Talk:Mellon family

I relocated this from the article page -- there were no references supporting any of this material. I have deleted the Hiss section as there was no apparent link to the article topic. --Bob Burton 21:49, 27 Nov 2004 (EST) ---

The Mellon family founded the American Aluminium Company (Alcoa), the largest producer of the waste toxin, sodium fluoride, which up to this point of 'caries discovery' had a relatively little known commercial or industrial value, was an environmental hazard of great public concern, and was very costly in terms of safe disposal. The Mellon family also were the founders of the original Mellon Institute whence came the "amazing (but totally fallacious) sodium fluoride/dental caries prevention discovery" - the discovery that literally turned 'garbage into gold'. The Carnegie family merged with the Mellon family Institute to create Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1967.

In 1939 the American Aluminium Company (Alcoa), then probably the world's largest producer of sodium fluoride, transferred its technology to Germany (the Alted Agreement). The Dow Chemical Company transmitted its experience and technology in that same period.

"If America loses this war," said then Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes on June 26, 1941, "it can thank the Aluminum Corporation of America [ALCOA]."

The fluoride disposal problem arose during World War II, when demand for war materials meant increased production of aluminum, steel and other fluoride-related products. At the end of the war, with massive amounts of fluoride waste needing disposal, the Public Health Service began pushing to add fluoride to the water in Grand Rapids, Mich., and dozens of other U.S. cities. At the time, the Public Health Service was being run by Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, a founder and major stockholder of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa), which had dominated fluoride 'research' since the 1920s. By 1950, as the fluoridation campaign gained steam, the Public Health Service was headed by another top Alcoa official, Oscar R. Ewing, who in turn was aided by Edward L. Bernays, the father of modern public relations and author of the book "Propaganda," who sought to portray fluoride's opponents as wackos.

In 1987 T. Rowe Price director Edward Mathias brought together David Rubenstein, a former President Carter aide; Stephen Norris and Daniel D'Aniello, both executives with Marriott Corp.; William Conway, Jr., the CFO of MCI; and Greg Rosenbaum, a VP with a New York investment firm. They pooled their experience along with a load of money from T. Rowe Price Associates, Alex. Brown & Sons (now Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown), First Interstate (now part of Wells Fargo), and Pittsburgh's Mellon family to form a buyout firm named the Carlyle Group after the Carlyle Hotel in New York.