Some of the wealthiest Americans claimed their fortunes would never last through the generations. They were wrong. : His treasury secretary had handed him a series of memos detailing the many ways the wealthy were avoiding taxes. Enraged by a rich businessman's schemes, Roosevelt asked his treasury secretary to publicly denounce the man as a "son of a bitch." Roosevelt, himself an heir, earlier had warned that "economic royalists" had "carved dynasties" off the backs of America's working men and women. Now he saw a chance to address the unfairness in the nation's tax system.