Hard Work No Stranger to Rockefellers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 641, 18 April 1929, Page 10

Hard Work No Stranger to Rockefellers

Vast Fortunes Built on Toil and Method JOHN D.—FATHER AND SON Down in lower Manhattan, sitting | at a long table in an oak-panelled | room, is a man of 55, solidly built,! with square shoulders, clean-cut features, wide forehead, firm lips, and determined chin. Like his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., rises at seven o'clock, leaving home so as to be at his office between half-past eight and nine, says a writer in the “American Magazine.” In the course of the morning if business permits, he goes to his club for exercise—squash or teunis. The routine of business usually occupies him until late in the afternoon, and the chances are that he takes home a bulky portfolio of work. Between the Rockefellers, father and son, who so resemble each other in their methodical way of doing things, there has existed for a half-century one of the most remarkable paternal and filial relationships that history records. For it is safe to say that no man has ever reposed such complete trust in his son in matters involvingsuch huge sums as the elder Rockefeller has done Some years ago many financiers were surprised to learn that most of the Rockefeller holdings in Standard Oil were owned by the son. The senior Rockefeller had come to the conclusion that, since his son was I carrying most of the burden, he ought j to have control of their interests. So j lie had turned over to his son several hundred million dollars in securities all at one time. What was John D., Jr.’s, boyhood like? To begin with we must go back to ISS2, to a big fawn near Cleveland. This was the first Rockefeller estate. The senior' Rockefeller was then 43, and already a multi-million-aire, having merged the oil interests of the country into a 75,003,000 dollar corporation. Below the house was a small lake, where the Rockefeller children learned to swim under the patient and encouraging teaching of their father. “Father was never a fancy swim- - mer,” observed Mr. Rockefeller, “but he had a simple breast-stroke and good 3 staying power. In my mind’s eye I ] have a clear picture of him swimming ‘ around the lake nearly a mile, on a hot day with his straw hat on to keen 1 his head cool.” * “I cannot remember when hard work was new or strange to me,” the older « Rockefeller had said; and it was in this same school that his son was ( brought up. . PLEASURES EARNED s “We were taught that we should J work to earn the pleasures we en- i joyed. Wc learned to work, to save. ? to give.” 1 In the Rockefeller household, as in ] many homes of lesser means, the re- i wards for faithful attention to duties 1 were in nickels and dimes. For violin 1 practice young John D. received five J cents an hour. When old enough to ] work about the Cleveland estate, he drew the same wages as labourers. A 1 winter on Fifth Avenue— a summer ] spent in cracking stones for a wall, i splitting, sawing, and cording tough i oak —at 15 cents an hour! Young John did not go away to pre- ] paratory school, but attended one in i New York (f y. “When I failed to prepare Monday’s lessons on Satur- ! day,” he says, “I used to get up early j Monday morning to study; for no • school work was permitted in father’s house on Sunday. I had a little glass 1 clock which showed the hands cleariv ! when there was a light behind it. This , I would hang before a gas jet, awakening every once in a while for fear I had overslept. School work did not 1 come easily to me, and I was determined to do the best I could. Father never expected more than that, but he expected that.'* The elder Rockefeller felt that the . choice of a college was a matter for liis son to decide. Young John D. wanted the advantages of a small institution and went to Brown University. He took no business courses there and did not specialise. Upon graduating, there were three courses open to him; law school as a preparation for business, a trip around the world with friends, or beginning work in his father’s office at once. Here again the decision was left to him. He came to the conclusion that, as his father was then nearing 60. he could not afford time for either law or travel, and so went directly to work. “Father said not a word to me about what I was to do in the office, nor has ; he ever since. Apparently it was his 1 intention that I should make my own way,” saids John D., Jr. MIND NEVER CLOSED “Elsewhere I have said that my , father is the most interesting man I have ever known. In business and < life he has been my example. For me, one of the outstanding lessons of his life is his openmindedness. Not 1 that he is easy to convince; but he is always interested in new facts or arguments. His mind is never closed. “I recall that in 1014, when I was personally investigating conditions in I he mines. collieries and mills in Colorado, he was not sure that I was working along the right lines in the broader industrial policies that I wished to inaugurate. But he said not one word against it. He realised that lie was not fully informed. Since then he has come to feel that the course I followed was wise. “Cncc, when the J. P. Morgan collection of Chinese porcelains was to be sold, the opportunity was offered me first to choose such pieces as I might care to buy. I selected a number of pieces, and then asked father I if he would lend me money for . the j purchase. The amount involved was j large enough to alarm him, and not being familiar with Chinese porce- j lains, he declined to make the loan, ; feeling, doubtless, that it was an unjustified extravagance. I then called to his attention the fact that I had never indulged myself in a yacht nor wasted money gambling; that these porcelains were not only beautiful but educative. After deliberation he in- * sisted on (tiring me the porcelains.” (The amount involved in that purchase. as I learned from newspapers published at that time, was in excess of a million dollars.) REARING HIS CHILDREN I asked Mr. Rockefeller if he thought that the simple methods by which he was brought up as a boy were applicable by fathers and • • i

mothers to-day. “Yes, with some modification,” he replied. “We arcapplying them with our own children.” He has six. of whom five are sons; and one of t'hese is now at Princeton and another at Dartmouth.) And here, in condensed form, I am going to append certain remarks made by Mr. Rockefeller on the problem of child rearing: The essence of the problem, it seems to me, is this: that the will of the parents should not be arbitrarily imposed upon the child. Until the age of eight or ten, it is impossible to discuss the reason for many things, but. after that parental guidance can increasingly take the form of discussion and suggestion. Children should be helped to form the habit of doing things for themselves—things that need to be done—whether they like to do them or not. I think that many children of to-day are not developing the will power avid self-mast-ery that are essential in the solution of life’s problems. My father had to chop wood and do the milking. He probably didn't like the chores any better than most boys, but he acquired the habit of doing the things he did not like to do. His will was trained. It is essential that children should know what to spend, how to spend, wliat things cost, whether a thing is worth buying ; Sn short, the value of money. Education used to mean cramming the mind. Education really means learning to use the mind ; and the child should be taught as early as possible to grapple with the problems of his own little world. J believe it is a good thing for any boy to work his way up from the bottom. J have sometimes regretted that I did not have that sort of chance, and I covet it for my boys.