THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES Rockefeller Before a Jury By John A. Zangerle CLEVELAND PRIVATELY PRINTED 1906 COPYRIGHT, 1906 BY JOHN A. ZANGERLE In grateful acknowledgment of her able assistance, and in memory of the many hours with her spent in the English Garden in Munich, Germany, in the examination of this work, I hereby cheerfully and publicly credit it to the real prompter and publisher, my sister, IDA. 1087S15 PREFACE The author presents herein a few reflections on the political, social, ethical, economic, and religious questions of the day, growing out of the steady concentration of vast amounts of wealth in single hands; not, however, with any purpose of present- ing a general panacea for the many ills of modern society, but with the view of showing their greater relationship, and with the further object of stim- ulating thought in this field. Even a superficial discussion of these questions, being necessarily so involved with conditions, limitations, and explana- tions, and their usual treatment being so dry and uninteresting as to dampen the ardor of the ordin- ary reader, the author has adopted this arrange- ment as inviting deeper interest and lending greater attraction. The employment of such men as Mr. Minister, Mr. Tramp, Mr. Banker, Mr. Landlord, etc., as mouthpieces in a jury room has also allowed a greater freedom of expression and permitted a wider latitude for the presentation of the view points of different members of society. Each of them expresses part of the truth. Dog- 6 Rockefeller Before a Jury matism breathing but a single idea has little attrac- tion for a thorough reader and broad thinker. To see the centre of a circle we must stand at each point of its perimeter. Only a wide consideration of the manifold relations of things permits a uni- versal judgment. No particular malignment or villification of John D. Rockfeller is herein intended; he is as ably de- fended as he is vehemently attacked by the various speakers. The use of his name is merely as a representative of the large class of our so-called "captains of industry." In the speech of Mr. Philosopher, the writer has, in brief form, attempted a criticism of the respective speeches. The weakness of each speaker's ideal is generally demonstrated by carry- ing it to its extreme logical conclusion; and to confine the work within reasonable and readable limits, and to avoid involving and confusing the main issues, the latter speaker treats only the more essential issues presented by the many conflicting arguments of the dogmatic pleaders. This comparative treatment of social questions seems to some to be abortive of purpose and aim; they say that it serves to destroy our ideals, that its tendency is to trace a vice in every virtue, to cause Rockefeller Before a Jury 7 the reader to become a thinker rather than an advocate, and thus to minimize his importance and influence in society. Such argument idealizes the rankest ignorance; and surely whatever destroys one ideal must create another: man's mental vision is broadened, his horizon widened, and his sym- pathy for suffering mankind deepened. The writer hopes hereby to be of some service in pro- moting the latter. To avoid, in reading, any interruption of the speakers, the author does not appropriately cite the sources of his information. The World's Almanac, the Daily Mail Year Book, The Statis- tical Year Book of the German Empire, and Kiirschner's Jahrbuch have generally supplied the statistical information. On questions of social reform he is largely indebted to Bliss's Encyclo- paedia of Social Reform, published by Funk and Wagnalls (1897) from which he has frequently quoted. Other works used are Clark's Ten Great- est Religions, The Common Features Which Appear in all Forms of Religious Belief, by R. N. Cust, Democracy and Reaction by L. T. Hob- house, Barnes' General History, Paulson's System of Ethics, and The United States Census. ^'In proportion as we love truth more and victory less, we shall become anxious to know what it is which leads our opponents to think as they do. We shall begin to suspect that the pertinacity of belief exhibited by them must result from a percep- tion of something we have not perceived. And we shall aim to supplement the portion of truth, we have formed, with the portion formed by them." — Herbert Spencer, ''First Principles." ^^Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him." — EmeRSON. IN THE COURT OF ETHICS STATE OF REASON COUNTY OF COMMON SENSE The State vs. John D. Rockefeller Record. Be it remembered that at the Indignant term of the above court, on the affidavit of Mr. Small Dealer, John D. Rockefeller was arrested on the charge, ist, of assault and battery on the person and property of the said Mr. Small Dealer, to- gether with 150,000 sundry other persons, and 2nd, of continuing to amass a fortune in a menacing manner against the peace and good order of society, and contrary to the forms and ordinances made and provided for the Health and Growth of the Com- munity. The said defendant, demanding a jury, the following honourable gentlemen, with name 12 Rockefeller Before a Jury and residence were, in the usual manner, selected, impanelled, and sworn, to-wit: NAME STREET CITY STATE Mr. Banker Deposits Combinations Monarchy Mr. Tramp E. Z. Rest Contentment Mr. Retailer Independence Republic Health Mr. Laborer Ascent Work Union Mr. Republican Vanity Pride Patriotism Mr. Artist Fancy Sentiment Passion Mr. Democrat Freedom Individuality Competition Mr. Socialist Brotherhood Equality Centralization Mr. Landlord Parasite Titles Privilege Mr. Farmer Indifference Good Nature Sunshine Mr. Minister Love Submission Denial Mr. Philosopher Prudence Reason Doubt The state offered various witnesses to prove the issues on its part. The defendant offering no testimony on his part, the prosecutor moved that the defendant be fined for contempt of court, and that the fine be his permanent retirement from business activity. The court overruled the motion, but submitted the question to the jury. Tihe jury thereupon retired, selected Mr. Philosopher as Foreman and Mr. Artist as Clerk. It was voted that each speaker Ihave ten minutes except the Chairman who should be unlimited in time. The following is a record of the speeches in the jury room thereupon delivered, their order having been fixed by lot: "There is no lock but a golden key will open." — Spanish Proverb BANKER Mr. Chairman : — We are asked to pass on the question of retiring Rockefeller. Now, gentlemen, I am most decid- edly opposed to any such action. What heinous offense has he committed? What crime has he perpetrated? This — and only this: By earnest endeavor, hard toil, and patient labor he has suc- ceeded in amassing a fortune, the greatest and grandest ever recorded in past or present time. Since when has that become a misdemeanor? When in the annals of history has this not consti- tuted the ideal of man and society? Which people, if not the American, typifies most grandly this aim? Where is it more successfully realized than in our own land? What else does civilization really mean, if not the acquisition of power through 14 Rockefeller Before a Jury the accumulation of wealth? All over the globe, from Alaska to the Argentine Republic, and from San Francisco around again to San Francisco, mankind seeks the same end — power through wealth. Rich and poor, educated and ignorant-, civilized and uncivilized, Oriental and Occidental, individually and nationally, both by word and by action, demonstrate in no uncertain manner the unanimity of opinion that wealth is power. And power every person seeks, whether it be through fame or health or wealth. This ideal incites us to labor; it instigates us to action; it prompts our energies; it fixes our atten- tion; it is the Elixir of Life that renders us earnest in effort and steadfast in purpose. It lifts our thoughts and considerations from self to larger fields and wider circles. Time spent, under old conditions, in self-engrossment and with personal ills is, under new conditions, enlisted in the better- ment of society — spite and revenge give w^ay to generosity and love. Never has there been a time when man reposed as much confidence in his fellow-man as today. Through the universal elective franchise the prop- erty of the rich is absolutely within the power and control of the masses. It is the corner-stone of our Rockefeller Before a Jury 15 stock companies — never before has man trusted his fellow-man in the management and control of his property, as millions of shareholders in stock companies do today. Not since time began were there as many I. O. U.'s, promissory notes, bills of exchange in circulation. Men reputed to be wealthy are but rich in the promises of others. Modern business is conducted on debit and credit, on mutual "trust," and reciprocal confidences. Whatever extends that, extends commerce and ^industry; whatever curtails it, blights all human activity — restores us to mediaeval days, the wooden plough, the hickory flail, the hand-scythe. This universal gain-ideal has also been the motive power of Rockefeller's great energies. He has been but realizing most successfully the aim for which his traducers are most vainly groping. His colossal fortune is real, true capital. It is not burdened by the ordinary household or personal necessities, and hence becomes true working capital enlisted in electrifying the otherwise stagnant energies of thousands of willing hands. The more capital there is in America, the cheaper we can manufacture — the more we can send abroad, the more labor will be employed. When we require all of our labor and capital to satisfy our immediate i6 Rockefeller Before a Jury wants, capital can not be sufficiently accumulated for successful competition with the giant forces of other progressive countries. An appreciation of this fact by a wise and alert people has encouraged the greatest consolidations of capital that have ever existed either in this or any other country. We have one corporation — I refer to the United States Steel Corporation — which has a greater capital stock than the combined capital stock of the fifty biggest corporations in England. How majestic! Think of that! How proud we should feel! Think of the number of people employed, the dinner pails filled, the joys and pleasures provided for hundreds of thousands of workmen and their families, who otherwise might be destitute and in want. Our big corporations are missions of mercy and works of charity. They are the churches of the mid- dle ages; they have usurped their functions. In- deed they provide the poor and the needy not only with the necessities of life, but even with its luxur- ies. In the coming history of present conditions our big corporations will be accorded the front rank among the charitable institutions of the day. What these institutions have done for the great masses of our people is best indicated by a consideration of our enormous wealth and its great distribution. Rockefeller Before a Jury 17 The United States leads all the other nations with total deposits in savings banks of $3,060,000,- 000, being about one-third of the world's aggregate, namely, $10,500,000,000. Our deposits exceed the aggregate of France, England, and Austria-Hun- gary. The amount of our national public debt is about $2,304,000,000; the bonded debt of the states, counties, and municipalities about $1,000,000,000 — all being for the most part, probably 95*^", held and owned by true loyal American citizens. The capital stock of American railways, which is almost entirely missing in some European countries, as in Germany, in the year 1903 was about $6,355,000,- 000; their issued bonds in the same year amounted to about $6,722,000,000. The capital stock of the American (Bell) Telephone Company, namely, $154,000,000, should be added to this grand show- ing. Here, then, are about $2 y ,^00,000,000 of capital. Think of it! $2^,^00,000,000 of wealth/ Almost $2,000 for the head of every family in the United States! Match these figures if you can. Nowhere in the world can such prosperous condi- tions be shown. Not even in thrifty Germany is the family one-half as rich. This average family wealth of $2,000 at 6*^° would produce an income of over $120 per annum. Why! Three-fourths of 1 8 Rockefeller Before a Jury the European laborers don't earn as much as that. Yet here we have a guaranty for each family against starvation or need. This splendid capitalization — what w^ould our retired people do without it? What would the American banker do if nation, state, and munici- pality should pay ofif their debts — as some states already have done, and as some misguided agitators continually urge? But some of you will say that this marvelous wealth is not equally divided. Yes, that's so ; and furthermore we don't want it equally divided. This talk about an equality of wealth and opportunity, about equal conditions and equal rights, etc., that we hear so much about nowadays, is all rubbish. In the race for the world's markets we would scarcely come under the distance flag with such conditions. The story of our age is concentration and con- solidation — we can't avoid it. It is a natural process, going on not only in the economical world, but also in the political. Ireland, Finland, Poland w^ere, but a short time ago, sovereign, independent states. In Germany about 40 German states formed an empire in 1870; Austria become associated with Hungary in 1867; United Italy is a nobleman of Rockefeller Before a Jury 19 but 35 years; the many South American Republics, as well as Mexico, and the Central American Con- federations, are imperialistic forces arising out of anarchistic conflict. The loose Confederation of America gave way to the inseparable, imperialistic, and centralized Union. Everywhere nature seems to be growing the same plant, concentration and bigness, industrially and politically. It is not in our power to alter her imperious reign, were we so inclined. Even in the religious world the soil is not unfertile for its growth. And within twenty- five years, I predict, half of the denominations will have merged their existence and lost their identity. This American policy of encouraging large accumulations of capital draws thousands annually from European shores, who by their healthy appe- tites and housing requirements add immeasurable wealth to American property owners. Every immigrant is worth at least $1,000 to our land owners. The amount of land remains stationary while the number of bidders in the open market annually increases by hundreds of thousands. Not only do they require land, but every immigrant raises a family and thus adds still more to our national wealth. These wonderful accumulations of our rich alone 20 Rockefeller Before a Jury are the cause of the magnpficent endowments to church and school, to science and industry. Churches built, universities endowed, science encouraged — these are but the overflow of the fertilizing stream of American industry. Smoke- stacks and steeples, factories and universities, industry and science are inevitably and logically linked together, never again to be separated. They are the bride and bridegroom of American prog- ress, foremost in the race of time on the path of culture and civilization. The benefactions in our country in the year 