River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1905-03-23

make the producers completely depen-
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 eff
feet upon the stock of the company, a
decline of 20 points being noted in
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-Joh
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 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, 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 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
| ulation of output, consolidation under
a single control, all were part of his
plan He led the Standard Oil to it's
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
| f1ttest
1--WE are better able to run your BUSH
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 Tor
to do whatever work you are best fit
ted for), and you will thus have GER
tainty to depend upon instead of the
uncertainty and the possibility of losing
your entire business which exists under
Lu0 COulp0LlLlV0 SySIOm. 1nOI0lOT0, you
will be better off 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 it's necessities at a
lower or at least at more regular price
than before.
''Tne fact that we make big fortunes
for ourselves by this process is not I'M
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 a greater
reward, but we feel ii our duty to help
you by applying a part of our wealth
to objects that will be for the public
good"
This is the argument that John D.
Rockefeller used in conversation with
his friends at the very time when he
was securing control of the oil refin-
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 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, 900, 900.
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
it's 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. Rockefeller's share of this
great aggregation of wealth was then
$3.50 100000 and that his income from it
was from $12 900, 900 to $4,000, 900.
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..
cation of its many by-products. 1t 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 cou-
servative estimate. therefore this