ROCKEFELLER S ASTUTENESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 462, 15 June 1909, Page 3

ROCKEFELLER S ASTUTENESS.

In his “Random Reminiscences,” contributed to the World’s Work, Mr Rockefeller tells a story of the clever way in which his agent, Mr Mather, arranged for the placing of the building of twelve ships for use in the Great Lakes. The order was very large in those days, and there was fear of them haying to pay very high prices. This is the ingenious way in which the difficulty was met:—

Mr Mather kept the secret of the number of ships he wished to construct absolutely to himself. He sent his plans and specifications, each substantially a duplicate of the others, to each of the firms, and asked each firm to bid on one or two ships as the case might be. All naturally supposed that at most only two ships were to be built, and each was extremely eager to get the work, or at least one of the vessels.

On the day before the contracts were to be let, all the bidders were taken one by one into Mr Mather’s private office for special conference covering all the details preparatory to the final bid. At the appointed hour the bids were in. Deep was the interest on the part of all the gentlemen as to who would be the lucky one to draw the prize. Mr Mather’s manner had convinced each that somehow he himself must be the favoured bidder, yet when he came to meet his competitors in the hotel lobby the beams of satisfaction which plainly emanated from their faces also compelled many heart searchings.

At last the crucial hour came, and at about the same moment each gentleman received a little note from Mr Mather conveying to him the tidings that to him had been awarded a contract sufficient to supply his works to their utmost capacity. They all rushed with a common impulse to the hotel lobby where they had been accustomed to meet, each bent on displaying his note and commiserating his unsuccessful rivals, only to discover each had a contract for all he could do, and that each had been actually bidding against nobody but himself.