1905 amounted to $104,000,000, excluding gifts under $5,000 which I venture to say would exceed this sum. Nor was 1905 an abnormal year. During the 13 years ending 1905 the magnificent sum of about $800,000,000 was contributed for educational and eleemosynary institutions. Where and when in history shall we find a parallel? The combined benefactions of all Europe and Asia with their teeming millions of population does not equal it. I take pride in such figures; I feel proud that we have such benefactors. And these are the men you would retire! It would be a public calamity and crying shame. Such a suggestion can emanate only from a cracked brain. Let us retire those who are Rockefeller Before a Jury 21 in no position to render any assistance to society. I am a retired man myself. I do not wish to inflict the pains and penalties of my inactivity upon Rockefeller. Do you know what it means to retire a man of his ability and brains and past activity? It would be a decree of death. We have not the comforts and leisure of an idle class as found in the countries of Europe. The horse-back paths in town and country, in field and forest, the fine way- side inns, the morning museums and art galleries, the 4 o'clock cafes, the 6 o'clock operas, the after- noon concerts, the promenade avenues, the side walk restaurants — these, the conditions of Euro- pean nobility, cannot lure to retirement the never- ceasing energies of the true American. As his fellow associates, his friends, all work until death issues its irrevocable decree of perpetual retire- ment, so the life of the American hustler must be continued labor; its infraction is the signal for the approach of Father Time. So I reiterate, these captains of industry have made us famous. Their organizations are the concern of foreign dukes, kings, and emperors, who deal more in our stocks than those of their native land. Indeed, these captains of industry are our princes. They have earned the title; it has not 22 Rockefeller Before a Jury been thrust upon them. These industrial corpo- rations have made us bigger than our army or navy. They spread the gospel of peace and plenty, sym- pathy and love more effectually, speedily, and universally than all the missionaries since the days of Paul. And they maintain it more enduringly than could the most powerful fleet of ironclads and submarines. When, in no distant future, the American people will set the pace in art, science, and education as they now do in industry, they will appreciate that trade and commerce must precede all other culture. Trade and wealth are power, and power will secure all things that the human mind idealizes. We are already a creditor nation where twenty-five years ago we were debtors ; London and Paris and Berlin can no longer avoid our bank counters. I do not propose to engage your time in recalling in particular the splendid services Mr. Rockefeller has rendered in organizing business. You know the anarchy of all industrial pursuit before he entered the arena. You well know the saving he has effected in labor, and the cost of production in general; the economies he has proven in operating diverse branches of industry; the energies and activities he has effectively centralized. Whoever Rockefeller Before a Jury 23 can not apprehend this monumental and glorious enrichment of society must certainly appreciate the more direct social benefits of his great charity and beneficence. Mr. Rockefeller's absolute and con- tingent gifts last year exceeded $12,000,000 which was not at all an exceptional sum for him. Surely so long as he remains an easy maker, he will con- tinue a liberal spender. The evil consequences would arise from his retirement rather than from his continued labor. Further accumulation by him will redound as much or more to the credit of the American people as to him personally. He cannot eat his money; he must employ it, invest it. His name is synonymous with thrift, frugality, and industry. /No man can be conscious of a greater or more valuable legacy to posterity than he. His life will ever be the source of inspiration to the youth of the land. Let us hope that the Creator may grant him 30 more years of unimpaired strength and youthful activity. I vote "No." "Some must follow and some command, though all are born of clay." — Longfelloiv. ''Creed characterizes a base na- ture — the soul in which it has taken root, withers and dies ; all higher aspirations disappear. The miser at last begrudges himself and oth- ers, all that is good." — Anon. TRAMP Perhaps you, boys, think that, because I'm a tramp, I have no opinion on this subject. But I believe that I've thought about these things more than any of you. While you spend your time making money, I'm reflecting on the social misery and ills of modern society. For days and weeks, by night and by day, have I tried to construct a new order of things. How often have I meditated on the hard lot of the poor, and the good fortune of the rich! And, being an idler, I have often pon- dered and reflected especially concerning the pre- vailing notion of our people, that it is better to produce more than we consume. I, too, would believe in this heresy, if each producer would give Rockefeller Before a Jury 25 society the benefit of his over-production. Such a condition, however, never will prevail, since it would conflict with man's pride and egoism. When a man produces more than he consumes, is he not a competitor with his fellow-man to the extent of the over-production? By continuing to produce, after satisfying his ordinary wants, he increases the gulf between himself and others; by ceasing to labor, his wealth becomes dissipated, he becomes an ordinary citizen, and advocates, like me, democracy and equality. Formerly, indeed, we were taught that a penny saved is a penny earned; that frugality is a vast revenue and other like nonsense. Today thrift and frugality are everywhere considered eclipsed vir- tues. Every fool now knows that wages depend on the standard of living. The laborer gets, as in all cases of value, just what it costs to produce him. The laboring class with expensive wants requires and therefore demands and receives high wages. As thrift means cheap living, it is an evil to the laborers as a class, though it may enable one who practices it to get the advantage of his fellows. "Thrift was invented by capitalistic rogues to beguile fools to destruction" was a saying of one 26 Rockt'ft'llt'r Before a Jury of mv early acquaintances. Another comrade, a former trade-union enthusiast taught me that "labor is an evil to be minimized to the utmost. The man icho works at his trade or vocation more than necessity compels him, or nho accumulates more than he can enjoy, is not a hero but a fool. To accumulate money in any way is to accumulate orders on other men's labor." These lessons I learned early in my career; I have never forgotten them. Look about and show me a thrifty man and I will show you a selfish man! Thrift and selfish are synonymous terms: the thrifts- use the unthrifty as stepping-stones for their own elevation. Thrift is a virtue only while some people remain unthrift\^ The more general it becomes, the less we appraise it; the less general, the higher its value. Thrift, we see then, becomes a higher and more selfish virtue as poverty becomes general — in other words, in proportion as the army of outcasts increases. Boys, we must change our ideas along this line. When a man has enough for his ordinary wants, he's a detriment to his race if he continues to labor; his activity is an evidence of his indifference to the rights and the welfare of others. That nation, in Rockefeller Before a Jury 27 which there exists the least difference in the for- tunes of its citizens, is the most efficient for the promulgation of the doctrines of liberty, equality, and fraternity. No, boys, our ideal must be to consume more than we produce. That tends towards equality, towards unselfishness, towards liberty. Of course it would not do that everybody follow this ideal and, I guess, there's no danger. But, between the two ideals of producing more than we consume, or consuming more than we produce, there can be no question of their com- parative value. This, too, was the prevailing opinion of the Fathers of our country. Prior to the war of the Rebellion, with very few exceptions, every year witnessed an enormous export excess over our imports. Then, a source of pride ; today, a cause of alarm. Such a state of affairs, with our changed notions, would be regarded as national suicide. But coming more directly to the question before us — if Rockefeller does not want to retire, so much the better for me. I'm willing. If there are those who produce more than they consume, there must be those who consume more than they produce. There can be no millionaires without 28 Rockefeller Before a Jury paupers; no Rockefellers without tramps. The one is based on the other. The life of the over- strenuous conditions the life of the under-strenuous — light always casts a shadow. I once had a little fortune saved up myself. It took a long time, boys. But, after working fifteen years, I saved up and had in the bank about $5,000. Ah! I felt rich then. But my wife got sick, and my two children weren't strong; and what I saved in fifteen years, I lost in three. I had a good job, earning two dollars and fifty cents per day. During all the time I worked, we had only one strike. We lost it. We didn't get what we wanted. But we got a pile more of respect after that. That made him afraid of us. If it hadn't been for that strike, perhaps he'd have cut our wages. In the year 1892, when his income increased, I guess, from five thousand to fifty thousand, he increased our wages ten cents a day. Afterwards, in the world's panic of 1893, I guess he didn't make so much, for half of us were discharged, and the other half were glad to earn a dollar and a half a day. I don't suppose he lost anything even in the hard times. If he had he wouldn't have run the business; or, he'd have cut our wages still more. But the poor Rockefeller Before a Jury 29 devils who were out of a job couldn't discharge their families, nor could they reduce the price of meat and rent. Well, let that go; let bygones be bygones. Our boss is retired now, living in Europe off of what he saved during the days of prosperity — the time when he gave us ten cents a day raise. I'm retired too, living off of my ten cents per day prosperity and the discharge which I got in 1896. It happened this way: just before the Presidential Election, he discharged all of us, and said, if McKinley should be elected, business would be plenty, and we would all get a job again at good wages; but, if Bryan should be elected, we needn't come around. Well, I did what I could for a job — voted for Mack. But, when I went around after his election, I didn't get my job anyway. I sued him but the learned judge said there was no "mutuality of contract" or something like that — that I hadn't agreed to work for my employer for a definite period of time and therefore there was no consideration for my employer's promise. Occa- sionally, after running around — I might say working two or three weeks to get a job — I got a week's work here and there. But how could I and my family live on that? 30 Rockefeller Before a Jury My wife and family have died since. What should I work for? For whom? I can always get enough to eat, and enough water to drink, and the patches on my pants ofifend neither me nor my friends. What I need, is always at hand through the kindheartedness and generosity of the chari- table housewife. Besides, I got to reading a little religion and philosophy. I read a little Christian- ity, and a little more Buddhism. That Buddha must have been a smart man, bovs. I think he had more learning than Christ. But great minds may difTfer as to that. What I liked about Buddhism was the doctrine, that the source of all evil is the desire for things which change and pass away, and that all present life is change. Of course, this same thought appears often enough in Christianity', but not so prominently. Buddhism has five express and explicit commandments, so plain as to be little susceptible of misinterpretation: First — "Take no solid food after noon." Second — "Do not visit dancing, singing or thea- trical representations." Third — "Use no ornaments or perfumery in dress." Fourth — "Use no luxurious beds." Rockefeller Before a Jury 31 Fifth — "Accept no gold nor silver." These commandments, this self-denial became my ideal, and hence I was born a tramp. Notwith- standing its religious character, my job is the envy of none. Indeed, it's the nightmare of all ; it incites labor and accumulation; unlike many of yours, it has never caused the flow of tears. No one has ever worn mourning because of my actions. My appearance and condition awaken the anxieties and love of all the sympathetically inclined; it keeps the fire of loving mankind lit and well burning. We are the vestal virgins of Christianity; were it not for my kind, I fear the flame would long ago have been extinguished. My joys are unal- loyed with the usual sorrows. The loss of my handkerchief, and its contents, would not affect my sleep, which is always sound. My hair is luxuriant, my stomach healthy, my feet broad, my limbs strong. My senses are more acute and alert than yours. I can see a policeman four blocks off, and smell a good sandwich two miles away. Cook- ing, whether good or bad, never nauseates me. I enjoy the best operas and concerts at the smallest price. The meadow-lark; the robin, the whip- 32 Rockefeller Before a Jury poor-will speak and sing to me in their most harmonious language. My memory is well trained; it never fails me. I never forget the generous giver of a good lunch, and will continue to pay my calls at such stands, so long as a sparing diet, vigorous walking, and pure atmosphere are the condition of health and wealth. I never make a mistake; neither do my confreres in happiness. We know all the palaces and their ruling Queens who have sympathy for our kind. Their sumptuous, regal banquets of a bologna sandwich, always cheerfully given, will ever live in a grateful memory. The life of many dogs in the large cities depends upon our industry. Our business gone, their eyesight w^ould become impaired, their occupation cease, the day of their uselessness be at hand. The caricaturist, the stage, the author — what could they do without us? Of course some of you, boys, are smarter than I am — that is, in some respects. But I have noticed that some of you are deuced stupid along other lines. Why, I talked with one of our jury- men who, when he begins to speak, judging by his soaring flights of oratory and his eloquent perora- tions, may seem to some of you as the very oracle Rockefeller Before a Jury 33 of heaven. Well, I asked him before, whether potatoes were ripe in his country. What do you think he replied? "I don't know when potatoes are ripe in my or any other country. I concern myself with higher things." Well, boys, I'll bet he doesn't even know when potatoes are planted, although he eats more than I do. Can you imagine a greater piece of ignorance? It seems that today intelligence consists in being bright in unessential things and ignorant of the important and essential affairs of life. Some of you know that it is good