The times-news., 1937-05-24

DuSJlnS SONSi ihIhShs w ohooH lls
control by dissolution.
Yet it was also Rockefeller's
fate not only to live through the
era of corporation hatred, result.
ing only in the splitting of the
parent into offspring companies,
each as rich and powerful as the
mother, but to see the day come
when the "trust" would be adopt
ed by some governments as their
own method of industrial control.
He saw, therefore, two immense
phases, two Numerically opposed
social conceptions of the system
he created. The first would have
smashed the trust into small, COM
petitive bits. The second would
rejoin the fissured pieces and bind
them into an instrument for the
state and the people.
The building of this empire
parallel to the creation Of the
steel trust, the aluminium trust,
and a score of gigantic amalgama-
tions-created a new problem for
the public and the government.
People feared that one day the
trusts would be greater than the
government-would swallow the
government. But since dealing
with the institution was a new
problem in sociology and econom-
les, only one solution of the prob
lem could be conceived in that
age of fear. The solution was to
smash them.
The storm broke in 1892, when
the Standrd Oil trust was ordered
dissolved. 1t reached a climax in
1907, when Judge Kenesaw Noun
tain Lands fined Rockefeller's
companies $29,240,OO0 for accept
ing illegal railroad rebates. The
decision was reversed and the fine
was never paid.
1t was at this climax that Rookie
feller retired from active business.
When he retired, his retirement
was absolute. To his son, John d.
Rockefeller, Jr.. he turned over a
great part of his power. Into
beneficient trusts-the Rockefel-
Ter Foundation, the Laura Spell
man Foundation, the General Edu.
cation Board; into hospitals and
schools and institutions for allevi.
ating distress, into colleges and
missionary societies, into agencies
for research and charity; into
projects for the restoration OF the
glories that were France and Eng.
land; into rebuilding the shattered
Rheims Cathedral and the dilapi-
dated Palace of Versailles, he
poured staggering sums of money
Throughout his life. a life
marked by asceticism. abstemious
living, conservative conduct, there
ran a strain of intense religious
faith. The Baptist church, to
which he adhered, benefited mag
nificently by his largesse: The
Anti-Saloon League, solidly en-.
trenched within the evangelical
churches of the nation, attracted
his favorable attention and his
dollars.
AS he declined in business ac-
tivity, so he appeared before the
world to have mellowed in philoso-
ply. The whole world became in
terested in his comfortable re-
tirement," chuckled when he hand.
ed out dimes to children, reJoiced
with him in the birthday parties
he enjoyed; played golf with him
in spirit at Pocantico Hills or here
in Florida.
His hobbies, his tastes, his de-
sires were few. He retired at 10
D. m. and arose at $50 a. m. He
ate sparingly, lived frugally. He
never went to the theater; never
tasted wine. He carried his age
gracefully, kindly. His face, COR
rugated by wrinkles. retained a
shv smile to the last. And to the
last, he retained his sense OF hu-
of an individual type,
as when he forced three newspa-
per photographers to go to church
and sit in a pew near him before
he would permit them to take his
picture.
No man can say, perhaps to
within S1OO,000,000, what John
d. Rockefeller was worth" at the
peak of his fortune. No one can
say how much Of this fortune ne
gave away. for millions are still
unrecorded in the ledgers of char
ity. But it is certain that ne was
Americas first billionaire.
Rockefeller was born in frame
dwelling at Richford, n. Y, on
July 8, 1889. He was the son oil
William Avery Rockefeller, a pro
moter and travelling doctor The
boy who was to achieve world,
wide eminence was taciturn and
studious in his early youth. When
he was ID the family moved to
Cleveland where the youth re,
ceived a meager education and
got his first job, that of a CLERK
at $50 a month.
AS he approached his 21st birth
day, young Rockefeller took stock
of his situation as weighed against
his ambition. He asked for $500
a wear on the clerking job, and
upon being refused his request, ne
quit and went into business for
himself.
His first independent work was
as a commission merchant. He es-
tablished himself in business with
5000 he had managed to scrape
up himself, several thousand dol
lars he obtained from his father,
and the share placed into the busi-
ness by a partner. Their hrst
years profits were $4,000 and as
his business expanded, Rockefeller
borrowed $4,000 more.
In the late fifties there was