Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1905-08-17
DEGREES CRITICS.
CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAoE.)

Rockefeller not Of breaking the law. or
even the rules OF business as interpreted
by men in business; Judge him by the
golden rule.
$50 far as have heard, no one has
ever accused Mr.. Rockefeller OF lying,
stealing or cheating. 1t is certain that
he did not make his millions by protec-
tectye legalized piracy through high
tariff, or by bribe-gottsn franchises, or
through vast public domains given to. or
stolen by him. His principal crime seems
to be that he is the richest man in the
United States that he has given away
i S4o,ooo,oo0; that ne has outsold, out
bought and outgeneraled his competitors.
and continues to do so. That since 1881
he has handled 100000 barrels Of
crude oil annually, produced, collected,
refined, distributed and sold at a profit
Of half a cent per gallon, while the re-
taller has charged a margin of Of from 2
to cents and finally, after six years Of
painstaking research, the only sure fact
which Miss Ida Tarbell leaves us is, that
Mr. Rockefeller and his partners profited
to large extent by railroad rebates some
20 or 80 years ago, when everybody else
engaged in the business received rebates
also. Therefore Mr. Rockefeller is a
criminal and dangerous man to religion
and government.
81 do not believe in the competitive
system ia the conduct Of great enterpris-
es of production and transportation, in
warfare either commercial or between
nations, but am not fool enough to ad
voca,e the dlsarmng of my own country
while other nations maintain their arms
Those who decry Rockefeller and talk of
tainted money do not try to settle the
ethical basis of his money getting accord
ing to existing conditions, or to offer any
thing better. Any fool can set fire to a
beautiful and costly building, or with one
blow destroy the artistic production in
marble or on canvas of a lifetime.
There are many destructive critics
who have no solution to offer for the
present industrial system. The system
which makes it possible for men to amass
millions andto drive out althe competitors
they can is ours, and the paternalism
which would fix railroad rates. the price
Of oil, the figure of interest, and how
much profit man shall make, or the
price of wheat per bushel, is not more
Objectionable than the Matchmaking OF
railroads and the oil business for the
benefit Of all the people. And until there
is change of our system Of ndiydualism
do not point to Mr.. Rockefeller and cry
criminal The millennium has not come,
and self-interest is the prevailing impulse
Of the business world. Men are not living
and working solely for the benefit Of
their fellows, and Mr.. Rockefeller is not
glazing illustration of the man who
lives exclusively for himself. The great
mass of the men who are not worth a
dollar of wealth live for self exclusively
You preachers who are glad to ride
upon half-rate rebates over the railroads
and buy at 0 per cent discount, get out
of your glass houses; there may be such
thing as tainted railroad passes and
tainted discount privileges. How much
of self is dominating you? How long
would you continue to preach the ever
lasting gospel of the Son Of God if you
;ould not make living out of it? The
farmer is not raising wheat for the good
! of humanity, or because men must
starVe without it, but for the money in
the business, and the difference between
man who raises thousand bushels Of
wheat at cost of thirty cents per bushel
and the man who raises million bushels
of wheat at cost of twelve cents per
bushe is not the difference between an
honest man and the man who ought to be
in the penitentiary. A character study
Of humanity in its sef-interest; the mo-
tives which actuate in business; that un-
derlie the formation of government; that
dominate an invention, and even art, lit
erature fraternalism and unonism, will
not cast very shadow on the business
character Of Mr.. Rockefeller or his
methods.
What is a Christian rate of interest?
How much profit can man take with
out its becoming tainted? If thousand
consumers are benefited by the failure of
| five small profit-mongers IN competition
with one great department store, does
that make the profits Of the big concern
tainted and the owner a criminal9
What Of the small shops,
grist mills, cloth factories and iron foun-
dries, which have been rendered unprof-
table by great organizations Of capital9
The general interests Of the people are
subserved by the elimination Of the small
proflt-monger, and we are not to blame
for the captains Of industry" though
these benefits in being brought about
have nrnvep diea etroue RI the uneucceee-