The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1909-08-26
BILLION FOR JOHN D.
AMOUNT REPRESENTS ROOKIE.
FELLER's FORTUNE AT THE
END OF TEN YEARS.
POWERLESS TO PREVENT IT
Income Of s2,4oo an Hour VIII Make
Him First 8illionaire When He Is
80 Years old-Gives $13o,ooo,ooo
to Charities.

New York, Aug. 20. - II John ID.
Rockefeller lives till his eightieth
birthday - and he has said he will
reach 100-he will become the first
billionaire in history In the last two
years Standard Oil. the wonderful au-
tomato money-making machine of his
creation, has increased his fortune
SS0.000,000. This is the increment of
the rise in value of the stock alone.
Standard Oil stock sold at 7l2
Wednesday, the highest price It has
reached since the panic of 1907. The
stock has risen S22 points from the
low ebb of 800. at which it sold on
November 4, 1907 Like a SNOWFALL
rolling down hill, Rockefeller's wealth
Is steadily growing and growing and
he is as powerless to stop 1t even If he
had the wishes as he would be to
check the revolution of the planets.
His Charities Cost $13o,ooo,ooo.
The enormous, inconceivable accu-
mulation of wealth of the mild.man-
nered, inscrutabe sphinx of millions
has gone steadily on despite the fact
that a short time ago an estimate of
his public charities placed them at
the stupendous total of $3.50, 1000, 900
The latest approximately accurate
estimates available place his fortune
in 1905 at at least $55O,000,000 In
1900 it was $400,0O0,O 900. This is an
increase for the five years of $150,000,-
900. At this ratio the Rockefeller for
tune is to-day about 100000, 900. In
1914 still at the same ratio OF in.
crease, it will be about $S50,000, 900,
and in 1919, when the oil king reaches
his eightieth year, 1t will have reached
the stupendous, brain-giddying total
of $1,000,000.000 an inconceivable
sum.
But it is not in the nature of things
that the organization he has built up
will stand still. Year after year, by
day and night, the value of it's stock
and dividends must increase. It is
simply natural law, working in the
interest OF an old, wrinkled, passion
less man.
In September, 1907, it was esti-
mated by Rockefellers closest associ-
ates that his income was at least
S30.25 a minute. Some figures placed
II as high as $40 during the same
him by Standard Oil alone have been
tremendous.
Company Fays Big Dividends.
Since 1882 when the company,
which pays dividends of 40 per cent
a year, was organized, it has paid its
stockholders $6O0,00O,0O in dividends.
OF this sum Rockefeller's share has
been one-quarter. The company's
earnings did not fall of in the year
of depression that followed the panic
and there has accumulated a surplus
of about $275,000,0O0. These figures
show what an impossibility 1t would
be for Rockefeller to keep from grow
ing richer in increasing ratio as the
years go by.
Rockefeller's affliation with Stand
ard OIL has become so prominent In
the public mind, that his almost in
Vulnerable other interests have been
forgotten. Not so long ago a banker
showed some friends list of more
than fifty banks and trust companies,
all of them reputed to be under the
Rockefeller influence. But with all
the interests with which the Rookie
feller millions are tied up, oil, steel
railroads, banks and trust companies
they still have had to seek other out
let's. The Rockefeller dollars are In
lighting and traction companies also
From a purely financial point OF
view, Rockefeller is the greatest Do
tentate in the world. II he had tc
earn his, wealth at the rate of two
dollars a day. the average of his EN-
playes' wages 1t would take more
! than eighty Thousand years to do II