A.: Once in a while he sells, yes.
Q.: But the rule is that he does not sell?
A.: Well, hardly ever; he has sold, of course.
Q.: Isn't it almost a saying in this community that the Astors buy and never sell?
A.: They are not looked upon as people who dispose of real estate after they once get possession of it.
Q.: Have you the power to exact from them a statement of their rent rolls?
Q.: Don't you think that ... if you are going to levy a tax properly and fully ... you ought to be vested with that power to learn what the returns and revenues of that property are?
A.: No, sir; it's none of our business.[159]
This fraudulent evasion of taxation was anything but confined to the Astor family. It was practiced by the entire large propertied interests, not only in swindling New York City of taxes on real estate, but also those on personal property. Coleman admitted that while the total valuation of the personal property of all the corporations in New York was assessed at $1,650,000,000, they were allowed to swear it down to $294,000,000.