Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-08-13
Beset,on Every Hand, Rockefeller
Wanted to Retire---Rogers
Compelled Him to Stick
MAY BE FINED s1s
s155,ooo,ooo
Monster Corporation Faces Eight Suits
Instituted by Federal Government,
and Six Begun by Different States
Suit for Dissolution Feared the
Most.


! greatest of all money making ma
chimes the Standard Oil Company,
which for three decades and a half
made ridiculous federal and state stat
utes while the men who created and
directed it piled up fortunes so colos-
sal as to be almost beyond human
comprehension.
The Standard Oil Company is now
face to face with a fight for its life.
The law, which for thirty five years
was a harmless shuttlecock in their
hands, has turned against them SER
iously, powerfully, relentlessly In a
dozen different directions its machinery
has been set in motion, and the
grinding process promises to go on for
many months, perhaps for many years.
The law, the thing that was so absurd
and ridiculous for thirty-five years,
has become real monster in the eyes
of the men who had made of it a play
thing. They are not only worried
and anxious, but alarmed and in a
state o.. decentralization bordering upon
semi panic.
= Rockefeller Saw the Handwriting.
The gift of foresight which John d.
Rockefeller possesses to a degree al
most ,uncanny, and which was no UNI
important factor in the upbuilding Of
his huge fortune and his great cor
it was time to do something drastic
to avert catastrophe.
1t takes long time for the outer
world to learn anything of what ac-
tually happens at the councils of the
small group of men who are the STAN
dard Oil Company, but The World is
in position to state that six months
ago Mr. Rockefeller seriously prepared
to really and genuinely divest himself
of every share he owns of the Standard
Oil Cornpany's capital stock.
OF it's $4,000 shares he personally
owns 100000, with a par value of
$27,000,D00 and market value of
s135,0O0,0O0. How the ownership of
q block of securities so valuable could
be transferred and the money raised
to pay for them We're matters that
We're never worked out.
Henry H. Rogers opposed the plan
of Mr.. Rockefeller, fatty, determine
eddy and effectively With all the
energy Of his forceful intellect he made
the head Of the Standard Oil COM
pany change his plan and stick to the
ship What he said or what argu-
ments, persuasive or otherwise, he en-
ployed were not within the ken of The
Worlds informant.
This was not the only indication. of
decentralization within the supposedly
adamarlt inner circle of the Standard
Oil
James Stillman, president of the
National City Bank, the Standard Oil
bank, the greatest and most powerful
banking institution in the United
States, became afflicted with the same
fright which shook the nerve of Mr..
Rockefeller.
Mr.. sstillman has wonderful cour-
age and nerve in carrying out dar-
Ing financial enterprises, but in all
other matters he is regarded as ex-
ceptionally timid by those who know
him intimately.
Like Mr.. Rockefeller, but several
months after that gentleman had his
fright attack and cure at the hands of
Mr.. Rogers, Mr.. Stillman became pos
sessed Of the most pessimistic fore
bodings He thought the time had
come fer him to convert the bulk of
his private wealth into liquid assets,
cash preferred, and arrange his affairs
along lines which permit of a speedy
retirement from all active business
cares.
Bolstered UP StilIman, Too.
Again the domino Mt courage of H. II.
Rogers came to the rescue Of the fall
tering Standard Oil f1nancier and
nerved him up to the task of remain
ing in harness and putting up a good,
stiff fight.
It is q fact hitherto known only to
a few that notwithstanding the close
intimacy between John D. Rockefeller
and H. II. Rogers, there has never been
any close personal friendship, in the
ordinary meaning of the term.
For instance, it is declared that in
all the time they have been together
Mr.. Rockefeller has never once set foot
In the home of Mr.. Rogers, and Mr..
Rogers has never eaten meal under
Mr.. Rockefeller's roof. He has visited
Mr.. Rockefeller at the latter's home,
but purely on business matters.
The two men have nothing in COM
mon except wonderful business ability
and the capacity to make money. Mr..
Rogers is a red-blooded man with
human side to him. He is emotional
when with his friends and explosive in
temperalnent Mr.. Rockefeller is the
opposite.
Aside from the pulling and hauling
going on within the Standard Oil camp,
there is another element of weakness,
which, like the first, never before ex-
listed in any of its battles. S. c. T.
Dodd, fer thirty odd years the legal
guide of Mr. Rockefeller and the Stand
ard Oil, was compelled to retire be-
cause Of physical disabilities two years
ago and has since died.
To the. great intellect of Mr.. Dodd
was given the credit of the numberless
successful fights waged year after year
on the Oil Trust. 1t was upon the tried
wisdom of Mr.. Dodd that Mr.. Rookie
Teller depended as he depended upon
the wisdom of no other man.
Great as the Standard Oil Company
Is, the array of suits pending against
1t is equally formidable. The federal
government has eight suits pending
h.