The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-08-22
MILLIONS IN DIVIDENDS,
The Enormous Earnings Of the Stand
ard Oil Trust This Year.
ROCKEFELLER GETS $4,000, 1000

The OIL Trust Declares a Dividend o'
Eight Per Cent.-ss, 100000 Will B'
Distributed Among the stockholderi
John ID. Rockefeller,s Share of the
Profitable Receives s184,3s3 a Day
New York City (SpeclaD.-The STAN
dard Oil Company of New Jersey, the
Standard Oil Trust, has declared div
idend of eight per cent. On the capital
stock of $1OO,GOO,OOO. This is the
third dividend to be declared this year.
The first dividend was paid on March
Il. of twenty per cent; the second on
June 10, Of ten per cent, and the
third will be paid September Is. This
makes a total since March, 1899, of
seventy-one per cent, or about ST.
600, 900, or more than two-thirds of
the capital of almost 0O,OO0,0O0. And
it is expected that one more quarterly
dividend will be paid.
Some persons thought that ten pei
cent. would have been declared had
1t not been for the Bayonne fire, that
cost about $1,500,000. That fire was
disregarded by the Standard Oil man
ayers. The loss Of one or two mill.
ions of dollars was expected. The
company does not insure its property,
but sets aside so much of its earnings
to pay fire losses. Dividends are dis
tributed regardless Of the profit or
loss in that account.
The wealth Of John D. Rockefeller,
president of the Standard Oil Com.
pany, is growing at rate incompre'
hensible to the average mind. He is
being submerged in his downpour of
riches. He could not dodge the
steady. persistent influx Of wealth If
he wished. Every instant the clock
ticks off a second, day and night, Sun
days and holidays, he gets more
money than the average man earns in
week.
He owns thirty one per cent. Of the
capital stock Of the Standard Oil Com
pany of New Jersey. This is merely
the parent corporation Of the innum-
erable subsidiary companies which
compose the trust. Each of these COM
panies makes its own profits and the
trust gets it's share from the owner
ship of stock in them.
The trust owns fifty-one per cent. Of
the stock Of all these subsidiary COM
panies, and it has made $3S, 900 so
far this year out of that ownership.
The remaining forty-nine per cent. Of
the stock of the subsidiary companies
is owned by John D. Rockefeller out
right in addition to his thirty-one per
cent interest in the parent corpora
ton.
His share of the dividends so far
declared this year by the parent trust
Is $11,7S0,0O0. His forty-nine per
cent. share of the profits of the SUBJ
sidiary companies Is $3G,510,000, max
ing in all $49, 100000 that he has re-
ceived so far this year from his inter-
eSts in oil.
But this mans wealth is so great
that the oil indstry, immense as it is,
is not large enough to employ his
riches. He owns an interest In in
Vulnerable railroads, banks. insurance
and trust companies, mining corpora
tions and industrial enterprises.
His investments in these corpora
tions will bring his total income this
year up to at least $G00O0,000, and
perhaps to $75,0O0,O0O. Based upon
S6O,000,O0O his daily income for every
one of the $50 days in the year is
S164,3S3, one-fourth of which would
be deemed an independent fortune by
the average family.