COLOSSAL BEQUESTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22250, 26 October 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

COLOSSAL BEQUESTS

WORLD'S GREATEST GIVER LIFE OF J. D. ROCKEFELLER START AS HUMBLE FARM LAD Dramatic increases of taxation hare caused an epidemic of generosity among American millionaires, writes Frank D. Long, in the Passing Show, London. Fantastic fortunes have been handed over to research and charity. John Rockefeller, junior, is alone reported to have distributed £15,000,000 this year. But who, apart from this artificial outburst of giving, is the world's greatest living benefactor? You think you know the answer straight away. So do a thousand others, perhaps a million. And all different.

And I will hazard a/guess that the world's greatest living benefactor jg the man who was born on a piffling little farm at Richford, New York, on July 8, 1839 —John Dawson Rockefeller. He lived and worked on the farm until he was sixteen, never" dreaming that from the depths of his native soil, from which his father scratched a bare living, would well up to him treasure enough to make him the richest man in the world. When he migrated to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1855, he certainly had no idea of making a fortune out of oiL It wasn't discovered —in Pennsylvania until 1860, and later still in Ohio— and he was content to become a clerk iu a city office. There is no record that benevolence was his strong .point in those days. A Chance Accepted Seven years after the farm lad of Richford set foot in Cleveland, he saw his chance and seized it. Nothing altruistic about that. The oil business waa then in its infancy, and a very rickety infancy, too. Young Rockefeller, late farmer, clerk and commission agent, stirred by kindly thoughts toward his own destiny, and very definitely inspired by the chance of gaining through the muddling of others, plunged into oil. Metaphorically, of course. He made more millions than he could keep stock of. It was his fabulous, preposterous success which made " striking- oil" analogous to all successful or lucky enterprises. Rockefeller "struck oil" to an extent no one else is likely to rival for as many centuries as the world had to wait for Rockefeller's advent. It says something for Nature's eternal law of compensation that, after pouring sucli vast wealth into one man's lap, she should endow that man with magnificent liberality. So richly liberal has ho been with his wealth that I find in him the answer to my questiop. I would say that John D. Rockefeller, the world's richest man, is also the world's greatest benefactor. His 96th birthday, this year, brought him £1.000,000, being the accumulation of insurance policies he has held since he was a young man, and which fell due for full payment on July 8. No other living man, and as far as can be traced, nobody else in the history of mankind, has received such a colossal birthday present. Happy are we that this favourite of Plutus has for many years been more interested in giving than receiving. His one ambition now is to reach Mb 100 th birthday. Joy be to him in success. Welfare of Humaalty Nobody will ever be able to state exactly how many millions RockefoJler has given away. He started the purely beneficent career 50 years ago, but then his charity was comparatively negligible; a few tens of thousands here and there —a mere bagatelle. Thirty-four years ago he made his first substantial present to the general public. He gave £BOO,OOO for the' erection of the Rockefeller Institute, New York, and its endowment. The addition of a farm at New Jersey for breeding animals for experimental purposes and a bioloeical laboratory at Massachusetts brought the gift up to the million figure. And it is an inviolable rule that all discoveries and inventions made by the salaried staff of the institute must be offered for the public benefit. Twentv-two years ago he provided the funds for the erection of the Rockefeller Foundation, which is to-day by far and away the world's richest private agency devoted exclusively to the welfare of humanity. The last balance sheet published showed the balance or the fund to stand at upwards or £40,000,000. Wide Field Covered This colossal sum has. not been realised by niggardlv distribution, for millions have been spent in world-wide endeavours to improve the lot of mankind. Something like £4,000,000, in roun figures, were disbursed last year. _ _ Here are a few of the beneficiaries, as set out in the official report, the IfISH published:—Universities and other educational institutions serving medtca sciences, public health, nursing, social sciences, natural sciences, research programmes. grants in aid of fellowships and the erection of buildings to be usea in public service; grants to libraries a to institutions for cultural studies ana emergency grants to German professo whose livelihood and studies have been interfered with under the Hitler regim _ John D. is too old nowadays to take the active part he used to in the management of the Foundation, but his sons, John D., junior, and Joh" 3rd " work as industriously as any J« the numerous honorary officials. Jioni D., junior, is chairman of the Board of Trustees. , The only Englishman reported to nave, given away a million, and then one fell swoop, is Mr. James Voase Rank, the miller, of Godstone, »" rre [_ He, like Rockefeller, began lite in humble circumstances and rose to g J wealth by untiring diligence > Various members of the Wills f» n •' the tobacco magnates, have in the agcrecate given away considerably mo thaV, a million. The late lord In"#, gave to the nation Ken Wood H • Hampstead, which, with the aGCompa ing pictures and estate, was estin# to be worth £6Q0,000. In addition, he gave £125,000 to the Representative Church Body of the Protestant Chug in Ireland; £65,000 to St. Patrick s Cathedral, Dublin, and £60,000 to King Edward VII. Hospital Fund, L °Lord'Wakefield, Lord' Nuffield. . Sir Abe Bailey, Mr. Edward Meyerstein, Sevenoaks, have each given awav m than £200,000, Mr. George Roberts, Wimbledon (who may be remembered as the mysterious " Audax ) Vs g awav £IOO,OOO or .more, and the JJern hard Baron Charitable Trust, by the late Bernhard Baron has distributed upwards of £26/,