| Show T ii H m fi lf W i k if f l r rii P PI I ril l W v m uv n Uil F c j I o l n TOB TO f 1 n 0 O tl AMONG I MONG the great fortunes of ot the i AMONG world today there are two that tower colossal the Rothschild and tlc th Rockefeller says s ys David Graham Phillips In the Philadelphia P Sat Saturday Saturday urd y Evening Post Post No one not even the heads bends of the two houses knows n Ws Just how large these for fortunes fortunes fortunes tunes are A few years ago John D Rockefeller said upon the wItness wit witness ness foils stand that he ha was unable to tell how much he was worth within sev se secIal several eral cIal millions Indeed there is no way of estimating accurately these modern fortunes invested in many man ways w ys and subject to dally daily hourly Probably a billion and a half of dollars dollar dollarIs Is as near noar to accuracy as it Is possible to come In stating the wealth df of f the house of ot Rothschild As for the house of ot Rockefeller a business associate of the elder and many times the richer of ot the two brothers said within a year John D I Rockefeller R Is worth not far from of a billion and he will sIll presently be the first billion billionaire billIonaIre aire afre the world has ever had If It the estimate were were based upon Income certainly t as fair a way as to attempt to value capital John D Rockefeller would today be classed c as a billionaire half on the way toward his second billion And there are in addition the several hundred millions of his broth brothers brothers brothers ers fortune and the many millions of the th three or r four allied a members of the family In comparison the th Rothschild fortune seems commonplace It represents the theold theold theold old way of getting rich The Rocke Rockefeller Rockefeller Rockefeller feller fortune represents the new way the way that baffles any an effort to an all anticipate the future developments in the distribution of wealth The Rothschild fortune made by compound Interest largely is controlled d by at the least halt half a score childs the Rockefeller fortune is un under under under der the rule of ot one Rockefeller The Rothschild fortune Is divided among more than fifty scattered In all the countries of Europe no one of them so rich as any anyone one of a dozen I Americans the bulk of the Rockefeller fortune is in the possession of one man and all but a few millions are in the possession of that man and his brother Finally the Rothschild fortune represents I bonts the work of a century a and nd J Jno ot of no less than four generations and six breaches branches of the Rothschild family the Rockefeller fortune is the work of at less than thirty years ears and of one man six s years old Rockefeller Almost Went Broke Droke The Rockefeller fortune was founded upon credit capital In 1875 John D Rockefeller was a considerable oil oU mer merchant merchant merchant chant But his schemes for monopolizing ing the oil business of half haf the world were trembling between success and failure In that year there were three weeks when he walked the floor night after night sleepless fighting the ruin that seemed to be closing in around aroundhim aroundhim him It Is said that his wife exclaimed I 1 wish wih John would go bankrupt for then thon he would get some sleep It Is said eald l id that the nervous n indigestion which now n w compels him to the quietest of lives liven li es and to a diet of ot crackers and milk at 98 25 24 degrees Fahrenheit dates from that terrible three weeks He owed the banks of Cleveland I He could not pay they were pressing f him but did not dare to close In upon him They knew that If he failed t It would swamp them and would pre precipitate pre precipitate a panic In Cleveland Cleve Cleveland I land was wa not riot so large and rich In those days dys d s and was a big sum of money mone even in Wall street The Rockefeller fortune may there therefore therefore fore tore be dated from 1875 the yea when th founding crisis was w s passed though thE big returns did not begin to t ome until about ISSi the enormous returns until less than en oen years ears ago It Is 01 a typical American ST great at fortune In its upon boro eJ money at the cost cO t of or the founders fo digestion and ny methods thai that com corn combined combined judgment wi with h the extreme of audacity These two elements belief In himself and In his business are the backbone ne neof of every ever great o Jn n our country today t y Belief that the business usines is des les tined tinel to be great grea belief f that he hd h was iva a appointed by God GoJ o 0 ci destiny or fate or ot whatever he mils alls the overruling force to possess SS that business and cud