The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-28
TAKE ROCKEFELLER AS TEXT.
CHEMISTS DISCUSS HIM Al.
THEIR ANNUAL MEETING.


" 1NaNhChnn1CAt htouS VI hAtcT1Nure,
Seven hundred scientists, representing
practically every college of importance in
tie United States, were at Columbia Uni
versltv yesterday for the ffty-seventh
meeting of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. With the
association assembled nineteen affiliated
societies. The association is made up Of
teu different divisions dealing with mathe-
naiics and astronomy, physics. chemistry,
mechanical science and engineering, geology
and geography. zoology. botany, anthro-
polDSv, social and economic science and
physiology and experimental medicine.
IN he morning there was a big general
meeting at which President b utler made
ar address of welcome and W. H. WEIGH
NJ Johns Hopkins University. the new
pres dent of the association, was intro
'dured
Then the divisions retired TO sectional
meetings where all sorts of subjects were
discussed, from the color blindness of field
mice 70 the abilities of Oliver Wendell
Holmes as an author. As each member
Of the association came up to the univer-
slty he registered and received a little
button with a number. After this IL No. l4l
mel No. 326 on the campus and did not
know his name, all he had to do was to
look up No. 326 in his catalogue. No. I4I
did the same thing, and then no introduce
ron was necessary.
one Of the most interesting sessions Of
the day was that of the section OF social
and economic science. which was opened
by a talk by Charles A. Conant on ASPECTS
Of the Currency Question The sensation
came when Henry Laurens Call in a speech
on The Concentration of Wealth" said that
/ per cent. of the population of the United
States owned 05 per cent. OF the wealth.
condemned corporations as the cause of
these unnatural conditions, and recon-
mended socialism as a cure.
Of John D. Rockefeller he said:
Rockefeller is the leading exponent
of corporation competition as against
individual competition. His millions have
CONF to him only because he controls cor
poratlons. The concentration Of wealth
into such fortunes as his has practically
divided industrial society into classes
the enormously rich and the miserably
poor"
Mr.. Calls remarks about Mr.. Rockefeller
called forth this response from Logan q. !
McPherson, assistant to the late Samuel
Spencer
why" said he, "in that bleak house
down there in West Fifty-fourth street
they are very economical. very close. The
Rockefellers are really poor. Some rela-
tives of mine we're recently at dinner there, !
and in the course of the conversation Mrs. '
Rockefeller remarked:
cannot afford to have them. We are too
poor
You must understand that a man may
he worth 500. 900 600 or 81 COO 900. 600. but
he has to keep his factories and rcsineTies
going and may not have always ready
cash.
John d. Rockefeller is poorer in his house
In West Fifty-fourth street than he was
when, as a young man, he went to a farmer
al Macon, Ill, and tried to borrow s25 900
10 carry out a scheme he had for building
pipe lines. IL was not a pipe dream, but
the farmer, who was a relative of mine and
fOlO me- the story fhn1Oht IL was He told
Mr.. Rockefeller he would like to help him
bat that he didn't have the money. Many
years afterward he met Mr.. Rockefeller in
Cleveland and mentioned the incident.
You see what the pipe line scheme came
TO- said Mr.. Rockefeller. We reduced
freight rates two-thirds and the gold came
pouring into our hats. And yet they call me
an extortionist and an enemy OF the public
good. I'm a hard shell Baptist and I've
tried to do right"
Other things in Mr.. Calls speech were:
As a result of this wealth concentration
Industrial society il practically divided into
the twoNclasses Of the enormously rich and
the mlserably poor; our $1,000. 900 wage earn
ers receive an average Of but $500 per year:
nne-tenths of our business men are notori-
olSlv failures; our clergy receive an average
annual salary OF about $500 the average for
the educators of the land il even lower. and
the income OF other professional men in
proportion; while of our 8.OO0.OoO farmers.
on"-third are tenants. and the homes OF
one-'tird of the remaining two-thirds are
mort "a aged, and a debt burden is almost uni
N'gsal.
We are. in fact. a nation Of debtors. our
runlo and private. MORTGAGE. bond and
general lndebte dness alone reaching "A prob
49," total Of $780, 900. O0J. 900. or 1915 per capita;
IN other words, an amount equal to thirteen
end onP-half times our per capita money
circulation and twenty-five times our savings
bank deposits. But the stocks of our in
trl-luI financial and ptIhlic garVipa mr.
pordtions are expected to draw dividends,
and constitute as truly an Indebtedness
upon the part of the public to the owners of
wealth a. do mortgages and bonds them
solves and these. under their present enor-
NOUS oNcgcH pltalieation. would swell our
Indebtedness 10 a probable total far In excess
Of the $40. 900. opJ.On estimated as the total
aggregate wealth of the nation; the whole
bong a first lien upon the toll and property
Of tho nation. with the power given to these
corporations to levy what tax they please
tnereupon.
These conditions are not normal nor the
result Of natural law or causatiol. but are
instead the result Of a monopoly of land and
mueral resources, Of money. of transporta-
ti"n and other pu bic utilities. as also Of
industry. This monopoly has, moreover,
been broug ht about by means Of the corpora
tior. industrial, financial and public service.
1t i thus the work Of human law alone. the
Product Of vicious institutions.
The cOrporation as constituted is in fact
monstrosity in our indu -trial system.
But II the conditions outlined are the result
slnne NJ unjust and vicious Institutions.
then 70 law must We look for their correction.
The corporation should yet be made CO.
operative. social. instead Of as now the in
strlnent Of pr, vate greed. In the first place.
che ownership Of pu bio utilities, such as
railways, street railways and the like. should
be IN the public. as also the control and dis
tribntton n money, The corporation prin-
crpie and function should likewise be eN-
tended 10 mines. as also to land in cities and
elsewhere required for Joint use and oc-
c%upsncv, with perhaps a reHsons bic ~restriC-
ton upon non-occupant ownership Of land.
And finally. the trust. like public utilities.
should be made cooperative in the workers.
public, not a private Possession.
Moreover. in the taking charge of these
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