NEWSBOY TO MAGNATE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 142, 13 July 1909, Page 2

NEWSBOY TO MAGNATE.

MILLIONAIRE TWELVE TIMES ) OVER. "Business is war. We arc not in busi-1 ness for our health; we are out for the 1 dollars/ 5 This was the motto of Mr.. Henry 11. Rodger*,', the head of the Standard Oil Company, the Amalgamated Copper Company, and other important industrial combinations, and one of the j most inlluential men in America, who . has just died from apoplexy. And how . well he had acted on this guiding pri.i- , ciple is proved by the fact that he died : worth £12,000,000. His death removes ) one of the giauU of American linance I with an influence probably unexcelled by any of the great men who are behind the financial enterprises of the timrj. Born in 1837, at Fairhavcn, Massachusetts, of very poor people, he started life as a newsboy, but by a combination } of grit, ability, and close application lie 1 rapidly strode to the front. He went j out as a young man to the oilfields in 2 Pennsylvania, where he picked up the 2 first-hand knowledge of the oil industry that afterwards enabled him to play a prominent part in the Standard Oil Company, of whieli he was one of the largest stockholders. He passed from one successful operation to another, each enterprise serving as the basis of another more daring, until he directly controlled or exercised a dominating influence over one hundred companies. In fact, theic was scarcely an aspect of commercial life in the States in which the name of . Henry Rodgers was not a power. He i was associated for years with Mr. John ? D. Rockefeller in the organisation and t management of the gigantic Standard f Oil Trust, and after Mr. Rockefeller's I retirement from active participation in < the business a few years ago he assumed > -iolo cluirgo. The association of Mr. . John J). Rockefeller and Mr. 11. H. . Rodgers in the Standard Oil Company . has left an indelible mark on modern commerce, not alone on account of the , colossal operations of this company in I ? particular, but because of the sequel in | the creation of the Amalgamated Copper Company and other dominating miluenccs in the American market. Ae- . cording lo contemporary critics', Mr. Rodgers provided the actual brains b operations which established monopolies extending the world over. In the early days of his career he was the owner of oil-producing concerns, and as Mr. Rockefeller has stated in his recentlvpnblished memoirs, he recognised that Mr. Rodgers was' too dangerous a competitor to be left out of account, and Mr. Rodgers accordingly was induced to join the Standard Oil King. The creation of the Amalgamated Copper Company was the conception of Mr. Rodgers alone, although he had the support of Mr. Rockefeller in carrying it out. The two bought copper properties from their owners for £7,800,000, but' not a penny of this needed to be paid. Banks controlled by Mr. Rockefeller lent the money at a low rate of interest, and then came the creation of the company, with A DECLARED CAPITAL OP £15,000.000.

Mr. Rodgers, as a citizen of his native town, proved himself to ho a benevolent genius. In his municipal capacity as Superintendent of Streets' he laid' out, at his own cost, several miles of macadamised roads, and he also presented to tiie town the waterworks of .which he was the proprietor. The income from this source is devoted to the maintena£sLnn ? ll,jrar y. which, at a cost of £-0,000, he presented in memory of his i.aughter Millicent. The fine town hall was also his'gift. Mr. Thomas W. Lawsoil, of "Frenzied Finance" fame, .formerly a business associate of Mr Kodgers, gave the following pen picture ol him a few years ago:—"-Way from the intoxicating spell of dollar-'makiiig this remarkable man is one of the nio?t charming and lovable beings I have ever encountered. I3ut once ho passes under the baleful influences of 'Tile Machine' he becomes a relentless, ravenous crca- 1 ture, pitiless as a shark, knowing „ 0 aw of God or man in the execution of his .purpose. Between him and coveted dollars may come no kindly human influences—nil are thrust aside, their claims disregarded, in ministering to this strange, cannibalistic money-hun-ger, which in truth grows by what ''t feeds on."

5Ir .-' Bodgers .was an incessant worker, and although enormously wealthy, he took an active interest in all his' business! projects until the day of his death