The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-08-24
DR.. ROEDER SEES
GREAT DANGER IN
ROCKEFELLER act
Orange President of State Civic
Federation Condemns Great
Private Parks.
MENACE is WORSE THAN
ARMY OF UNEMPLOYED
And if Laws Are Passed Curbing
MiIIiOnaires They Will
Evade Them.

The Rev. DR.. Adolph Roeder, of Or
ange, president of the New Jersey State
Civic Federation. who has been travel
ing through the Adirondacks, made IN
teresting observations in his discourse
yesterday on the private parks which
are found in those woods. Speaking OF
a railroad journey through the section,
DIR. Roeder said:
1--WE begin to see frequently repeated
white signs placed upon trees. stumps
and specially devised sticks, and pres
emily we become aware they say 'pri-
vate park private park. until the
legend sinks deep into the mine | Il
a questioning eye upon a philosopher
friend who has been a resident of the
region for years. He mods his head
"'John ID. Rockefeller's reservation
he m Wait a bit till you see
the real thing
$50 I wait "a bit and when his ouch
falls upon my arm look out of the
window at my left and | am amazed.
For there. in g%laring, blazoned contrast
with the village we have just left be-
hind, lies the domain of John D.. Rookie
Teller, through the twenty-odd miles of
whose length the train will run for
t~hirty-fve minutes and make two stops.
Train Waits for John ID.
1T is a series of buildings with every
modern convenience, with stables,
greenhouses ard outbuildings. The
rtDA. -n Ar -.-I H. -. iii
be a special water works to go with
this village, which looks like an over
grown country club. The wires tell of
phones. There is a private car on
the siding for which the train will wait
any number of minutes or hours.
docs it seem to you asks my phi
losopher friend, to be an improbable
statement that this train will wait for
a private car? Well. it will wait. The
train service here has one popularity,
The New York Central rains wait for
nothing. Not even for the train that
makes the junction and is designed to
carry passengers up ottawa way, but
the Ottawa train makes a stop of any
length at Bay Pond, John DIS station.
ii waited here q few days ago for al
most two hours. If you miss the juno
ton train you a go out and look at
the fifteen houses there nine times over
and wait for the next one. \ party
of four girls went down a day or two
ago. 1t became night and the train on
the Central was w ours late. The
mar at the station Went home. The
girls sat alone in the station until mid
night. Then the train pulled in
Menace Worse Than Unemployed.
THE speech indicated the style OF
grievance these people have when they
face the problem of landed estates,
which is q greater worry to England
now than the army of the unemployed
or the hosts of the suffragists. And
we nave the large landed Estates with
us now, since millionaires are buying
up tracts, as did John ID. Rockefeller
in the Adirondacks. 1t is or was largely
waste land, of course. so far as agrlcul-
ture is concerned. but at the same
time it was and over which the ma
tive hunted and fished until recently,
and land in which he felt the right OF
eminent domain. which is now cur
tailed. For these woods are full Oh
bea and deer. if all the stories | hear
may be credited, even of a large discount
must be had for fishermen's and hunt
ers' enthusiasm. Here one nan buys III
miles square of the territory. plants in
one section of it a village and leaves
the rest comparatively undisturbed, e
cept that he puts up a line of signs
over miles of territory telling people
that this is now a private park and
they must keep off under penalty of the
law.
Hire Others to Purchase.
81 fell to thinking over all sorts Of
ways in which limits might be set tc
this particular feature and the allieC
feature of inheritance and the 'deat
hand I called up all the Legislation
which had been enacted since the days
of Scion. | thought of an inheritance
tax which would tax these incomes; o
legislation which would void a viii
after ten years; OF limitation of pur
chasing power. so hat our frienC
Rockefeller could not buy any more
than a certain definite number of acres
proportional and percentaged accord
ing to the area of country or districi
in which the land lies, and other things
"'What would that accomplish in
ouired my philosopher friend. If you
stop John DIS buying, he will get his
Sunday-school son TO buy the plot nexl
his and other members of the family
or, indeed, any other individuals under
his control, to buy others until he hao
what he wanted. That law would bt
futile"