From: wb8foz@SCL.CWRU.Edu (David Lesher)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Our Moderator and Monopolies
Date: 22 Aug 92 12:11:48 GMT
Reply-To: wb8foz@skybridge.scl.cwru.edu  (David Lesher)
Organization: NRK Clinic for habitual NetNews abusers - Beltway Annex
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PAT said:

> I meant those monopolies which got that way through the hard work,
> effort and brains of the company founder, and which continue to remain
> a monopoly despite *completely obeying the law*. In other words, I
> supported AT&T intact before the breakup and Standard Oil before it
> was divested at the turn of the century. I do not support gangsters
> who maintain a 'monopoly' by force, threats and violence.

I *REALLY* had to choke on this PAT example.

IMHO, Old Man Rockefeller invented the concept of Monopoly by Force.
You sold his gasoline at your store, or else bad things happened.

He was infamous for his treatment of employees, too. A late friend
related the story of his uncles, who worked for John D. long before
Sherman. They were pipeline walkers. In other words, they started at
one end of, say, one hundred miles of pileline, and hiked to the other
end, looking for leaks. {Now, this is done weekly by air.} They stayed
at houses enroute. A trip took many days, of course. Then they started
over. [And you thought YOUR job was boring ...]

Well, they did this for decades. Then one day, just when they were
reaching pension age, they were fired. Period. The excuse was there
was a leak at the other end, and if they had really been there a few
weeks before, they'd have seen it. [Of course, there was NO chance it
had started leaking SINCE then, was there?] So clearly, they were not
doing their job. This was, of course, far before Social Security.
They died penniless.

The easements for many of those lines are, ahem, interesting also. One
of the ones I worked on was built in a big rush during WWII. (This was
post-breakup, but old habits die hard.) Of course, there was no
problem getting the farmers to sign, as the pipeline was part of The
War Effort.  While I never read them myself, the foreman who had to
knock on the doors told me the important parts were:

		99 year duration
		$1.00 rent
{the kicker}	If the line EVER needed to be moved, the
		landowner paid. 

This last one meant, for example, when a city wanted to build a park,
they ended up spending bucho bucks, and I don't mean on trees and
benches.

So Mr. PAT, I submit that Standard OIl is a pretty poor example.  Do
you have another one, perhaps?


wb8foz@skybridge.scl.edu


[Moderator's Note: The examples you gave are anecdotal at best. Can
you supply any actual names, dates, or places for these events? And if
those things occurred, are the circumstances truly as you have
described them?  Now let us consider some things that John Rockefeller
did do which are plainly evident today. He gave the original endowment
to start the University of Chicago. He continued to give huge sums of
money to the University until his death and UC today, a century later
is still using the interest on Rockefeller's gifts, having not touched
most of the principal in many years. During his lifetime he was the
patron of one of America's best known liberal reformers and thinkers
of this century: Harry Emerson Fosdick and his Riverside Church in New
York City. He endowed Rockefeller Memorial Chapel here in Chicago.
Standard Oil in Chicago continues to give large gifts to needy
organizations, and Exxon is a substantial corporate sponsor to
National Public Broadcasting.  JDR was okay. I've got a rare photo of
him walking with William Rainey Harper (first president of UC) along
59th Street in Chicago, circa 1893.  I'd love to have met him. PAT]