OCR Text |
Show . . ROCKEFELLER'S FIRST LEDGER. John I). Pockefeller, jr., has charge of the Bible class at the Fifth Avenue Baptist church, Xew York. Iiecently he gave a lecture to the young men. His subject was "his First Ledger." Before reading the ledger he made a profession of faith: "I believe it is a religious duty to get all the money you can, fairly and honestly; to keep all you can, and to give away all you can." The first article of his creed, which makes "it a religious duty for him to get all the money he can," is doubtless founded on-the on-the recommendation given to the unjust steward, who had made friends with the Mammon of iniquity. But the getting must be "fairly and honestly," and he, of course, is the judge. To get a few million dollars he has only to add a few mills to the price of "Standard oil." That is fair and honest. Honesty Hon-esty is a mere abstraction and materializes only in j the methods of doing business. The washerwoman who pays the' extra two mills for a pint of oil may ditfer from the Bible class teacher in her ideas of fairness and honesty, and say to the teacher: "You have taken dishonestly the widow's mite." His second sec-ond article of faith is, "to keep all you can." This article of faith, too, has the approval of the rich-man rich-man mentioned in the Gospel, "whose land brought forth much fruit, and who thought within himself: him-self: What shall I do, because I have no room where to store my fruits. And he said: 'This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to ray soul: "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy rest; eat, drink, make goxd cheer."J" What followed? The third article of faith is scriptural also "to give away all you can." However, this "giving away all he could" is not up, to tho requirements of perfection, which demands, first, that ho sell all his possessions, and, secondly. , . distribute same to the poor. Evidently then, as yet, John Kockefeller, jr., is not perfect, nor has he any desire to reach perfection, which demands so great a sacrifice. But his first ledger, or. as he terms it, "Ledger A," is interesting. He produces it in class and says: "I have not seen this book for twenty-five years. It does not look like a modern ledger, does it? But you could not get. that book fron me for all the modern ledgers in Xew York, nor for all that they would bring. It almost brings tears to my eyes when I read over this little book, and it fills rue with a sense of gratitude that I cannot express. It shows largely what I received and what I paid out during my first years of business. It shows that from Sept. 26, 18o5, until Jan. 1, ISoG, I received $50. Out of that I paid my washerwoman and the lady I boarded with, and I saved a little money to put awav. I am not ashamed to read it over to you." In three months and four days he received only $50. This extraordinary feat is more than duplicated dupli-cated daily in every large city. The writer remembers remem-bers one case which came under his personal super- j vision. It was that of a widow who had three small children depending upon her earnings. She scrubbed offices in the early hours of morning for a living. Her monthly income was $12. For one small room, which served as a kitchen, dining and sleeping room for the entire family, she paid out c her monthly income $4 a month for rent. She kept; I no ledger, but managed to live on the balance $3.' If Mr. Rockefeller's ledger "almost brought tears to his eyes,", this one case out of many, in these days of cant and humbug, should bring tears from the hardest heart. Xo one acquainted with the misery mis-ery and wretchedness which exist in all large cities., and from which the multimillionaire is exempt, can fail to see the comic side of that famous ledger. Knowing the abject misery that exists in many wretched homes in Xew Yorkj and John D. Rockefeller's Rocke-feller's plethoric wealth, and the Socialist and Anarchist An-archist never fail to present object lessons to their deluded followers. This enchanted wealth, as Car-lyle Car-lyle would term it, could be used to good advantage by the Bible class teacher, if he followed in the footsteps foot-steps of the Good Master by relieving some of that misery. To be just to the capitalist in his juvenile days we quote from the ledger which telh. of his charity: "Among other things, I find that I gave a cent to the Sunday school every Sunday. That is not a very large sum, is it ? But that was all the money I had to give for that particular object. I was also giving to several other religious objects, and what I could afford to give regularly, as I was taught to do, and it has been a pleasure to me all my life to do so. "I had a large increase in my revenue the next yea p. It went up to $25 a month; I began to be a capitalist, and had I regarded nyself than the same way as we regard capitalists now, I ought to have felt like a criminal because I had so much money. But we had no trusts or monopolies then. I paid my own bills, and always had a little something to give away, and the happiness of saving some. In fact, I im not so independent how as I was then." With $20-goldpieces jingling in all his pockets, . Johtt Rockefeller is not as independent now as he was in 1856, when his income was limited to $25 a month. Xow he can secure the most fashionable fashion-able cut of clothing and partake of the finest cook-cry, cook-cry, yet he is not as independent now as ho was in (1S56. We agree, if he will only substitute the word "happy" for "independent." Money will not heal a dyspeptic stomach. Its possession will hot change the sad, gloomy and downcast countenances of 1 the poor, nor the disloyal hearts of the Anarchists. On the contrary, yit helps to engender such feelings. How then can a ChristiaTTouT and who-e creed is' "to make a t! Inoi, J"-. ; be happy? Impossible. "P.Ies.-ed 8PO ,;. ' ,'ar.'' .Christ. He gave no injunction ni ' a''' money you can." Herein i tl. al Rockefeller's being less happy i1(v '.'f '-when '-when he wrote his first ledger. Th, "j,.1, "J" ,"a' those happy days when he lived n ''' was the cause, too. of the tears which "J '"" shed. Yet the world move on, and ,! ,.,. J,,;''''' change. '' "' |