Evening Star Newspaper, May 24, 1937, Page 5

THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. MONDAY, MAY 24, 1937. 'ROCKEFELLER AMASSED MILLIONS FROM FORTUNEATDRATH RELATIVELY SVIALL Spent Last 35 Years of Life Giving Away Wealth He Had Amassed. By the Associated Press. John Davison Rockefeller spent the first half of his life making money and the last half giving it away. “I believe it is a duty,” he said many times, “for a man to get all the money he honestly can and to give away all he can.” His career described an almost per- fect arc. At the age of 16 he began, with nothing. He was paid $50 for his first three months’ work, as assistant book- keeper in & produce commission ware- house on the lake front in Cleveland, hio. By the time he had reached middle age he had amassed what many persons believed to be the largest fortune ever controlled by a private Individual in the history of the world. At the age of 57 he began to with- draw from active business life and started giving money away. In 35 years he gave away considerably more than half a billion dollars, and one of his associates remarked the world would be surprised at the compara- tively small estate he would leave when he died. The size of Rockefeller's fortune has been a subject for public conjecture | for many years. It has never been | revealed. While some estimated it as high as $2,400,000,000, persons close to Mr. Rockefeller place it at a much lower figure. His son, John D. Rocke- feller, jr., once said it had never reached a billion. For many years, however, Mr. Rockefeller paid the highest personal property tax in New York. It ran to more than $1,000,- 000 & year. Mr. Rockefeller’s earning and giving always over-lapped. He started his contributions as a boy—5 cents a week to foreign missions, 3 cents a week to the poor. And many years later—whether Pocantico Hills, Lake- wood, N. J., or Ormond Beach, Fla.— he spent a certain amount of time each day keeping up with business affairs. Became Legendary Figure. Although it was frequently said he | was much more actively concerned | with business than most people thought, Mr. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Co. and pioneer in modern business organization, had become something of a legendary | figure. He was much better known as & whimsical ¢ld gentleman who spent | his days in ptaceful monotony at his | three country homes, passing out shiny The philanthropist on the links a few years ago. ‘While finance commanded his tention. still In at- great John D. Rockefeller, jr., took it over. He even bought an entire village— paid the individual property owners for their land and reimbursed them for their expenses in moving away. As Mr. Rockefeller's grandchildren mar- ried, homes were built for them at Po- cantico Hills. Nelson A. Rockefeller, his grandson, brought his bride there to live in a new house on their re- turn from a round-the-world honey- moon in 1931, For many years after his retirement Mr. Rockefeller's life hardly varied. Presenting Harvey Firestone wi traditional dimes after a golf match on Tarrytown links. his 30’s, already a capitalist. Summers were spent at Pocantico Hills, a few weeks each Autumn and |scent from Johann Peter Rockefeller, | who came with his sons to A each Spring at Lakewood, N. J., noted for its mild climate, and Winters at Ormond Beach, Fla. His town house on West Pifty-fourth street, just off Fifth avenue, was still kept up, but he seldom went there. John D. Rockefeller's life story | | fled when the Huguenots were being | | persecuted in 1685. started at Richford, Tioga County, N. Y., where he was born on July 8, 1839. Frequently in his advanced age he hood haunts. As he appeared while in Cleveland years ago. i e h one of his it back. In 1910, just prior to retirement. On his 80th birthday the oil magnate celebrated by giving this little fellow a nickel, but he handed About the time he re- leased control Standard Oil. of power in 1911, After the huge trust combination was dis- solved. 1915. Walking with his son, on whose shoulders Jell the heritage of the elder Rockefeller's Indulging in his fav- orite* pastime, golf, in %% A—S At the age of 95, with his grandchildren, Elizabeth and John de Cuevas, at Tarry- town, N. Y. On the stand explain- His official birthday ing his philanthropies. picture at 95. —A. P.and Wide World Photos, | He was the fifth generation in de-lhome on long trading trips. HLs! “I had a peculiar training in my | from the men who sold it. It was good’dsys of 10 hours each and received from near Coblenz on the Rhine 1720 and settled in New Jersey. family was originally French, named | “Rochefeuille” or “Rocqueville,” mean- 8 long time in France, whence they The | for her deep plety and firm, gentle, rule of her children. | e M Sy They all had to work hard and|ing from the beginning. We were en- | told him he could have the brood of work for him. ing “Rockleaf,” and they had lived for | study hard, though they had plenty of = . time for play, too. The family lived five years near Moravia and moved to Owego, N. Y., where John Rockefeller's father, William Avery|and William, a brother, attended for used to motor there and visit his boy- | Rockefeller, was a shrewd farmer and | two years the famous old Owego mother was Tliza Davison, daughter | home,” Rockefeller said. merica | of John Davison of Niles Township, | remember when hard work was new | later “I cannot *‘Ours seemed to be a business train- couraged to be self-reliant. I was taught to do as much business at the age of 10 and 11 as it was possible for me to do. I was sent over the hills to buy cordwood, and I did not require the presence of any one to enable me training for me.” $1.12 for his labor. This made him John completed his first business | think. The pay for three days of hot, in | near Moravia, N. Y. She was noted |or strange to me. We were taught to | transaction when he was 8 years old. | back-breaking toil was less than s though | work, to save and to give. A turkey hen had wandered away and | third of a year's interest on his $50. hidden her nest. The boy's mother |He resolved to make more savings little turkeys if he could find them. He found the nest, raised the turkeys | Ohio, in 1853. John spent a year and and sold them. & half in high school, only to find he After several frugal years he ac-|Could not afford to go w college. So V] he paid for a three months’ course in n t The family moved to Cleveland, doctor, who often went away from | Academy. to obtain good measure of good wood | dug potatoes for a neighbor for three | (See MAGNATE, Page A-9.) new dimes and playing golf. Rockefeller began his retirement in 1896, but retained the title of presi- dent of the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey until November, 1911. That was just after the Standard Oil com- bination had been dissolved by Fed- eral court decree. In 1929, nearly 20 years later, he publicly emerged from his retirement on two occasions. Early that year he announced he would support his son in an effort to prevent the re-election of Col. Robert W. Stewart as director and chairman of the Standard Oil C]%. of Indiana. He was then 89 years old. In October, 1929, when there was a crash in Wall Street, he issued from Pocantico Hills a reassuring state- ment in which he said he and his son did not believe there was any- thing in the business situation to V' 4 — AND WHEN THEY FEEL TIRED THEY warrant the destruction of values re- corded in the preceding week, and announced they were both buying common stocks. The market rallied. At the time of his retirement, ac- counts of the simplicity in which he lived and the frugality of his diet led to a popular belief that he was in poor health, a chronic sufferer from indigestion. Mr. Rockefeller many years later said this was not true, that he had always enjoyed rugged health, possibly because of that very regimen. Life Changed Little. As a matter of fact, Mr. Rocke- feller’s life at Pocantico Hills and his other homes did not differ much from that which he had always lived—ex- cept that, instead of spending three or four afternoons a week outdoors, he spent every afternoon outdoors, motoring as he grew older. Even after he went into his 90s, he continued to play golf every sunny morning, ex- cept Sundays. At the height of his business career, Mr. Rockefeller directed the affairs of 33 oil companies and influenced indirectly the policies of hundreds of corporations, including many forms of modern industry. Their combined capitalization ran into the billions, and they employed hundreds of thou- sands of men and women. For several years his companies eontrolied four-fifths of the oil busi- ness in the United States. He was the business partner of many Ameri- can millionaires. He owned blocks of stock in most of the trunk line rail- roads in the United States. He con- trolled mines and mills, notably the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. But even in those active days he found time to sleep an hour after lunch every day, prolong his meals with games of “numerica,” and spend several afternoons a week outdoors. While he was a young man in Cleve- land, organizing the Standard Oil Co., he used to take time off to work on the grounds of his estate, go for drives and bicycle rides. Toward the end of his life Mr. Rock- efeller apparently wanted to get rid of every sort of responsibility. In July, 1925, he sold the Pocantico Hills es- tate, near Tarrytown, N. Y.—8,000 acres, covering 12!, square miles, it eventually grew to be—his place at Lakewood, N. J.; his town house in New York, where he had not lived for many years, and his Winter home at Ormond Beach, Fla., to his son for $3,068,000. So he actually did not own any home. Much of the enlargement of the Po- eantico Hills estate was done after “It Soothes and Stimulates the Kidneys” writes a physician. He refers to Mountain Valley Water, the nat- ural aid to weak, faltering kid- neys, doctors have prescribed for 75 years. Let us send you a case. Just telephone MEt. 1062, MOUNTAIN VALLEY MINERAL WATER From HOT SPRINGS, ARK. 405K St. N.W, Phons MEt. 1062 Coprright. 1987, R. 7. Reynolds Tobseco Company, Wiseton.Salem, N. 0. MARGARET HUTTON —free-style and back-stroke champion and famous for herrecord-breaking perform- ances a plunger —has smoked Camels since 1935, JANE FAUNTZ MANSKE started smoking Camels 2years ago. This Chicago girl's superb dlvlnklfof: nal an ;;;':"2:"”]::::' = DOROTHY POYNTON HILL —petite, blonde Los Angeles beauty—the incomparable Queen of the 33-foot plat- form dive—b czme a Camel fan over a year ago. JOSEPHINE McKIM =holds records in both sprint and distance free- style events. Camels have been her favorite ciga- rette for 3 years now. LENORE KIGHT WINGARD —the foremost woman free- style swimmer — holds 7 world's records, 16 national ones. Camels have been her cigarette for 4 years. GEORGIA COLEMAN =—made Olympic history inherspectacularspring- board diving victory in 1932. Shebecamea Camel smoker that same year. SPRINT STAR. Arthur Linde- gren swam the long course to seta new 200-meter free-style record. “It took plugging to pull down that record,” says Art. “One reason why I smoke Camels is they give me a gen- erous ‘lift’ in energy when I'm tired after swimming.” WHAT THESE ACE MERMAIDS SAY=-Dorothy Poynton Hill speaking: “I'm always in training with good condition in mind. I prefer Camels for their mildness; They never jangle my nerves. I can enjoy smoking as often as I wish. Another advan- tage of smoking Camels is the invigorating ‘lifc’ they give me when I'm tired after a strenuous workout.” Lenore Kight Wingard— one of the greatest, yet most modest, American woman athletes of our times—adds this: I really get fun out of swimming. Hard work is part of the game and I en- joy that too. It's grand the way Camels help me enjoy my food no matter how tired or strained I may be. Oh! Another thing! - ['ve found Camels do not irritate my throat.” ; PERFECT CONTROL helped Magshall Wayne win the Olympic diving crown! “Healthy nerves are a diver’s mainstay,” explains Marshall “I in- tend to keep mine healthy. I never hesitate to enjoy a Camel Camels don’t get on my nerves.” OLYMPIC STAR. Arthur Highland blazed his way to aquatic fame by smashing records in the dash and middle-distance events. Arthur says: “Smoking Camels with my. m‘:l‘und gk TR Camels are made from finer, MORE Ao EXPENSIVE TOBACCOS =Turkish and ¥ )