The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1909-05-21
Henry 3. Rogers.

:
greatest of the American captains OF
industry"-a man who was a very gen
ius of organization.
Z Frankly a monopolist, as essential
ly pagan in business matters as he
was pous in his religious duties, Hen
ry Huddlestone Rogers, from poor
country lad of Massachusetts, became
one of the greatest, if not the greatest,
financiers of the metropolis of the
country. He came up from poverty
as result of an epochal discovery,
but it was his genius and industry
that brought success, not the epoch.
Rogers was born and had his ear
ly struggle near New Bedford, then the
saw the fleets sink away to almost
nothing new illuminant was just
then taking place of whale oil and the
"ile aristocracy'' was preparing for its
place iIf the literature of the world
Rogers gave up an ill-paid 'clerkship
at New Bedford and went to the oil
fields to to take his chances with the
others of the adventures new breed
of argonauts who were to achieve the
surely than those who decade before
| had journeyed to the Pacific slope. He
had every qualification for the task
industry, pertinacity, and martial
determination to destroy whatever en-
emy stood in his path
/ There is no romance in the story
of his life. Romance usually means a
sharp, fierce, severe struggle with ben
efits to follow. Rogers was to face
persistent endeavor from the time he
began warfare until the final sum-
mons came. A fighter of pagan type
he gave no quarter nor asked none.
With him business was war, and he
believed that success came to the
hardest fighter His tools were al
ways ready and his stroke strong,
keen and remorseless. The enemy in
his path was to be destroyed utterly.
He set about learning the art of war
in which he was engaged as soon as
he reached the oil fields. and having
acquired the knowledge he needed he
was the moving spirit in all the great
undertakings of the gigantic trust and
monopoly known as the Standard Oil.
Mr. Rockefeller declared sometime ago
that it was Rogers who conceived the
great monopoly, and to his genius was
almost entirely due the growth of that
corporation. This was already known
to those who knew the history of the
leaders of the trust.
Mr.. Rogers as soon as he became
that all the mine owners pool their
product and placed its disposition in
the hands of a single agency. Be
fore this had been completely accom-
plished, he saw a better chance for a
complete monopoly, and as his views
expanded and his confidence in gen.
eralship increased he suggested the
formation of corporation that would
swing the ert:re business for it's own
account At that time there were 120
oil companies in New York city alone,
with capital of $130, ,oOO, 900. The cap.
italization of companies in ten cities
in the countrv was TIM ee times tha.
amount. And yet when this genius OF
commercial warfare determined to buy
out all the small producers and OBJ
tain a monopoly of the business he fix
ed the capital of the Standard Oil at
81 ,000, 900 only, and the capital of that
organization is now only $4,000, 900
Yet it has eaten up all the competitors
or strewed their ruins along the path
it has travelled.
i This was the great work of the
mans life, and until his death he al
ways delighted in justifying his meth
DDS to anyone who would listen out
side of business hours. He had nc
excuse to make for monopoly, holding
that it was the proper thing to strive
for, and being proud of his success az
a monopolist. Magnificent as were
his conceptions, it was as an organ
izer that he shone chiefly. No othel
corporation ever had such an organi
zation as had the corporation which
he managed, and there was a truth II
his assertions that il man in Africs
, idesired to purchase half-dozen para
fin candles he could easily find a Stan(
!. ard Oil agent to supply them. Breadtl
, of conception did not intefere witt
, his attention to detail, and 1t was per
haps as much due to the monotonousl.
hard work Of detail as to his genius
for business that brought his success
His other great business conception
/. .I--An1almagated Copper-has receiv
. led the attention of the virile and caua
, ltic pen Of Thomas w. Lawton, not |