New-York tribune., 1922-04-09
Art in the Movies
Geneva's ) Refugees
70 the Editor of The Tribune.

Sir: In your recent editorial refer
ring to rich men in politics, and to
Henry Ford in particular, you say:
"It has been the country's good
fortune that most of its men of vast
wealth have not been politically am
bilious. John D. Rockefeller, the
richest of them all, has been content
to attend to his own business and to
devote his surplus money to doing
needed work for the people which
the government is not yet enlight-
ened enough to do for them"
wonder whether the public at large
Knows how very true this is. Forty
years ago John D. Rockefeller, whose
pastor at that time ! chanced to be.
said TO me: "A committee has Just
waited upon me asking me to become
candidate for the Governorship of
ONO, but that is not my sphere. /
know thoroughly one thing, and that
one thing I intend to do just as we'll
as | can" To-day the great company
which he founded, with its splendid
service both to the public and to it's
employees, shows the wisdom of that
decision. Mr.. Rockefeller would have
made an honest and efficient Governor,
but IN studying his fitness he was wise
enough not to sacrifice the best for the
better.
am ore who thoroughly believes
both in the sincerity and thu noh;,;tv
OF henry Ford He is good man and
genius; but he cannot improve on
81. Paul. who said This one thing I
do.' l am confident that every true
friend Of his will thank you for the
: counsel you have given. In his sne-
c'aity he is miracle worker; a mag
nihcent success. In politics he would
be blundering child playing with
matches.
If he desires best to serve his fellow
men, and believe he does there is no
way IN which he can do this so effect
lVeiy as by going right forward, max
ing cars and other products of his
genius and thereby increasing his
fortune. Why? Because every honest
merchant in the very process of &C
eumulating wealth is and must be a
pbilanthropist, whether he knows It or
rot
That is great truth frequently
overlooked. Pardon me if dwell upon
1T. When we read Of a man being
worth several millions of dollars we
sometimes speak and occasionally think
OF him as though he put it in stock
ing and boarded it away from the world.
where 1t should belong. But that Is
impossible. He cannot even retire, as
the rest of us can. He must constant
ly invest and reinvest.
Turn again to the example Of Mr..
Rockefeller, to whom you have re-
ferred He RETIRED at fifty-fve years
OF age. But with great wisdom he has
Kept his millions moving. He had to.
lie has placed much of his property in
factories and farms and mines and
ships and other useful industries.
whereby while making a profit for re-
investment he has furnished work and
wages and happiness for hundreds Of
thousands of other men less fortunate
than himself.
In fact, what else can such a man
wisely do? Elsewhere in your editorial
you stress vital truth, which again
needs repeated emphasis, that "a great
fortune is a public trust" No man
ever realized that truth more thorough
ly than John D. Rockefeller. I speak
because l know.
Suppose he had acted otherwise,
Suppose that when, twenty-seven years
ago, he retired" from the presidency
OF the Standard Oil Company he had
become socialist and decided to d..
VIDE his wealth equally among us all.
OF whom there are about 100000, 600
in these United States. That fortune
was, let us say, $500, 100000.
These various industries which he
has financed and which are furnishing
employment to SO many others now, Of
course, would be nonresident; his fac
tories and his ships and his mining
enterprises, together with the churches
which he has built, tbs hospitals he
has furnished, the colleges ne has en-
dowed, the orphan asylums, the old
peoples homes, the societies for medi-
cal research and all the rest of them
-non-eisxtent. But the socialists
happy dream would have been realized.
Each Of us would have received IS.
Or suppose, instead Of dividing his
fortune himself, he had become an ad-
vocate Of government ownership and
had placed his many millions in the
hands of the politicians to control and
invest, for that Is what government
ownership means. Well, personally, I
would rather trust those millions with
Boss Rockefeller than Boss Murphy.
Whether John d. Rockefeller likes
it or not, he is working every day for
the rest of us, because all he can do
with his wages" when he gets them
is not to spend them on himself any
longer, for such expenditure is neees-
sarily infnitesimal compared with what
he owns, but to reinvest them in busi-
ness or benevolence for the good Of
other people. He is our general man