166] But it would be both idle and prejudicial in the
highest degree to single out for condemnation a brace of capitalists for
following out a line of action so strikingly characteristic of the
entire capitalist class--a class which, in the pursuit of profits,
dismisses nicety of ethics and morals, and which ordains its own laws.

THE RHINELANDERS.

The wealth of the Rhinelander family is commonly placed at about
$100,000,000. But this, there is excellent reason to believe, is an
absurdly low approximation. Nearly a century and a half ago William and
Frederick Rhinelander kept a bakeshop on William street, New York City,
and during the Revolution operated a sugar factory. They also built
ships and did a large commission business. It is usually set forth, in
the plenitude of eulogistic biographies, that their thrift and ability
were the foundation of the family's immense fortune. Little research is
necessary to shatter this error. That they conducted their business in
the accepted methods of the day and exercised great astuteness and
frugality, is true enough, but so did a host of other merchants whose
descendants are even now living in poverty. Some other explanation must
be found to account for the phenomenal increase of the original small
fortune and its unshaken retention.

This explanation is found partly in the fraudulent means by which,
decade after decade, they secured land and water grants from venal city
administrations, and in the singularly dubious arrangement by which they
obtained an extremely large landed property, now having a value of tens
upon tens of millions, from Trinity Church. Since the full and itemized
details of these transactions have been elaborated upon in previous
chapters, it is hardly necessary to repeat them. It will be recalled
that, as important personages in Tammany Hall, the dominant political
party in New York City, the Rhinelanders used the powers of city
government to get grant after grant for virtually nothing. From Trinity
Church they got a ninety-nine year lease of a large tract in what is now
the very hub of the business section of New York City--which tract they
subsequently bought in fee simple. Another large tract of New York City
real estate came into their possession through the marriage of William
C. Rhinelander, of the third generation, to a daughter of John Rutgers.
This Rutgers was a lineal descendant of Anthony Rutgers, who, in 1731,
obtained from the royal Govern