THE DIME MAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 774, 21 September 1929, Page 10

THE DIME MAN

JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER

DONATIONS NOW £IIO,OOOOOO If Mr. John Davidson Rockefeller who is looked upon by his friends i n America as being a little eccentric chose to exercise his eccentricity for the purpose of making New Zealand safe for Democracy he could pay off the Dominion’s national debt of some £250,000,000, and still have enough left to complete his remarkable life in luxury. So far, the wonderful old man has donated from the Rockefeller Foundation for good causes all over the world the record sum of £110.000,000 probably not more than a third of the Rockefeller fortune. The Carnegie donations totalled £70,000.000, or nine-tenths of the grim Scotsman's fortune. There are now three John D. Rockefellers in the line of direct and fortunate succession. "Rockefeller L” (as blunt American biographers call the eldest philanthropist of the family), is 90 years of age. He is happy, "enjoys life, plays an excellent, game of golf, and confidently expects to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of his birthday.” His private estate at Pocantico Hills, New York State, is almost the size of the municipal city of Auckland, excluding the latest additions, Avondale, Tamaki and Orakei. To secure complete privacy for the possessors of the Rockefeller domain, John D. Rockefeller, jun. twhose sole purpose in life is to perpetuate his father’s intentions) recently had to buy an entire village at quadrupled values. He is now negotiating for the diversion of a suburban railroad away from the estate fence. And the Rockefellers usually get what they want. Everything has its price. Threatened Men Live Long Thirty years ago, the eldest John D. Rockefeller was advised by his friend and doctor to cease active business —or die quickly. The adviser is long since dead, but the threatened patient lived on and lives. Instead of ceasing the active business of piling up money by the million, he reversed his activity and began to give money away for the benefit of many nations. He heaped up philanthropies. and pursued Carnegie in a spirit of dazzling generosity. Andrew Carnegie favoured the aid of education and science; John D. Rockefeller concentrated on the promotion of medicine and the highest education. The vast incomes from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial Fund already have advanced various medical crusades against tropical diseases in twenty-one different countries. China’s main medical centre at Peking is a Rockefeller-endowed institution, administered entirely by Chinese as a national fountain head of medical knowledge and skill. Several university colleges in New Zealand hope soon to enjoy receiving some of the substantial gifts Mr. Rockefeller enjoys giving away for good and useful causes. From Dimes to Dollars How did the famous philanthropist make so much money? Observers have tried to explain in books about the man, but have not been able to tell the full story or reveal the real secret. It would be conventionally romantic to say that John D. Rockefeller, sen., began as a poor boy and, by virtue of that character which took the message to Garcia, built up a Himalayan fortune; but such a tale would not be true. As one biographer has noted without any appreciation of sensitiveness, old "Doc” Rockefeller made a lot of money for his heir by selling quack medicines and through having "a genius for making people like him and an endless talent for finding easy money.” The boy inherited his father’s financial talent and good humour, but his better inheritance was the legacy of his mother’s love for church work, and philanthropy. He began his commercial career as a commission clerk, and learnt early the wisdom of counting his pennies. Even today he delights in presenting a new dime to each good little boy who attracts his favour. As a clerk he was a model employee, but other qualities soon made him unwilling to work for another man. He learnt that money makes money and that it is foolish to pay profits to other people when you can keep them for yourself. In 1865 the abstemious, eager young man devoted his business ability exclusively to oil refining. It was not a long step to monopoly and a continuous gush of money as well as oil. It is not necessary here to recall the rank odour of the great oil trust, which once suffered the colossal fine of 29,240,000 dollars, and the subsequent dissolution order. That phase has passed and may be forgotten. The man is now in his ninety-first year, and can give an impressive account of his stewardship. The dime-man, who at one time sweated the sap out of timber for oil barrels and saved a third of the freight on it, now gushes wealth like an oil-well. But some observers may not be forgetting the widow's mite.