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Show MM Am WOMEN WE REAP ABOUT 1 I JF ' SAMUEL o T. TOtIHIE STAA9S SWLflMONAL SELF '. jl Ka haunted town it Is ttfc little at Franklin, county seat of Ramong the hills of Western Penn-Rfrom Penn-Rfrom Oil City, along. the banks of Rich haunts it Is not that of one R&t of a man still living, a native Hp, seldom seen there In the flesh Bor more. Ej.C. T Dodd. He has been called JRof the Standard Oil." En of this man that the plan of flfthe Standard Oil Trust, was con-jEil. con-jEil. it was his hand that, In 1SS2, Kent which gave it legal being. It mKts later, when the State courts of Kit the Standard must be punished liKfs by going .out of existence, de-Xf de-Xf its legal suicid-. He perfected Ruling the work for which it 'had IBfeW plans have been successful. Bars, from 1S82 till late in 1904, it knowledge and strong common iKrd's general counsel, that kept it Tgal shoals and quicksands. And, is; general counsel some eight or 'X still called upon In case of uted iEspedally knotty tangle to be un-JRr un-JRr two of defense must be said on Rockefeller, his employer, and the tKJh and soul S. C. T. Dodd is IKfogain. jMkn, in whom alone his master has piindence since 1SS2. the public at me. His name has not often been Kandlngi figure has never been fn-Ifcf fn-Ifcf New York. He has gone In and mWs from day to day and from year InTt walk the length and breadth ot Mfeeted by fewer personal acqunlnt-K"ti- $25-a-week clerk employed In Ipp at No. 26 Broadway, which was JBprs during all his general counsel-iHfTit counsel-iHfTit Is perfectly true that Samuel Em a vital personal force In the Iwnnd thus has exerted great Influ-IKworld Influ-IKworld of business and general af-Ifcuarter af-Ifcuarter of a century, he ha's done iRed his Influence unheralded and jjfi'Fcw members of the New York SKe seen him. iBcAl self-effacement has been vol-no'one vol-no'one knows. It Is certain that 'j iactlced his profession before heft he-ft ritor the great oil combination his I food out In high relief against the ed by his fellows at the Franklin -J ictltloners, by the way, who were si alent and achievement. In fact, S's services and personality were , ndard he had been rapidly making Suehout the entire country as an S iron his feet and with his pen. J f&s Jt seems now, the trend, of all lJ dances was against big comblna-7 comblna-7 eneral, and in particular the rap- ftroleum combination and its deals ji for rebates. Because of his early Standard In the seventies he was a Jhls fellow townsmen who thought I iged by Its expansion. It was be-jg be-jg battle which he gave it that for j hi their faith in its ultimate down- disappointment when he joined ited monopolists was too deep for 9 Ihe state of mental confusion into "J s fortunes were wrecked by the it fwere thrown by his change of J Is. day and will persist as long as 15 r. "Steady, overmastering progress ot fl more to Dodd than to John D. i Iher William, H. H. Rogers or any j Standard "magnates." In their Vj !tr stands for the essence of the 3 fhe is the human embodiment of p Ingle with the men of Franklin for jf! without learning the chief points g talking down the abort stretch of jwhlch most of the town's mer-& mer-& onal activity Is concentrated, the -that this man and thut man or. rfr slaeAralk are "with the Standard." $ tre In the pay of the ruler of all ntof the wooden buildings at No. A led partially as a branch office by l r (a Stan(lar1 organ), the visitor Q e Impressively told that "this was ;Ji he went over to the Standard; and S2j)r Dodd the Standard might hnve I for he made it and he has pre-iver pre-iver spoken of Dodd personally, ankllnltes agree, is one of the stood in shoe leather. He is a in gone wrong perhaps, a good i terrible obsession maybe, but man. ThlB Is the ostenslble.ut-i03t ostenslble.ut-i03t of the Franklin lawyers, their protestations of regard for are possibly too profuse to be Eut that these hard-headed. In Franklin attribute an unsus-tandard's unsus-tandard's smoothly running sue-no sue-no shadow of doubt whatever. Rockefellers, who were much In sixties, but dimly and as lucl-1 lucl-1 development of the petroleum abstractions. They remember Banality, as one who, upon the 8 a potent fuctor In the forward mtage and Education. Parker Dodd, tne father and T.. were of Scotch-Irish blood. ny of