JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 111, 13 May 1933, Page 17

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

WORLD'S RICHEST MAN ,

John B, Bockefcllcr will bo ninetyfour next July. Fifty years ago ho was the richest man in the world, and probably he still is. He is old now, and out of active business—the business of "Standard Oil." The story of his amazing life is extremely well told in a now biography by John T. Flynn. We are told that the manuscript; Of the book was submitted before printing to a representative, of the Eockefeller family, who suggested 180 corrections, of which Mr. Flynn accepted sixtyfour. His reasons for rejecting the rest are explained in footnotes. Here, therefore, we have a definite and entirely reliable biography of tho- first and greatest of tbo great industrialists of the "United States. John D. earned his first money when ho was seven. At the age of ton he was enabled to lend £10 to a farmer— at interest. In 1855 he obtained his first job, and thereafter business was his solo preoccupation. For thirty years—after the formation of the Standard Oil combine in 1872—Rockefeller was the' most hated and execrated man in America. He was denounced .from, pulpit and platform. Congress passed laws under which criminal proceedings wcro instituted against him, newspapers conducted campaigns of sensational calumny, .but no one was ever able to prove that he had ever lied to or deceived or in.any way misused a single human being. Eockefeller, after thirty-years of tho most extreme abuse and public execration of which even. American journalists and politicians are capable,-.was beatified about twenty years ago. He is now the patron saint of industrial America, and. that honourable position he has most certainly earned. Ho brought order into a new and utterly chaotic industry, and'inado money for everybody concerned in it, as well as for himself. He found the'oil wel^s producing about twice as much as could be sold in the markets of the worldeach man for himself—and he determined to save the wealth which was thus running to waste. This he achieved and perhaps in the- sphere of business and organisation it was the greatest achievement ever consummated by a single man; ■ ... . . It was entirely characteristic of Eockefeller, who invented the hated "combine," that his own combines were always combines of brains rather than of money. For wealthy competitors,, as such,.he cared little, if they were not ably managed. He left them alone, knowing that he would be able to deal, with them easily when he wanted to. But when even a small competing firm was managed by a really good' man ho would spend infinite effort and patience in getting that man on his side or into his service. That was why the famous directorate of "Standard Oil';' contained such a brilliant set of men. Eockefeller, when quite a young man "determined to make money work .for him." How successful he was in carrying out his determination this biography reveals. It has often bpen alleged by his innumerable enemies that J.D. 's enormous public b'eriefactions in' later life were some sort, of attempt to atone for the crimes .bj^ which he accumulated his vast for;tune.\ That there is"' no truth' in' this charge'is amply proved by his first private.ledger, which he bought for ten cents. In this he entered every farthing that he spent day by day, and it shows that even when he was working for nothing in his first job he was regularly giving very small sums not only to the Baptist Church -and Sabbath school: to which, he .belonged, but.even to the "missionary cause." lu>the last five weeks of, 1855, when he was still living on his early savings, he spent jnoro than 7s in this:.iyay>'although-he could not afford to get himself a decent winter^ overcoat. ; John D.'s father, "Big Bill" Bockofeller, was a most extraordinary man. He was rarely at home. He would disappear for months and then suddenly appear, with plenty of money, stay a few Weeks, perhaps, and then be off again. He might remain away for a year and never .write a letter; but he always turned up in time to save his family from actual destitution, pay off all debts, and re-establish his wife's credit in the town. Then, leaving her with a few hundred dollars, he would be off again, no one knew where. Eventually it turned out , that his occupation, which was also hia hpbby, was tho use of fiia, natural eloquence to sell in market-places bottles of medicine guaranteed to cure cancer. This occupation he continued to pursue , long after his son was a multi-millionaire, but his 'disappearances became longer and longer after his family became selfsupporting. It has been said that ho had another wife and-family in South Dakota, and that he died in Illinois at the age of ninety-six. But these are not fully authenticated facts. All that is certain is that his main idea was to teach his sons to bo "smart." He would give them money merely in order ■to cheat or trick or cozen them out of it again—so that they might learn to look after their own interests. With John D., at any rate, hia educational methods were successful.