The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1908-10-03
MAGNATE
AS AUTHOR
acoNE "REMINISCENCES OF
MEN AND EVENTS"
PUBLISHED.
defends Associates In Standard
O1 and Discusses Modern Cor
porations---Too Late to Argue
About Advantages of COmbina-
tions---A Necessity Now.

New York, Sept. 26.-John D. Rock.
ofoIler appears for the first time in
4bo role of an author in series of ar
tic1os on Some Random Reminiscen.
nos of Men and Events" the first of
which will appear in the October issue
Of the Worlds Work.
Mr. Rockefeller gives as a reason
for speaking now that IF tenth of
the things that have been said are
true. then dozens of able and faithful
men who have been associated with
me- many of whom have passed away,
mist have been guilty of grave faults,
For myself, l had decided to say moth
ing, hoping that after my death the
truth would gradually come to the sur.
face and posterity would do justice,
Int while | live and can certify to GER
tain things it seems fair that I should
refer to some points which, 1 hope,
will help to set forth several much dis.
cussed happenings in a new light. |
am convinced that they have not been
fully understood.
Dit Not Override Partners.
1T has been said that l forced the
men who became my partners in the
oil business to Join with me. l would
not have been SO short-sighted. If it
we're true that l followed such tactics,
| ask, would it have been possible to
make of such men lifelong compan-
iOns?"
Mr.. Rockefeller speaks of the devel-
opment of the Standard Oil Company,
and says that the plan of selling direct
to the consumer and the exceptionally
rapid growth of the business bred a
certain antagonism which, I suppose,
could not have been avoided"
Of the direct selling to the consum-
er, he says:
This was done in a fair spirit and
with fair consideration for everyone's
rights We did not ruthlessly go
after the trade Of our competitors and
attempt to ruin it by cutting prices or
instistuting a spy system"
If any of the employees of the COM
pany were over-zealous in going after
sales, he says that they acted in viola
ton of the expressed and known wish
eS of the company.
Mr.. Rockefeller says that in the
early days of the oil industry it was
considered a most hazardous under
taking, not altogether unlike the specu-
lative mining undertakings we hear
50 much of today.
None of u.s." he says, lever dream
ed of the magnitude of what proved to
be the later expansion"
Further on he says:
Another thing to be remembered
about the so-called octopus is that
there has been no water introduced
into the capital. Nor in all these
Years has anyone had to wait for
money which the Standard Oil owed.
1t was a common thing to hear people
say that this company had crushed
competitors. Only the uniformed
could make such an assertion. 1t has
had and always has had and always
Will have hundreds of active competit-
OrS
The Standard has not now nor never
did have a royal road to supremacy,
nor Is its success due to any one man,
out to the multitude of able men who
are working together"
Combination Necessary.
In discussing the modern corpora
uon, Mr.. Rockefeller says:
Beyond question there is a suspi-
clon of corporations. There may be
reason for such suspicion very often,
lof corporation may be moral or Inn
moral, just as man may be moral or
'he opposite; but it is folly to condemn
dill corporations because some are bad
VI even to be unduly suspicious of all
because some are bad. But the cor
poratlon in form or character has
come to stay-that is a thing that may
pe depended upon.
1t is too late to argue about the ad.
edh'ages of industrial combinations
lney are necessity. And if Ameri'
cans are to have the privilege of ex.
ending their business in all the states
vi The Union, and into foreign coph.
,iles as we'll, they are necessity on a
large scale and require the agency OF
"Ore than one corporation"
Mr. Rockefeller recalls what he said
a an official hearing, that ''if were
" suggest any legislation regarding
INDUSTRIAL combinations it would be:
lrSt, federal legislation under which
Such corporations may be created and
iesulated, if that be possible; second
- "eu thereof state legislation as near
Uniform as possible, encouraging
tonlolnations of persons and capital
~! me purpose of carrying on indus
IeS' out sufficient to prevent frauds
upon the public"