voting rights over the donated shares, and to escape taxes (especially inheritance taxes). These three intentions also govern university donations where an additional benefit is to gain influence through trustees over research and the recruitment for their corporations. Among the 20 leading schools, Morgan controls Harvard, Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...
, and the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
; Rockefeller controls Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
(together with Morgan trustees), Chicago University, and Cornell; NCB controls Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
; the Du Ponts have a strong influence in MIT etc.
After a short revue of the excesses of the 60 families in spending on dinners, yachts, railroads, horses, automobiles, airplanes etc.(408-46), Lundberg comes to an evaluation of the New Deal:
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
leads one of the most enlightened governments the U.S. has had in the post-Civil War industrial age, but is far from being revolutionary or radical; the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
represents one faction of wealth - the light-goods industrialist - against another faction- the capital goods industrialists, i.e. retail-market manufacturers vs. Wall Street; Roosevelt's career, nomination, campaign finances, and the Acts from 1933 to 1937 substantiate this (447-91).
The book quotes from a detailed bibliography and mainly relies on findings of investigative committees in Congress.