The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-10-21
SHAKESPEARE AND ROCKEFEL-
LER

LEH-
The etker day a professor in the Uni
versity of Chicago declared that Rookie
| Teller was a greater man than Shakes
peare. He was at once met with deris-
| ion, sarcasm and scorn. But this reeep-
ton does not seem to worry him. On the
contrary the professor, whose name is
Triggs, would not exchange the adver-
Using he is getting for the equivalent of
his annual salary of $500, more or less.
Brayely does Prof. Triggs return to
the subject, While deprecating the prom
inenee given his remarks, which had the
purpose merely of "juxtaposing for tenn
porary pedagogical effect the names of
Shakespeare and Rockefeller he must
| insist upon maintaining his, original
the genius of life assumes many and
divers forms. The test of a genius is
| quality of mind, not composition of ma
| terials. He is measured by what it does
! by the materials it works with That
is to say. Shakespeare and Rockefeller
are measured by their minds and what
their minds have produced. The two
minds had different materials to work
with Shakespeare's produced immortal
| classics of English literature. and Rock
efeller's has produced monopoly in the
petroleum trade so perfect and compact
| that the nagnate can, by single order
OF turn of the wrist, cause extra mil
lions to flow from the pockets of the
people into his own. He performs this
feat quite frequently, particularly when
about to settle9 ar few millions on the
University of Chicago, and it is natural
that once. in a while professor with
about enough Intelligence to trace some
of the money to his own pocket. will be-
come a victim of the same sort of awe
and bewflderment-ath overcomes Uncle
ST as he gazes on the tall buildings
of a great city. "B'gosh,s he will like
I ly remark to himself, that beats the
pumpkins on the farm back home, and
God made the pumpkins :.
Nothing is, sacred to-. the mind over
come by the spirit of ,eommercialism as.
.exempiifed in the gigantic monopolfes.
The ip9agipation loses It's safety valve,
and language runs riot, through the besgt:
| products Of the heart and brain that
/ lack; a place in the quotations of the
| make comparisons is yielded to by the
mind incapable of properly computing the
value Of contributions to nobility of soul
and character 1t Is always such minds
that yield, always such that cannot get
over the fact that Shakespeare made no
money, organized no trust in intellectual
food. and levied no tribute on his fellow
| men. re did not turn his product into
fast horses, yachts, palaces, and an inn
| mense hoard of gold to boot. He lacked
the Commercial instinct" else he would
have continued a butcher and organized
sausage combine, and shortened his
links as the @xigencies of Cambridge
university endowment might have de-
manded. Then no Rockefeller could dim
the luster of his IneTery in the minds
of the TriggseS.s Shakespeare as sau-
sage monopo1ist would be quite safe in
this advanced age of robber trusts from
cheap comparisons at his expense; he
would be one of the elect in that case,
or, what is more likely, would be too far
forgotten to make any sort of comparison
possible. What good would Shakes
peare sausage monopoly, with it's con-
temporaneous. display of wealth and uni
yersity endowments have done the world
fifty years after Shakespeare's death?
What difference will John D. Rookie
Teller make to the world one hundred
years from now?
Yes, we might as well throw into the
! balance against each other a Shakes
peare sausage monopoly and Shakes
peare's literary achievements, as to make
| comparison between the latter and John
D. Rockefeller Only one of them is
going to live on to the end of the Eng
lish speaking race, to remain in touch
with the best that is In man, to be
his intellectual guide, philosopher and
friend. Shakespeare's works could not
be dispensed with today, where John
! D. Rockefeller his trust stock and as
sets, including the University of Chica-
go, could be dropped into the sea without
a groan.