Business: Billionaires

After long study of income tax reports and with the discretion of his office, Joseph S. McCoy, Treasury Department actuary, remarked* last week that in the U. S. there are 74 individuals whose 1924 incomes were each more than $1,000,000 (the aggregate of the 72 was $154,852,709, an average of more than $2,000,000); that there are now 11,000 whose capital exceeds $1,000,000; that one U. S. taxpayer is a billionaire. He would tell no name.

Many presumed that Henry Ford was the billionaire. Not so Columnist Arthur Brisbane, who said: "This refers, perhaps, to Mr. Rockefeller, and he doesn't know how much he is worth. . . . Ford also is a billionaire. He has the income on at least four billions. . . . George F. Baker is a billionaire, probably also Mr. [Andrew W.] Mellon. At least the properties they own are actually worth more than a billion. However, all that interests the average American . . . is, how to get a modest little million or two, invest the amount safely, then live wisely and usefully."