The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1907-02-16
A CONSCIENCELESS HYPOCRITE.

Tue IEHeTdI LuucabIOD DOaTu
| by John D. Rockefeller. the oil
trust magnate, which was herald-
ed to the public last week, The
Leader in its Wednesdays issue
said:
1T has been remarked by a
close observer of Mr.. Rockefel-
ler's peculiar brand of benevo-
lence. that soon after he makes a
liberal donation to education or
any other cause, there soon fol-
lows corresponding rise in the
price of coal oil and other petro-
leum products, SO that the Ameri-
can public which is preyed, upon
by the great Standard Oil trust
may recoup him for his supposed
generosity. If this critic be cor
rect, the public may soon lcok for
the biggest rise in the coal oil and
gasoline market yet recorded. y
This was not aB idle slur or
criticism. 1n fact, the last forms
of Wednesdays Leader had not
been put on the press before the
following appeared in the daily
press dispatches:
Pittsburg, Feb. 11.-The Stand
ard Oil Company today announc-
ed an advance in Pennsylvania oil,
fixing the price of Pennsylvania
amber at 1.73 and Pennsylvania
dark at 1853. The prices of the
other grades, except Ragland,
were advanced from 2 to 5 cents.
The dispatches further refer to
this "as the largest single raise
ever made"
1t is little wonder that Rock
efeIIer is despised and execrated
by the vast majority of the Amer
ioan people. His pretended
benevoIence in the form of vast
contributions to education and
other objects from time to time,
do not possess even the merit of
being conscience money" paid
back as restitution for the pirat-
ical methods of the Standard Oil
Trust, by which honest business
competitors have been crushed
and wrecked and the public sys-
tematicalIy robbed to ell with
overfowing millions the Rockefel-
ler Golfers; for, as is here seen, no
sooner is a contribution made,
than another turn is given to the
trusts extortion screws and the
oil consuming public is made to
recoup the oil magnate for the
alleged benefaction which is never
missed from his hoard.
John D. Rockefeller, the bald
headed old sinner who poses as "a
Christian and philanthropist, real
ly stands out before the world in
his true colors as a constituencies
hypocrite, whose gold and silver
is tainted by fraud, dishonesty
and oppression, and whose iIIgot-
ten millions any worthy cause
may we'll hesitate to be, the bene-
ficiary of, lest it partake of the
same dishonest faint,
Speaking of the late RockefeI-.
Ter donation, the Springfield Re-
publican, we'll says:
THE scattering among educa-
tionaE institutions over the land of
large sums of property which
have been acquired from the pub
lie in ways that are under public
condemnation, and are shown to
be properly so, is not calculated
to strengthen the educational
spirit of the country in the spread
of economic truth and the promo,
tion of industrial reforms which
tend to equalize individual oppor-
tunity and make impossible such
egregious inequalities as the
Rockefeller fortune represents. :.
There are those who still
hold the idea that but for these
great Individual fortunes and
their benefactians society would
be worse off than it is in educa-
tional and phllanthropic work.
Suel, a theory is wholly untenable
that the people generally cannot
be trusted properly to appreciate
the Importance of education and
other effort for the elevation Of
the race and the amelioration of
the general conditions of living ]
or to contribute adequately to
their support. 1t is only true
that the people will be laggard in
support of. such efforts when
comparatively few towering for
tunes exist, able and willing to
be leaned upon for these needs.
Then we may expect commune
ties and institutions to develop
mendicant attitude and turn from
seIf-help to help from beyond
which flows down as If from some
superior source that is to be held
in worshipful consideration. How
socially demoralizing this must be
no one can fail to understand. It
IS impossible now to correct the
lniustices ofthe past which have
created such asituation, but it is
of the first consequence that we
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