POOR YOUNG RICH MAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 November 1928, Page 2

POOR YOUNG RICH MAN

MANAGING A GREAT FORTUNE. At ten years of age John D. Rockefeller, jnr., was one of the richest boys in the world, but he steadfastly refused to know it. “I always walked to and from school,” he said; ‘‘never thought of doing anything else. I was painfully bashful and retiring. Some of my efforts to break myself of my diffidence seemed alino.st tragic at the t|me. I can smile at them now, though they were not at all funny then. “As a young boy I went t° a danc(qg school, because my mother thought dancing lessons a training for the l}6dy. She believed I’d learn to handle piyself for being taught the steps, but she did not at that time approve of social dancing; so I did not go until later to dances with the other boys and girls of my acquaintance.” After school was over, John D. Rockefeller jun., went to Brown University. He insists that he did more work than the average boy, because he had to do sp to pass with creditable honours. “My course was always clear,” he said. “Father and I never had to discuss it. I was the only son. It was understood that, if I was any good qt all, I Would help him in his office. When I graduated my .father was then nearing sixty. So I came directly into the office. “ I supposed, when starting, that I would be coached, that father would have older employees instructed to guide me. But, as far as I couffi discover, he did nothing of the sort, leaving me to my own resources. Gradually, in conference with my associates, I began to act on my own. I was never empowered tp do so.” Two years after entering the office John D. Rockefeller, jnr., was 25 years old. His father then retired. No one knows to what extent, precisely, the younger Rockefeller has been the dominating force in the management of the Rockefeller fortune during the period of its greatest growth—that is, since Mr John D. Rockefeller’s retirement in 1899.

Father-and-Son Partners. Actually both Rockefellers have managed tfye world’s greatest fortune. Many people think there has never been a closer father-and-son relationship than has existed between these two. There is a difference between the Rockefeller and the Ford fortunes. Ford owns all the properties in which he is interested. But John D. R.ockefeller, jun., who is now the chief owner of the Rockefeller estate, is only a shareholder in the Standard Oil companies or subsidiaries is the Rockefeller interest as much as 25 pei’ cent. Equally surprising is a statement of this man whose wealth is about £120,000,000, and who has had a hand in giving away almost as much money as that. “I did not choose this job,” he says. He did not want to be the richest rpan in the world. This responsibility was thrust upon him. Having a very modest opinion of his own ability, he has shared it with able associates, in whose selection he has been most fortunate.

lie is not true to the millionaire type in his home and family life. He drove horses until motor’ traffic took the joy out of it in' the city. Not so lo.ng ago it was reported that he owned three automobiles —none expensive, and two of them well worn. Allowances for his children began on a scale counted in pennies and have been increased only as the children have demonstrated their ability to use wisely the sums put at their disposal. There is no miserliness in the life of this family, but wastefulness is looked upon as a sort of crime. “I have told my boys,” Mr Rockefeller said to me, “that, if they want to go to college to work, I shall be glad for them to go. I do not demand that they be brilliant students; I do not know if they can be, since I know very well I was not. But I tell them that if they go I expect them to do the very best they can, honestly and sincerely trying. But if they look upon college merely as an opportunity to havo a good time, to live for four years in luxury and pleasure—if that is their idea, I think they had better not go to college, but should get to work as soon as they can.” The younger man has a long list of duties and interests, but I guess that ho feels most keenly the responsibility of being a good father to his five sons.