Rockefeller, Douglas Fairbanks, Jack Dempsey and P. Morgan pay millions in taxes!

In all the provinces of the United States, the figure of taxes paid by each taxpayer has just been made public and reproduced by the major newspapers.

Since the oil scandal, no news has aroused such emotion in the country of industry and the dollar. The public can now roughly evaluate the gains of the richest financiers. No Chicago worker is unaware any more of what the king of steel or the king of oil owns.

When the old Income Tax law was still in force, this information was kept secret. Each businessman, each owner, each movie star brought the amount of his debt to the tax office. And the tax office took care not to exhibit the registers where fabulous tax figures were recorded.

But a new law was voted a few months ago. It required tax collectors to publish the list of taxpayers who had to report to their office and the amount of money they had to pay.

The press noted on the lists the amount of taxes paid by each national celebrity. And that same evening, everyone knew what Dempsey, Rockefeller or Charlie Chaplin were paying.

The tax payers protest…

In Washington, the collections were invaded by a large number of tax collectors who summoned the representatives of the tax authorities to observe greater discretion.
All that we observe, they replied, is the law.
A few collectors had hesitated to publish their lists, but they received this formal order from the government: "Make your records available to anyone who requests them." They had to obey, the curious, the interested, the representatives of the press did not cease to consult the famous lists. Each trader wanted to know what his competitor was paying. In several offices, the police had to provide order. There were even fights.
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However, many industrialists and businessmen, including among them the president of the New York Chamber of Commerce, rose up against what they called a "serious indiscretion." On the other hand, the whole part of the population that is not directly targeted, felt great joy at reading these documents. They finally know how much the great fortunes of the country amount to. They realize that some rumors were only legends.

How could they have supposed that Mr. J. O. Rockefeller was less rich than his son? And yet, Rockefeller junior comes at the top of the list with 7,435,000 dollars (or 142 million francs, while his father only pays 124,000.
The second on the list is Mr. Henry Ford, who pays 2,467,946 dollars in income tax.
Mr. J. D. Rockfeller and Mr. Ford are therefore the two richest Americans.

Among the other kings of industry and finance, let us cite Mr. Julius Fleischmann who pays 627,834 dollars; Mr. Otto Kahn (184,983) and Mr. J. P. Morgan who was only taxed at 98,643 dollars.

Other figures…

As for the big companies, the sums they abandon to the taxman reach incredible proportions. The "Ford Motor Company", whose director personally comes second on the list individual, is taxed at 19 million dollars, or 380 million francs! It is she who breaks all records. Many taxpayers whose fortune was, it seems, overestimated, pay relatively small amounts, while they were assigned a place among the richest Americans.
We go higher, the case of Pierpont Morgan, whose reputation for opulence is worldwide. However, the figure of 98,643 dollars seems almost insignificant for a Pierpont Morgan, if we consider that Dempsey, the famous boxer, pays 30,831 dollars and that his manager pays 71,657. This manager must have enjoyed many matches where he did not experience the slightest danger!

In Finance and Industry The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Mellon, who so vigorously fought certain articles of the tax law, now in force, is among the most heavily taxed taxpayers: he is taxed for $1,174,000. His brother, president of the "Mellon National Bank", pays $346,000. As for Senator Couzens, the millionaire from Detroit, who had violent discussions with Mr. Mellon, at the time of the vote on the law and who was accused of having converted all his fortune into government bonds, exempt from the tax, he pays only $5,000. This will make his adversaries triumph.

Colonel Henry H. Rogers, the magnate of Standard Oil, pays $373,000, and the banker of Paris and New York, George Blumenthal, $327,000.

Stars of the screen and stage

In Los Angeles, Douglas Fairbanks pays 225,769 dollars; Thomas Meighan, 51,239; Mary Pickford, 24,440. This gives us an idea of ​​the fees demanded by these world stars. Charlie Chaplin, on the other hand, is less rich, he pays only 6,863 dollars. The unfortunate Charlot has, it seems, lost a lot of money.
Jackie Coogan is not yet taxed. A. Jelson comes first among theater tax payers with 45,070 dollars, then it is the playwright Richard Parthelmens (29,995), then Pola Negri, William Hart, Constance Talmadge…

Every coin has its reverse side. America is a country where you earn a lot of money, but where you pay a lot of taxes.