to take Scott's Emulsion for indigestion, Paine's Celery Compound for sleeplessness, Hoffman's Headache Powders to stop a night's carousal. You may know the virtues of Warner's Kidney and Liver Cure, and Lyon's Hair Restorer. I have read these advertisements very often myself, but have never abused kind Nature enough to need these things. But, do any of you know how many miles it is, and how many bridges there are, from here to Buffalo? Do you know the best places to sleep on this tramp? Or in what towns a man will be treated with dignity and respect by the police? Can you tell a generous man before he speaks, or a charitable woman by 34 Rockefeller Before a Jury her countenance? Do you know whether a dog has teeth before you ask him? Do you know or can you recognize the conductor, whose heart is bigger than his eyes? And so, gentlemen, I could, if I wanted to take your time, show you, by a thou- sand questions, how ignorant you are, and how much you still have to learn in my business. It's not as simple as you think. Indeed, I believe that the man with the meanest job knows as many things, unknown to us, as we do, unknown to him. You don't find these details in the books. It takes years of patient experience and calm reflec- tion to learn them and to forget the others. But once you get into holy communion with divine nature, once God reveals his secrets to you through his works, you become proud and majestic; you begin to feel that you are God himself. But you answer that my learning has no value. But has yours? Do you know the value of yours from any other standpoint than that of your own? Which of you in estimating the value of your learning balances in the scales the ideals of society of all ages and all countries? How limited is your horizon? Even if you lived a hundred years and had a million pounds of will pressure, do you think Rockefeller Before a Jury 35 you could acquire sufficient knowledge of the past to create and pass a correct, positive, and enduring judgment on the value of your ideals? You, gentlemen, chicken-like, are scratching and moving a little surface-soil; worm-like, you're making a few holes here; and, ant-like, some sand heaps there; but what's the value of it all? The first wind or rain-storm that comes along will annihilate your vain, puerile, and futile purposes and efforts. You all act like horses in a burning barn. You're running hither and thither, but you know not whither. You will not appreciate the emptiness of your existence until your race has been run. I like my job. Rockefeller probably likes his. He and his kind are the creators of our class. I vote "No." "What troubles you is not the lack of certain things, but the be- lief that you cannot be happy with- out them. It is in your power not to desire them." — Marcus Aurelius. "Oh, why should the spirit of mor- tal be proud ? Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast flying cloud, A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, Man passes from life to his rest in the grave." — Wm. Knox. "How happy is he, born or taught Who serveth not another's will Whose armour is his honest thought And simple truth his utmost skill, "This man is free from toil and bonds Of hope to rise or fear to fall Lord of himself, tho' not of lands And having nothing, yet hath all." — Sir Henry Wotton. "The definite result of all our modern haste to be rich is assuredly and constantly the murder of a cer- tain number of persons by our hands every year." — Ruskin. RETAILER Mr. Chairman : — Rockefeller should retire. He should have done so years ago. The newspapers say that he possesses a fortune of $500,000,000, with an annual income of $50,000,000. Can you grasp that? Can you conceive such figures? Do you know what that Rockefeller Before a Jury 37 means? It means that the fortunes of 500,000 people, each with a capital of $1,000 have been consolidated, that the small independent dealer has become a day laborer. $50,000,000 annual income represents more than interest, and whatever exceeds interest, represents special privilege — a special advantage that the ordinary man with capital does not enjoy and cannot acquire. Usually the rate of interest or profit of money declines with the in- crease of the amount borrowed or invested. Not so here. Is that not significant? Allowing four per cent as a generous rate of interest, his $500,- 000,000 should earn $2,000,000; and allowing him a liberal compensation for his services, namely, $100,000, would make an annual income of $2,100,- 000. If instead of this munificent sum, his income be $50,000,000, as is generally reported, he is over- drawing on the energies and the independence of small dealers of $1000 capital to the number of 47,900 per annum. The bankruptcy of these bread-winners means the pauperization of their families. The social disaster entailed thereby can- not be overestimated. Their families generally cast upon the charity of the affluent, the bank- rupt dealer is compelled to enlist his services, under 38 Rockefeller Before a Jury disturbed and rearranged business conditions, in a new and unknown industry. His labor is thrown in competition with that of children; his compen- sation is regulated by their meager wants. A few years of this goes on until he no longer can keep up the rapid pace; finally and necessarily he becomes a sycophant at the court of the rich, a beggar for their charitable favor; his independence gone, his manhood forsakes him. Of course this disaster is not all due to Rocke- feller personally, but to the large combinations of capital which produce his enormous profits. The big fellows have gotten together. They have com- bined mainly for the purpose of preventing com- petition, regulating output, and fixing the price of their purchases. Only a few years ago all combin- ations effected for the purpose of raising prices or limiting production were illegal. The statutes of state and nation teemed with laws reiterating and reenacting in modified form this common law of the United States and England. In spite of these laws combinations are effected for no other purpose whatsoever — combinations so vast, so powerful, so influential that their luring voice thrills the judicial, legislative, and executive Rockefeller Before a Jury 39 branches of our government. Gradually and stealthily that which only yesterday was illegal, has become legal. The reprehensible has become commendable. Forty years ago Bench and Bar seriously discussed whether a corporation could sign a promissory note or a bond, or bill of exchange — whether it could be surety for the debt of an- other. Charters were regarded as special privil- eges to be granted only as a matter of favor by the legislature; the corporation's act required special formalities, its powers were exercised only in a prescribed and very limited manner. Today a cor- poration may practically do anything an individ- ual may do. They establish custom; our statutes ratify and legalize it. The sphere of the former is encroaching on the domain of the latter. The letter of the law has given way to its interpretation. The absurd has become reasonable, and the rea- sonable absurd. Books, treating of corporations, their powers and rights, of forty years ago are antiquated and useless. In thirty years, in the sec- ond half of the i8th century, only one corporation was formed in the state of Massachusetts; a little later the proposition to grant a banking charter aroused the people to their utmost depths — it 40 Rockefeller Before a Jury engaged the attention of the House, Senate, and President of our national government for weeks and months. It became a national issue. Today no Jacksons are needed to fight banking charters. They organize under general laws as a matter of course and right. States are even competing for the favor. They have become a boon to society. United States statistics, as well as English and German, show that, through the devastating influ- ence of these monopolies, the number of employers is diminishing, the number of employees increas- ing, and our middle class slowly disappearing. The following comparative statistics of the year 1882 and 1895 show the gradual decline of the middle class in Germany: Workmen 1882 1895 Industries with 1-5 2,175.857 1,989,572 8.6% decrease Industries with 6-50 85.001 139,459 64.1% increase Industries with 50 9,481 17,941 89.3% increase Comparing the statistics of 1875 and 1895 of those occupied independently, or as employers, in gainful occupations with those engaged as em- ployee in Germany, we find that the former class has increased 0.13 per cent, while the latter, the dependent employee, has increased 101.41 percent. Rockefeller Before a Jury 41 These figures are particularly noteworthy by rea- son of the enormous growth of the German popu- lation during these years, comparable only with the American increase. But the era of trust for- mation did not really commence until after the year 1895, ^^^ ^^e German trust never assumed the proportion of its American parent. The capital stock of five leading trusts in the States, formed since 1895, exceeds that of the fifty leading "Kar- tells" operating in Germany; it surpasses even the capital stock of the 75 leading English combina- tions. A few figures taken from the last U. S. Census Statistics of Manufactures, Vol. 7, page LXXII, will give us some idea of the steady concentration of wealth, and of the decrease in the number of em- ployers. The number of establishments in the United States in the industry of In the year Were In the year Were Boots and shoes... 1900 1,600 Carpets and rugs.. 1900 133 Cotton goods 1900 1,055 Iron and steel 1900 668 Leather 1900 1,306 Liquors 1900 1,509 Ship-building 1900 1,1 16 Woolen goods 1900 1,035 1850 1.333 i860 213 i8so 1,094 1880 6gg 1850 6,686 1870 1,072 1880 2,188 1870 2.891 42 Rockefeller Before a Jury Do these figures not show that man is slowly and steadily losing his independence? That jobs are more and more becoming a matter of favor and influence? That a premium is offered to servility and beggary? The same process of belittling the little fellow and of aggrandizing the big one is at work in the agricultural field. Statistics of the size of farms in the year 1880, compared with number of like farms in 1890, show that: farms between 50 and 100 acres increased 8.58% " *' 500 " 1000 " " 11.09% " over 1000 " " 10.39% Should we not reenact the Roman Licinian law passed 387 B. C, that no citizen should hold more than 500 jugera (about 625 acres)? Already Blue Books are printed and scattered broad-cast in the land. The pedigree of our nobil- ity is published with the preciseness and effusive- ness of that of foreign kings. Their walks, their rides, their dinners, their clothes are the court gos- sip of the idle flunkies in our country. O'nly when they publish the exact number of their millions will we know the rank among themselves. But Rocke- fellers, Vanderbilts, Goulds, Astors, Havemeyers, Rockefeller Before a Jury 43 Lorillards, Armours, Belmonts, Whitneys and Leiters have blue blood since "Cr" appears often and large enough in their ledgers. John Bright once said "The nation in every country resides in the cottage!" He referred to the farmer independent of the lord of the manor, to the small dealer independent of the trustees of industry — in a word, to the middle class. No truism ever had a more democratic ring. If ever it had importance or signification it is now in our present era. Our energy has become mortgaged to conscienceless trustees. Our present system of trade and industry is enriching the few at the cost of the many; the pecuniary gulf between them is widening. This, in turn, creates social differences, which sooner or later will find expression in diverg- ing and conflicting social and political ideals. "No government half free and half slave can long exist," said Lincoln. But is not the condition of a society with one employer and ninety-nine laborers consumptive and diseased, more deplorable and intolerable? Rockefeller, one of the leading, if not the fore- most, trust organizer, is the arch-enemy of the mid- dle class. Not by way of punishment, but by way 44 Rockefeller Before a Jury of self-preservation of myself and hundreds of thousands of others, must I vote to retire all such men. I vote "Yes." "Let all your views in life be dir- ected to a solid, however moderate, independence ; without it no man can be happy, nor even honest." — Junius. "He only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew.'' — Anon. LABORER Mr. Chairman : — I vote yes, and I wish to express myself very emphatically, though without disparaging in the least Mr. Rockefeller's marked ability, and with- out casting any aspersions upon his personal char- acter. We need such men; but their services should be enlisted in the ideals of the century. And if our age is representative at all of any one principle, it is of the growing equality of man through the sovereignty of labor. I have given this subject much attention. It is my life blood, and I beg you to excuse me if T seem unnecessarily lengthy in my remarks. For centuries labor has staggered and stagnated 46 Rockefeller Before a Jury under the dead weight of favoritism, special priv- ilege, and crowned heads. Not suddenly and spon- taneously has it acquired recognition of its divin- ity, but through long, tedious trials and severe trib- ulations. Ordeals of torture, trials of patience, and baths of blood have been its lot. The progress of labor is the story of the advance of our civiliza- tion. Up to the 1 8th century its general condition was that of serfdom. Labor was bought and sold with the land as though it were planted and grown like a potato. Pause with me a moment while I narrate a little of the history of the laborer's strug- gle for recognition in the European countries. In England in the year 1348 the Statute of Laborers was passed, forcing every poor man to work for an employer at the same wages as two years before; it forbade him to leave his parish; runaway laborers when caught were branded in the forehead with hot irons. One hundred and twenty-five years ago the law of civilized England recognized tsvo hundred and twenty-three capital crimes. For stealing to the value of five shillings, for shooting at rabbits, or for cutting down young trees, the penalty was death. Traitors were cut to pieces by the executioner and their heads exposed Rockefeller Before a Jury 47 on Temple Bar to the derision of passers-by. Prisoners were forced to buy from the jailer (who had no salary) their food and even the straw upon which to lie at night. They were allowed to stand, chained by the ankles, outside the jail, to sell articles of their own manufacture. Thus John Bunyan sold cotton lace in front of Bedford Prison. In all England there were but three thousand schools, public and private, and as late as 1818 half of the children grew up destitute of education. Newspapers were taxed eight cents per copy mainly to render them too costly for the poor, and so to restrain what was considered their deleterious influence on the masses. But if this was the degraded condition of the aspiring laborer in progressive England it was no better, as we may readily imagine, on the continent. Indeed, England has ever been the locomotive of the continental train of commercial and political progress. For