The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-11-13

wills. Starting with the refining Of |
oil when his combined assets did not |
exceed $4,000, it is sown that today |
he has a controlling influence in or
gained institutions having a capital
of 1929 COS, 500. as follows:
isallroddS $500. y .52 .523, o.
Industrial companies lS35S72, 800
Banks and trust COM
panies 1871 ,0G2,3
safe deposit companies 9,531
Telegraph and tele-
phone companies - 182870,000
| Insurance companies =. 100000
Mining companies 80. 195,000,000
Gas, electric light, and -
power companies 49,. 110,763, 700
! Traction and transpor.
| tation companies -. 16t,G"0,a0o
! NaVlga ton companies. II ~, 800
/ Total :. $5,239, ZOOS. 500
! In spite Of these figures, john D.
/ Rockefeller is known as 4 director in
/ only four corporate *. AT the same
/ time he is suspected of dominating
more ;hdG 10 c0rrOratiJrS. big ara
! little. He controls $4,000 miles of
! pipe line, cont OILS ; per cert. of the
J crude petroleum product of the cOun-
! try owns every tank car in the United
/ States mas 200 vessels engaged in
! transportation. owns 5000 delivery
wagons. and hires an army of $4,000
men. Incidental to his own success
! he is said TO have made at least 100
men associated with him millionaires.
AS TO the number of men AZ has
ruined, count presumably has not
| been kept
But this man, whom Jay Gould de-
/ scriDed as possessing the finest or
! ganiZng brain OF this generation"
| was once described by an unexpected
caller in his office as wearing a 50
/ sack coat and the air OF $40 clerk
in a corner grocery" This same man,
described by a great fnancier as ''un-
! able TO remember more than six
! years back and yet capable of seeing
fifty years ahead, also has been pic
tured bv a judge of clothes as q man
whom nobody in New York could
think of asking for the address of his
| tailor.
This man, who plays the violin with
feeling and skill. has been remem-
bered by Wall street since the episode
in 1903, when the endorsed the brill
liant Morgan and squeezed billion
dollars in water from the stock mar
kets. Wall street perhaps cannot
; pretend to understand this man, who
gives away an average of $4,000 a
, year and employees a secretary at q
: $4,000 salary to see that the gifts
! are we'll placed and Worthily. 1t may
/. I II,
II ing ut his escape from the fire that
, destroyed his home in Pocantico Hills
two years ago he gave 100000 in q
lump to the Teachers College.
Million q Year for Manager
But this man, who has done these
things ard is still doing them, either
regards The tasks as onerous TO a
stupendous degree or out of his ego
tism looks upon them as possible only
to Rockefeller. A few years ago he
came out with an offer, which is still
standing, of a salary of 100000 a
year to the man who will manage on
S ~ the affairs OF the Standard Oil Com
pany-and presumably shoulder the
: oncus of the task. But there were no
= application under the terms. In the
' past some hard names and some hid
: eous charges have been directed at the
t head of the Standard Oil Company.
e. In February, year ago, something
. new in the accredited methods of the
r Standard Oil magnate was uncovered
4 ! in Washington, when certain Senators
/ blazed up against the telegram signed
s Rockefeller and demanding that trust
: legislation be stopped. The Standard
a Oil counsel, appearing in person in
a Washington, was snubbed and turned
e down. 1t could not have been pleasant
0 work; even a million dollar manager
4 must have gone far to earn his salary
in such an expose
Little Out OF Life.
What does Rockefeller get out of
life? might be a question. 1t is only
: within a year or two that he has been
: able to eat. Nervousness had wrecked
him before the same trouble became
responsible for the almost freakish loss
of his hair and beard. His city home
, at 4 West Fifty-fourth street, in New
) York, is commonplace by comparison
; with the mansions of less wealthy
|, men. If he shall have private park
of 1900 acres at Pocantico Hills, it
viii have been at the cost of Invitations
| making il dear beyond money His
, summer home near Cleveland is a for
tress in its impregnability. 1t is only
: a few years ago that he and his own
8 brother William were at daggerS'
points. His hatred for the town of his
birth in Tiogo county, y. Y, is we'll
known, ana is in sharp contrast with
the love. OF Henry II. Rogers for his
birthplace, Fairhaven Mass, to which
Rogers has given millions in material
benefits.
Perhaps giving that which he has
, no personal use for appeals to Rookie
. Teller more strongly than does any
other thing in life. But in this giving
he acknowledges q supplementary
pleasure greater than the initial one.
, Ii comes from the spirit that prompted
> HIM to say he dearly loved to force
| a man to give when the whole heart
r of that man was set in holding on to
his wealth. Rockefeller has accom-
plished this in the method Of giving,
requiring the recipient of his charity
, TO raise Il certain amount, commenSu-
rate With his own gift
Makes Others Give. Too.
, In his giving Rockefeller has made
I the University of Chicago his largest
, beneficiary, and the $11,000,000 which
he has put into that institution has
8 parted a good many other men, per-
p haps unWillingly from their own mon
+ ely. Even his thank Offering of $780,
> 600 to the Teachers College of CO.
lumbia University was tagged with the
condition that the school raise an equal
sum. But even in these conditions
| some one has remarked that the donor
has something to show in an utter
; ance of Prof Richard Mayo Smith. of
I Columbia University, when the pro-
feSSor was moved to say:
!, mo alarm ought to be felt by the