The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-02
RocKEFELLER's ONE REQUEST
And Why He Should Not Be Let
 Alone.

Alone.
 All that John D. Rockefeller asked of the country by the year 1885, was to be let alone. He had completed one of the most perfect business organizations the world has ever seen, an organization which handled practically all of a great natural product. His factories were models of their kind, managed with the strictest economy He owned outright the pipe lines which transported the crude oil. His knowledge of the con sunling power of the world was accur- ate. and he kept his output strictly within it's limit. At the same time the great marketing machinery he had put an operation carried on an aggressive campaign for new markets. To China, Africa, South America, as we'll as to re- mote parts of Europe and the United States, Standard agents carried refin- ed oil. The Standard Oil company had been organized to do business, and if ever a company did business it was this one. From Mir. Rockefeller himself S-hidden from everybody but the remark able body of directors and heads of de- partments which he had acquired" as he wiped up one refinery and one pipe line after another, to the humblest clerk in the office of the most remote marketing agency. everybody worked. There was not a lazy bone in the or ganization, nor an incompetent hand, nor a stupid head It was a machine where everybody was kept on his met tie by an extraordinary system of com petition, where success met immediate recognition, where opportunity was wide, as the worlds craving for a good !. light to cheer it's hours of darkness. The machine was pervaded and stimu- lated by the consciousness of it's own power and prosperity. It was a geat thing to belong to an organization which always got what it wanted and which was making money as no busi- ness in the country ever made it.
 What more, indeed, could MT R6cke- feller ask than to be let alone? And why not let him alone? He had the ability to keep together the widespread interests he had acquired-not Nonly keep them together, but nuify and de- velop thenl-why not let him alone? Many people, even in the oil regions, were inclined to do so. Some because theyfeared hinl-rumor said MT. Rock efeller was vindictive and never forgot opposition; others because they were canny and foresaw that some day there might be chance for the in the Stan- dard Oil company; still others because criticism of success is ungracious busi- ness and arouses a suspicion that the critic may be envious or bitter. But there were a few people, as there all ways are, whom no cowardice, self-in- terest, or fear of public opinion could keep quiet, and these people insistently urged that the Standard Oil company was a menace to the commerce of the country. These people were over again and again the steps by which MT. Rock efeller had reached his height. They began to point out a result of his suc- cess less, apparent then than now; that a rlonopolization of one great indus try means gradual control of others. We have been and are being wronged, they repeated. We have right to do an independent business. Interference to drive us out is conspiracy. Let MT. Rockefeller succeed in the oil business and he will attack other industries; he will have imitators; in 50 years a hand ful of men will own the country.
 Only, the few irreconcilables with stood his sphinx-like attitude and yearly, after the compromise of 1880, their warnings and accusations became louder and more fierce. Probably the greatest trial MT. Rockefeller has ever had has come from the persistency with which malcontents have kept him be- fore the public They have interfered with two of his great principles-"hide the. profits "saynothing. Ida M. Tar bell in March McClure's.