liberty of conscience, liberty of press, liberty of person, liberty of trade, liberty of labor, the European eye follows the setting sun. The great reorganization of 1789 in enlightened France was prompted by English conditions. Let me narrate a little history of the formative days of 48 Rockefeller Before a Jury the French republic. During the days of Rous- seau, Voltaire, and Diderot the nobility and the clergy owned two-thirds of the land. Notwith- standing that it is the source of all production, their land was even exempt from all forms of taxation. Taxes were farmed out to persons who retained all they could collect over a specified amount. Laws were enacted by those who considered the common people born for the use of the higher class. The weight of an oath in court depended on the value of the testifier's estate. A wealthy man's oath was given more credence than that of a thousand poor, just as today in many countries a political system is in vogue whereby the rich man's vote counts for as much as that of ten thousand poor. Peasants were obliged to work on roads, bridges, etc., without pay. The power given to the nobleman over the peasants, living on his estate, was absolute. He had to grind his own corn at the lord's mill, bake his bread in the lord's oven, and press his grapes at the lord's wine press, paying whatever price the lord might charge. The like conditions prevailed in Germany. The most horrible and heart-rending torture was there practiced. The prisons in Hanover, for example, Rockefeller Before a Jury 49 had machines for tearing off the hair of the con- vict. Masters beat their servants, and husbands their wives daily. Children of five years of age were habitually put to labor, and often driven to their work by blows. In mines, men and women, crawling on their hands and feet in darkness, dragged wagons of coal fastened to their waists by a chain. Military and naval discipline was main- tained by the lash; and in the streets of every sea- port, the press gang seized and carried off by force all whom it pleased, to be sailors on the men-of- war. Villages were walled and so secluded that a stranger was considered an enemy, and their inhabitants set their dogs upon him. But why have I thus gone into these historic details of the ascent of man? Because his rise is due to the effort of the proletariate in every coun- try. In France it was the fourth estate. In the war of the American Revolution the first estate were English loyalists, and the American patriots the so-called traitors. In Russia it is the laborer who is transplanted to Siberia in his struggle for liberty. When the freedom of man is in danger, meetings of laboring men all over the world rise up in their might and protest while the selfish aristocrats hide 50 Rockefeller Before a Jury tlieir dispassionate and indififerent countenances behind diplomacy and policy. It is the laborer, and only he, who risks life and limb in behalf of political and social equality. Every revolution for the attainment of personal, religious or commer- cial freedom has been his battle. The strife has ever been, and is still today, progression versus retroaction, individual liberty versus centralized power — a continual struggle of the many versus the few, of the Haven'ts against the Haves. This principle is best illustrated in the current affairs of monarchic Europe, where labor still occupies a subordinate and degraded position. The right of coalition and free assembly, until quite recently absolutely forbidden, is now much restricted, and generally under police supervision. Religious instruction is forced upon them in school, and taxes applied for the maintenance of church and clergy. Titles of distinction are con- ferred upon the egotistic, who thereupon become interested in maintaining and perpetuating class institutions whereby the unfortunate shall be humil- iated and degraded by the opulent, titled, and priv- ileged. The badge of their superiority is their snow-white hands, a monocled eye, a sabre dang- Rockefeller Before a Jury 51 ling at their sides, and a contempt for the laborer in their heart — this still constitutes European nobility. On the Continent the caste system is as positively defined and more ostentatiously her- alded and proclaimed than in Brahman India. But if this represents correctly the struggle of the social classes in certain European monarchies at the present time, I am proud to say that it is a local, and not a general, condition; and relatively to former times there has been much progress. The laborer has in every land greater political, social, and economic rights than ever before. He works fewer hours and gets greater pay. Among civilized nations he enjoys the freedom of contract, the freedom to work, the freedom to emigrate, the freedom to trade, the freedom of speech, of con- science, of person, and of property — all of which but a few years ago were prohibited. In many countries he counts on an equality with dukes and princes in the exercise of his electoral franchise. His oath receives the same credence. In short, he has become a man. This, then, is the significance of our century. Not spontaneously and without sacrifice has it been acquired, but through organized effort. The 52 Rockefeller Before a Jury organization of the strong and the weak, the skilled and the unskilled, the old and the young into labor unions, to the end that all shall be treated alike, is the best evidence of our Christian faith and prog- ress. The sacrifice, toleration, and love practiced within the ranks of these millions of men is incom- parable with that effected by any other institution, not excepting the church. They are the energetic, progressive, civilizing force of the day. The laborers today of ever\^ land are organized not only into national, but even international, unions and congresses for their mutual protection. They are based on the principle that every man, irrespective of his skill, shall be treated alike. Where is the international Congress of Merchants advocating the freedom of trade, the equal rights of each as against each other? Instead of facilitating inter- course between themselves they send their agents to Washington to restrict trade, to gain some special favor or advantage over their fellow-citi- zens, and to shelter themselves behind a high pro- tective wall as against foreigners. They are national, w^here the laborers are international; selfish where we are unselfish ; seek strife where we seek peace. If the laborers sought protection by Rockefeller Before a Jury 53 law as these merchants do, they would go to Wash- ington and secure restriction against immigration. Instead, we find them opposed to such measures. Did we laborers lower the bar of immigration what would become of the American glory and greatness? When our land no longer grants an asylum right to the poor and oppressed of other lands, the great mission of our country will be at an end — her boasted superior civilization, have vanished. And yet this charitable mission is at the expense of the laboring class. The protected manufac- turer takes advantage of our humanitarian policy for his self-aggrandizement; for, were immigra- tion restricted, the advantages coming to him under present laws would cease. Our labor unions would practically be closed corporations, and all manufacturers, be at our mercy. Here I recall to mind the term of endearment, capitalists quite generally apply to labor unions, naniely, labor trusts. Having earned the condem- nation and nausea of the public through narrow- sighted, injudicious, and distasteful measures they seek to mollify their reputation by cloaking labor- unions with a trust mantle. It is the same old 54 Rockefeller Before a Jury cry of "stop, thief" — for the purpose of distracting attention from their own iniquity they classify our organization with their own, although they are least inclined to ordain it to equal fellowship in the society of trusts. If labor unions are trusts, they are not serious and can never be a menace to the public, because, ist. They are not closed corpor- ations based on a monopoly — millions of new independent bread-winners arise annually and threaten its existence. 2nd. They are not based on inanimate property, but on the passions of men; and so the effectiveness of their organizations must continually be endangered by hunger and starva- tion within, and the corruption and bribery with- out. 3rd. If nine-tenths of our people combine to raise the prices of labor they increase the cost of production as well ; and by the amount they increase the cost of production they add a consum- ing market through increased wages. The real trouble in trust formation is that one- thousandth part of mankind combine capital to raise the price of their production to the remain- ing nine hundred and ninety-nine one-thousandths part, without increasing the consumptive powers of anyone but themselves. The labor trust never can Rockefeller Before a Jury 55 hurt, the capital trust can. The former is detri- mental only when not sufficiently organized or complete. The union of a few thousand of labor- ers may injure the bulk of society; the union of millions, the great majority, never. Now, gentlemen of the jury, in what relation- ship does the gentleman in discussion stand? What attitude does he assume towards this hope and ideal of labor? His services have ever been, and I have no doubt are still employed, not in lengthening the avenues of trade, but in shorten- ing them; not in augmenting man's power over things, but in the power of things over man. He has ever been an organizer, not a producer. His policy serves to destroy competition in production, competition in consumption, and necessitates a larger competition among men in the sale of their labor. Today in certain branches of industry man must sell to him, must buy of him, must humil- iatingly submit his services to him. The purpose of his organization has been the saving of waste — the waste of things, the waste of money, the waste of wages, and the waste of strikes. But the waste of strikes is effected only by increasing the employ- 56 Rockefeller Before a Jury er's power over his employees, by increasing com- petition among them, by making isolated groups of men in different sections of the country dependent on the will of one company, by playing off the wants of one body of men against the needs of another, by operating one branch while the other deals its ghastly and death-dealing blows to the aspirations of loving, living souls. The slow but sure result of this must be that what has been gained by a struggling proletariate in two hundred years is destined to be lost within a few decades. Truly, no open proposition is made to rob the laborer of any right, but clandestinely and insid- iously it is operating to reduce him to his former condition. Even worse, for feudal lords recog- nized duties to their serfs, while modern barons claim many rights, and deny any involving duty or responsibility. This, gentlemen of the jury, is the creeping effect of trust formations. If John D. Rockefel- ler's time were employed in increasing the happi- ness of man, instead of laboring for the domination of things over the destiny of man, in short, did he worship less at the shrine of money and more at Rockefeller Before a Jury 57 the chapel of man, I should vote negatively — now I must vote emphatically in the affirmative. "It is only by labor that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labor be made happy ; and the two cannot be separated with impunity." — Ruskin. "Was du ererbt von deinem Vater hast erwirb es, um es zu besitzen." — Goethe's Faust. REPUBLICAN Mr. Chairman : — It seems to me that the gentleman preceding me has talked about everything but the subject at hand. What have all his remarks about the ascent of man to do with the question of Rockefeller's retirement? Why doesn't he stick to the subject? His view- point is very narrow. In discussing the affairs of Rockefeller, we are concerned with a very promin- ent man — one who is a true, representative Amer- ican. We may not make him the target of criticism without casting odium upon the whole American people, their laws, and government. And when you, gentlemen, do that, do you know what that means? Have you forgotten the story of our great- ness? Rockefeller Before a Jury 59 The United States is the grandest country, the best situated in the world. It is the Elysian Fields of Grecian Mythology, the El Dorado of the present reality. On the north lies the largest fresh water system of Lakes on the Globe; on the west we are protected from harsh winds and weather by the longest and grandest mountain system in the world; on the south is the largest warm water sea, the 'Gulf of Mexico, radiating its balmy influ- ence from Newfoundland to Iceland and from England to Spain. Within our confines is the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi river system, the faith, hope, and charity of Uncle Sam's future and of the world's culture. Intellectually we excel all other people. Our youth receive mental training at public cost more years and more freely than anywhere else in the world. More money is spent in education than in any two European countries together. Olir col- leges are more numerous than the combined num- ber of the three leading powers of Europe. They are more magnificently endowed. Indeed, our real universities, the newspapers, the positive and indisputable proof of our superior mental activity, charge the least tuition, ofTfer the most diverse 6o Rockefeller Before a Jury course of study, and enjoy the largest attendance. Our schools are our "dailies," our universities are our "dailies," our country is our "dailies." They exceed in number and circulation all the journals of England, France, and Germany put together. One-third of the world's newspapers spread their ramifying tendrils deep in the rich loam of the American intellect — the breath that speaks of the one must enunciate the other. Our freedom of speech and conscience is the ideal of the youth of every land. Politically speaking, we are the first people under the heavens. In God's chosen land man has the greatest power over his own destiny. He has inherited no past; his future lies within his own hands. His elective franchise is liberal in the extreme. It commences early in manhood; it extends over the greatest possible number of peo- ple. It clothes with its charitable folds the ignor- ant and intelligent, the rich and poor, the young and old, the virtuous and vicious, theist and atheist, male and female — to the end that we have become the most liberal-minded and generous-hearted peo- ple under the sun. Only in our land is the maxim Rockefeller Before a Jury 6l fully understood and appreciated, "Man can have as much liberty as he grants." Socially speaking, man as man here occupies the highest position in the world. No class or caste de- grades him; nor is he the sport or foot-stool of roy- alty. And with man, woman has marched hand in hand — his advancement has shed lustre upon her companionship. America is the land of conjugal felicity. In the year 1902 the comparative number of marriages to 10,000 inhabitants was as follows: United States 97, Germany 79, France 76, Great Britain 75, Italy 73, Austria 78. And why should the American woman not head the list in