The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-07-06
OIL DISTRIBUTION
AN EXACT SCIENCE

ForeI9n Gotd ome 70 IHiS
Country to Pay For Standards
Product That is PeddIed to tho
Doors Of Hutand Palace Accord
ing to the Rockefeller Plan OF
International Garter.
This Rockefeller Foundation, to
make a story of it, is in reality just
this-it is the dream of a poor boy
come true. 1t is the happy ending
of an American novel Of real life. IN
Is the climax of one of the most dra-
matte and impressive careers that
this country, or any other, has ever
known.
The dream-or the novel or dra-
ma. whichever you like-began more
thar half a century ago. 1t began in
a shabby little boarding house in
Cleveland, In the brain of a lad Of
eighteen who was clerking for a
shipping and real estate company.
There were at that time about a
million other American boys Of the
sal he age, and not many of them had
received fewer privileges than this
one. He had been educated partly
in the public schools. but mainly at
home, by his mother and father. His
pay, at this time, was sixty cents a
day. His hours of labor were from
breakfast until bedtime. For his
room and meals he was paying 81 a
week, so that his net income-the
basis of his dream of fortune. and phi
lanthropy-was not more than $135
a year.
Even at this time. and with this
income, he built a tiny little founda-
ton of his own. Out of the sixty
cents a day, he set aside a few pen
MES for the church, or for some hun
cry family, or to drop into some hat
that was passed around in the Office.
The notebook in which these little
philanthropic entries were made Is
still in existence. 1t is know4/by
the name of Ledger A" in the Rock
efeller family. 1t Is a completely
worn out little notebook, with bro
ken cover and tattered pages Of
faded writing, but 1t is n Of the
most precious treasures in the Rookie
Teller vaults. 1t has more than a
personal interest now. 1t has sud-
denly become historic, because 1t re-
cords the origin Of the most COM
prehensive scheme Of benevolence in
the whole history Of humanity"
The managerial instinct was so
strong in this boy that he was not
satisfied with merely paying his share
into the contribution boxes. BY the
time he was nineteen he had ripened
into an organizer Of b%enevolence.
He was a member of a mission
church, which was fast breaking
down under the weight Of a $4,000
mortgage. This sixty = cent "a day
youth undertook tc collect the
money, and he did it.
THAT was a proud day." he said
in later years, when the last dollar
was collected"
Little as he knew It, the boy was
then at work upon the fulflment Of
his dream to become perhaps the
greatest getter, and the greatest CIV
er, of his generation.
Later, when he became a prosper
Gus man of business and large at
fairs, he still retained the habit Of
organizing his giving as well as his
getting. He even went so far as to
organize his family into a sort Of
foundation. At the breakfast table
he would distribute the various ap-
peals for help among his children.
requesting them to investigate each
case and make a report to him on
the following day. In this way his
children, and especially his, son and
namesake, who is destined to distrib-
ute the revenue of the Rockefeller
fortune, received a Spartan training
in 1.-THE difficult art of giving.""-r
The whole bent Of the Rockefeller
mind seems to have been inclined
from the first toward the working
out Of this problem Of distribution.
The business Of the Standard Oil
Company itself is much more a mat
ter of distribution than Of production.
II was unquestionably the first COM
pany that undertook to sell its prod
uct directly to the users on a world
wide scale. For the most part, it de-
liyers it's oil, not to wholesalers and
middlemen, but to the fam liy that
burns it, whether it be in the United
States or in the uttermost parts of
the earth. It has, for instance, no
fewer than 5000 tank wagons travel
ing from door to door in the twenty
countries of Europe, selling pints and
quarts of liquid light to %whosoever
demands it. Fully 100000 a
week, in foreign gold or its eQuiva-
lent, comes to this country to pay for
The oil that IS peddled to the doors
of hut and palace, according to the
Rockefeller plan OF International dis
tribution.
Consequently, both by natural ap-
titude and business experience. Mr..
Rockefeller was we'll prepared to
work out the problem of distributing
the surplus money Of the rich in a
systematic and efficient manner. His
new foundation is no afterthought.
II is no sudden change of mind or
change of heart. 1t is the natural re-
suit of fifty years Of experience and
eyperiment. What he began to do as
a Door boy in a Cleveland boarding
house, he is now about to complete
on an international scale-that is the
exclamation of the new plan that has
excited so much comment and so
much curiosity.