Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-03-09

dependent refiner out of the business,
and in the same way conspired to
make the producers completely DEEPEN
dent upon the Standards pipe line.
These acts are alleged to have taken
place while Secretary Paul Morton
was in charge of the Atchison's traffic.
When the lower house of congress
ordered unanimously the investigation
of the Standard, it had a marked ef-
feet upon the stock of the company, a
decline of 20 points being noted in a
few days. The stock has been held at
$50 and it dropped to $50, with an
uneasy feeling prevailing.
1t certainly looks as though the
Standard Oil ship had drifted upon
troublous waters, and that all the oil
of it's thousands of storage tanks
throughout the world would not be
sufficient to quiet the rising waves
which may yet wash over its decks
and bring disaster.
We speak of the Standard Oil COM
pany and we think of the man who is
the brains and sinew, yes, and money,
too, of the gigantic corporation-John
D. Rockefeller, who began SO years
ago with nothing and to-day counts
his wealth in the hundreds of millions.
He is by all odds the richest man in
the world. How did he get within
his grasp all this wealth? What OF
the man and what of his methods?
In discussing Rockefeller and his
millions in a recent issue of the New
York World. Earl Mayo declares that
nothing in the career of this man has
been accidental except the place OF his
birth. which occurred at Richland, N. Y,
in 1889. and about which presumably he
had nothing to say. The means by
which he rose to wealth was the COM
bination of an idea with an opportunity.
Oil happened to be the opportunity, but
if the marvellous richness of the oil fields
never had been discovered the idea
would have been applied to some other
business and Rockefeller still would
have been one of the country's richest
men.
We think of trusts as a development
of the last ten or twenty years, but
Rockefeller long before this, yea, 20
years prior, grasped the idea and blazed
the way for the other trusts that have
followed in the train of the Standard.
The control of industry, elimination OF
competition, community of interest, reg
ulaLion of output, consolidation under
a single control, all were a part of his
plan. He led the Standard Oil to its
present eminence over a rocky road
which has since become smooth by much
travelling. What was exceptional and
unheard of then has become ordinary
and matter of fact.
Mr.. Rockefeller does believe in tbs
industrial system which he represents
and which he has done so much to fur
Their. His commercial creed is founded
upon the theory of the survival of the
fittest.
I'VE are better able to run your bust
ness than you are. We will pay you q
fair price for it and will conduct it our
selves, but we will provide for you
by paying you a salary to manage it (oi
to do whatever work you are best fit.
ted for), and you will thus have a GER
tainty to depend upon instead of the
uncertainty and the possibility of losing
your entire business which exists under
the competitive system. Therefore, yor
will be better off than before. We viii
be better off because we can make more
money on a smaller margin of prof
if we handle all the business. TIL,
public will be better off because, through
the economies Of management on a larg'
scale, it can secure it's necessities at
lower or at least at a more regular pric,
than before.
1.-THE fact that we make big fortune,
for ourselves by this process is not I'm
lust, for we have demonstrated that W,
are more capable than the rest of you
by getting control of the business
Therefore we are entitled to a create
reward, but we feel it our duty to he'll
you by applying a part of our wealtI
to objects that will be for the publ
good"
This is the argument that John D
Rockefeller used in conversation witt
his friends at the very time when h
was securing control of the oil rein
ing business and which he has repeate'
since. 1t is expressed more badly her
- -,.4l r~Dxn COLE occ,trconn hat ~,
is what it amounts to. In an industria
community ordered by Rockefeller tn
shrewdest intellects would control-an
as q corrollary it would follow that thei
control would be for the general goot
AS has been expressed in happy phras
it is a system of benevolent industris
feudalism.
Standard Oil Interests $3.50, 900, 0oC
While anything like an exact con
putation of John ID. Rockefeller's wealt
is impossible, there is obtainable som
t data that give interesting glimpses {
it's staggering total. Some seven {
eight years ago one of the Standard o
= leaders. in speaking of the fortunes
some of the men most PROMINENT
identified with that company, we
quoted as expressing the opinion tn;
G John D. Rockefeller's share of tn
great aggregation of wealth was the
e $150,000, 900 and that his income from
: was from $12, 000, 900 to $15,oo0,O 900.
This statement had reference
course only to that part of Mr.. Rockefe
ler's wealth derived from his oil int
d ests Or represented by his holdings
the Standard Oil company and the n,
n merous subsidiary companies engage
o in the distribution of oil or in the util
cation of it's many b%y-products. 1t W;
t. made, too, before the great increase
l. prices which in the past half dozen yea,
has added probably one-third to the ma