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Not sure whether this belongs on the History forum, but here goes --
The death of David Rockefeller today brought to mind a discussion my husband and I had recently after re-watching the Ken Burns' National Parks DVD set recently. The question was whether the "end justified the means" in the fact that David's father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., was responsible for so much of scenic America being preserved through his gifting of so much land. As this would not have been possible if not for the greed and, perhaps arguably, careless indifference to the land shown by his father, were the sins of the father atoned/compensated for by the actions of the son?
(And, yes, I do know that John D. Sr. was also a philanthropist in many ways, but I also think that he was also a heartless person in many ways.)
"The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them." -- Ezekiel 18:20
Personally, I'm not sure it has to do with preserving 'the land', but, rather the guilt some might feel for how the actions they have taken in acquiring massive wealth (sometimes leaving a PR legacy to the general public) and in preserving it (tax free foundation financial accounting etc...). These plutocrats are masters of using the system both ways to enhance their image while accruing massive wealth to themselves and still influencing via other 'softer coercive' tools such as foundations, think tanks et al.
It seems more akin to the organized criminal who portrays himself as a religious person yet who accumulates wealth in all manner of ill conceived and ill gotten destructive gain, then donating portions of it to build a hospital wing, school or church. Buying image and PR point while buying tax saving via subtle wealth preservation actions. JDR Sr.'s father was a swindler and bigamist which probably played a great deal into senior's complex makeup and seemingly diametrically opposed actions (corporate raider monopolist - philanthropist).
Best book on John D Rockefeller Sr. I've read is Ron Chernow, Titan. It gives an excellent illustration of his complex mindset.
Ciceropolo, thanks for the reply and the book recommendation.
I am certainly in no way an expert on any of the Rockefellers (just curious about them), but the Burns' documentary made it sound as though Jr. was a true altruist -- although of course I realize that he certainly did not give all his money away -- while my impression of Sr. was exactly as you described -- that he gave away so much mainly due to selfish reasons -- tax purposes, reputation, and (perhaps) guilt, although I don't truly believe that unless it was thoughts of "meeting his Maker" that drove him. My impression that Sr. was essentially a greedy S.O.B., while his son was quite different.
In any case, I find the apparent contrast between Sr. and Jr. interesting, and I would be glad to read the thoughts of others on this subject, as well as any other book recommendations.
Ciceropolo, thanks for the reply and the book recommendation.
I am certainly in no way an expert on any of the Rockefellers (just curious about them), but the Burns' documentary made it sound as though Jr. was a true altruist -- although of course I realize that he certainly did not give all his money away -- while my impression of Sr. was exactly as you described -- that he gave away so much mainly due to selfish reasons -- tax purposes, reputation, and (perhaps) guilt, although I don't truly believe that unless it was thoughts of "meeting his Maker" that drove him. My impression that Sr. was essentially a greedy S.O.B., while his son was quite different.
In any case, I find the apparent contrast between Sr. and Jr. interesting, and I would be glad to read the thoughts of others on this subject, as well as any other book recommendations.
I also read Chernow's book Titan and I recommend it as well.
I want to make a few comments about John D. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
John D. Rockefeller was in a very unique place in the late 1800's. He originally lived in Cleveland, Ohio and unlike many people, he was able to grasp what an energy source like oil could mean to the country as well as to the entire world. Oil production was taking place in western Pennsylvania and Rockefeller began to buy up all the oil holdings that he could.
A number of people become wealthy, but few become super wealthy. In order to understand the size of Rockefeller's fortune, one has to grasp the scope of his accomplishment. Essentially, he cornered the market on oil in the most rapidly industrializing economy in the world. At one point in time, his company, Standard Oil of New Jersey controlled as much as 90% of all the oil refining in the United States.
Much manipulation was involved in what he did. The anti-competitive practices that Standard Oil of New Jersey engaged in resulted in legislation like the Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 and the Clayton Anti-trust Act of 1914. Many have written about one of his practices in particular. He succeeded in getting railroads to give his company, Standard Oil, cash rebates on oil ship by his competitors!. Rockefeller knew that the key to the oil business was refining. He made certain that anyone not doing business with Standard Oil paid much more to get their oil refined.
Whether John D. Rockefeller chose to give away his money as a sort of "atonement for sins" I could not judge after reading Chernow's book. There were a number of complexities to his personality. For example, he endowed institutions like the University of Chicago. He knew full well the university would employ some professors who might teach that his brand of capitalism was wrong. Yet, even he supported the notion of academic freedom and felt that even though he didn't like it that he should not be able to interfere with such decisions. He also set up the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research which was responsible for a number of advances in treating infectious disease. Rockefeller was an active Baptist all his life. Perhaps, his position in the church motivated him to give to charitable causes.
