OCR Text |
Show fortune. He marknow how rnany shares of Standard Oil and pipe line and steamship and iron mine and railroad stock are his, and how much real estate in Cleveland and Chicago and New York he owns, but the values, changing as they do, are too great a burden for even the mind of a general such as he is. But did yon ever think how great is the income of such a man when compared with that "of .the everyday citizen, the brawn of the republic, the man whose vote has just as much to do with the choice of a president, perhaps? By the investigation of the United States Labor Bureau the. average wage of the worker of this country is about 450$ a year. It is hardly fair to put that down as the represenative figure, either. In making it up there was included all branches of industry and tho.-e artisans ar-tisans and mechanics, who, by reason rea-son of special lines of manufacturing are able to roll up wage returns nearly, if not quite, equal to the salaries sal-aries of bank' presidents or railway magnates. But there are . hundreds of men who dig and delve for less than the average daily wage shown by this return -1.50$. Railway track repair re-pair men, the unskilled workers about the mills and furnaces of the the East and South, many are content con-tent when during the year they are able to earn 300$, the "'dollar a day" declared sufficient by the purse-proud purse-proud theorist. . Had Mr. Rockefeller the powe of expansion to keep up with the increase in-crease of income he would to day represent an army of 10,000 wage earners of the country, whereas he has the power-to; consume - of . but one man, and with his wealth he has kept the simple habits of his earlier day. , ' . It would be extremely inconvenient inconven-ient for Mr. Rockefeller if he had to draw his income daily. . Much more than in the case of the wage earner if he had his year's returns handed to him in a lump sum.1 . There is no coin which would be light enough to make the daily . income of N the oil magnate an easy load for him. Few are the men who have difficulty in carrying their daily income or even their yearly return in a lump sum. The yearly income of the head of the Rockefeller house, in bags of i,ooc$ each, would make a pyramid thirteen feet high with a base seventeen seven-teen feet square! , . . To pile up the yearly earnings of the average man would take but eleven inches square of space, and its height would be only ten and three-quarters three-quarters inches. To compare daily returns in the same manner would be well nigh impossible, for taken in the smallest coin the average man's wage would be insignificant alongside that , of the head of the great trust.. Does a woman ever feel financial stringency after purchasing a spring bonnet? If her income is derived by her own exertions she probably does, for the average wage of working work-ing woman of the country is not above 7$ a week. So that trifle of flowers and net and jet. and sprang-les sprang-les representing 258 or so may seem twice as big as it is. Such things never trouble the richest woman in the country, however. Mrs. Hetty Green of New York appears in the same quiet headgear week in and week out as she tramps about from broker to broker, her JDlack bag filled fill-ed with securities on. per arm. She does not purchase he'rbonnet in the same proportion to htr income as I ! INCOMES OP THE HIGH. Is It Any Wpnder that Tramps Are on 1 the Increase? With an income of more than 10$ la minute would you enjoy life? Of course you would, but it is not l'ikly J you would do it in the same way as does' John D. Rockefeller, the Standard Oil s magnate, whose vast fortune, estimated : at s something , above ,150,000,000$, brings him in ' I return , not less then 15,000$ a day. i No one, not even himself, perhaps, I knows the size of Mr. Rockefeller's 4 1 does the young woman who with a salary of 20$ a week as a stenographer stenogra-pher buys, when the season comes, a hat representing six days' work. And it is well Mrs. Green does not, for if the young woman's head-covering is modest in size what would be that of Mrs, Green, whose weekly income at the smallest estimate is a greater number of thousands than the young letter writer receives of single dollars. Mr. Rockefeller has not always been able to look up to such a pyramid pyra-mid of wealth representing his daily income. It wasn't so long ago and he hasn't forgotten by any means the time when he was clerking in a little grocery store down on the "flats" of Cleveland the same city where he has now one of the most palatial homes. He was a young man then, and he and his brother, William who is also now many times a millionaire, had a hard time to make both ends meet. Then they went in the grocery business on their own accounts on Water street, in Cleveland, and soon after obtain-, obtain-, ed the agency for some of the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania coal oil, which was then attracting at-tracting much, attention. The oil wells multiplied, and it became evident evi-dent that a new era was being developed de-veloped by the production of cheap fuel and cheap light' The Rockefellers, together with H. M. Flagier and other Cleveland-ers, Cleveland-ers, bought stock, and thus started on their way to surpassing wealth . Dozens of companies were formed, and the strategic powers of J of Rockefeller brothers were shown by getting these small companies together into the great Standard Oil Company, which is now one of the world. Millionaire Rockefeller may not be a model, but he has unquestionably unquestion-ably set an example to some rich men in his many bequests and wise charities- He has never forgotton the simple tastes of earlier days, and lives more modestly than many men of one tenth his wealth. His children child-ren have been educated carefully and thoroughly and affect none of the so called airs of sweldom. Ex-, Ex-, aminer. |