MR. ROCKEFELLER RESIGNS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1347, 26 January 1912, Page 6

MR. ROCKEFELLER RESIGNS.

OIL TRUST GIVEN UP I'OR GOLF. Mr. John D. Rockefeller, giving as his reason his desire to devote the rest of his life to golf, on December :i severed his last official connection with the gigantic network of the Oil Trust and other corporations which he built up . For ten years his association with the Standard Oil has been only nominal, his position as president and director of (he Standard Oil Company of New Jersey requiring nothing nice than one annual visit of a few minutes' duration to the Standard Oil headquarters. Besides Mr. Rockefeller, most of the other men associated with him in the creation of the biggest Trust in the world have resigned from the Standard Oil Companies of New Jersey and New York. These men included Mr. William Rockefeller, Mr. C. M. Pratt, Mr. William G. Rockefeller, Mr. H. M. Flagler, Mr. J. fi. Flagler, and Mr. IT. C. Fogler.

The shares of the Standard Oil (says the "Daily Mail" of December a) aro now split into vulgar fractions, and,the general reorganisation of the directorates of the different companies is nearly completed. Tho official mantle of the "richest man in the world" falls on Mr. John D. Archbold, for long the actual head of the Trust. The changes had no effect on the Standard Oil stock, which was quoted on the kerb at 630.

Mr. John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839, and began his career as a clerk in a firm of commission merchants. At nineteen he became a partner, and the firm engaged in 'the oil business. In 18G5 the Standard Oil Works at Cleveland, Ohio, were built, and the great task of creating ■the most vast of all monopolies was begun. Under his leadership it grew into a machine which poured millions into the Rockefeller family's coffers at such a paco that the head of the business has been able to give away over ,£20,000,000 to various institutions. Mr. Rockefeller is seventy-two, bald, dyspeptic, and an enthusiastic golfer. Mr. William Rockefeller is the younger brother of "John D.," with whom he has worked for over fifty years, lie is a director of numerous railway, mining, banking, and other concerns. Mr. William G. Rockefeller, aged fortyone, is the sou of Mr. William Rockefeller, and, liko his father and his uncle, is a prominent liaptist. Mr. John D. Archbold, aged sisty-three, has for some Years past been the most active of the of the Trust, and is equally respected ns u great capitalist and a philanthropist. Mr. Charles Millard Pratt, a man of fifty-six, was an independent merchant untii he joined the Trust in 1890. Mr. C. H. I'olger has been connected with the Trust since 1879. He is a Congregationalism has written mauy monographs on Shakespeare, and possesses 20,000 volumes of Shakespearean literature. Mr. H. It. Flagler is eighty-one. and has had business relations with Mr. J. P. Rockefeller for quite fifty years. He owns two hotels in Florida, valued at ,£(500,000. besides 600 miles of railway. The dissolution of the Oil Trust was ordered in May last, the company being given six months in which to readjust its affairs.

Properly speaking, the history of tho Trust dates back to the day? when tho vonthful Rockefeller was "raisin?'' turkeys and lending out the proceeds at 7 ner cent. Tho first large company was formed by Mr. PockeMler and six others in 1870, and was as that time, to ruiotc the words of an American Attorney-Gene-ral, "a simple conspiracy" to crush out competition in the oil business. Somo competing firms were bought up, and others crushed by the ingenious method of inducing the railways to impose special rates against them.. The alliauce with tho railways has ever since been one of the Trust's main sources of strength. By 1882 thirty-nine companies had boon absorbed. Ten years later tho Ohio Courts declared the whole enterprise illegal. A sham rearrangement, surmounted the difficulty, and in 189!) the "holding company" o f Xew .ler-ev was inaugurated with a capital of .I'iS.ODfl.ftAO and authority over seventy subsidiary companies. It has given dividends of 4(1 per cent, yc.irlr since 1!X>0. Suits for the dissolution of the Tru't were inaugurated again and again without success until Inst year. And oven after the decision of M.-iv last, Mr. Piornont Morgan is reported to have said that til" Trust could not actually bo dissolved. "You cannot," 110 observed, "unscramble an egg." Tho Trust has always boon a. close corporation, and the great bulk of its lingo profits has gone directly into tho hands of the Rockefellers and thoir associates. Tho gross assets of the Trust increased' from -C40,000.0f10 in 1S0!)'to J274.0f10.ft0n in mnn. Hie nrotit in the same period totalling .ens.rioo.noo, from which dividends of ,£01,000,000 were paid.