St. Tammany farmer., 1905-04-15

| pauy anu we L0lQK OF the man VINO i
the brains and sinew, yes, and money
too, of the gigantic corporation-Joh1
D. Rockefeller, who began SO year
ago with nothing and to-day counts
: his wealth in the hundreds of millions
He is by all odds the richest man il
the world. How did he get within
his grasp all this wealth? What O
! the man and what of his methods?
: In discussing Rockefeller and his
> millions in a recent issue Of the New
} York World, Ea:l Mayo declares thai
nothing in the career of this man has
been accidental except the place of his
birth. which occurred at Richls.nd, N. Y.
in 1899 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, bu
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 development
of the last ten or twenty years, but
Rockefeller long before this, yea, 2J
! 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
ulation of output, consolidation under
single control, all were part of his
plan. He led the Standard Oil to its
present eminence over 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 the
industrial system which he represents
and which he has done SO much to fur
ther. His commercial creed is founded
upon the theory of the survival of the
| fittest. II
1--WE are better able to run your busi-
| ness than you are. We will pay you
fair price for it and will conduct it our
selves, but we will provide for you
by paying you salary to manage it (or
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, yon
will be better on than before. We will
be better off because we can make more
money on a smaller margin of profit
if we handle all the business. The
public will be better off because. through
the economies of management on large
scale, it can secure its necessities at
lower or at least at more regular price
than before.
"The fact that we make big fortunes
for ourselves by this process is not un-
just, for we have demonstrated that we
are more capable than the rest of you
by getting control of the business.
Therefore we are entitled to greater
reward, but we feel it our duty to help
you by applying a part of our wealth
to objects that will be for the public
good"
Rockefeller used in conversation with
his friends at the very time when he
was securing control of the oil rein
ing business and which he has repeated
since. 1t is expressed more badly here
and with more self-assurance, but this
is what it amounts to. In an industrial
community ordered by Rockefeller the
shrewdest intellects would control-and
as a corrollary it would follow that their
control would be for the general good.
AS has been expressed in happy phrase
it is a system of benevolent industrial
feudalism.
Standard Oil Interests $3.50, 100000.
While anything like an exact COM
putation of John D. Rockefeller's wealth
is impossible, there is obtainable some
data that give interesting glimpses of
its staggering total. Some seven or
eight years ago one of the Standard Oil |
leaders, in speaking of the fortunes OF |
some Of the men most prominently |
identified with that company, was
quoted as expressing the opinion that
John D. Rockefellers share of this |
great aggregation of wealth was then
$3.50, 100000 and that his income from it |
was from s12O0OOO0 to $15,0OO,00O.
This statement had reference of |
course only to that part of Mr.. Rockefel-
ler's wealth derived from his oil inter-
ests or represented by his holdings in
the Standard Oil company and the nu-
merous subsidiary companies engaged
in the distribution of oil or in the utili-
zation Of its many by-products. It was
made, too, before the great increase in
prices which in the past half dozen years
has added probably one third to the mar
ket value of these holdings. At con-
servat.ve estimate, therefore, this
branch Of Mr.. Rockefeller's fortune, in
GLIDING the increase yielded by his in
come during the intervening period,
must represent not less than $780,
]0O, 600.
1t is pretty we'll authenticated, how
ever, that for the past decade Mr.. Rocke-
eller's yearly income has been steadi-
y rising from $3O,0OO,0OO at the begin
ming of the period to point at least
,wo-thirds greater than that at the
present time, and that, during the pre-
,eding ten years, it grew from SIC, ,0CO, 900
% $3O,O0O,OO0.
Lives the Simple, Frugal Life.
Mr.. Rockefeller and his family are
modest in habit and expenditure. They
ire perhaps the most notable devotees
# the simple life among our multi
nillionaires. If we assume that 81, ,OOO,-
90 were expended every year in living
md in charity, it will be seen that the