The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1910-07-15

| 'oVe'SH SoIo ZONES TO MS
Country to Pay For Standards
Product That is Peddled to tho
Doors Of Hut and Palace Accord
Ing to the Rockefeller Plan Of
international Barter.
This Rockefeller Foundation. to
make a story of it, is in reality Just
thls-it Is the dream of poor boy
come true. 1t is the happy ending
or an American novel Of real life. It
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
than half century ago. It 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
same 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 S135
year.
Even at this time, and with this
income, he built tiny little founda-
ton of his own. Out of the sixty
cents day, he set aside a few pen
MES for the church, or for some hum
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 known 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 it is one 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 it re-
cords the origin of 1.-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 benevolence.
He was member of a mission
church, which was fast breaking
down under the weight of a $4,000
mortgage. This sixty cent day
To
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 fulfilment of
his dream to become perhaps the
greatest getter, and the greatest CIV
err, Of his generation.
Later, when he became a prosper
Gus man Of business and large af-
fairs. he still retained the habit of
organizing his giving as we'll as his
getting. He even went so far as to
his family into a sort of
foundation. At the breakfast table
he would distribute the various ap-
peals for help among his children.
them to investigate each
case and make report to him on
The following day. In this way his
and especially his son and
who is destined to distrib-
ute the revenue of the Rockefeller
fortune, received Spartan training
n the difficult art of giving"
The whole bent of the Rockefeller
mind seems to have been inclined
rom the first toward the working
>ut of this problem of distribution.
The business of the Standard Oil
Company itself is much more mat
er Of distribution than of production.
t was unQuestionably the first COM
,any that undertook to sell its prod
let directly to the users on a world
vide scale. For the most part, 1t de-
ivers its oil, not to wholesalers and
but to the family that
'urns 1t, whether it be in the United
states or In the uttermost parts of
he earth. 1t has, for instance. no
ever than 5000 tank wagons travel
ng from door to door in the twenty
ountries Of Europe, selling pints and
uarts Of liquid light to whosoever
it. Fully $1,0O0,OOO
week, in foreign gold or its equiva-
emit, comes to this country to pay for
he oil that is peddled to the doors
t hut and palace, according to the
plan Of international dis.
Consequently, both by natural ap-
Itude and business experience, Mr..
rockefeller was we'll prepared to
'ork out the problem Of distributing
ne surplus money of the rich in
ystematic and efficient manner. His
ew foundation is no afterthought,
is no sudden change of mind or
hange of heart. 1t is the natural re.
lit OF fifty years Of experience and
nprimpnt What hn houar, n IL,