marriage- ability? She is the most beautiful and intellectual in the world, the queen of all womanly virtues; all mankind concedes her supremacy. The American fireside and family is the dream of all Europeans. The benevolent service we have rendered to the cause of humanity will forever remain the pole star in the galaxy of heavens. Its radiancy can only become brighter with the march of time. Our country has been and is today the asylum of the despised, degraded, and oppressed of every land. About 33*^° of our population is foreign born, or of foreign born parentage, in whole or in part. These 62 Rockefeller Before a Jury 26,000,000 are our leaders of thought and action. Being energetic, adventuresome, progressive, emi- grants leave their foreign lands in the hands of the unprogressive and indifferent sloths. Here they become the vanguard of physical and ethical culture. Instead of our high civilization signi- fying the usual degeneration of the physical state, WQ prove its regeneration; the hardy, venturesome, and needy — the physical giants of foreign lands — develop in this freer atmosphere to perfect man- hood — the state of physical, ethical, intellectual, and religious excellence. But if the rapid and beneficent assimilation of immigrants constitutes one of the most beautiful leaves in our wreath of fame, our benevolent inter- vention in behalf of alien races and people will ever receive the applause of coming ages. When before in the annals of history has a people had such a ferocious death struggle for its very exist- ence as was ours in contending for the liberation of the negro race in the emancipation war? When has a nation in modern, mediaeval, or ancient times entered on the terrors of war, hazarded reputation and fortune for the freedom of a foreign race as the American people did in the Spanish war? It is Rockefeller Before a Jury 63 true that six million Philippines have not yet their full independence. Yet, who questions the speedy approach of their perfect freedom and absolute independence? Wars, more severe, more terrible, more cruel abound, indeed, in the history of other lands; blood has flown more freely — but when were they not for self-aggrandizement? for power? Our constitution — it is immortal; it has scat- tered its fructifying seed on the fertile soil of every civilized land. The forerunner of liberty and equality, the inspirer of the downtrodden and the fallen, the protector of the weak and unfortunate, it has lifted man to a realizing sense of his divinity throughout the world. It is the developing cause of the rise of mankind — the highest and grandest letter of credit that any nation has ever presented to posterity. Industrially, no nation can ever compare with our grandeur. Our interstate commerce is beyond the wildest dreams of foreigners. It exceeds in value the combined production of the United King- dom, France, and Germany. Our foreign exports well nigh exceed the English export tonnage. The American laborer receives the highest wage, works the fewest hours, is housed under the most sanitary 64 Rockefeller Before a Jury conditions, and is most nourishingly fed. Our country is the land of millionaires. Their wealth has never been equalled, even in the days of Croesus. The abundance and richness of our tin, copper, silver, and gold mines is the testimony of divine favor. We produce more coal annually than all of Continental Europe together; and more iron than any of them. Our national harvest sus- tains life on both sides of the Atlantic; and our cotton enables the German, the Scotchman, the Norvvegian to endure the rigor of their climate. We graciously create conditions whereby they may compete with us for the world's markets. More timber goes up in smoke in our country than any European nation produces. More miles of railroad track interlace American homogeneity than are operated by the 400,000,000 people of Europe. The American railway mileage consti- tutes approximately one-half of the whole world's. The American locomotive is the biggest, fastest, and pulls the heaviest trains. More tonnage is moved on American railways than is carried by all the international ships of the world. And yet we have but arrived on the threshold of our commercial importance. We are destined to Rockefeller Before a Jury 65 supply the world's markets not only agriculturally, but also industrially. Even now we send automo- biles to France, coal to Germany, and rails to Eng- land. Once the full vigor and energy of our people are aroused they will know no end until the whole world's markets are in our control — the trail of international ships on every sea must point towards our shores. In a few years the mere knowledge of the excel- lence and superiority of our navy will merit and command the homage and respect of all powers. Our iron-clads will enforce order and law in every harbor. We will enthrone love where force now reigns supreme. We will fashion the thought of the world. Who would not be an American? Our greatness at once creates contempt for the insignificance of others. Our country is the sun about which European satellites now and forever must circle. The Gods reside above our shores, Their power is reflected in our glory and wealth. Their favor is the badge of our divinity. Their farmyards and cattle ranch, their workshop and gold mine bear the stamp of U. S., the "Unione Sacre." The stars and stripes is their emblem. Mr. Democrat: — Mr. Chairman — I call the 66 Rockefeller Before a Jury gentleman to order. He is not speaking to the question. Mr. Republican'. — That shows that the gentle- man does not correctly understand the question in all its bearings. This question of Rockefeller's retirement can not be discussed without looking through the windows of our present and past glory. They alone mirror our future. Our land is a big country; our era that of big corporations and big men. By and through these corporations and men, and under beneficent laws we have attained our present greatness. While other countries are suf- fering from commercial disease, industrial prostra- tion, and wasting famines, we have been spared therefrom. But for the world-wide international panic of 1873 ^^^ have had no business distress of any importance except in 1893, ^^^ ^^^^ ^"^^^ due to fear of democratic success. Business has be- come tempered and sane. All this, my friends, through a system of large corporations which reg- ulate trade and commerce. They save the waste of over-supply and under-consumption. When there is an over-supply, they raise prices or cease producing; when under-consumption is the busi- ness symptom, they reduce prices. They are the Rockefeller Before a Jury 67 Steady, reliable brakes on the insane, irregular, spasmodic, diseased, business conditions of the past. Never again will business panics visit and blight our commercial enterprise. Never again will the springs of industry trickle from 10 by 12 work- shops. Such, then, is the condition of trade and com- merce in our grand country today. Are you not proud of it? Would you change it? And this, the result of such men as John D. Rockefeller! May he live to be a centenarian, and each year give him added vigor and strength to carry out the bene- ficent, patriotic work God has so graciously fitted him for! While he works, he is an asset to the American people, far beyond his personal acquisi- tion. Let well enough alone! I vote "No," but before taking my chair I move that a quartette which I have hired for the hour be invited in to sing their new song entitled "The G. O. P." Chairman: — If there be no objection? A Voice: — I object. Chairman : — Then I will put it to a vote. Those in favor will rise. (All rise but Mr. Banker and Mr. Artist). It is carried. The Quartette is invited, enter and sing: "The G. O. P.," "In the 68 Rockefeller Before a Jury Good Old Summer Time," "Let Well Enough Alone," "Prosperity is Coming," and are then dis- missed. "Sail on, O Ship of State! Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate!" — Longfellow. "The wise man should seek not pleasures of the moment, but last- ing joys." — Aristippus. ARTIST Mr. Chairman : — As all of you, gentlemen, look at this question from your own, biased standpoints, I need not apologize in presenting the views of my fraternity. Our class is one of the very few who have kept their skirts clean of the sordid things of this world; we dwell only in the realm of the finer sensibilities. The worldly-minded, the great masses of mankind, have always been deficient in these higher things of life; hence, but for aristocratic support, art and esthetics would lapse into innocuous desuetude, as they often heretofore have done in the world's history. Accordingly the elite and magnanimous- ly-minded in all ages and countries have extended 70 Rockefeller Before a Jury sympathy, aid, and material support, to the end that our better and higher nature may develop and maintain its supremacy. So the Medici family made Michael Angelo; Philip the Fourth, Vales- quez; Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare; and King Ludwig, Wagner. Now that we have chosen a republic as the best form of government, and can therefore not enjoy this regal support, we should at least encourage private fortunes; only thus may we hope for that encouragement and patronage of art here, which a titled nobility so liberally and lavishly bestow in monarchic Europe. Consider, for instance, the state of musical culture in Germany today! What would it amount to if it did not receive royal sup- port? What would Germany's rank be without it? In Berlin the annual deficit in the rendition of grand opera amounted, in the year 1903, to 1,080,- 000 Marks; in Dresden to 480,000 Marks; in Munich to 600,000 Marks; in Wiesbaden to 200,- 000 Marks. This is all met by the respective kings. In our country we must rely upon the rich and generous. We must have Rockefellers and Car- negies if we would compete in the field of literature and art. Rockefeller, alone, annually contributes Rockefeller Before a Jury 71 more for the development of art and education than all the kings of Europe put together; and if I am any judge, I prophesy he will give much more before he takes his seat in Charon's boat. I want to see my country great, not only in industrial and political fields, but also in the artistic world. I vote "No." "Art is long, life short." — Latin Proverb. "When it is remembered that , . . . morality and struggle, and even religion and struggle, are bound so closely that it is impossible to con- ceive of them apart, the tremend- ous value of this principle, and the necessity for providing it with in- destructible foundations, will be perceived." — "The Ascent of Man" — Drummond. DEMOCRAT Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Citizens: — I am glad to be here — glad to hear so many sides of this question discussed by honest and earn- est men — men, having not their own personal interests most directly before them, but the welfare of the State. Of course, this question of Rockefeller's retire- ment is not a personal one. It is what he stands for, what he represents in social, political, and economic life, that interests us, and that only. That Rockefeller Before a Jury JT, he will continue to devote himself in the future in the same manner and along the same lines, in which he has so well succeeded in the past, we have a right to assume. But his activities in the past have been directed towards the formation of gigantic corporations, which we now generally term trusts. From no point of view can these organizations be justified. They sterilize invention, smother initia- tive, impoverish national and individual wealth. They are the witchcraft of our enlightenment, the slave-masters of modern times; their methods, the thumb-screw and rack of mediaeval days. Their power far exceeds that recorded of the publicans of ancient Rome, the Zemindars of India, the Robber Barons of the Rhine, or the Tax Collectors of France in the days of the French Revolution. Their methods are more objectionable — under the mantle of benevolence and charity they deliver death-deals and starvation-blows. They usurp the powers of government through the imposition of indirect taxes. Nothing is more destructive of the sovereignty of man in free institutions. Pluck- ing the goose with the least squawking is a mon- archical measure; the presentation of an itemized account, a bill of proposed expenses to a taxpayer 74 Rockefeller Before a Jury is republican doctrine. Yet, which taxpayer can tell today, how much he pays to the government, and how much to trust magnates? How much of the price of things is real value, and how much is trust legislation; how much is competitive value, and how much monopolized right and privilege? I have not one word of criticism of those large corporations which acquire their prestige and power solely by reason of their great capital. These should be exempt from abuse and calumniation. But I would abolish all those gigantic, modern dragons which, generally by false pretenses, obtain some special rights through legislation or fran- chise; or which because of the permanence of land titles, are, or are destined soon to become, private monopolies. The former corporations are harmless affairs, can never become monopolistic until they recognize the principle upon which the latter are based — which they generally do very early in their career. Public franchises, tariffs, bounties, subsidies, perpetual titles in land — behind these stand regiments of police and corps of armies to enforce the demand of the few for the delivery and surrender of the property of the many. It is in proportion as this right of hold-up is clearly de- Rockefeller Before a Jury 75 fined and permanent in its nature, that the stock of such trusts has value. Suppose, that instead of these tarififs running for indeterminate time, the enactment should pro- vide for their termination in ten or twenty years — do you think these giant corporations ever would have been organized? They have been effected on the theory of a perpetual right of exaction, on the continuity of the present favoritism. The capital stock of the sixty largest trusts amounts to about $5,000,000,000; the rest of them and the smaller fellows would aggregate a like sum, irrespective of their issued bonds which gen- erally equal and in some cases exceed the real value of their property. Repeal the tariff and thereby at least $5,000,000,000 of these stocks has vapor- ized. The American steam and street railroads are capitalized for about $7,000,000,000 stock and $7,500,000,000 bonds. All experts agree that the cost of an entirely new equipment today would not exceed their issued bonds. Thus, by withdrawing their franchise, or by rendering them terminable periodically at short intervals, and by subsequently nationalizing them — paying them, of course, only "6 Rockefeller Before a Jury the real worth of their movable property — at least $7,000,000,000 more of paper capital would be consigned to the waste basket. Tax corporations on the theory that their capital stock represents the real value of their property, and all the gold, silver, copper, tin, coal, and iron mines would become mere holes in the ground; their personal property severed from the land would not pay ten cents on the dollar of their obligations. Thus at least $2,000,000,000 