The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1903-03-04

group have been selling about thou
sand million gallons of oil a year at
prices ranging from to 20 cents
gallon, and averaging about cents;
and, as tho by-products have increased
In number and in value, they have
put into their pockets as clear profit
more and more of the entire selling
price of the oil. Today that selling
price Is estimated to be all clear pro-
fit, and 1t is said that there is in addi-
tion profit of from s10,00,000 to $780,
100000 upon the by-products. This
explains why the profits of the Rookie
fellers from their trust are greater by
many millions annually than the val
ue of the petroleum production.
About 10 years ago Rockefeller's in
come was given as s30,0O00OO by an
excellent authority. He had reached
the limit OF profitable reinvestment
of profits in the oil industry. Here
then werc these enormous sums in
cash pouring in-more than $4,000, 900
a month for John Dawson Rockefeller
alone. The problem OF reinvestment
became more than serious. II became
a nightmare. The oil income was
swelling, and the number of sound In.
vestments Is limited, was then even
more limited than Il now Is. II was
through no especial eagerness for more
gains that the Rockefellers began to
branch out from oil into other things.
They were forced, swept on by this
in-rolling tide Of wealth which their
monopoly magnet irresistibly attract
ed. They developed staff of invest
ment seekers and investigators. It is
said that the chief of this staff has a
salary of s125,0OO a year It may be
remarked in passing that Rockefeller,
like almost all the great American
fortune builders, pays cheerfully the
highest market price for brains. He
expects valuable service, but he does
his part ungrudgingly. He holds that
while 1t may be dangerous to an en-
ploye to overpay him, It is fatal both
to employer and employe to under
pay.
The first conspicuous excursion and
incursion of the Rockefellers was into
the railway field. BY 1895 they con-
trolled one-fifth Of the railway mile
age of the country. What do they
own or, through dominant ownership,
control today? They are powerful in
all the great railways OF New York,
north, east and west, except one
where their share is only few mil
lions. They are in most of the great
railways radiating from Chicago. They
dominate in several Of the systems
that extend to the Pacific. It is their
votes that make Mr.. Morgan so potent
though, 1t may be added, they need
his brains more than he needs their
votes-at present. and the combination
OF the two constitutes in large meas
ure the community Of interest"
But railways could not alone absorb
rapidly enough those mighty floods uf
gold; presently John d. Rockefeller's
s2,500.000 monthly had increased to
-four. to FIVE, to six millions a month,
to $4,000. 900 a year. Illuminating oil
was becoming all profit; the reinvest.
ments IF income were adding their
mite OF many annual millions.
The Rockefellers went into gas and
electricity when those industries had
developed to the safeinvestment
stage. And now p large part of the
American people must begin to enrich
the Rockefellers as soon as the sun
goes down. no matter what form Of
illuminant they use.
The latest industry into which the
Rockefellers have gone is banking.
There they already dominate, and
there they think they have found the
solution Of their investment problem
FOR a few years, at least. And 1t is
within the possibilities that the Rookie
feller banking adventure may cause
a convulsion-a greater convulslon,
perhaps, than that which shook the
country when John d. Rockefeller first
introduced the industrial monopoly to
the American people and began to
force it's acquaintance and society
upon them.
Tho Rockefeller bank-the National
City bank-is by herself far and away
the biggest bank in the United States.
1t Is exceeded in the world only by
the Bank of England and the Bank of
France. The deposits average more
than $1O0,O0O,OOO day; and it domi-
mates the call loan market on Wall
street and the stock market. But 1t is
not alone; it is the head Of the Rookie
feller chain of banks, which includes
IL banks and trust companies in New
York City, and banks of great strength
and influence in every large money
centre in the country.
The chief business OF these banks IS
to receive the Rockefeller income and
lean it to spectators, manufacturers.
merchants and farmers throughout
the country. And the Rockefellers not
only are relieved from much of their
former anxiety over investments, but
also receive a double profit There is
the profit Of the interest which the
banks pay them for their huge cash
balances, so and Is and even of 100
millions staadi1y m a int q In al from, doy