children, of whom seven "4 womanhood, five being sons Levi L. Dodd was a carpenter by but not exceptionally prosperous. SCt' and' as an intensely Roundly respected by his nelgh-nkiin( nelgh-nkiin( early ,n the Qst ccn JJJ of a wilderness. Most of the 5Lltv Tnral3' lltt,c Given to iy m rUgal ln thoir "ves. Had yjot they never would have sue ian" for themselves at all ln SvfS1 ,ater Eome "C t,lcm s rwX i0, 1UllL two BUch houses feen ?f.lnk' b-uL moved them to ids and ? a"d Blevc'th. There Pf Ploneef flays, it was ln this house that Samuel C. T. Dodd was born In February, 1S3G. .jDThe boyhood of this lad. who was to bo the legal pilot of the first and greatest trust, which was to develop de-velop an Industry as yet undreamed of and cause the amassing of more -wealth in private hands than had ever been accomplished in all the world's history, wns "typically American." Like most American pioneer parents, Levi L. and Julia Parker Dodd worked ferociously; they Bcrlmped and saved to the verge- of the pathetic. But neither In their work nor in their saving were thefr thoughts set mainly on the gathering of riches. To Father and Mother Dodd money meant education for the children, and as the young ones reached school age each was duly sent to the little red schoolhouse, or Its equlva. lent, as many weeks every year as possible. For the older ones, however, this was little enough, and' it was not till they were able to "bring something In" thnt serious thought could be given to more advanced mental training than that of the common school for . any of them. It was quite possible, however, by the time Samuel C. T. was old enough for college, and, more to the purpose, pur-pose, the boy himself was as eager to be educated as his parents were to have him educated. In 1S57, at 21, having partly earned his own way through, he was graduated from Jefferson (new "Washington, and Jefferson), Jef-ferson), a Presbyterlun college at Washington, Pa. His preparatory studies were carried on at Franklin, first at district school and later at the village academy. One of his teachers was named John Gamble. He was a graduate of the University of Fdlnburgh. and for many years was equally famous in Franklin for his physical and his mental power. He could hold his own on any subject from predestination to free soil, while as a runner, Jumper and a wrestler he was hard to beat. The few old-timers who still remember hjm declare that his shoulders wore full thirty-six inches broad and that his chest was "deep according." The teachings of John Gamble undoubtedly produced a powerful impression upon young Dodd's mentality, but Gamble's physical example appears to have been lost altogether upon the boy. There Is no one In all Franklin today who can remember that Sam Dodd ever excelled or even joined in any physical sport whatsoever. He fished, but that was all; and there Is no work In fishing. John Gamble Is dead many years and can tell nothing noth-ing about his pupil's school days, but the Robert Brig-ham Brig-ham already mentioned, to whom also S. C. T. Avent to school, says the boy was the best all-around "scholur" he ever had, with one exception. Young Dodd was not overly fond of any particular study, but. on the other hand, he slighted nothing and he went to the bottom of everything. As with sports, so It was with physical labor; S. C. T. Dodd when a boy would have none of It, If he could help It. At his books he was always ready to work hard; otherwise, says old man Brlgham, he was lazy. Men who knew Dodd as a young lawyer practically corroborate this, but they put It a little more discreetly. dis-creetly. "He was a man of extremely sedentary habits, hab-its, when he lived in Franklin," say they. He was a sociable lad and popular with the buxom young women of the whole region. He took part In the local debating schools 'and generally won, no matter what the topic or on which side he arrayed his talents. Nobody No-body remembers that he ever had any lights; If he had, he probably walloped the other fellow, for he was a big husky chap, ln spite of his aversion to physical effort. Cut Out for a Preacher, but Preferred Law. At college he distinguished himself, but some time before he was graduated It became apparent that ho was going to disappoint his father and mother. They wanted lilm to be a minister-of the gospel, but he decided