Show WOMEN OWN BULK OF PRIVATE FORTUNES total wealth of 23 estimated at billions new york that the great united states financial combine is not a group of mighty industrialists or wall street magnates but a vast framework of comfortably off well to do and really rich widows is the conclusion drawn by fortune mag azine in an intimate study of the twenty three richest united states women seventy per cent of the country s entire private wealth or the sky shooting sum of is the estimate of the golden flood that has streamed into the hands not of the oligarchy but of a matriarchy fortune declares that this transfer of the keys to the greatest private coffers does not indicate any supremacy of women over men in earning power is ex by the magazine on the grounds that the overwhelming part of billions has been left to them in analyzing its selection of the twentythree twenty three weightiest members of this matriarchy the fortune article shows that these huge for tunes derived deri ved from two sources about half were made in finance and basic industries about half in merchandise sold over the counter with motorcars remaining for trans por tation from one to the other the first type banking and basic industries is older than the sec ond and as would be likely of more gohd social background I 1 only one of the twentythree twenty three wealthy subjects of the article is credited with occupying her tion because a woman took a hand in founding her own wealth she is mrs matthew astor wilks daughter 0 america americas s only great woman fortune builder the sensation of an other age hetty green the other twenty two constitute the richest chest united states women today not be cause they amassed fortunes them selves but because they were the wives end and daughters heirs and as signs of some of the nation s richest men 25 the smallest the minimum riches of the awen ta t three who form the basis of the fortune article is placed at 25 on the basis of certain key and characteristics these twentythree twenty three women tend to split up into smaller groups they are not one obvious type although they are not so many unrelated and distinctive personalities the article states fourteen are in social registers nine are not just about fourteen not by any means the social reg ister fourteen go in heavily for s society about nine avoid it half of the women take little or no in terest in handling heir affairs half take an active interest eight of the women are young eleven are middle aged four are old besides those who manage their estates one woman is a sculptor one has a book shop two are proprietors of racing stables none of the women is angly active in politics very few are actie in religion but better than a half t take a k e an interest in phil anth ropy A footnote explains that certain women a are r e potentially wealthier than some of those who are con in the article but they have not yet come into their mon ey it cites josephine ford and ailsa mellon bruce as examples roster of the rich fortune fortunes s roster of the twenty three richest united states worn wom en reads as follows mrs matthew astor wilks mrs payne whitney mrs harry payne whitney mrs charles shipman payson mrs gertrude vanderbilt whitney mrs moses taylor mrs andrew carnegie mrs roswell miller mrs alexander hamilton rice mrs hugh dillman mrs alfred george wilson mrs dodge sloane mrs john T dorrance mrs edward V hartford mrs vadim makaroff mrs W B reilly mrs joseph E davies mrs charles E F mccann mrs james donahue countess haugwitz mrs charles H babcock mrs james H R cromwell mrs duke biddle in the course of the revealing biographies of each of these heir esses the magazine outlines the various sources of the immense fortunes that have gravitated into twenty three pairs of hands they range through banking wall street standard oil steel traction interests the dodge motor car earnings and those of campbell soups two great chain store systems the A P and the woolworth stores breakfast and other food products which contribute to the post fortune and the reynolds and duke tobacco industries |