AMERICA’S HUGE NEW CROP OF MILLIONAIRES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22667, 18 June 1948, Page 2

AMERICA’S HUGE NEW CROP OF MILLIONAIRES

NEW YORK, May 30,

America’s new millionaires—men who are building great fortunes out of the country’s natural resources—are writing another glamorous page in the history of the south-west, writes W. S. Nobio in the Melbourne Herald.

There, in the four States of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado, a vast flow of oil, beef and wheat is being channelled into private wealth by men. many of whom a few years ago had little or nothing. Like the new rich in any country, some of them are flamboyant, spending their money in spectacular and weird ways.

They pour out thousands of dollars on jewellery or furs, arrange picnics by air, and put through million-dollar deals in a morning.

In a recent survey of this breedingplace of new millionaires, the magazine Fortune said it was "only when a man has accumulated 30 million dollars or so that he is recognised as ‘big rich’.” Even by that standard, there are more than a few “big rich’’ in this boom area.

100 Multi-Millionaires

Tire Texas city of Houston alone is reputed to have more than 100 multimillionaires. When if was announced in aonther Texas city, Fort Worth, that one local familv had paid income tax totalling 3,447,000 dollars, the identity of the familv could not be definitely established. Even such fantastic wealth was not sufficient to put the finger on any one family. The boom in Ihe south-west is largely the result of the tremendous worldwide demand for three of its principal products and the high prices which the demand has created. The four States produce more than half America’s oil, more than a third of its wheat Texas ranks first among the States in beef cattle.

The price of oil has nearly doubled, beef has risen by 150 per cent, while in a few years wheat has spiralled from 94 cents a bushel to 2.35 dollars.

These high prices have coincided with good seasons in the southern wheat and cattle country. In some area last year the grass grew as it had never done since the arrival of the first settlers. Farmers were advised to take their children out to the wheat fields to see crops such as might never occur again in their lifetime. Fortunes From Wheat and Oil

Farmers and ranchers made fortunes One man who went into the Texas Panhandle country after the great duststorms of the 1930's with practically nothing beyond two old tractors, now ; owns several thousand acres of good J wheat land, as well as thousands of grazing land outside the State. A Colorado drug-store owner, who began growing wheat six years ago, : now owns 10.000 acres. He built a : 750,000 bushel wheat silo at a cost of 300,000 dollars. , But these are only the small operators. Others have made millions on the oilfields and in the cities through which the wheat and the cattle pass on their way to the consuming centres. The man now claimed to be possibly the wealthiest individual in the United States lives in Texas. He is Haralson L. Hunt, whose oil properties have been valued at 263,000,000 dollars. Their dailv production is set at 65,000 barrels. At current oil prices, this would give him a gross weekly income of more than one million dollar. There are plenty of others, such as the former milkman who sold part of his oil holdings for 50,000,000 dolars. H. Roy Cullen had enough money to establish the Cullen Foundation worth about 1 160 million dollars, for , medical, educational and charitable objects. Dresses up to 1000 Dollars One Dallas (Texas) store has 300 accounts running over 500,000 dollars each, with some as high as IbU.Oou. Other Texas shops report no difficulty in selling a dress costing up to 1000 dollars A shop which offered four sableskin hats at 1500 dollars each sold all four the first day. Salesmen and models from one store travel out to the oilfields and ranches, taking with them sables, jewels, and earthing, which the models display to the wives of men too busy making money to get into the big cities.

A woman whose husband bought her a Rolls-Royce car as a present was reported pleased with it because “k goes with my blue hat.” Over the whole four States incometax receipts have jumped from 134.000.000 dollars in 1941 to I. dollars. Bank deposits have nearly trebled. . This rate of growth far exceeds that in other areas long regarded as the home of_ American weath. Part of the reason is the liberal income tax allowance made to oilmen and ranchers to cover such things as depreciation of assets. Huge Tax Concessions With certain restrictions, a man making a fortune from oil can deduct 271 per cent of his gross income as an allowance for depletion of his fields Concessions such as these help to build up great fortunes at a time when in other industries the rapid accumulation of wealth is being held down by stiff taxation. And recent developments in United States policy promise to sustain this south-eastern boom. For. if America undertakes a heavy rearmament programme, the whole of the country’s economy will feel the effect of increased spending. The European recovery programme will ensure a continuing demand for wheat and meat. The Dallas Cadillac dealer who sold 1250 cars last year (lowest price approximately £1000), and still had 11. on order, looks like having a good year again.