de-cided on the law. So far as any one could see at that time, there was no reason to suppose that the law would offer a great career ln Franklin. Its population numbered only a few hundreds In 1S40, four years after Dodd was born, there were only a hundred voters; and according to the memory of Christopher Heydrlck. President Judge of Venango county, when Dodd was admitted, Franklin then had only a dozen lawyers, and there was none too much work for them. Yet they managed to get ulong. Franklin was then the county seat as now. Oil City did not exist, nor Pit Hole, both of which have made more stir In the world than Franklin In the years since oil was "struck," and the laAV business of "the whole county was concentrated at Franklin. Dodd began be-gan to study law Immediately after graduating from Jefferson College. He was admitted in 1859, almost simultaneously with the beginning of the oil excitement. excite-ment. Judge Heydrlck looked upon the young lawyer with great favor; so did every one" else In the town, ln fact, and whoever could turn anything his way was sure to do so. "He was a deserving young man. his knowledge ot the law was unusually sound for one of his ace, nna he had good common sense,'' says a veteran of the sixties. "Besides, he needed help. He didn't seem to bo a brilliant man, nnd he didn't shine forenslcally. It seemed clear that he could never make a big mark as a trial lawyer, and at that time, here ln Franklin, there was not much valuable practice of any other sort " v For two or three years, while yet the oil excitement excite-ment was young, Dodd struggled along as thousands of young country lawyers are struggling in small towns today, often glad to get little pettifogging cuses, even, to eke out hlB income. He took life rather narrow nar-row and conservative even for the time and place, and gradually he got the reputation of being somewhat some-what lacking ln ambition. Unlike his father and mother, he was not strenuously rjillglous; it Is even whispered ln Franklin among the old-timers that he was as liberal religiously as he was conservative ln other matters. But he lived a correct life, he went to church often enough to prevent a scandal, and the Franklin Presbyterians had full faith that ln time Levi Dodd's lawyer son would enter the fold. In politics his son, like the father, was a Democrat, though neither was in sympathy with the Institution of slavery, and the elder Dodd Is said to have been . a "conductor" on the "underground railroad" by which so many slaves were run over Pennsylvania's soil and across Lake Erie to Canada and freedom. Such was Franklin and such was S. C. T. Dodd when the people of Western Pennsylvania awoke to the fact that the reservoirs from which oozed the curious oily scum that floated upon some of their stream and springs and ponds would yield uncounted wealth If properly tapped. After the first wells had been bored and wore spouting spout-ing hundreds and sometimes thousands of barrels a day. It was found that the oil was good as an llluml-nant, llluml-nant, an a lubricant and possibly for other uses. Fortune, For-tune, It seemed, was coming to Western Pennsylvania at last. But many of the Franklin men, young Dodd Included, were skeptical. It was not so with the men of the outside world. They poured Into Venango county In droves to Investigate this wonderful new thing. They lifted their derricks high ln the air and they drilled' holes deep in the ground. As well after well was struck they went oil mnd. Farmers who owned a few steep, rocky, timber-covered acres suddenly sud-denly found themselves rich without spending a cent or doing a stroke of work, simply by leasing their land to the men who were willing to risk their nil In money and to toll harder than galley slaves to get a slice of the wealth produced by the marvelous new oil. Of course Dodd got Into the game. He couldn't help himself. It was so with all the lawyers of Venango county, but not through drilling for oil nor yet through buying and selling or "teaming It" over the rugged hilt roads from the wells to the landing place near Pit Hole, whence It was floated down the river to Pittsburg. Pitts-burg. In fact. Franklin wasn't much ln the earliest oil excitement proper at all. What Is now Oil City was in the very center of the first field. Plt'llole and other mushroom oil towns