Talk:Andrew Mellon/Archive 1

Dates
This article states: "He ranked, at the time, as one of the three richest people in the United States alongside John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford." However, given that "the time" referred to in the previous sentence is 1889, this conflicts with the Wikipedia article on Henry Ford, which states: "Upon his marriage to Clara Ala Bryant in 1888, Ford supported himself by farming and running a sawmill." It's pretty unlikely, therefore, that a year later, Ford would have been "one of the three richest people in the United States." Clocke 20:59, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

Choate Rosemary Hall
Choate was founded in 1896, Rosemary Hall was founded in 1890, weren't united until the 70's of 20th century, so I don't see how Andrew Mellon could have graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall.

Name?
Did he go by Andrew or William, I have a World Book encyclopedia that puts him under William Mellon. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.110.221.22 (talk) 06:46, 15 May 2007 (UTC).
 * By all accounts I have read, he was always Andrew or Andy (or AW in correspondence), but never William.theprez98 (talk) 04:23, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

Great Depression
I added some stuff about Andrew Mellon's role in causing the Great Depression. I got it from Bernanke's speech here: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/speeches/2004/200403022/default.htm

Feel free to edit it, but I feel it's important information. Myles —Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.62.240.2 (talk) 23:33, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

-- Don't quote me, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I have a book called freedom from fear and it talks about how Hoover ignored Mellon the entire time. So Mellon's liquidation didn't really take place. -- alexkreuz —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.94.17.207 (talk) 16:42, 26 October 2008 (UTC)

National Gallery
the article should mention that Mellon was a dedicated collector of Old Masters paintings and gave millions of dollars worth of art to museums. His collection formed the nucleus of National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He also gave money for the building. all this stated in the wiki article on the National Gallery of Art. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.155.220.107 (talk) 13:42, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

H&R Block Ad?
Under Mellon tax trial there is a hyperlink that opens the H&R Block bank website in a seperate window. Is Wikipedia now advertising, is this some malicious phishing scam, or is this vandalism? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.204.25.225 (talk) 22:21, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Misinformation and infringement
Hmm...this is copied word for word from http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/awmellon.html Is that ok to do?
 * As I understand it, all text on .gov websites is public domain; I've listed the page as a reference though, which is always useful, thanks. --W(t) 05:23, 2005 May 23 (UTC)

I think this article needs a lot more critical historical scrutiny. Referring to someone as a "genius" needs a lot of qualification, and I just don't see it in this pantheon of an article.

This article does not match up with the article on edward ness that states that it was Andrew Melon's responsibility to capture Alphonse Capone (aka Scarface). i would also like to add that calling someone a genius is somewhat opinionated and not encyclopedia appropriate.
 * Mellon was the Secretary of Treasury at the time, and thus he oversaw the government's efforts against prohibition. FWIW, his biography makes clear that he wanted prohibition efforts to be run by the Department of Justice, not Treasury, and that he was never thrilled about enforcing prohibition.theprez98 (talk) 04:26, 25 March 2012 (UTC)

The paragraph with citation [4] attributed reversal of the Mellon/Harding/Coolidge tax cuts to Roosevelt only. Tax rates began to significantly increase during the Hoover administration. The last two sentences could be replaced with something like:

''By 1932, Mellon-era tax rates were already subject to reversal under budgetary pressure. The top tax rate increased to 63% in 1932, 79% in 1936, and by the end of World War II peaked at an effective rate of 90%.''

Or just leave the subsequent tax history out.

Citations: Revenue Act of 1932 Revenue Act of 1936 Individual Income Tax Act of 1944 --EH SuperX (talk) 04:24, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

The paragraph that contains note 5 begins "Mellon's policy reduced the public debt (largely inherited from World War I obligations) from $33 billion in 1921 to about $33 billion in 1930". The stated debt figures obviously aren't a reduction in debt. The correct figures may be in Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, pt 2, p. 1117. This source is cited in Thomas Sowell, "Trickle Down" Theory and "Tax Cuts for the Rich", Hoover Institution Press 2012, in which he states that the national debt was just under $24 billion in 1921, and was reduced to just under $18 billion in 1928. (User: perduedk) 11:47, 24 Sept 2012 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Perduedk (talk • contribs)

1926 income tax
In the Melon Plan subsection:

"By 1926 65% of the income tax revenue came from incomes $300,000 and higher, when five years prior, less than 20% did."