John Rockefeller, Jr. was clearly uneasy with vast fortune his father had acquired. His adult lifetime largely involved carefully and scrupulously giving this fortune away to appropriate causes. As I recall, he was responsible for the creation both Acadia National Park in Maine and the creation of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. He also played a key role in getting the Blue Ridge Parkway built between Shenandoah National Park and the Smoky Mountains National Park.
Main thing I know about John D. Rockefeller Sr. and Standard Oil was that he was from my home state of Ohio and in my local area of NW Ohio Standard Oil was the only major industrial company that "allowed" black men to work their way up in the company and eventually become supervisors or managers.
One of my great uncles was a manager there and retired in the 1950s. No other company would allow black men to be anything other than janitors or laborers until the 1960s.
After discovering this in my local genealogical research, I developed a more positive view of Rockefeller Sr.
Yes, John Sr. donated to and supported black universities, and not just male but female universities as well. He really was quite progressive, and dare I say modest too, for being the richest man in the world at that time. When Vanderbelt built the largest gaudy mansion in New York, Rockefeller bought a much more modest home, and never felt like he had to flaunt his wealth or one up Vanderbelt. In fact, John Sr. was keeping a ledger of his earnings when he was just a little boy, and would calculate 10% for charity, and he was a religious person with integrity. He gave the credit for his success to god, saying "God gave me my money" which is a pretty good attitude for a self made millionaire. I wish there were more like him today, whom realize they were born with a special gift of drive and intelligence, and want to share their good fortune with others.
Sure John Sr. did business in a cut throat manner, that was business in the 19th century. And btw Mark G, that scheme whereby John got payments from oil shipped by his competitors was known as the "drawback". The term is still used today, of course, as the downside or negative aspect of something. The positive side of what he did, however, was to put an end to whale oil consumption, make oil refining very efficient, and eventually brought down the price of oil to a fraction of what it was selling for before John got big. He did for oil what Henry Ford did for cars, made the product affordable, and therefore gave added comfort and convenience to the masses. People like Rockefeller, Ford, Firestone, Carnegie, Edison, Tesla....they created a lot of jobs and made something out of nothing. We owe them our gratitude.
Yes, John Sr. donated to and supported black universities, and not just male but female universities as well. He really was quite progressive, and dare I say modest too, for being the richest man in the world at that time. When Vanderbelt built the largest gaudy mansion in New York, Rockefeller bought a much more modest home, and never felt like he had to flaunt his wealth or one up Vanderbelt. In fact, John Sr. was keeping a ledger of his earnings when he was just a little boy, and would calculate 10% for charity, and he was a religious person with integrity. He gave the credit for his success to god, saying "God gave me my money" which is a pretty good attitude for a self made millionaire. I wish there were more like him today, whom realize they were born with a special gift of drive and intelligence, and want to share their good fortune with others.
Sure John Sr. did business in a cut throat manner, that was business in the 19th century. And btw Mark G, that scheme whereby John got payments from oil shipped by his competitors was known as the "drawback". The term is still used today, of course, as the downside or negative aspect of something. The positive side of what he did, however, was to put an end to whale oil consumption, make oil refining very efficient, and eventually brought down the price of oil to a fraction of what it was selling for before John got big. He did for oil what Henry Ford did for cars, made the product affordable, and therefore gave added comfort and convenience to the masses. People like Rockefeller, Ford, Firestone, Carnegie, Edison, Tesla....they created a lot of jobs and made something out of nothing. We owe them our gratitude.
I remember seeing a documentary a long time ago about his ledger! I rarely have a poor view of most people in history, but I thought it was interesting that he was charitable to all types of organizations and that he didn't allow the types of discrimination to occur in his company that other companies did.
I always thought he was a good businessman and an innovator, especially after learning more about him and the history of Standard Oil. I also liked that he was not a flaunting type of rich person and was down to earth. I felt that was very "Ohio" of him lol. Most Ohioans are pretty down to earth IMO.
But the research into hiring practices that I did in the local area was very interesting. Even Ford had discrimination built into its employment processes whereas blacks were not given the higher paying jobs and were relegated to the more dangerous jobs as laborers. They also were more likely to be janitors at those companies. I reviewed lots of research and old dissertations that reviewed employment opportunities for blacks and immigrant European groups in my area that faced a lot of discrimination (like the Polish) and Standard Oil was the only one where if you worked your way up, you could get a higher position regardless of your race or ethnic heritage and that is an admirable thing.
I also respect Rockefeller Sr's business sense. To be successful in business IMO, one has to be somewhat "cut throat" but it is good that he balanced that out with true philanthropy that was a natural part of his life and not something that he decided he needed to do just because he became extremely wealthy. I also appreciate that Jr. followed in this tradition somewhat and bought/donated so much land for our natural parks.
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