Home - Starkman P.C.   |                                           Home - Hippo   |                              Articles   |   Tax Humor   |                         Tax Court Exam   |                                About us   |                       Contact us
456 pages, $28.95
Where to Buy

Buy from Amazon

Atlanta Bookstores

Judaica Corner
2185 Briarcliff Rd.
Atlanta, GA 30329
(404) 636-2473

Chosen Treasures
175 Mount Vernon Hwy
Sandy Springs, GA 30328
(404) 843-1933

Chapters

Preface

One
accountants portrayed in popular culture

Two
death from overwork

Three
accountants' glamorous world

Four
history of accounting
"Sarbanes-Oxley Blues," words and music written by Headwaters Co-Founder & Chairman Dave Maney

Five
evil taxers

Six
U.S. tax history

Seven
IRS history

Eight
Al Capone, FDR, LBJ, MLK, Watergate

Nine
Sex of a Hippopotamus

Ten
Tax Court

Eleven
tax return publicity

Twelve
famous wealthy people

Notes

Index


Senator Nelson Aldrich

Nelson Aldrich was senator from Rhode Island from 1879 to 1911. He was the unwitting originator of the Sixteenth Amendment (income tax), and the poster child for the Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of senators).

Library of Congress
Aldrich was one of the most corrupt politicians ever in Congress, and that's how he became one of the wealthiest. As the most powerful chairman in the history of the Senate Finance Committee, he enriched his graft-patrons with tariff favors. His daughter, Abby, married John D. Rockefeller Jr. His grandson, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was governor of New York and Gerald Ford's vice president. His great grandson, John Davidson Rockefeller IV is senator from West Virginia since 1985.

Muckrakers Lincoln Steffens and David Graham Phillips excoriated him. When confronted with scandal, Aldrich's motto was, "Admit nothing. Explain nothing." Modern historian Jerome L. Sternstein also villifies him. Their articles are linked below:

Lincoln Steffens, "Rhode Island: A State For Sale," McClure's Magazine, February 1904, 337 - 353

David Graham Phillips, "The Treason of the Senate: Aldrich, The Head of It All," Cosmopolitan, March 1906

Jerome L. Sternstein, "Corruption in the Gilded Age Senate: Nelson W. Aldrich and the Sugar Trust," Capitol Studies, Spring 1978, 14 - 38

There's much more about Nelson Aldrich in: