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Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 16 November 1907, Page 3

MILLION A LllE " KILLED" I3Y THE RUIvSS. hi the resignation of Mr John D. Rockefeller, jiuir., uf the of the young men's Bible class at the Fifth' Avenue Baptist Church, .New York, the latest instance js furnished (>vritc6 the \iw York correspondent of the London LVily Telegraph) of a prominent American being saeriiiced upon the Naming altar of saffron journalism. '•Undoubtedly,' 'continues Ihe correspondent, "tin* i< porters helped to kill the young mail's iuiibition to lend hi* fellow citizens in J ible study, il was a private and un(illieial Bible class at first, Iml gradually the New York pressmen I>egan attendirg it as regularly as the police courts. 1 have broil present on several occasions when the scribes were sitting almost under the nose of the young Standard Oil magnate, and taking down every word he uttered. It was embarrassing to lead a Bible chisis under such conditions. Every Monday morning for years past the American papers have reported yuing Rockefeller's Bible class, and not always with strict fairness. When he spoke about the necessity for thrift, wine newspaper was bound to give a li>t of his father's possessions, and if he. gave the Bible class a picnic in the country, as he loved to do in summer ocea sionallv, it was hinted that the Standard Oil shareholders were 'footing the bill.' Strictly speaking, young Rockefeller is a manly, conscientious young fillow, who spoke fairly well in public; but the yellow press basely asserted that the thrift he preached did not prac tice, and more than suggested that his Christianity was tainted with Pecksniffianism and priggism. JTe stood it all patiently for years, telling the simple Gospel story every Sunday, and giving out the Baptist hymns, but he has now (juitted the BilTie class for good. In a letter, written on a single sheet of Standard Oil stationery, with the address of the headquarters of that remailable corporation, which fe now on frial for 'murdering competition,' as Mr Randolph Hearst, of the Xew York World, says, the young man hands in his resignation to the Bible class executive, basing bis withdrawal partly on grounds of increasing business cares, and partly ee grounds of his health, which three years ago almost completely broke down. Tie gives expression 1o his abiding faith in young men. and hi* eternal belief in the life of Christ as the one foice 'in the world which can regenerate a man's life and make him clean, honest, and upright."