to hold It by any and all means against any an and all This is tie tut new e of tin thu th oM oll doctrine of ot the divine right of king it explains many man curious phenomena of citizenship anc and conscience His Ris Destiny From t rom 1860 to 1875 Rockefeller r was reaching out and out to take possession of his promised land His brother and their intimate friends laughed tt t him tried to dissuade him varnI warn l him They The too would buy oil wells veliS out they would maTte make what they could and sell sel sellout sellout out before the wel we l Caught taught fire Arc or ran dr dry He bought to keep kep bought nurn hurn hurnIng ing lug wells and extinguished the fires bought dry wells in the hope h p that thaI they ii We uld some day yield to the pump And when his brother and their ir I hi tj i iu u nates ates saw that there was method in his Ills madness he Invited invitee them in practically pr ga gave e them as a present the shares that fra re to make nake them multimillionaires And sloW alow and tenacious and saturated L t ith Ih his bis mystic of manifest de tiny li A marched on to t the Montenotte or of orThe The T e Teaching reaching out on small capi capit t the rising riding clamor and fury against his hl merciless m of monopoly brought br on that crisis Until the secret history of the Stand company is written and nd it probably pr probably b ably Iy never neer will be beno no one except Johi Johl 1 D Di Rockefeller will know how that crisis was wa passed and how prosperity and power were obtained through those contracts ts with the railways which made mad competition c with Uh Rockefeller Ro r hopeless and forced f almost all the Sit oil oilmen men inca producers refiners and sellers sellen to Choose between submission end md ruin Another point In the development de nt of ot th the great American fortune Is control 1 of railways the arteries o the h whole people nople It Is next In Important q to a monopoly of t some natural product Rockefeller ller scored sacred both points It Tt was as about 1884 1184 that some seine of the th h gl d counsel discovered a r way of freeing him from the bondage of ot antl law a method of reorganizing him Into legality and no the period of insecurity passed pa s d though the general public did not no know 1 i it and the th press and the politicians were still howling Rockefeller was vaa able to shakO shake off his bis pursuers and dismiss his horde of at lawyers He had al at last lasta a large secure Income Incon The ide of of Fortune And now began be n the rapid Increase He Hp was a simple simpIe thrifty man ma and M so was Vas his brother They spent nothing of their income They The reinvested rt It ft In obtaining complete ownership of ot what they had Bad only con controlled trolled that t Is of ot the petroleum indus industry l industry try They developed the Standard Oil company e from the single BI gle concern to a conglomerate te of bout labout sixty corpora corporations each engaged In a separate de department department department of cf the industry They The util utU utilized the crude oil oU in a thousand ways turning to account the discoveries dIsc eries of 01 science which the scientists gave tr re ly aty to the world Soon so many au irl i so valuable were the byproducts of t ul 01 production that the oil Itself cost cos th the Rockefellers practically nothing a all an anfor for the byproducts more mare and more paW paid pa for tor ibi pumping refining trans J O and ana sale For Fox fifteen ll years Mr r Rockefeller and andi his group have haV been selling about a thousand million gallons of oil all a year at prices ranging rangin from 5 to 20 cents a gallop gallon and avd av r raging aging about 7 cents and as the by byproducts byproducts byproducts products have increased i number numbe and und andIn I In value they have put Into their peck pre I eta ets da is g clear profit more more and more of ot l lentI In entire e selling elling price of the oil all Today I that selling price is i s estimated to 0 be b all al 1 clear profit and it is said that there herc th r 1 is in addition a of from 10 t to upon the byproducts This explains why the prong profi of oC the Rockefellers from their trust are arO aT greater by many millions s annually than the value alue of the petroleum production pro Reinvestment About ten years ago Rockefellers in income income income come was given as by an a ex en excellent auth authority rIty He H had reached the limit of profitable reinvestment of pint prof profits its In the oil industry Here Her then their were these enormous sums suras in cash In more than a month for forJohn forJohn forJohn John Davison Rockefeller Rock alon aba The problem of