The Washington times., 1922-07-09
JOHN D., At 83,
0kSbACk ON
EARLYPQVERTY
Trained by Pious Mother Who
Emphasized Her Advice
With Birch Rod.
BY MARGERY REX,
written for Cosmopolitan News Ser,

son didn't do well" when she mar
Hried., the neighbors back in Tioga
county. N. Y. all agreed.
Most OF them. II there are any Of
the. original critics left, will admit
that her "man" didn't matter any
how. Since those days, her son.
John d. Rockefeller, made the great
est fortune in America.
Today was his eighty-third birth
day. and John D. Rockefeller. ST., for
all his wealth. celebrated the event
as quietly as he and his brothers,
Frank and William, did back in their
early home, Richford, N. Y. Then
they were all little. picking blueber.
ries for pennies.
Give Eliza Dawson Rockefeller
credit.
She was a piouswoman and stern.
Her purse was empty but her prin-
ciples were not. OF these she gave
liberal to her children, emphasizing
the beauties Of economy and in.
dustry.
An example OF the unflinching
purpose which must have been
branded on the growing boys con.
| sciousness was furnished by MS
mother, who was whipping him for
an offense OF which he was innocent.
He protested, but his Jtern parent
I who had already begun to swing
the birch. said:
Never mind-we have started on
this whipping and 1t will do for an.
other time"
In much the same manner, her
| offspring might have intimidated
small competitors when he conceiv-
ed, built and managed the most fla
grantly successful of all trusts. the
Standard Oil Company Of America.
His BOyhOod Prophecy.
II was not strange that young
John D. thought constantly about
money. His father could not be
dubbed a good provider." His
mother was forced to be penurious
with what little means they managed
to scrape together. Her astute son
could not but sense how unpleasant
existence was going to be with a
continued lack Of funds. He confid.
ed once to a boy friend.
do you know what / want?
When I'm a man, want to be
worth a hundred thousand dollars
And I'm going to be, too, some
day"
The greatest of the Rockefellers
more than fulfilled his boyhood
prophecy. Only Carnegie. in TINS
country. and few European
crowned heads could count money
in front of John D.. and not feel
like paupers.
Most useful OF all commercial dis
coveries came to John D., a few
years later In Cleveland. where the
family had moved, Meanwhile the
brothers had gone to the Oswego
academy. Later in the new Ohio
home they spent a year at business
college. They had enough of food
and clothes-the bare necessities Of
life. and secured pocket money by
digging potatoes and husking corn.
These labors could be depended
upon to furnish at least a quarter
a day.
Right then John D.. made a dis
covery. He learned that $50 put aut
at per cent interest would yield, IN
given time, as much as he could
earn by digging potatoes for 100 days.
Money should work for him. he
would not slave for money. he prom
ised himself then. Later this became
his basic principle in all transactions.
Il believe the only way to succeed
is to keep getting ahead all the time"
came to be one OF the best-known of
the Rockefeller sayings.
John d. had q fancy for the gro
Gerry business, and finally getting
from his father $4,000 at 10 per cent
he entered a partnership with an
Englishman named NJ. B. Clark and
set up business in a line of produce.
This was after his employer had re-
fused him a raise. He was then nine
teen.
His Beginning In Oh.
During the civil war the firm sold
supplies to the armies and they pros.
pered. Then the oil fever visited
Ohio. John d. came down with a
severe case of 1t. Samuel Andrews,
also oil mad. applied to the firm for
funds and got $4,000 and Rockefeller
as a partner.
Little by little the silent, moody
boy of the New York farm came
to be the suave force that was guild
ing the far.reaching organization of
oil interests. A second refinery,
nominally guided by William Rock.
efeller, started. Then the late Henry
Flagler was induced to join the
Rockefeller forces.
BY 1881 John d. Rockefeller had
amassed $70,0O0,0 900. He had formed
the Standard Oil trust, capitalized
at that figure, which was later in
creased to $95,000,000. But this
outstanding and much condemned
| institution was found illegal by an
Ohio court in 1892 and therefore
dissolved. Men were bullied and
hribed. and Congressional investiga-
tons and railroad quarrels followed
! thick and fast.
His mothers axiom of spare the
rod and spoil the child" might have
been changed by her son to spare
the rod and spoil the competitor" for
he carried into business the same de-
termination his thorough going
mother showed in administering a
| spanking.
Although his public career has
been condemned frequently, his home
life has never been criticised. In
1864 he married Lucy Spellman, a
teacher, and they have five children.
He wrote in his "Reminiscences"
"I am sure II is a mistake to as
sumo that the possession Of money in
great. abundance brings happiness"
and "the mere expenditure Of money