more of so-called wealth has taken wings. Tax land values only, relieve thrift and industry of its burden, and not only the above cited $14,000,- 000,000 of capital stock, but $20,000,000,000, more (of so-called w^ealth in land will become social. J4 Billions of wealth vanishes/ J4 Billions of ''Hold up" power repealed! Think of it! Whither has it gone? What has become of it? Who has gotten the benefit of it? The Aynerican people as a whole would be its proud inheritors; not I, nor you, but all of us. More dollars would not fall to our lot, but more rights and opportunities would be redeemed. What is now regarded as private, individual wealth, would be socialized. Wealth thereafter would consist in the product of man's Rockefeller Before a Jury JJ energy, and not a coon in a cornfield. In all the cases cited above, wealth consists in the capitaliza- tion (usually at six per cent) of the power of levy- ing tribute, from now until eternity, upon the present and future uses to which an ingenious, active, and energetic people might put the land. It is all right for the possessors, but all wrong for the three-quarters dispossessed, and their heirs forever. Destroy the perpetuity of land titles, and let them run loo or 50 or 25 or 5 years, as is the practice in some countries, and accordingly the kite of wealth is disinflated and drops to the earth; conversely, increase the taxes on consumption, namely, customs and internal revenue, high enough to exempt land and personal property from taxa- tion, and instantly billions of dollars are added to the credit ledger of landowners and business ven- tures based thereon, and transferred to the backs of the landless. Man thereby becomes cheap, and land valuable ; or, to put it otherwise, man becomes the slave and tool of land instead of its being his instrument. On the other hand, remove all indirect taxes on man, and impose them all on land, and man becomes important, independent, and land. yS Rockefeller Before a Jury cheap — to put it otherwise, man becomes the mas- ter of land, a real sovereign on God's earth. Don't you see that the present worth of land, or selling price (or capital stock), rises with the guaranty of the permanency of land ow^nership, and with the growing immunity from taxation? Threaten to amend, modify, or repeal this legal favoritism of land (for so we must denounce all indirect taxes) or endanger its right of exaction, for example, by permitting only certain kinds of buildings, by lim- iting their height, making the rental and ouster in all cases dependent on a court of law, etc., as is done in many countries — destroy this absolutism of the landlord, remove these fortifications behind legal- ized monopoly, and the result, in diminished value of land, would convince the most skeptical that this wealth is law, pure law, the fiat of government — as surely as is our national currency. Sanctified by its antiquity, the immorality of our land tenure system is little appreciated by the aver- age mind. The laws with reference to its purchase, sale, inheritance, and testation are so precise and exact; its care requires so little attention; it cannot abscond; its management involves a minimum of loss; it is secure from the dangers of competition Rockefeller Before a Jury 79 and industrial legislation, etc. — all these give to the landed institution such great advantages over industry, as to fully explain the preference of the rich and idle to this character of investment. Law, then, is seen as the atmosphere operating the mercurial wealth in the social barometer. Law makes it, and law can destroy it. It rises and falls respectively with the election of dishonest or honest officials, legislators, and judges. As the Golden Rule becomes graven on the hearts of officials, the prices of land, and trust stocks based thereon, fall ; these values depend entirely on their honesty and morality. An indififerent people makes these cor- porations wealthy; a moral and just people renders their wealth ephemeral and evanescent. Indeed, within the last twenty-five years, the idea of wealth has suffered an unmistakable change of meaning. Formerly it consisted in a stout heart, a strong arm, and a healthy stomach — the ability to do and to dare. Today it is mere cunning, the cunning to avoid competition, to make somebody unknowing- ly pay us tribute, the right of one man to demand of another more than he should be able to in justice or competition. Competition for one, competition for all ; mon- 8o Rockefeller Before a Jury opoly for one, monopoly for all — that, my friends, is my position in a nut-shell. If you understand that in its widest sense, I need consume no more of your valuable time. A free field and a fair fight. Do you know the significance of that? It means the abolishment of perpetual rights in land, private railroads, protection, bounties, and subsidies. It means the release of one-half of our police, a reduc- tion of our army; in short, it means that man is free to work out his own destiny, and not born in the barn of perpetual bondage and poverrv\ If monopolies are advisable, let them be granted openly and aboveboard. Let us fix the price of their commodities as we do — at least in theory — in the case of quasi-public corporations; let us create a butter, cheese, eggs, wheat, cattle, coal, etc., trust; but let us do it publicly and fix the price of these things ourselves. Under present conditions land and its products, direct and indirect, are monopolized with the con- nivance and even assistance of the state. Man's destiny becomes mortgaged before birth. The amount of the mortgage is limited only by the number of the mouths and stomachs of "les miser- ables" already bidding for the means of subsis- Rockefeller Before a Jury 8l tence. The mortgage runs to the trustees of God, their heirs and assigns in ease and luxury forever. Mr. Republican: — You're a Pessimist. Mr. Democrat: — The gentleman says I'm a Pessimist. Well, perhaps so. And may I add that it is. my cherished hope always so to remain. No vainglorious boasting will ever benumb and befud- dle my senses, while slick and cunning beneficiaries of our laws are plucking my pockets. I do not want to forget my troubles — neither do the Amer- ican people. We need to look the misdeeds of our fathers square in the face, to conquer them. Optimism is death, decay; pessimism is idealism, growth, a forward movement, progression. Op- timism is for those who have; pessimism is for those who have not. Life is a Drama as well as a Comedy. Every ideal advanced for the improvement of society has been denominated pes- simism. Because the world is not as good as we would have it, we are styled pessimists. Ts such an appellation not the bestowal of honor? Were not Buddha and Confucius and Jesus pessimists? Did they not all seek the improvement, elevation, and saving of the world, by preaching its exist- ing debasement? Were the proud possessors of 82 Rockefeller Before a Jury the spirit of '76 in our country, and of the patriot- ism of '89 in France, not pessimists? Is it not better, as J. S. Mill affirms, to be a human being dissatisfied, than a pig satisfied? My republican friend, you do me too much honor. The differ- ence between you and me is that you glory in the deeds of our fathers, while we labor for the glory of our sons ; you dwell in idle memories of the past, while we thrill with the radiant hopes of the future. My friends, the past is dead; the future, pregnant with undreamed possibilities of eclipsing greatness and excelling virtues. Look forward, not backward; upward, not downward; inward, not outward; and lend a hand. Our country is not its "rocks and rills," nor its "woods and tem- pled hills" — -that's the pride and property of a few individuals; the poverty of the many. The interest of the state amounts to about 2^° per annum, the rate of taxation. Our country — it is our common institutions, the mental, moral, and social eminence of our people, the whole people. Here I call to mind the suggestion of a member of our jury, that such men as Rockefeller encour- age art. He says in substance: as there was a Medici family to patronize Michael Angelo, a I Rockefeller Before a Jury 83 Queen Elizabeth to elevate a Shakespeare, a King Ludvvig to encourage Wagner, so we must have Rockefellers in our land to patronize and give impetus to art. I am afraid our friend has neither correctly nor broadly read the connection of his- toric facts. He does not properly interpret the signs of the times. It is true that we have no Shakespeare to elevate the character of debased Kings and immoral Queens. We have no com- poser of music presumptions enough to compose operas requiring the public to learn a new alpha- bet of musical motives to appreciate and under- stand them. Never again until we get a crazy King, will Richard Wagners invite us to operas at six o'clock, in order to get us out of the theatre at midnight. Yes, it is true, we have no Wagner, but in lieu thereof one hundred Richard Strausses! No Frederic the Great, but one thousand George Washingtons! No Louis the XIV, but millions of sovereigns! Our theatres are not subsidized by an Emperor, but supported by an appreciating public. The audience and not the King, is the censor of our plays. Our actors, unhampered and unimpeded by official interpretation, become the best in the world. Indeed, we may say that the 84 Rockefeller Before a Jury excellence of all American art is created and sus- tained by a democracy, and not an aristocracy. And so the art of every country must ever be democratic if it would be of enduring value. When it fails to embody the life and to answer the needs of the masses of the people, it becomes devit- alized and emasculated. The art of Greece is of the age of the great democrat, Pericles; the art of Florence and Venice of their republican days; the art of Holland of the days of her independence; and today, the most illustrious era of art in every branch and field, is the art of the democracy of man; its patron is the free mind, the rich fruitage of the American Independence and the French Revolution. No longer is the art gallery a photo- graph gallery of the vain, insignificant, and unknown puppet Kings, Queens, and Princes, and their clandestine relationships. Today, the life of mankind, even in the dirtiest hovel, is interesting, instructive, provocative of love and sympathy; it is as fit a subject for art as the flowing and resplen- dent robes of a debauched monarch. In architec- ture we are no longer limited to three or four styles; as many prevail as there are free artists in this branch. In music no man sets a pace for I Rockefeller Before a Jury 85 others to follow; and in painting as many styles exist as there are assertive individualities. But, if this is the condition of individualism in the fine arts, who can fail to see the absence of any arro- gating royal direction in the industrial arts — - a far broader field, a hundred-fold, for the develop- ment of aesthetics? To what princely favor or courtly direction shall we ascribe the multiplica- tion of material things and the grand diffusion of mental activity? To whom the more artistic, aesthetic, and spiritual nature of our people? Where is the subsidy of the American newspaper, the epitome of American art? Who's the ducal instigator of this American intelligence? Who, the writer and circulator of the American letter? Who, the reader of the 500,- 000 edition American book? Are the quicker pulsations of the intellect, the increased locomo- tion of millions of minds not higher art than the indulgence of the passions of a few thousands for a few moments in painting and sculpture? The secrets of antiquity are known better to us than to mankind two thousand years ago. Babylon and Assyria are radiating their lustrous past to the voracious and devouring intellect of our age. 86 Rockefeller Before a Jury The history of Rome is better written today than by Tacitus himself; and of Egypt we know more than did the father of History, Herodotus. The freedom of man and mind alone explains these leaps and bounds of the intellect — I might say, not only of cultured man, but also of savage man and animal. For, has not the barbarian become a civilizer, and are not even tigers and bears tamed, and elephants and dogs enlisted in the service of man? Whatever interferes with the free play of man's fancy, or impedes the exercise of his individual and natural inclinations, mental and physical, is a limitation of his growth, freedom, and dignity. His loss may be another's gain, but it is a social loss. Heroes we may create, but thereby we debase a thousand heroic men. Court painters we may apotheosize, but thereby we degrade hundreds of superior artists. Merit, unimpeded, alone, and unsupported, will win its own battle. No royal wavelets of art will ever again be sustituted for the existing grand democratic ocean-swells. Never again will slavery of mind or body be assumed as the necessary condition of intellectual culture. The stimulating collision of millions of free minds I Rockefeller Before a Jury 87 has become, and will forever remain, the main- spring of mental, moral, and social progress; the repression of thought soon will become more criminal than the spilling of human blood. This, then, my fellow-citizens, is the story of the rise of man and of the decline of the state; of the centralization of man and decentralization of government. It is the unit of all values. All social reform must be measured thereby. Does it augment the importance of the individual, or does it give increased power to the State? Does it release the individual from care and responsibility, or does it repose in him the existing duties of the State? Does it impute to the government higher morals and intelligence than the average individ- ual himself possesses? Is paternalism its object, or individualism? As these are answered affirma- tively for added power, responsibility, and enfran- chisement of the individual, depends his future growth. Tariffs, bounties, subsidies, franchises, armies, perpetual rights in land, private property in railroads, all these are the creeping ivies about the strength and vigor and independence of man- hood. Trusts are based on, and seek the perpetu- ation of, all of these iniquities. Restraint of pro- 88 Rockefeller Before a Jury duction, restraint of consumption, restraint of trade, restraint of man is their ideal. The humil- iation of man and the elevation of industrial cap- tains, the enthronement of monopoly and the dethronement of competition — this, their princi- ple, leads to centralization of government. It w'\\\ end in monarchy, whether the executive be called a Greek tyrant, a Roman Caesar, a German Kaiser, a Russian Czar, or an American Presi- dent. Indeed, I might s.ay that modern Emperors do not hold offices. They are our captains of industry. They fix the rate and amount of taxa- tion. They sit not in palaces, nor on elevated thrones, gilded chairs, clothed in robes of purple and silk, ornamented with gold and silver, adored by a court of sycophants, flunkies, and courtiers. No! these are not the Emperors of the day. They sit in revolving chairs, before a mahogany desk, surrounded by tubes, phones, and tickers, honored, revered, and worshipped by thousands of depen- dent employees, and count the tribute which mil- lions are daily, monthly, and yearly ignorantly rendering to them. The body, politic, social, and industrial, shows many diseases; but it is not the disease of compe- Rockefeller Before a Jury 89 tition. State and institutional enthrottlement of competition is the pest and plague of modern times. When these shackles are once removed and each man has a free field and a fair fight, a new era, unknown and unrecorded in the past, will dawn upon mankind. A democracy in name will become so in fact. The freedom of person and property, and the equality of man will then replace these present idle terms. Only then, when com- petition really is free, will criticism of such an institution be justified. A race horse can't show his speed when attached to a lumber wagon. Rockefeller's great powers have been enlisted, in the past, in the destruction of competition. He is the pioneer in its execution. He has shown others the way; they are simply poor imitators. Let us accredit him with the badge of his great- ness by voting for his retirement. "The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other, but that every one shall have liberty, with- out hindrance, to be what God made him."