Battle of Oil Giants

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 607, 8 March 1929, Page 9

Battle of Oil Giants

TRIUMPH FOR ROCKEFELLER Moral Fitness Must Be Test (Vnitcd P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and .Y.Z. Press Association) Received 11.7 a.m. NEW \ ORK, To-day. A MESSAGE from Whiting, Indiana, says that John D. Rockefeller, jun., won the biggest fight of his business career, when he succeeded in ousting Colonel Robert Stewart from the Board of Directors of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, in a meeting with personal animosities, resulting from months of fighting between them.

Thus the issue of “moral fitness’' which Mr. Rockefeller raised against the head of the Indiana concern, due to his connection with a Continental Trading Company in the famous oil scandals, was approved by the company investors. The total vote for the Rockefeller slate was approximately 5,500,000 shares, against slightly under 3,000,000 for Colonel Stewart. Mr. Rockefeller was in Europe at the time of the meeting, but Colonel Stewart was present.

that a great corporation ever liad. ‘•Colonel Stewart was born on an lowa farm, worked his way through Yale University, got a law degree, and became a reporter on a New Haven newspaper. “Going to New York looking for a job, he read that South Dakota had been admitted to Statehood, felt that a young lawyer would have a- chance there, pawned his watch and bought a ticket to Pierre. He became a great pleader, holding juries in the hollow of his hand. Entering the service of the Standard Oil Company, he moved to Chicago. A riding, shooting, lighting man, he joined Roosevelt and served as major in the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War. After the Standard Oil Company was split up, he found himself With the Indiana Company. AGGRESSIVE POLICY “Under his aggressive management the Indiana Company grew probably faster than any of its sister companies. When he took hold it had 4.000 stockholders, a number since multiplied by nearly 15. Through his policies 18,000 employees become stockholders “The appeal to the employees is another feature which distinguishes this from all other financial lights. Employees have never been called on before on such a scale to pass judgment on the man who stands at their headThere is no secret Australian ballot, either; the stockholders must sign a power-of-attorney. The employee must stand up and be counted. “It will be a painful dilemma for many. It is human nature for the employee to feel that if he votes for ’the losing side the winning side will not feel kindly toward him. Many an employee will doubtless solve tlib» problem for himself by selling out.

Not in a long time has mere been greater public interest in a battle between big business men for control of a great corporation than the Press of the country now finds in the attempt of John D. Rockefeller, junr., a minority stockholder in the Standard Oil Company of Indiana, to oust Colonel Robert W. Stewart, chairman of the board of the company. This fight, observed an American paper recently, "will show' whether decency in business or the appetite for dividends shall rule.” Mr. Rockefeller is fighting Colonel Stewart on the unusually high ground that the present chairman of the board has damaged himself in the public eye by what one newspaper calls “evasive tactics” in the Senate Teapot Dome investigation; and that it would be for the best interest of the company for somebody else to hold the job. The colonel, on the other hand, points to the financial record of the company during the last ten years, and especially that of the last year, as representative of his business ability and an indication that the public is not greatly concerned about his tactics in the Teapot Dome matter. , A UNIQUE FIGHT “The light is unique,” wrote one observer. “It is not a struggle lor supremacy between Napoleons of finance, but a fight on an issue of right and wrong. It is a fight to clean house, but to cleyn it by turning out one of the ablest, most aggressive, and most successful business executives

“Associates of Mr. Rockefeller have denied that he is buying stock in the open market. The stock has been soaring and diving, as it has been traded in heavily. This may mean that the two sides are pouring millions into the fight. It may only mean that speculative traders believe they will pour millions into the fight, and are buying in anticipation of that development.”