This doesn't seem to compute mathematically, and the author of the source is an ideologue. Please verify. Holdek (talk) 11:13, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

Cannabis AKA Marijuana delegalization and the start of the World Civil Class & Race War on a Selection of Drug Users in 1937
Mellon apparently had a part to play—

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_history_of_cannabis_in_the_United_States

Potentially one of Mellon's most socially and industrially toxic legacies, this deserves a section in the article. Kaecyy (talk) 09:08, 5 September 2014 (UTC)

Contrary to what is stated in the Wikipedia article "Legal History of the United States," Mellon had not been Treasury Secretary for five years when the Marijuana Tax Act was passed in 1937. In fact, Mellon died in August 1937, the month in which that act was signed into law. It is unclear from that article what influence, if any, Mellon had on the passage of that act. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Randman 836 (talk • contribs) 22:19, 28 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 one external links on Andrew Mellon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20141009093302/http://cascourses.uoregon.edu/geog471/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/WardImmigration.pdf to https://cascourses.uoregon.edu/geog471/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/WardImmigration.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100527190720/http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/awmellon.shtml to http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/secretaries/awmellon.shtml
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061127035203/http://www.mellon.org:80/about_foundation/history/andrew-w-mellon to http://www.mellon.org/about_foundation/history/andrew-w-mellon

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 07:31, 13 October 2016 (UTC)

Mellon Tax Plan
The article states, as if it were a matter of plain, established fact:

"As Mellon had postulated, reducing tax rates on the wealthy class encouraged wealthy individuals to invest more into projects that contributed to the infrastructural development of cities and neighborhoods within. In New York City during the 1920s, the social ramifications were realized as many neighborhoods sprang up and were settled by people of different ethnicities and income that has given the city the cultural diversity for which it is known today.[14]"

I don't believe this to be an undisputed fact, indeed, it could be argued--and has been--that Mellon's tax cut from 77% to 25%, in the boom times of an unregulated stock market and real estate market, helped feed the stock and real estate bubbles which exploded so catastrophically in 1929. The wealthy, having a lower marginal propensity to consume, were far more likely to speculate than consume. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.188.255.75 (talk) 21:58, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Liquidate quote
Why isn't his famous "Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate" quote included? It's what he's most known for among people who are not professional historians... AnonMoos (talk) 05:45, 21 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Added it back in. It's worth noting that the quote comes from Hoover's memoirs, so it's possible that Mellon never said it. But I think that, without clear evidence that Mellon never said it, the quote is notable enough that it should included. Orser67 (talk) 18:27, 12 December 2018 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Whether he said it in exactly that form or not, the quote reflects a current of thought that saw no problem with factories being closed, though some people wanted to work in the factories, and others wanted to buy what the factories made.  In the early 1930s, an increasing number of people came to the opposite conclusion that if the only thing keeping the factories closed and economic activity unnaturally low was the capitalist and finance system, then it was time to abandon capitalism... AnonMoos (talk) 07:24, 31 December 2018 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Andrew Mellon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20081217233152/http://www.ecommcode.com/hoover/ebooks/pdf/FULL/B1V2_Full.pdf to http://www.ecommcode.com/hoover/ebooks/pdf/FULL/B1V2_Full.pdf
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.mellon.org/about_foundation/history/andrew-w-mellon
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130601080835/http://www.ecommcode.com/hoover/ebooks/browse.cfm to http://www.ecommcode.com/hoover/ebooks/browse.cfm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 09:57, 5 July 2017 (UTC)