—//. W. Beecher. "The happiness, self-interest, or individuality of the whole, is not more sacred than that of each, but it is greater." — Lloyd. SOCIALIST My Friends : — With the motive of the gentleman preceding me, I have no fault to find — his heart is in the right place. I do not question his sincerity, nor would I impugn yours. But your ideals differ radically from mine. Where you, gentlemen, seek the good of society through the individual, we seek the good of the individual through society. What you designate as the freedom of man, we denounce as his slavery. What you boast of as our wealth, we proclaim as our poverty. What you apotheosize as the freedom of contract, we denom- inate as the bond of the white slave. While you seek the multiplication of things primarily, and the I Rockefeller Before a Jury 91 elevation of man secondarily, we demand, firstly, the realization of man's aspirations as man, and secondly, the consideration of things, as related to him. Where we translate things in terms of life, you analyze life in terms of things. While we see in man a heart and a soul, you identify him with a number. "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties! In ac- tion how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God!" And yet, how we belittle and degrade him! How we dissipate his energies and prosti- tute his services! His manhood is dwarfed, his strength wasted, his opportunities crippled — he is condemned to a life of drudgery and despair. The gentleman preceding me has ably presented the views of a large class of our people, who con- tend that freer competition tends to liberate man- kind from its present masters. But we maintain that not only is individual monopoly a strangle- ment of the progress of man and society, but that competition is even more destructive. Our indus- trial system is based essentially on the latter. It has been tried and found wanting. Let me pause for a moment, and give you a few facts, indicating the condition of nine-tenths of mankind today, in the most civilized and enlightened nations of Eu- 92 Rockefeller Before a Jury rope and America — there, where the competitive system is most highly prized and developed: In England the total cost of poor law relief in 1902 was over $55,000,000, and the number of paupers receiving public aid about 825,000. Be- tween the first and fourteenth of January, 1903, over 1,000,000 paupers were in receipt of public relief in the United Kingdom. Some years ago Charles Booth estimated that 30^" of the people residing in London were living in poverty. He presented statistics showing that one person in every four in London dies in the workhouse, hos- pital, or lunatic asylum. The value of the house accommodation of six-sevenths of the population of England, equals the value of the housing of the other one-seventh. These six-sevenths live in rooms for which they pay less than $100 rental per annum. In Scotland, nine-tenths of the land is owned by one thousand seven hundred persons; while in the United Kingdom ten-elevenths of its area is owned by one two-hundredth part of the population. In England one person in twenty is an owner of land; in Scotland one in twenty-five; in Ireland one in seventy-nine. In Germany three hundred thous- and agriculturists own as much land as five mil- lion do. And in our boasted land of prosperity Rockefeller Before a Jury 93 and plenty, more people depend, today, upon the graciousness and generosity of others, than ever before; charity feeds more people than did degen- erate Rome. Never were there more soup houses, charitable institutions, hospitals, workhouses, pen- itentiaries, and prisons; never were they more numerously filled. Unemployment, the condition of tramps and idlers, is on the increase. The U. S. Census statistics of 1900 show a decrease of employment of labor in all but 15 out of 140 groups or classes. Taking only occupations wherein over 100,000 males are employed the last census report indicates the following per cent of partial unem- ployment in the census year, 1900, compared with 1890: No. of employees 1900 1890 Blacksmiths 226.000 13.7 12. i Iron and Steel Workers 287,000 28.1 25.4 Machinists 282,000 13.4 10.8 Boot and Shoe Makers 169,000 31.7 25.2 Saw and Planing^ Mill 161.000 35.1 31.7 Printers, Lithographers, etc 139,000 15.0 9.6 Cotton Mill Operators 125,000 13.1 13.2 Tailors t 60.000 27.0 14.5 Engineers and Firemen 239,000 6.8 6.1 Agricultural laborers 1,352,000 36.1 17.2 Farmers, Planters, etc 415,000 y.y 6.6 Draymen, TTackmen 103.000 19.3 13.9 Painters, Glaziers 116,000 42.4 31. i Miners, Quarrymen 249,000 44.3 47.9 94 Rockefeller Before a Jury «So it seems that in all the larger fields of activity, excepting the cotton mill and mining industries, the per cent of non-employment, the number of un- occupied days, of enforced idleness, has increased. The tramp is as truly a symptom of our social dis- ease as the machine is the indicator of our com- mercial age. According to an estimate of Robert Hunters, based on several years' experience in charity and settlement work in Chicago and New York, at least ten million of our people were in a state of acute poverty in the year 1904. He shows in his book entitled "Poverty," that, in 1899, 18^" of the people of New York State were recipients of public or private charity; that, in 1903, 20*^" of the people in Boston were in distress; that in the same year, 14*^" of the families of Manhattan were evicted; and that every year, about lo"^" of those who died in Manhattan, had pauper burials. Thomas G. Shearman shows that one-half of all values in land in the United States is owned by i°^° of the popula- tion, and^ that 95*^° of all values is owned by 10^" of the population; that only a quarter of the families in cities own land. In New York City 80^'' of the people live in tenements, and, taking Rockefeller Before a Jury 95 country and city together, only 31. 8*^" of the homes are unencumbered; but one person in eighteen can boast: "My home is my castle." Only one person in ten claims a home, unencumbered or free. The ratio of insane to population has steadily increased since i860 in all industrial lands under the competitive system; likewise physical disease. Crime is on the increase. In Chicago, in the month of February, 1906, 90 men were sitting in jail, awaiting trial for murder, while 1,100 indicted for lesser crimes were walking the streets. Ofifenses against property increase not only abso- lutely in number, but also relatively. The offenses "against property," without any element of vio- lence, constitute about 50^^^ of the total, in some countries two-thirds. The ratio of marriages to population is steadily decreasing and the contracting age becoming later; divorces are more frequent and the sexual relation laxer. The institution of marriage has become polygamy among the upper, and free love among the lower classes. In the year 1900, 36,000 illegit- imate children were born in England; in France 73,000, in Germany 183,000, in Austria-Hungary 200,000. 96 Rockefeller Before a Jury For the sake of gain, we are becoming a nation of cripples. Those who can withstand this fierce commercial charge, with apparent impunity, be- come, nevertheless, toeless, toothless, hairless, and prematurely aged; or, they emerge from the battle with shattered nerves and dyspeptic stomachs. It has been estimated that 6"^^ of the men offering themselves for army service in all these countries are physically unfit to serve as soldiers. The middle class is disappearing, the number of employers decreasing, and the num.ber of em- ployees increasing. In Germany, from 1882 to 1895, as already pointed out by Mr. Retailer, the number of employers, in small industries employ- ing one to five persons, actually decreased 2^", not- withstanding an enormous increase in population, while the number of laborers in industries, employ- ing over fifty persons, increased 87*^°. In 1895 twenty- five per cent of all employees were of the female sex in Germany. About the same proportion maintains in England. In our country, while only 14^^ of all employees are women, this auxilliary army, both relatively and absolutely, is steadily growing. In the struggle against capitalism, men find it more and more nee- Rockefeller Before a Jury 97 essary to enlist the services of their wives and daughters. The English Royal Commission on Labor in 1883 investigating the number of people engaged in gainful occupation, found that, in the year 1880, 1,118,356 children under the age of 15 years were employed in the United States. The state of Ohio in the year 1905 had over 100,000 of such manu- mitted infants. With the development of com- mercialism this number has absolutely and rela- tively increased. How, indeed, could it be other- wise in a country where the national ideals stamp poverty as a crime? Life has become as cheap commercially, as it ever was politically or socially. In 1902 labor's death roll in England was 4,513, and its injured 112,133. Germany — -where, through govern- ment insurance measures, thorough and reliable statistics are at hand — reports for the year 1902, 7,977 employees killed, and 121,284 injured. The hundreds of thousands dependent on these for sup- port, are not mentioned. The number of injured (not invalids or aged )on the accident roll, receiv- ing a pension during said year, was 488,707. When you bear in mind that only employees earn- 98 Rockefeller Before a Jury ing less than $150 per annum, are covered by this compulsory state insurance, that of Germany's 60,- 000,000 population, only 19,082,000 are insured, some idea may be obtained as to the cancer consum- ing the vitals of our social order, of the risk to life and limb man incurs in providing merely bread and butter for himself and family. While I have not the statistics of our own country at hand, our industrial life and activity being more intense than elsewhere, the probability is that these figures should be doubled for the 80,000,000 people on this side of the iVtlantic ; that one million cripples attest to the high state of our superior enlightenment. Our loss in railroad accidents in 1904 alone exceeded these German figures, namely 12,299 killed and 137,916 wounded. Frederick L. Hoff- man, of the Prudential Insurance Company, re- cently estimated that the annual rate of accidents in American cities is between 80 and 85 in each 100,000. On a basis of 80,000,000 population, this would mean a yearly loss of about 65,000 lives. He calculates that 1,664,000 persons are badly injured each year, and that some 4,800,000 receive wounds of a less serious character. This the record of the dead and injured, in the Rockefeller Before a Jury 99 battle of peace, in the war of civilization! How it swells the list of widows and orphans, the number of charges on society! No annual pension from the government, as in the case of injury in war, is their lot; but the poorhouse and the contempt of mankind have they inherited with their misfor- tune. Is it not a parody on our sense of justice, in this enlightened age, that death and disease in hol- lering for "my country," merits and secures a life pension, while that incurred in laboring' for the securement of our daily bread, destines so many of our families to workhouses, poorhouses, and char- itable institutions? This blasting of life, this maiming of body, this prevalent industrial annihilation is a terrible in- dictment against our good sense and reason, against the boasted love and charity of our age. If Rome, in her degenerate days estimated life cheaply, it was a common appraisement of the rich as well as the poor, the high as well as the lowly, the King as well as the subject. Now, on the contrary, only the life of the poor is valueless. When you consider the number of killed, wounded, and diseased resulting from this strife, and the poverty and sickness indirectly entailed, lOO Rockefeller Before a Jury you will agree with me that commercialism today is war — cruel war, far more barbarous and involv- ing much more bloodshed than international strife has ever engendered. It is a daily, monthly, annual, perennial war; it evolves the brute instead of man; it idealizes force instead of love. It is a blot on the bright escutcheon of our civilization, defacing the one lustrous star of our future hope and destiny. The figures I have cited challenge compari- son in all time, modern, mediaeval, and ancient. Where social hatred in the past devastated the ranks of aspiring manhood, it is now the battle of labor. No Sedan, or even Mukden, has ever left so many cripples and skeletons on the battlefield of international strife as does this peaceful warfare of labor and competition. It takes but a few years to run the total into the millions, exclusive of the untold numbers of the diseased and decrepit cast- offs. Neither in cultured Greece, nor in militant Rome, can a parallel be found. Slaves were then cheap, but labor is now cheaper. The slave is no longer forcibly sold and compelled to labor; but a thousand are standing within beck and call of the Rockefeller Before a Jury loi employer, ready to sell themselves as dead rabbits in a market stall. The laboring classes are forced to exterminate one another; their work is put up at auction. Competition among them is regarded as a sacred right of the employer, and is enforced by the sanctified traditions of the past, and all the legal institutions of the day. Armies and militia are trained and invoked more to despatch this extermination, than for the purposes of defense or ofifense of their country. Negro slavery has been abolished in our coun- try, but thereby industrial slavery, far more immoral and degrading, was established. The emancipation proclamation released over four mil- lion souls from perpetual bondage to man; but it never freed them from the necessity of living on their master's land. The master has now capital- ized his land, and offers it for sale to his former chattel. The price depends on the intensity of the black man's hunger, the productivity of his labor, and the prolificness of his body. With his intel- lectual, moral, social, and industrial growth, will rise the value of the land. This