AMERICAN FINANCIER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 13

AMERICAN FINANCIER

DEATH OF MR. A. MELLON FORTUNE OF £200,000,000 STATESMAN AND BANKER (Received August 27, 6.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, August 20 The death occurred at Southampton, Long Island, to-day of Mr. Andrew Mellon, former United States Ambassador to Britain and former Secretary of the United States Treasury. Ho was 82 years old. Death was due to bronchial pneumonia . and uraemia. He had been in . declining health throughout the summer.

Mr. Andrew W. Mellon, 1 the Americai} financier apd statesman, was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the. university he entered th 9 banking house of Thomas Mellon and Sons, and later became a partner,. The business developed into three .strong: institutions —the Mellon National Bank, the Union Trust Company and the Union Savings Bank, all of Pittsburg. In the "eighties" he became interested in the development of the coal, coke- and iron industries of Western ; Pennsylvania and was associated in

various enterprises with Henry C.. Frick. He founded the town of Donora, -where he established big steel works. He also built the first independent pipe-line through Pennsylvania to compete with the - Standard Oil Company. He and his brother were the chief shareholders in.. the Aluminium Company of America, the capital of which is £22,000,000. • Until he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1921 by President Harding Mr. Mellon had never been a party man. His post put him in the forefront of the series of controversies regarding the war debts of Europe to America, for he continued to hold it under President Coolidge. While combating the demands for larger payments from the debtor Powers, he strongly opposed every suggestion that such debts should be cancelled. In 1928, failing to induce Mr. Coolidge to stand again for the Presidency, Mr. Mellon concurred in the nomination of Mr. Hoover, who retained him at the Treasury for a third term, in spite of his advanced age. In February, 1932, Mr. Hoover offered him the post of Ambassador , to Britain, in succession to General Dawes, and he accepted it, taking up his duties in April. His stay in England was brief, for, after Mr. Roosevelt became President, in March, 1933, Mr. Mellon was succeeded at the Embassy by Mr. Bingham. 1 In May, 1933, the Department of Justice began the investigation of a charge that he had evaded payment 1 of income tax totalling several million dollars on a stock transaction, and that, while Secretary of the Treasury, he had made illegal refunds of £22.000.000 to shipping companies. Mr. Mellon, who was the fourth richest -"man in the United States, with a fortune estimated at £200,000,000, is snici to have given his daughter a cheque for £2,000,000 when she waa married.