sprang ur near by. But, as Franklin was the county scat, it was there, the innumerable innu-merable litigations that -were an unavoidable feature of the early oil development had to be carried on and In Franklin the leases all had to be recorded. In no time, almost, -all the Franklin lawyers wcro up to their eyes ln business. It was not long before they were quite snowed under. They were no longer dependent upon little cases between neighbors, with' correspondingly small fees. Their days of hunting for cases were pasL Law business looked for f them irresistibly irre-sistibly and Imperiously and brought fees the like of which they had never Imagined. Word of the boom ln the law ln little Franklin was carried to the four points of the compass, and briefless young legal gentlemen gen-tlemen floated to the place by the score. What was more, they all did well, Dodd particularly so, though It was a long time before his brethren of the bar saw him as he was. "I settled in Franklin In 1S65," says one of the Invading In-vading lawyers, "ln the period of greatest excitement. I rented an office ln the same building with Dodd, his place being right across the hall from mine. He had been married two or three years and he lived ln a little house for which he paid SS a month. But for his office, which was In the suddenly awakened town's best business quarter, he probably paid ?50; at least, that's Avhat I paid for mine. 'Neither Avas much of an office, though. Possibly fifteen feet square, they Averc at the rear of the second floor, Avlth -windows looking out on a back yard Avhlch served as a dumping place for old tin cans and every other sort of refuse. "Dodd seemed neA'cr to be In a hurry. He Avas al-Avays al-Avays ln his olllce; he always had time to talk, and moat everybody thought he was throwing away his chances Just because he didn't like to Avork. But after a Avhlle I began to know better. In spite of his deliberate de-liberate A'ays, a string of clients Avas constantly coming com-ing and going. He Avas always at Avork early and he always stayed late. He didn't go to court as often as most okus, and Avhen he did he exhibited no special brilliance. But he Avon a surprisingly large number of suits because he kneAv his cases and he kneAv the I.iaw "The bulk of his business for a long time Avas searching search-ing out abstracts of titles and drawing up lenses. In this kind of practice he had many of ub at a big disadvantage. dis-advantage. Being a natlA'e born Frankllnlte. Avhlch most of us Avere not, he knew the Avhole region thoroughly thor-oughly and the history of practically all the farms. Avhlle Ave had to devote a lot of time to studying up the lay of the land. He knew the people, too, and, better bet-ter still from his standpoint, the people knew him and liked him. They remembered that his father Avas Levi Dodd, hard-working carpenter and consistent Presbyterian. Pres-byterian. It Avas perfectly natural Avhen a farmer Avas about to lease his land or a part of It to oil men that he should get Levi Dodd's lawyer son to look after his Interests. Before the rest of us hardly knew It, Sam Dodd had us skinned to death In olllce practice. "His Avlde acquaintance brought him in a Avhole lot more practice, too, Avhen they began to build railroads Into the oil field. When oil -was struck, you know, there Avas no railroad anyAvhere around here, the nearest near-est being full forty miles aAvay from Franklin. The oil had to be hauled from tho Avells along terrific roads, over the hills and through the valleys with the mud hub'deep sometimes, for miles, to the steamboat lund-Ing. lund-Ing. It cost a dollar a barrel Just to transport the oil to the river much of the time. But of course thnt didn't last long. Capital soon saAV that there Avould be money In building railroads to haul oil over. "In many pioneer communities where land owners were eager for communication from the outside Avorld thlrtj forty nnd fifty years ago, they were Avilllng to give the right of way, but It Avas not so In the neighborhood of Franklin. Many of" tho fanners had become suddenly and unexpectedly rich through oil. Thus they had acquired a taste for money, and they Insisted upon being paid avoII for the right of Avay, The railroads Ave re so eager to get In quick that they ' generally allowed any reasonable claims that Avere made, Avlthout much fuss. Sometimes, hoAvover, they stood out. Then, of course, the old settler landholders Avent straight to Levi Dodd's lawyer son. They had known all about him Avhen a baby. They had seen him as a boy In the famfiy pew at the Presbyterian church. The rest of us Avere strangers from other Stutes; they Averen't quite sure they could trust us, but they could trust Levi Dodd's boy, and lie got more than his natural share. We used to tell each other that none of tho rest of us AA'ould have had any show at all If there had been enough Sam Dodds to go round, Avhlch, fortunately, there Averen't. Hoav Dodd Once Set a Successful Trap. "Dodd did A-ery Avell ln the railroad cases, too, In spite of his lack of oratorical nourishes. I remember perfectly hoAV he Avon one case, famous here ln Its day, by the adoption of tactics then entirely novel, though Ave have all used them since then. The story la worth the telling; It avIH show his methods: "Ho had secured an unusually big award against Avhat Avas then the Warren & Franklin railroad; since merged ln the Pennsylvania lines. Ills opponent, tho railroad's attorney, Avns badly scared, but the award being of a practically unheard of amount, he had no doubt that he could get a reversal. To his surprise, sur-prise, Dodd had taken all manner of exceptions to the rullngst, from this the railroad attorney gathered that would oppose the report's confirmation. Consequently the railroad attorney Avalted for Dodd to argue against confirmation. This Dodd never had the slightest Intention In-tention of doing, and, Avhen the railroad attorney aAVoke to the situation, It Avas forever too late. He haa fallen into the trap exactly na Dodd hoped he would. "Naturally this gave Dodd another big boost Naturally, Natu-rally, after that, whoeA'er Avanted to fight the l'allroads or any other big corporation hired Dodd Naturally ln time he became known as the champion of the poor landholder ln contests Avlth the men Avho had money. "When John D, Rockefeller's South Improvement Company (or was It the Southern Improvement Company?) Com-pany?) began to make a stir, Dodd was against It, and logically, both as a matter of principle and because all his friends were. As tho combination now known as the Standard Oil slOAvly took form Dodcl avos everlastingly ever-lastingly and consistently on the other side. He was always for the producer and against the corporations. When rebates began to be heard of he fairly boiled with Indignation, over them, Ho talked hla vIcavs in his office, on the streets nnd at public gatherings. He wrote letters, he sent communications to the neAvs-papers; neAvs-papers; he left no stone unturned in the efforts to block the onAvnrd progress of the combination. About ' him rallied all the Independent well holders and refiners. re-finers. They bellcA-cd In him Implicitly, and to this day many of them are convinced that If he had 'stuck' the big combination neA-er could haA'e Avon. "In 1873-4 he Avas a delegate at large to the Pcnn-syh'anla Pcnn-syh'anla State Constitutional Convention, nnd on the floor of Hint body he took a most important stand in faA-or of an anti-rebate clause. Day after day during the convention's sessions he battled for the right as he saw it then. His first Avlfe Ava3 A-ery 111 at the time, and he used to return home from Hnrrlsburg Aveekly, for he Avas anxious to make Avhat turned out to be her last Illness as easy as he could. On these Aveekly A'Islts he consulted his close personal friends regularly, particularly Judge Heydrlck. It avos clear to them that the Standard people appreciated his ability and feared his power, for often he Avould tell how he had been approached with arguments to show that he Ans Avrong nnd that the rebate system Avas all right. Over and' over again he Avould repeat the arguments advanced to his friends, and over and over again they would stiffen up his backbone so that Avhen back at Harrlsburg he ahvays renewed his fight. As a matter of fact, the anti-rebate article bo strenuously advocated by Dodd Avas made a part of the Constitution of Pennsylvania adopted by that con-A'entlon, con-A'entlon, and remains a part of it to this day. "Nerertheless, It Is the opinion of his old friends In Franklin that the seeds of his defection from the antt-rebate, antt-rebate, anti-monopoly cause Avere sown ln his mind during the sessions of that Constitutional Convention. "It Avould be too long a story to tell Just how the change finally became complete, and, besides, I should probably make some inaccurate statements if I tried, to tell It. But after transportation by Avagon and river boats had been supplanted by the railroads that Avere built like a net through the Pennsyh'ania oil regions, came the pipe lines. Various combinations of producers and others projected A'nrlous lines, two of the most famous being the United Pipe Lines and the National Transit Line. Dodd had a good deal to do Avlth them, and ln this Avay the attention of thoso Avho afterward made up the Standard Oil crowd Avas drown more forcibly than ever to his Intimate knowledge knowl-edge of all the legal aspects of the oil business, his sound general knowledge of laAV and his strong common com-mon sense. Franklin Grieved, but Not Unduly Critical. "So, from time to time, his professional serA'Ices were engaged by the combination forces as against the producers ln general. Little by little his a'Icw that combinations nnd rebates Avere Avrong appeared lesa clear, and finalh' In 1S82 he Avas made the general counsel for the Standard Oil, and that same year he organized the Standard Oil Trust. "To say that Ave ln Franklin Avere surprised would not be quite true. We had felt rather than seen the change coming for two years, If not more. It Is true that as late as 18S0 he had no doubt that as a common carrier a railroad Avas bound to treat eA-ery shipper alike and that Is Avas a misdemeanor, Indictable under un-der the common law, for any parties to enter Into agreements for special rates or rebates or anything of the sort. "We Avho knew him In the old days and fought with him against the Standard do not wish to criticise him for his change of heart. Some of us are puzzled nnd some of us belleA'e that he has by no means been In sympathy Avlth all the moves of the Standard since he cast his lot with It." In other words, It seems to be the Franklin notion that Avhatever evil the Standard has done muy haA'e all been against Dodd's adA'lce. Former Judge Heydrlck, av)io presided In the little Franklin Courthouse (since torn down) forty-six years ago, Avhen Dodd Avas admitted to the bar, wrote out x the following paragraph along this line for Insertion ln this article: "Down to a'certnln time It can be fairly said that no man ever had a profounder A-encratlon for the laAV of the country, organic and statutory, than had Mr. Dodd. Upon the subject of the legal control of cor-poiatlons cor-poiatlons an article ln the present Constitution of Pennsylvania expresseK his matured convictions us late as January, 1S74. Whether those convictions huve since undergone any change may not be euslly determined. de-termined. A laAvyer Is not necessurlly responsible for the conduct of his client, and -will not usually feel nt liberty to reveal lo the public the advice he has gh'en, especially Avhen that advice has been disregarded disre-garded in flagitious conduct." Whether Mr. Dodd really bettered himself financially by leaving hla practice and his other Interests In Franklin to become the general counsel of the Standard Stand-ard in New York no one known. He Avas very Avell lo do In 1S82. He recently had built for himself ln Franklin a typical frame residence upon one of Franklin's Frank-lin's prettiest streets; hu also hud provided a comfortable com-fortable homo for his father and his family near by, and he had Invested ln considerable Franklin real estate, some of Avhlch he holds to this day. But he forsook Franklin immediately, and his subsequent A'Islts to Ills old home have been like those of the angels for lnfrequency. In New York his sulary has been large, of course. There are rumors that It Is 350,000 a year, the same as the President's; other rumors that It Is double that umount, and still others that It Is 5200,000. The truth about It Avould be as hard to learn as any other of the secrets thut are so Jealously and successfully guarded at No. 2G Broadway. There Is a Avell-dellned belief among New York lawyers law-yers that Mr. Dodd personally la unlike moBt others of the Standard Oil crowd In being measurably Indifferent Indif-ferent to money. They say that he does hla work more.-for more.-for the pleasure of doing It well than for the financial finan-cial reward he receives; that his sentiment toward the practice of law Is along the lines of the sentiment of the Avrlter or painter, AVhose motto Is "Art for art's sake," and If that Avere true his Franklin friends, perhups, could understand him better. Dodd's Surprise When His Snlnry Wnc Doubled. Tho story goes that one morning Avhen he Avnlked Into his office an official of the Standard grasped his hand cordially and Avarmly congratulated him. Mr. Dodd had no Idea Avhat It Avas nil about, but ho thanked his friend, and, sitting "down at his desk, Avns soon Immersed In some legal problem. Presently another friend came lo him AVith congratulations, and then another. Still Dodd Avorked on. but Avhen congratulated con-gratulated for the fourth time curiosity got the better of professional zeal, nnd he made bold to ask the wherefore. "Why. Mr. Dodd." avus the reply. "Is It possible you havon't hoard that your salary has been doubled V" Mr. Dodd hadn't, but Investigation proA'ed the truth of the statement. Going home on the elevated railroad that night he met a friend, to Avhom he told the story of his good fortune. His friend added his congratula tlons to those of the morning. But Dodd didn't thank ' i&ll "What puzzles me," he said, "lsNAvh'at am I going 1 to do Avlth all that money? I 'don't need It and I didn't ask for It. However," Avlth a long breath, "I ll suppose I shall haA'e to take It and make the best of Samuel C. T. Dodd lacks only six months of being 70. He Is a big man, somewhat ponderous, mentally 1 as Avell ns physically. He reminds you a little of i'il Grover CleA'cland, of Avhom he Avas a. warm admirer. In the '60s he Avore the long, heaA'y side Avhiskers that . 'H 1 tl Avere then such favorites, but of late years his face fH has grown hair upon the upper lip only ln the form -' of a little mustache so curled nnd dressed as to pro- hll duce a somewhat Incongruous effect. ll In appearance, ln the deliberation Avlth Avhlbh he Pl speaks, ln his gestures and his facial expression he Is : the old-time, sound, shrewd, kindly country laAvyer '1 of the best class. You may find Just such old lawyer . ln many a middle-class country town. Men much of r -' his type, and probably quite his equals ln general j b Pl practice, are to be found In Franklin today; men whose' f 11 friends haA'e not yet done Avonderlng Avhy one of them ' lll Instead of "Sam" Dodd Avas not tnken for the Stand;. 'Il ard's general counsel. If some one from Frnnklln Avas. I'l to be chosen. Sl It Is probable that his employer, John D. Rockefeller, 'tfll could give them a few excellent reasons. At all events, ' ,' It Is the feeling among the legal profession in New ! York that he has done great service for the Standard, 5 even If the trust, as organized by him, did haAe to bo t 'l dissolved. That Rockefeller has always held him ln rl the highest respect Is Avell known. They say that John, : D., secretive to a degree In some ways, has never un- folded nil his plans of eA'ery sort to any other living f'jl man as he has to Dodd, not even to his brother Pl William, or to H. H. Rogers, who Is reported by the' picturesque "Lawson of Boston" lo be the essentl.l I 'l devil ln many of Ihe Standard's doings. ' All through the Standard building nnd wherever, I'l there are Standard branch offices It Avas understood 'l for more than twenty years that ln the absence ot ! John D. himself Dodd was the man to consult. From ' -'jijH him alone the master of all the Standard's forces neAcr I'l concealed any plan Avh.atsover, zo that. If Rockefeller be considered the conscious brain of the Standard, Nl Samuel C. T. Dodd may logically be held to be a sort j IH of sub-conscious personality or subliminal conscious- 'IH ness, ready at any time automatically to take the helm LlH . ln John D.'s absence. ; il Exactly how much truth there Is ln the story no one knows, but Avell-Informed men believe It thor- f 'l oughly. It Is said that John D. for years has j never gone to see any of his associates when he f Avlshed y consult them, except Dodd. All the others had to go to John D.; but he has often gone to Dodd. This is the highest imaginable tribute that could be IH paid to his Judgment, his poise, and his ability to - keep hla own counsel under any and all circumstance?. , M. F. Elliott, Dodd's successor as the Standard's gen- ' J eral counsel; Is undoubtedly an