Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-04
BAKERS FORTUNE
CUT BY DEFLAT|0N
Huge Estate Not as Large
as 1t Would Have Been
Few Years Ago.

preston, the FSueral GOVSrnmenI huu
the States in which he owned property
stand to lose" fortune.
The amounts they will collect in in
heritance taxes will be huge, but no.
where near as large as If he had passed
away during the boom period of 1929.
Nobody knows--prohah the dean OF
the Nations bankers didn't even know
hiinself-how large his fortune is or
was. so it was impossible today to esti-
mate the amount of the taxes his estate
will pay.
0uesses as to the wealth of the
"third richest man in the country
range from s20o, 600, 600 to $500, coo, 600
and even higher. Since the market
value of the stocks constituting huge
portion of this has shrunk, the amount
of the inheritance tax will be CORE
guondingiy smaller. The Federal Gov
ernnnent and New York State, in which
Mr., Baker held the larger part OF his
fortune, take the fair market value on
the day of death in levying taxes on
securities.
Reached Huge Total.
At the height of the bull market Mr..
Bakers $4,000 shares In the First Ma
tional Bank reached . paper valuation
of $40, 100000. They are now quoted
around SIS. 100000. That shrinkage
alone means a loss" to New York State
of something over $16,0O0,000. In this
state. the larger the estate the larger
the tax rate. New York takes is per
cent OF the amount by which an estate
exceeds $4,000, 600.
The Federal Government gets It's
share Of the estate after the States
have taken theirs. allowing certain =
credits for taxes paid to States, IL y
therefore impossible, tax experts SAID
today, to estimate the amount the
United States might collect.
Like the First National stock, MT.
Bakers $1,000 shares of United States
Steel common, his So 900 shares of A.
r. Ia T. and the S48, 900, 900 in railroad
stocks credited last Winter to him and
hts son, George F. Baker, Jr., have
fiuetuated. Steel, for instance, sold
around 261 at one time in 1929. Last
Saturday 1t closed at 115H.
Simplicity to Mark Rites.
The simplicity of the life Of George
Fisher Baker, banker and philanthrop-
LIST, who died Saturday night, viii mark
his funeral tomorrow.
Services will be from the Baker home
IN Tuxedo Park, N. Y, at noon. with
the Rev DR.. Minot Simons, rector OF
All Souls Unitarian Church, officiating.
Mr.. Baker will be buried beside his wife
in Kensico Cemetery.
Thousands Of messages of coincidence
have come. Among the senders are
President Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, lead
ers Of finance, industry and business.
Nv Mr.. Bakers wishes, there will be
no honorary pallhearers, there will be
no ostentatious ohsequies, and the First
National Bank of New York, which he
guided, will remain open. The Union
League Club will send a delegation
headed by Elihu Root George r. Baker
wanted to be buried quietly as he lived
81 years.
Other than the natural promotion
which must come to one of the present
leaders in the First National Bank, the
financial world indicated there would
t;e no uncertainty in Wall Street. The
institution Mr. Baker founded will con-
tinue with policy unchanged.
Mr.. Bakers death was apparent in
Wall Street today only in the flags at
half stan on prominent banking houses.
There was no other evidence even at
Mr.. Bakers First National Bank, where
business was being transacted as usual
Charles @. 5paulding. president of
the Union League Club, to which Baker
belonged, announced the names of a
committee chosen to attend the funeral.
They included:
Distinguished Committee.
Elihu Root, James r. Shefield, Al
fred e. Marling, Louis 3. Brady, John
A. Phtlbrick, Walter T. Frew, Thomas
w. Lamont, Henry ]. Cochran, Andrew
Mills, Harry e. Ward. Harry A. Cush-
ing, Charles M. Schwab, Robert c. Nor
rts, John w. Herbert, Herbert L. Sat-
teFlee, Alfred /. Aiken, Harris A. Dunn,
George B. Wightman, o. H. Cheney
Charles z. Hughes, Charles G. Paulding,
Charles Presbrey. Albert N. Connect,
William H. Perkins, Albert H. Wiggin,
Theodore Hetzler, Lewis L. Clarke, Lewis
z. Pterson, George W. Hodges, George
.. Arthur, George McNeir, William
Shields, Washington z. Common Fred
erick H. Ecker, Lawrence T. Cole, Ell-
gene " Connect, Jr., and Bertram H.
The stiffness of death intensified the
customary Sabbath quiet Of the finan-
ciai district yesterday, while a beFeaVed
family prepared to bury the colossus OF
finance and gentle-spirited philan-
thropist.
Triumph Of Organization.
Those who dwell in the high places
OF business and finance felt no unrest.
George Baker builded strong and well
and the uncertainty and furry that at
tended the passing Of a great leader in
days gone by was absent-a triumph of
organization.
Many men will step into the places
George Baker has vacated and carry on
the anairs that he attended to long past
the three-score and ten years allotted 10
most men
The thought must have come 10 many
today as they unused upon the life and
deeds OF George Baker that the six
words he uttered in his only public adj
oress might wen serve as his epitaph
and benedietion. They were
Thank you and God bless YOU"
BenefactiOns Total Millions.
For his benefactions totaled In mil
lions more than the average philan-
tnfoplcally inclined man feels he is en-
titled TO bestow in dollars.
HIS death leaves only one aged sem
tnel on the outpcstS OF that last from
tier that witnessed the rearing of q
civilization Of steel upon the foundation
OF hafdy pioneering nation. That Is
John d. Rockefeller. sr
The others. Pierpont Morgan the
elder; James J. Hill, Henry c. Frick
Andrew Carnegie. Thomas F. Ryan and
others-have passed on.
While primarily interested in finance
George Baker did much TO make it DOS
sible to lay the bands or steel on which
the tide Of empire moved westward,
while In the comparatively coneested
East his financial acumen conquered
anew.
Markets Undisturbed.
Not since the death OF j. Pierpont
Morgan 10 years ago has wall Street
lost q leader Of the stature Of George
?. Baker, who died Saturday.
But the financial market were I'M
peFturbed, by his death, and there was
complete lack Of the nervousness
which prevailed when cables brought
the news of the death OF the elder
Morgan in Rome in 1913.