Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-01-16

per OF Kansas and the farmers bloc,
there Is one of q man who has made
q handsome fortune in 4 comparatively
few years, for he is only 81. His first
venture in the publishing business is
said to have been with an investment
of $1,000 which he had saved from
his salary as newspaper reporter,
and with which he made the first pay
ment on a newspaper in Topeka.
Would anyone venture to argue that
his profits should always have been
limited to an interest return on that
$1,000? He is the reputed owner to-
day of two dailies, six weeklies, three
semi-monthlics and two monthlies.
several of them agricultural papers of
wide circulation and large net earn
ings. Their aggregate valuation runs
into the millions, and as in such cases
the big accretions are made in the
later years of mans career, when
the increasing earnings double up
quickly, the Senator is in a fair way
to rank high up among plutocrats.
His business OF giving information
and advice to farmers is also highly
competitive. Emerson's immortal say
ing that if any man could make a
mouse trap better than any other, the
world would beat a path to his door,
is illustrated by the millions of farm
crs who have beaten a path to Editor
Capper's door, looking for advice.
Here again it is demonstrated that
some men do not get richer than other
men by charging higher prices, but by
giving the public what it wants. 1t is
painful to think that if Senator Cap
per had incorporated his first invest
ment and capitalized it at cost, then
continued to operate his multiplied ven
lures by means of the same corpora
ton, without increasing the amount
of stock until 1922, and had then is
sued more stock to cover the acquired
assets, he probably would have been
pilloried in Mr.. Frear's list and made
ineligible for leadership of the farm
bloc.
1t is needless to name other exam
pies, but there is scarcely town in
the country which does not have a
business that is leading factor in
the community and has been built up
BY means of surplus earnings. 1t is
impossible to name man whose
name is prominently identified with
the development of any great industry
whose career has not been made pos
sible by that means. And such careers
have been heretofore regarded as cred
liable to the men achieving them.
Ownership Of Standard Oil
The idea that Standard Oil is
mainly owned or controlled by one
man or family should be disposed OF
by Mr.. Teaglc's statement before the
La Toilette committee. Even before
the dissolution there were 5000 stock
holders. He said of the ownership !:
Prior to 1911 the stocks Of all the COM
p,nies were held together, through their
ownership by the Standard Oil Company
ownership from coming about through nat
ural processes of dsintegration. TIE de
cree to do away with this condition. d.
rected that the stocks OF the subsidiary
companies be distributed pro rata among
the stockholders of the holding company.
While. at the moment of distribution. all
the companies had identical stock lists. these
processes of disintegration began irnmedi-
ately to operate and have been operating
ever since.
As illustrative of this. at the time of dis
tribution, the Standard Oil Company (New
Jersey> had CO.'S stockholders. Twelve of
these held more than one per ceEt each of