The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-01-31
A NIAGARA OF MONEY
owing Into the Golfers of John D. Rockefeller

,t7ong the records of the past treas
rcd bv John D. Rockefeller is an old
,.eo,tnt book, folio faded and yellow
sron7 time and dogeared from handling,
s,,e the New York Press. Occasional
ID, H., takes it from it's shelf and reads
me lines now growing dim. In it are
ontrras that show the Euclid Avenue
partst Church of Cleveland owes 10
snfs to him. of this amount 4 cents
,yer- advanced in cash for postage in
7s5- cents for paper in 1859, and
Ar me same year, II cents for postage
ana paper. : The debt never has been
lasidated, and although he has said
orhlicly and privately that the church
may have the money, still the indebted
YES. shows on the books. In the same
ledger, the first Mr.. Rockefeller ever
,,snt. are records of two contributions
n missionary society, each for 10
rents. one made in 1858 and the other
carry in 1859.
Reading these memoranda of nearly
half a. century ago, Mr.. Rockefeller re-
@aIIs the days when he walked the
streets of Cleveland, poor, almost
friandless and out of work. He re-
members his search for employment,
whereby he might make money to keep
himself fed, clad and sheltered. He
thinks of the rebuffs he got and of his
keen satisfaction when he found a
Mace on the water front at SIG a
month. out of this SIG month he
had to feed, clothe and lodge him
self for then as now Mr.. Rockefeller
was a strict churchman. He did 1t
and saved money.
He saved to such good purpose that
the Rockefeller income to-day is the
most colossal in the world. 1t is more
than twice as large as that of all the
crowned heads of Europe combined.
II is thirty-five times as great as that
OF King Edward VII of England and
fiye times as great as that of the Car
of Russia, the richest ruler of any ma
ton.
The Rockefeller income may be called
John DIS, but part of it goes to his
brother William and some goes to his
lieutenants, II. H. Rogers and James
Stillman. How it is divided only the
four concerned know. They never will
tell. Their policy is addition, division
and silence.
To-day the Rockefeller income is $2.Ot
a second, $123.66 AS a minute, $7,420.0S
an hour, $17S,082.0S a day, $1,246, 57t.5i
a week, and SOS, OOO, 900 a year.
With every tick of the clock there
drops into the Rockefeller strong box
more than 81. Day after night. night
after day, week in and week out
month after month as the months grow
into years the ceaSelesS "tick-tock
Textbook" continues and the rattle OF
the coin goes on. Musical at first, Their
monotonous, then maddening. But the
seconds never halt, the clock never
wearies, nor is the golden flow evel
damned except in speech. Resistless, il
pours like a Niagara toward John D
Rockefeller. Did he not provide out.
lets for it, it would overwhelm him
This now is his probelm-to find chan
nels into which to turn the money
flood. Like a handful of snow started
down a mountain side, gathering par
ticles as it rolls, growing and rolling
gaining speed with size and size with
speed untile it becomes an avalanche
that thunders toward the valley, tear.
ing out rocks and uprooting trees, weld
ing them into its own mass and threat
ening to engulf the hamlets below
such is the momentum gained by the
Rockefeller fortune.
If the daily income were paid to Mr.
Rockefeller in $40 gold pieces they
would number a little more than 5000
F!These piled one on top of the other
each one-tenth of an inch in thickness
would reach seventy-four feet tive
inches into the air, the hight of a six
story building, and more than twenty
times the hight of Mr.. Rockefeller him
self. Placed on a scale, the daily pil.
of gold would show a. weight of TAI o.
pounds, or more than five times tn,
weight of the richest man in the world
Working at the wage he made on tn,
Cleveland water front, it would hay,
taken him more than 927 years-th.
lifetime of a Methuselah--to earn tn,
amount of money that now flows to hin
in a single day.
And that is why it is the burden O.
Mr.. Rockefeller's life to find channel,
into which he can defect the graa
stream of gold that flows upon him,
He has to buy a railroad ever
week, one man said in explaining
figuratively, the volume of the Rookie
teller income, and he didn't exagger
ate much in saying this.
Standard Oil. which forms the bas,
of the Rockefeller fortunes, is yieldine
the greatest dividends since it was or
ganized but great as is the none,
yield from this source the Rockefellel
income from other sources is larger
The millions upon millions which have
been invested by Rockefeller in rail.
road stocks, bank stocks, copper mines
lead mines. iron mines, sugar stocks
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