The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-27
WEALTHY SCION
 GOES AFTER AIR
 TO MAKE MONEY
Percy Rockefeller Has Shown Remarkable
 Business Ability

SJlnctlyefy To mfn0. M e0SufN the h0eKe- feiler fortune, and the magic wealth of "John D." eclipses all other members of the first and second generations of the family. It merely illustrates the power of advertising, for "JohA D." is undoubtedly the best-advertised man in thte world For, in the first generation, William Rockefeller fell little short of his brilliant brother ,amassing fortune of more than $100,000, 900, which was based no talone on oil but on numerous other commodities and servises which added materially to the increase of wealth of the United States and to its development.
 In the second genera tion, it is also true that the name of 'John D. Junior" eclipses that ef Percy Avery RoekefeF Ter, heir to the greatness of William, and since the death of his brother, Wif- liam A. Rockefeller, the chief repFesen- tatiye of the Rockefeller family in Wall Street. Figured in terms of industry, comparison may be made by contrast ing the directorates held by John D. Jr. and Percy A. Whereas John D. Jr., is guiding figure in such worthy so- ciaI corpora tions as the Bureau of So- ciai Hygiene, the general education board, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, his cousin, Percy, iS dfN rector or trustee iR no less than go commercial enterprises. These interests cover an exceedingly wide range, from banking and insurance to coppelA iroa and public utilities. and it noteworthy that there is among all that list of com panies none which is directly identified with either the production or refining of oil.
 Tn Another Field
 In fact, the chief fame of Percy Rockefeller rests on Achievements in quite another field. He is today one of the outstanding figures in all that galaxy of financial giants whose field Is the finance of Wall Street. He is also one of the industrial giants. His interests include, as cautioned above, banking and insurance, cooper, iron and punblic utilities but they comprise also sugar, steel, railroads, shipping, arms, and here is one of the most remarkable of the lot, the ''liquid air" industry which attained such importance and ex. tent during the wal and postwar periods. It has often been said that where the elder Rockefellers levied toll upon the great subsoil bounties of nat. ure, Percy Rockefeller is lexying it upon air.
 Percy Rockefeller is stil1 young man. He was born in New York city in 1878, so that he is just a little be- yond his forty-sixth year. The elder William. recognizing in his sons cer- tain traits which would carry be better off in his offices than at large in the gilded world to which they had been born. Percy soon showed his mettle there and while, of course, the envious may feel that it is almost impossible not to be success with the backing or the Rockefeller millions, 1t is quite another thing to receive confidence and the control of those millions from 90 hardheaded a business man as William Rockefeller was.
 As Railroad Director
 It was not long before Percy became a director of the great Chicago Mil waukee and St. Paul railroad, in which the Rockefellers had tremendous inter ests at one time However, he no longer holds that directorship. He became also an important figure in some of the banks controlled hy or holding Rocke- feller money. When his father died a few years ago, in the ripeness of a good old age, Percy succeeded him as one of the "Big Four" in the direc~ tion of the National City bank, great est institution of it's kind in the coun- try. Incidentally, it may be remarked he married Isabel Stillman, daughter of the famous James Stil1man, for many years head of the bank. He became also the representative of the family in the Western Union Telegraph compa- ny, in Anaconda Cooper and numerous other big companies. His preparatory career in the street was short, but he took hold" with surprising facility, and the respect that was accorded him by the Street was not merely the lip aervise to his fathers wealth but q tribute to his personal qualities.
 For many years the practicahifity of extracting oxygen and nitrogen from the air was known, and in some Of the European countries, especially Germany and Sweden, was extensively developed. But the United States and the Allied Powers generally had relied upon the Chilean nitrate beds for thier supplies of explosives, and to some extent for artificial fertilizers. Germany also sup piled a great quantity of it, but the war stopped the latter and laid many obstacles in the way of adequate sup plies from the former-
 This, the young member of the great oil family perceived, was condition that must be remedied, not only for the emergency but for the future. The air, of course, is the greatest potential sonrce of nitrogen known The Air Re duetion company was thereupon formed and throughout the period of hostilties filled up an important gap in this all important-in times of war-constf. tuent of munitions. The company ac~ uuired American rights to a proved French process and as the present history of the company shows, peace has it's uses for nitrogen from the air as we'll as war; The company is very profitable and growing one, ond the best of it is that in the event of future wars the nucleus of an unfailing sup ply of nitrates is in it's possession.
 There is another industrial field in which his perception and canniness are well illustrated It is tha tof. industrial aleohol- It also was required in mak- ing many kinds of munitions but be fore the war Germany had a practical monopoly of this field, due not so much 10 lack of facilities here. for industrial alcohol can be made from most any thing which contains starch, but be- a cause of prohibitive internal revenue laws. He saw the possibilities of the great United States Industrial Alcohol company when the war began and Ger man supplies were shut off, and the Rockefeller family and various other Standard Oil" interests also bought into the company, so that he is today the principal factor in it. In a sense it was throwback to type, for the Rockefeller fortune was in it's first causes based on oil, and industrial alcohol has most of the properties of oil, or rather gasoline, and if that time comes, which geologists now predict, when oil will be exhausted. alcohol will be a eradily available substitute.