reinvestment became becam more than serious It became a nightmare The oil oU income was as swelling swelling and the number of oC sound investments is limited was then th even een mor lim Hm limited than it now is 15 It was through no especial eagerness for tor more gains sains that the Rockefellers began to branch out from oil into othe oth things They were forced swept on by this i lq tide of wealth which their monopoly magnet Irresistibly attracted fhay Th developed a staff of investment inv seek s k kers J Jers ft ers era and Investigators It is said saIri that the he chief of this staff stat has a salary of a year yeat It may m be remarked I in n passing that like al ai almost almost most all the great American fortun builders pays cheerfully cheer funy tha highest t market price for brainy brain He Ie expects valuable service but he ne fie does his part ungrudgingly He lIe H holds balds that while Jt it may be dangerous to an ta to tl overpay him it is fatal latal both to em cm employer emplOyer pI oyer and employ e to underpay The first conspicuous excursion and incursion of the Rockefellers was Into the railway field fi ld By 1893 1895 they con controlled controlled I trolled of the railway mile mileage mi mileage e age of the country What do they own or ol through dominant ownership con I I tr l today They The are powerful In all the great reat railways of New York north northeast northeast I east and west wes t except one on e where their share is only a few millions They are in most of the great railways radiating from Chicago They dominate in sev several several several eral of the th systems that extend to the th Pacific It is Js their votes that make Mr Morgan so potent though it may maybe ma mabe maybe be added they need his hl brains more mo than he h needs their votes at present and the combination of the two con constitutes t constitutes in large measure the com corn community community of Interest Railways and Banks anks But railways could not alone absorb rapidly enough those mighty floods of ot gold presently John D Rockefellers month had increased to four to five to six millions a month to a year Illuminating oil oU was wa becoming all profit the reinvestments of income were adding their mite of many annual millions The Rockefellers went into gas and electricity when those industries had developed develop d to the stage And now a large part of the American people must begin to enrich the Rocke Rock Rockefellers Rockefellers fellers tellers as soon as the sun goes down no n matter what form of illuminant they y use The latest industry into which the Rockefellers have gone Is banking There they already dominate and ri j there they think they have et found und u the II I solution of their investment problem p for a few years at least And it is within the that the Rocke Roche Rockefeller R teller feller banking ing auve fur may ma r cause a a greater ater convulsion per perhaps perhaps haps than n that which shook the coun country coun country try when John Johnn EL Il Rockefeller first In Introduced Introduced Introduced the Industrial i monopoly to the American fn people AAd egan to force Its acquaintance and society upon them The Rockefeller r bank the National City bank is By oy its itself fat far and away a 3 the t e biggest t bask bank in la the h United States It Itis Ii is exceeded e e ded in the world orl only by the th Bank 13 of vt England Engla ng lin d and 3 n the Bank ot France Franc The deposits average mote more j than one hundred millions a day da and it dominates domIna teg the ecaIl call loan market on un Wall street and nd tho the But J It is not alone it is the head of or ui Rockefeller chain of banks wh which ch in m includes eludes ludes fourteen banks bauks and nd trust com corn companies parties parnes in New Y ek City and banks 1 of great strength and Influence in svery v r i I 1 I large money center in 1 the country I The chief business or of these banks Is Isto Isto I to receive r ce ehe the Rockefeller income and loan barr it to speculators manufacturers merchants farmers throughout tha thu th country And the Rockefellers not only are relieved from much of their mer anxiety over investments but also je 2 I a a double profiL profit There rs ts s the profit of f the interest which the banks I pay them for f or r their huge cash balances fifty and and nd even upward of a hundred IUnd r ed millions steadily st ea dilY main maintained m a in I tamed from f om day to t day by these larg largest largest largest est private handlers of cash the th world i has even ve 1 seen then there hee are re the prof prot profI j I Its of dividends I which w the banks de and large I rge dividends they the are |
