The Alaska citizen., 1910-08-22
ORIGIN OF AST0R
 FORTUNE

quaiitieS-lndustry, thrift and abil. ity? The Astors own vast areas of land and buildings in New York City and elsewhere. The palaces in
 which they live in magnifcence GOV
 CT whole blocks, while not far away
 as many as 5000 to 6,O00 poor bp.
 man beings are herded in a single
 block. The Astors are also large
 stockholders in many capitalistic
 enterprises" They have an annual
 income about five hundred times greater than the salary paid to the
 President of the United States. Dron. ing in idleness and luxury. their income more than equals what 41.OOO work lngmen, getting an average af s60O year, receive for a year of cease
 less toil
 The story told in government and court documents of the origin of this fortune is very different from the stereotyped accounts of the eu- logists.
 The founder of the Astor fortune was John Jacob Astor, German immigrant who came to the United States in 17S3, with five pounds in money. He died in 1S4S leaving fortune of s20,0O0, ,0OO-then the greatest in America How did he get it?
 The records show that he became fur trader, and swindled the In. dlans by getting them drunk. After he organized the American Fur Com pany in 1S10 he shipped enormous quantities of whisky out among the Indian tribes. To sell liquor to an Indian was serious crime in law. But Astor purchased immunity by bribing public officials On one oc- casion Gin 1S17 he gave Lewis Cass bribe of $35,O00 Who was Cass? The governor of Michigan territory Ill which Astor had one of his priu- cipal trading posts, and he (Cass) later became secretary of war-the very official who then had supreme Jurisdiction over Indian affairs.
 Astor charged the Indians from $25 to $5O gallon for whisky, payable ill furs. The records show that the Indians were never allowed to trade while in a sober state Al ter debauching them Astor would take further advantage of them by exchanging cheap merchandise. at eXorbitant prices, for their furs. He charged, for example a dollar and q half for brass thimb1e; eighteen dollars for pound of tobacco; $50 for an eleven-dollar rifle; s4 for powder which cost him 20 cents pound, etc, etc.
 Debaucned and swindled, and driy- en to debt and destitution, the In. dlans were forced to resort to the only means of redress open to them. They could not sue in court either civilly or criminally, because it was considered illegal to accept the tes- tlmony of an Indian. Consequently. they had recourse to primitive force; they often rose in retaliation. and massacred whites and murdered As tors traders. Then, in turn the gov ernment would hurry out troops and shoot them down and burn their villages.
 It was long chapter of horrors. But Astor was safe in New York, pulling in his millions. True, more than one hundred and fifty white traders were murdered by Indians, but Astor's fortune kept increasing with murder and massacre. He was an astute capitalist who hired men to do his sinister work and brave death, while he was secure more than a thousand miles away and reaped all the profit. The govern ment records show that he received an income of $50O,00O a year from this trattic-a tremendous sum for that time.
 This is how he obtained the money to invest in New York City land and in bank and other stocks. But, at the same time that he was debauch- ing and swindling Indian tribes in the West, he was corrupting New York City officials to grant him land This land was part of the large area that New York City then muni- cipally owned. Its value then was not great, although it's potential value was. At present it is worth hun dreds of millions of dollars. Astors immediate descendants continued the process. They bribed common coun- cils and legislatures, evaded taxa tion, and reaped millions in rent not only from business buildings, but from vile tenements unfit for hu- man habitation. Generation after generation, millions of people in New York have worked only (among other things) to add enormously to the value of the Astor real estate holdings, without the necessity of the Astors moving a finger. Less than century after John