Talk:William Henry Vanderbilt

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Trains Mid‑importance

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Untitled

The line, "...however his worth was to pale in comparison with the likes of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie." seems not to fall in line with neutral-POV, and seems too much of a subjective/relative statement for an encyclopedic article.

It is also misleading from what I can tell. Given assumptions that Vanderbilt was worth $200 million in 1885, Carnegie $225 million in 1901, and Rockefeller $200 million in 1902 and $900 million in 1937 (numbers which may be inaccurate, but are the ones I could locate), various comparisons (see http://eh.net/hmit/compare/) either have Vanderbilt's wealth in modern terms worth:

Significantly less than 1937 Rockefeller via CPI and GDP deflator
About the same as 1901 Carnegie/1902 Rockefeller via CPI, GDP deflator, unskilled wage, and per capita GDP
Greatly more than 1901 Carnegie/1902 Rockefeller/1937 Rockefeller via Relative share of GDP

At least for Carnegie (at what I believe was Carnegie's peak, before the greatest part of his philanthropy campaign), Vanderbilt's wealth seems to meet or surpass it by most reasonable measures. Comparison with 1937 Rockefeller is more complicated.

I suggest removal of that sentence fragment.

WELL CHELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.139.22.134 (talk) 18:41, 8 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

william henry vanderbilt

william henry vanderbilt was a very unhappy man who didn't really want to inherite the money but he had to because it was meant for him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.77.181 (talk) 11:42, 4 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Beyond 'Start' class

While detailed railroad activities can be covered under the New York Central article, one of the first things you want to do to get this article out of 'Start' class is, for God's sake, at least name the railroads he acquired which "actively expanded the family's railroad empire". --Jim Luedke Jimlue (talk) 20:56, 6 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Photo

Couldn't you find any other picture than the YMCA?--dunnhaupt (talk) 21:16, 8 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The manure deal

One of the ways in which William Henry Vanderbilt established respect from his father was with a deal purchasing manure. He operated a farm and sold manure to neighboring farmers on Staten Island. His fathers business kept a great many horses and collected manure to clear track. The son made a deal with the father to purchase manure at a price per load. There was a third party who monitored delivery. When the third party gave his account to the father accompanied by William the son gave the father a check. The father said that it seemed deficient the sons explanation was while he might have expected loads to mean wagon loads going onto the barge he was paying for barge loads.RichardBond (talk) 12:40, 4 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

This page needs more sources and citations. 136.175.73.76 (talk) 15:38, 31 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]