able man or he, ' IH Avouldn't haA'e the place, but Dodd's ripe experlenco JH and sound Judgment Is sure to be called for on many IH occasions so long as he Is able to respond. Elliott was M Dodd's assistant for years; now Dodd's son Is Elliott's assistant. In NeAV York Mr. Dodd lh'es quietly ln Sixty-fourth street, his house being a modest one, ln no essential differentiated from the rather commonplace houses ; J Avhlch make up the row of which It forms a part. Ho t passes his summers at Twilight Park, ln the heart of fl the Calskllls, where he has a handsome summer res I- r jH dence. The Dodds are not specially distinguished so- fl daily, religiously or phllanthroplcally. Dodd had po- Jl Utlcnl aspirations Avhen a young man; he once ran , 1 for the lower house of the Legislature ln Pennsyi- , vania as a Democrat, but Avns badly beaten, his dls- j trlct being heaA'ily Republican, like most of Penn- sylvanla. Once. too. he Avas a candidate for President j Jf Judge of Venango county, but withdrew his name. Ho has neer cut any polltlcnl figure ln New York, nor. , JJ has he tried to. IH Why Dodd's Friends Are Intensely Loyal. , (H In New York as ln Franklin Dodd is popular Avith ' his acquaintances. He llkps to laugh and he laughs JH heartily. He also knoAvs how to crack the ribs of his acquaintances with hearty laughter. He Is reputed to be a very kindly man, and they, tell 1 ' u story of an elderly Avoman, the Avldow of an old friend, who went to him once and told him thut her i Jl little home and fortune, her all, left 'by her deceased husband, Avere likely to be taken away from her. , fl She thought, howeA-er, that Avlth proper "legal advice, ! IH they could be saved. She had consulted a certain rls-ing rls-ing young lawyer, since become famous, Avlio had ,glven her some encouragement, but had demanded an advance fee of $3000 lo undertake the case. She( could H not raise so much money, and she Avas ln despair. Dodd ll3tened till the Avhole painful story Avas told: Then, although unusually busy at the time, he said . cheerfully: '. "I'll be In my office next. Saturday morning. Coins Id me then. Bring the papers In the case and I'll ar- 1 range the matter for you without its costing you . cent. No; don't thank me; lawyers charge too much jfl Such things sIioav certain phases of the Dodd char-acter, char-acter, Avhlch explain the Intense loyalty his friends are said to feel for him. . Mr. Dodd has had much leisure on his hands alncu he became general counsel, for he has never been asked to attend to small details. Ills leisure lias Jf been spent largely In the library of his New York home; his collection of books la large and well-sc-lected, and he Is as eager a reader today, as he Avas when a pupil of old man Brlgham ln Franklin. ( Notwithstanding his long connection Avilh the great- est development of modern Avaya of doing business 'll he Is a singularly conservative man. Probably this I has been one' of his strongest points. He Is hardly as much opposed to new Avays ofdolng things nowadays, , however, as they say he avus' In 1SGC. Cyrus W. Field was then engaged in his second and successful trans-Atlantic trans-Atlantic cable project, Avhen a laAvyer friend, as mer-curlal mer-curlal as Dodd was phlegmatic, rushed Into his office , one day nnd became highly enthusiastic over the ' notion of sending messages under the deep. Dodd, ns ' jH usual, was ln his office and quite AVilUng to talk and i be talked to. When his friend Avas obliged to stop for l sheer lack of breath, Dodd had his say. The enter- t prise, he declared, avos not at all to his liking. He jH didn't appreciate the importance of "tying the contl- 11 nents together With electric bands." H "Let us have peuce and quiet," he Avound up ln effect. "We're too much ln a hurry already. Life Avon't be Avorth living unless Ave stop making lnvcn- ' tlons to annihilate time and apace. Why can't Ave get ' along in the old Avny? It has been good enough for the Avorld some six thousand years, why Isn't It good f enough for us now? Let well enough alone, I say." 'H Tho infin Avho tells this story Is still practicing law, Jl In Franklin, his practice is a good one, too, but hla 'j personal progress has fallen far short of that of S. jH C. T. Dodd, for tAvcnty odd years "tho Subliminal, Self itl of the Standard Oil." Il Corrrlght, mi, ty. I. Mgrshah. |