Beardsley Ruml
The department store executive who quietly reshaped American life by inventing the payroll withholding tax and championing modern art.
1894–1960 (age 66)·American economist·Birthday: November 5·The Lost Generation
Biography
Beardsley Ruml was a polymath who moved effortlessly between the worlds of business, academia, and public policy. As the young dean of the University of Chicago's business school, he revolutionized social science research with his work on statistics. But his most enduring impact came during his long tenure as treasurer of R.H. Macy & Co., where he became a key architect of the modern U.S. tax system. In 1943, he conceived the radical idea of 'pay-as-you-go' income tax withholding, a system that transformed the IRS and funded the Allied war effort. Simultaneously, Ruml was a visionary patron of the arts, using his role as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and later the Modern Museum of Art to push abstract expressionism into the cultural mainstream. He was a pragmatic engineer of systems, whether financial or cultural.
The Lost Generation
1883–1900
Came of age during World War I. Disillusioned by the carnage, they rejected the certainties of the Victorian era and built modernism from the wreckage — in art, literature, and politics.
Beardsley was born in 1894, placing them squarely in The Lost Generation. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Beardsley Was Born
The biggest hits of 1894
Beardsley's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1894Born
President: Grover Cleveland
1899Started school
President: William McKinley
1907Became a teenager
Financial panic grips Wall Street
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1910Could drive
Halley's Comet makes its closest approach
President: William Howard Taft
1912Could vote
Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage
President: William Howard Taft
1915Turned 21
The Lusitania is sunk by a German U-boat
President: Woodrow Wilson
1924Turned 30
First Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France
President: Calvin Coolidge"It Had to Be You" — Isham Jones
1934Turned 40
Gas: $0.19/galPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Stars Fell on Alabama" — Jack TeagardenBest Picture: It Happened One Night
1944Turned 50
D-Day: Allied forces land at Normandy
Gas: $0.21/galHome: $3,400Min wage: $0.30/hrPresident: Franklin D. Roosevelt"Swinging on a Star" — Bing CrosbyBest Picture: Going My Way
1954Turned 60
Brown v. Board of Education desegregates US schools
Gas: $0.29/galHome: $8,925Min wage: $0.75/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Little Things Mean a Lot" — Kitty KallenBest Picture: On the Waterfront
1960Died at 66
Kennedy-Nixon debates become first televised presidential debates
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $11,900Min wage: $1.00/hrPresident: Dwight D. Eisenhower"Theme from A Summer Place" — Percy FaithBest Picture: The Apartment
Key Achievements
- Designed and championed the Current Tax Payment Act of 1943, which created the modern system of payroll tax withholding.
- Served as the first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's board from 1937 to 1947.
- As chairman of the Museum of Modern Art's board, he provided critical institutional support for the rise of Abstract Expressionism.
- Pioneered the use of statistical sampling in social science research while at the University of Chicago.
Did You Know?
He helped design the famous 'Dewey Decimal System' for personal finances while at the University of Chicago.
Ruml authored a controversial 1946 article titled "Taxes for Revenue Are Obsolete," arguing governments could use taxes for social policy, not just funding.
He was a close advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on fiscal policy during World War II.
The 'Ruml Plan' for forgiving wartime tax liabilities was partially adopted in the 1943 withholding law.
“Taxes for revenue are obsolete.”
