The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1903-02-21


Standard oil King Almost Went Broke
HIS DESTINY.
David Graham Phillips writes as follows
in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening
! Post
Among she great fortunes Of the world
gaiay there are two that tower colossal -
che Eatb,fhili and the Rockefeller. No
. ooc-ua, even the heads Of the two houses
. knoas jus, hav large these fortunes are.
+ 4 few wears ago John n. Rockefeller said
apnn the ailnc,, stand that he was unable
60 -rlI h.w much he was worth within .sy
srll r3llanrs Indeed. there Is no way II
. estimating accurately these modern for,
tsae-. invested sn many says aud subject
ta daily hourly hurtualions. Probably
tH.a AMI a haiF # dollar, is A. near 20
ar.surY - 81 !, pa>'ible 70 come in state
laz sh, wealth af he house Of Rushschild
A., f.r thr baa-e If Rockefeller, business
s~.eiaie 81 the elder and many times the
ueh,raf the svu br,thcr ail within a
YEAR John u Rockefeller i. wor,h no,
fsf traa three quarters af billion. and be
will r7s-ea,ly he ,he 6rss bllllouAirc the
ea7}l has ever had lfihe estimate were
based aT.a incomc--ccrtaiuly A. fair way
s. O. st,cmF 90 value capital l--Joha u
E.4Asts. vnaM today be olasscd a. a
h.'.a aasgc half ca the way toward his
s.-aui bl.Laa Aai there are in addition
5ir several lr,s..lr,,l millions of hi. brother
sFgue, anI thc many milla0ns of the thrcv
10 f.ar allied members q shc family
The Raekefg'lsr sartaoe va founded
lpaa 1rrl., capital Ia 1873 John d
Rockefeller Wa considerable oil mer-
chan, Rai h.s schemes tor monopoliriug
ths 80 Aa.lues, Vi half che world we're
tr,sltllas between ~aec.v,s aud failure. 10
shat wear there we're three weeks shcn be
walked tbe aaar nisht after ni.h,, sleep
lg-, Sighting the ruin that .eened TO be
. l.-,as ia around him Il ! ,aid that bis
wife czolasmel Il Nl.h John wogld 20
banlru fur then be would sc, some
,lref II i .atd that the nervous iudi.
sr.1lou whlth uaw c0mpcls him TO the
4us,tss, Il lives and 60 a diet Of crackers
and mllk al 9s % degrees Fahrenheit
date, frun that terrible three weeks He
pve,i tbg banks Of Cleveland 81 700 OO0
tie csai not pay they were pressing him,
bus dad nof darr To elo>s in upon him.
They AHys that It he failed il would swamp
them and would preeipi,ate a panic in
Cleveland Cleveland was not 50 large and
ngh Iu these days. and 81, 200, 600 was a
bls ,um II money, even IL Wall street
The Rockefeller fortune may therefore
q, dated from 1873, the year when the
founding cu,i, was passed though the biz
returns did not begin to come until about
. I~-5. the enormous returns until less than
tea wears aSo.
From 1850 10 1875 Rockefeller was
reaching uut aud out to take possession Of
(. hi. promised land His brother and their
intimate friend, laughed at him, tried to
di,,uaie him They too, would bay oil
wells. but lhey would make what they could
and sell cat before the well caught fire OF
ram dry lie bought to keep, bought
burning wells aud extinguishei the fires,
bought dry we'll, in the hope that they
would some day yield to the pump. And
when his brother and their intimates saw
thar there was method in bis madness, be
invited them in. practically gave them as
a present the shares that were to make
them multi milliunaires And, slow and
tenacious and saturated with his "mys-
tic of manifest destiny, he marched on to
the Montenotte of 1915 The reaching
out on small capital, the rising elamor and
fury against his merciless methods of mo
nopoly. brought on that crisis.
Until the secret history of the Standard
Oil company is written, and it probably
never will be-no one except John ID.
Rockefeller will know how that crisis was
passed aud how prosperity and power were
obtained through those contracts with the
railways which made competition with
Rockefeller hopeless and forced almost all
the oil men, producers, refners and sellers,
to choose between submission and ruin.
Another point in the development of the
great American fortune is control of rail
ways-the arteries of the whole people.
1t is next in importance to a monopoly OF
some natural product. Rockefeller scored
both points.
1t was about 1884 that some Of the
high priced counsel discovered way OF
freeing him from the bondage of anti