Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1903-12-07
Is the Rockefeller Fortune a Meuacep

!
Is the Rockefeller Fortune Menace?
! The news that the Rockefellers have
acquired control of the PENNSYLVANIA
railroad is said TO have startled finan-
! cial circles in New York and Chicago
! this week TO a realization that Mir.
| John d. Rockefeller is now the great
est railroad owner in the world. With
more or less evidence of truth 1t is al
legged that ne is the controlling factor
/ in the New York Central, the Chicago.
( Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Missouri,
| Kansas & Texas, the Lake Shore *
Michigan Southern, the Michigan Cen
| trail the Chesapeake & Ohio, and all
the subsidiary lines connected with
these trunk systems, and now the
| Pennsylvania and the Baltimore &
| Ohio. In addition To these he is an
! extensive owner of the Gould system.
| Making due allowance for exaggera-
! tion. it is doubtless fact that Mr..
Rockefeller is far and away the
wealthiest man in the world.
To what extent. if any. is the Rookie
Teller fortune a menace TO the coun-
| try? Excitable and sensational news
| papers would have il that the whole
population OF the United States is soon
! to be "enslaved by Rockefeller" but
! people of ordinary balance Will take all
of these assertions with grain OF
salt. Discussing this subject in sober
way, the New York Financier ignoring
the many whose chief worry ever the
| Rockefeller fortune is because they
cannot get some of it, and addressing
the people who are honestly distressed
over the problem whether this piling
up of a single fortuna will net in time
reduce Mr.. Rockefeller's fellow men
and citizens to a condition OF nominal
vassalage and dependence upon him
for means OF sustenance, says:
ITO this class reasonable assurance
/ may be given that the Rockefeller mil
/ lions will never enslave them, provid-
ing always that American capacity and
| love OF labor do not degenerate. How
much money John Rockefeller is worth
no one, perhaps net even he himself.
! Ndi Sldlt y W llu-tg GU SldllS llNdI
rushed into print the other day with
an estimate that the Rockefeller for
tune, ten years from now, provided the
head of the house lived till then, would
be at least two thousand million dol
lars. This is an amount that staggers
comprehension. OF course there is
nothing tangible on which to base an
estimate Of this character, but con-
ceding for the sake Of argument that
| such an accumulation Of wealth is pos
sible, other citizens of the republic
need not despair. The wealth per
| capita OF the United States is now be-
tween ten and twelve hundred dollars.
Taking the low figure as more con-
| seTvative the Rockefeller fortune in
ten years will represent the per capita
| accumulation of two million citizens
that is, If average wealth does not
! increase. But right here Is where the
so-called danger of millions vanishes
into nothingness. If John d. Rookie
| feller is worth at the present time half
a billion dollars-and the chances are
! that he Is net worth that sum-he
holds little less than one-one hundred
and eightyninth of the wealth of this
| country as officially calculated. If his
fortune increases at the rate of one
hundred per cent. i'm the next decade,
which is twice the average increase OF
the country, he will have a billion
dollars in 1910, and will held therefore,
! something like one-one hundred and
rfcrty-ffth OF the aggregate wealth of
the nation. Assuming that the Rookie
! feller fortune win have increased to
the confusion of statistics and the de-
SPAR CT all readers of the Arabian
nights, as one wit puts it, it still will
have to grow amazingly to be regard
ed as a menace.
1t is not to be forgotten that the
! largest single fortunes disintegrate.
There is no law of entail in this coun-
| try, and it is quite unlikely that the
financial genius that makes possible an
enormous accumulation Of money by
one man will be transmitted from gen
Grafton to generation in a direct, or
! Collateral line. There will be huge
| fortunes in the future, no doubt, but
the chances that one will be created
of such size as to endanger the welfare
Of the people are remote. Conceding
that there is menace in these unwieldy
accumulations of money, through con
! troll of production, transportation, etc,
| the fact remains that as fast as one
dollar is added to a single great fer
I tune, someone else has made dollar
| or so, and If necessary competition
can be brought to bear to force equali-
ZatiCn. Probably within the next CEN
/ fury science will have so far so.ved
the problem OF existence that no man
or set OF men can hope 10 make i'm
mense sums out of life's necessities
At any rate the money which our mod