will then be called progress and civilization. The lash, instead of being in the iron grasp of a slave-master, is in the 102 Rockefeller Before a Jury kid-gloved hand of the land owner — the driver has remained the same. Man has become a machine, operated and direc- ted by an indifferent stranger; after a few years of active service, it becomes a burden on mankind — even second-hand, out-worn, rusted machines will bring a price as old iron; the exploited human frame is an added charge upon the community, instead of being a source of wealth. Truly, man has, during the last century or so, secured in the United States all the forms of freedom. Educa- tion is free, political rights are equal, courts are impartial, religious conscience is unhampered; schools, parks, roads, fire, police, lighting — all are as free as the waves of the sea. In the political field no sane man still believes that some are born to rule and others to obey; in the social field it is established for all time to come that no man is inferior because of race or color; in the mental field no man is born an "intellectual;" and in the moral world no man is "white as snow." In all these spheres of worldly action the aristocratic idea has happily suffered a final defeat. Only in the economic field does it still prevail and thrive. So long as only a few people own all our land — the Rockefeller Before a Jury 103 non sine qua, the source of all production, the cor- ner-stone of human existence, the base of all sup- plies — the economic freedom of the masses is a sham and delusion, the recited liberties slowly but surely become abridged and abrogated. For, when a man is not free to work out even a bare existence — when the residuary legacy becomes the poor-house and hospital instead of his muscle, energy, and a chunk of land — his "freedoms" but mark the amount and size of the mortgage, and increase the rate of interest payable to the anointed devisees of God. In the slave institutions of the past the slave- owner had many rights, but they were correlated with corresponding duties and responsibilities. No slave then labored when he was physically incapacitated, or when his duties tended to dimin- ish his future value, as man or chattel. And is not the test of man's greatness the treatment and the consideration he receives or may command, not only in days of prosperity, but also in years of adversity? Someone to watch over us, someone to guide us, someone to take a fatherly interest in us — is that not true wealth? What care T for man's franchise, for his assumed independence, for his I04 Rockefeller Before a Jury liberty of person and property, if thereby he has lost the sympathy and respect of his fellow-man — if wrinkles of care efface the brow of contentment, and days of anxiety replace hours of song. Navies and armies are organized, battleships and guns constructed, sheriffs and judges elected, to decide whether three things shall be the sole prop- erty of A or whether two things shall represent the pride of B. While the law punishes premeditated murder, it condones the wasting homicide of in- tense competition; while it condemns highway robbery, it encourages artful thieving of cunning merchants. Stealthy pocket-picking is an offense against the peace and dignity of our country, while public pocket-picking, through the enactment of outrageous laws, corruptly and fraudulently se- cured, is lauded on rostrum and in pulpit. Not only does competition, as the basic law of trade, corrupt our morals and blunt our senses at home, but the heresy it engenders, namely, that it is better to produce more than we consume, has launched us forth on the errand of imperialism, bullying other weaker people into buying our goods. The penalty these subjected, inferior races incur in denying our mandate, is their subjection Rockefeller Before a Jury 105 and subordination to a few lazy, idle office-holders of our appointment; or, in lieu thereof, such sub- jugated people are obliged to issue bonds in our favor, whereby war is deferred until defaultation of the interest. Accordingly we must have large navies ; for, how can we be moral custodians and Christian preceptors without the use of a "big stick"? Since 1885 Germany has expended in construc- tion and maintenance of her navy about $550,000,- 000; the United States about $800,000,000; and Great Britain about $1,400,000,000. France, and Russia, and Austria, and Italy are not very far behind in the race; and each year records a faster pace, out of all proportion to the growth of popu- lation. Are civilized people civilized? Are intelligent people intelligent? Have we not lost all evidence of sanity? Clearly no nation will go to war with its best customer in this commercial age. Our greatest commerce is with the most friendly nation; the trade of the tropical countries will not pay for the trouble of governing them; and the commercial profit with the poorest would not pay the cost of a new coat of paint on a single ironclad. This is the experience of every domin- io6 Rockefeller Before a Jury eering power with every dependency, so far as it is really dependent. A nation becomes successful in imperialism in proportion as it releases its rule over the subject race — in the measure of republi- canism and independence it bequeaths to its sub- jects. Trade and empire must be based on love. We have learned our lesson in the Philippines. Ger- many has graduated from her South African school. And Great Britain's trade with Canada, which she most wisely does not govern, exceeds all that of her eighteen or more tropical and subtropi- cal dependencies forcibly acquired between the years of 1884 and 1900. Trade, as empire, must be maintained as it is acquired; and this does not pay, except it be through love and sympathy, the only power which will keep the "open door" per- manently open. Suppose these vast sums of money had been put at interest with trustees for the benefit of civiliza- tion! That the interest had been expended in humanizing mankind! That it had been used in patching the wretched holes of our social fabric! What glory would be ours! What honor we be- queath to posterity! In its stead we have created Rockefeller Before a Jury 107 wider gulfs in society, engendered hatred and pes- simism among the masses, and expended all our surplus energy for a bronzed, glittering toy — a mere plaything. It loses its lustre almost as soon as purchased ; it would serve the masses of over- burdened and over-taxed best, if it rested on the ocean sands. Acquired ostensibly for defense, navies have ever been enlisted for offense. When has the navy of England, Germany or the United States been used for any other purpose? How to equalize opportunity, minimize the causes of poverty, choke up the sources of crime — in a word, how to realize the true end of public and private ethics, namely, the development of the 'human faculties in orderly co-operation — such were the questions in which the best minds were absorbed before our era of imperialism. Ques- tions of coinage, of international arbitration, of income tax, of commerce, of shortened hours and better conditions of labor, of military curtailment, of general taxation reform, then engaged our atten- tion. Now the inquiry is rather: How many black traitors did Corporal Rowdy massacre in the battle of Cruel Slaughter? Or, how "justly" and "honorably" and "nobly" is Lieutenant Mercy in- io8 Rockefeller Before a Jury stilling leaden civilization? Or, how nearly does Major Dare-Anything drown our charges, without really committing them to a watery grave? No, gentlemen, if any difference distinguishes the ethics of civilized from that of primitive man, it is in the freedom and rights the former grants to his fellowman and to all mankind. Even the cannibal recognizes duties to his wife, his children, his family, and his tribe. Man climbs the ladder of progress in the measure that he grants liberty, and practices toleration first, in the circle of his family, then to the members of his tribe, then to the fellow-citizens of his state — then to all man- kind of the v/hole world. How can we read his- tory otherwise? Our competitive system must cease. It has received a fair and honest trial. The freedom of competition has become the freedom to starve. Under it the seats at the banquet table of civili- zation are all sold in advance to the owners of the source of production; the poor man serves at the table, administering to their comfort and satiety, and gets the remaining crumbs and bones for his labor. It eliminates from consideration the one quality that distinguishes man from all other or- Rockefeller Before a Jury 109 ganic and inorganic matter. Only man exists by love and reason; and through love and reason alone can he live. This, the quality that cements, that builds, that creates! This, the principle that recog- nizes in every man a heart and a soul. Not every- one for himself and the devil take the hindmost, is our motto; but all for each, and each for all, and God for each and all. Man must be considered in terms of life, not matter. His title-deeds are the laws of higher nature, not the lower. He is her beginning and her end, the Alpha and Omega of creation, God's masterpiece. In religion the ideal is equality, in ethics the ideal is equality, in politics the ideal is equality, in business it is inequality. We devote nine-tenths of our time to the latter. Is it not perfectly plain then that any progress in these former must be invali- dated in the measure our business ideal is attained? We will never emerge from this slough of despond, this swamp of despair and misery while Pluto is the God of worship, in counting-room and factory, in mansion and hovel — - while the basic law of indus- try is the greatest return for the least effort. The socialization of every avenue of supply and every means of production alone will make us one I lo Rockefeller Before a Jury grand, homogeneous nation. Until of late, many good and excellent men have disputed the possibil- ity of organizing and conducting business on such a basis. The preliminary work of this organiza- tion is being done by such geniuses as John D. Rockefeller. Our immense railroad system is practically in the hands of four or five cliques; likewise our banking institutions. Business is concentrating itself more and more rapidly in the hands of a few. All this has been accomplished through such master-minds as the gentleman in discussion. All industry will soon be within the control of a few men. If the work of the organ- ization of industry, and the disorganization and destruction of man proceeds within the next twen- ty-five years, as it has in the past, all mankind will rise up and demand the intercession of the State. In the municipal and national conduct of tele- graph, post, and railroads, socialism has vindicated her claims. Rivers and highways, formerly "pri- vateered," have become socialized to the fullest extent. Our schools are maintained at a cost irrespective of individual benefit. Our courts are open to the poor as well as the rich. Police and fire protection, electric lighting, each is now a Rockefeller Before a Jury 1 1 1 public function at a public cost. Our sewerage system, street cleaning, paving, and a hundred other activities are largely excluded from the quid- pro-quo method. If socialism has proven her merit in these and a thousand other fields, why will the socialization of other still more important avenues of production not conduce to like results and restore order out of the chaos and anarchy and ruin of the business of today? We feel that Rockefeller and his Kind, in consolidating industry, are clearing away the debris and underbrush in the path of our onward march. May God grant him many more years of good health and activity. We are with him. I vote "No." "What constitutes a State? Not high-raised battlements or la- bored mound, Thick wall or moated gate; Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned ; Not bays and broad-armed ports. Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride ; 1 12 Rockefeller Before a Jury Not starred and spangled courts. Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. No ! men — high-minded men — With powers as far above dull brutes endued, In forest, brake or den, As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; etc." — Sir William Jones. "He who has property in the soil has the same up to the sky." — Latin Proverb. LANDLORD Mr. Chairman : — I did not intend to say anything, as I am no speaker. But inasmuch as my business seems to be the special target of some of you, I would like to explain my situation, and get a little information. My grandfather was a hard-working man; by much self-denial he accumulated a little money, and purchased some land in our metropolis. The city has grown; so has the value of the property. I have inherited it. Part of this land I improved; part was improved by my ancestors. My income therefrom, after deducting the taxes, the charges of superintendence, collection of rents, repairs, insurance, etc., amounts to several hundred thou- sand dollars. Part of this, my income, I spend; 114 Rockefeller Before a Jury part I save. In every European country my busi- ness is an honorable one, highly esteemed. If to be a rentier is an honorable caHing in Europe, why not here? Now, I want to ask my democratic friend, in what respect can I be injurious to society? Mr. Democrat: — To the extent that your income exceeds the value of your services to society, as fixed by a free, open market. In other words, you injure society to the extent that your titles in land enable you to make demands for the use of your capital which you otherwise could not. Mr. Landlord: — But what is the difference whether my money be invested in business or in land? Mr. Democrat: — In one there is competition; in the other not. About one-tenth of the people of America own three-fourths of the land; the other nine-tenths living and unborn, are dependent on this monopoly. With time, everything else but land deteriorates and wastes away. The quantity of land remains stationary, the population in- creases; man's existence depends upon it; it should be made as available to mankind as possible. Its treatment as property should be discouraged in such manner and to such extent as is consistent Rockefeller Before a Jury 115 with its improvement. Man's other wants may be satisfied by production; but land cannot be pro- duced. It was created, it never dies, it never goes out of business, it never becomes bankrupt; all other things, man and property, come and go; but land — never. We must all buy of Mother Earth ; why should she be enslaved to the caprice of a few? But if she must be enslaved, her bonders should pay as dearly as possible for the privilege, rather than as cheaply as possible. Instead of contriving to relieve her masters from taxation, we should pursue the contrary policy of constantly increasing their burdens, to the end, that they relieve the disin- herited from all taxation. Mr. Landlord :— Well, I can't see it that way. But, if I should not be entitled to rent for the use of my land, I certainly should be to the interest on my capital invested? Mr. Democrat: — Not necessarily. Suppose you had invested in an immoral or illegal business, for example, slaves or illicit distilling or gambling — Mr. Landlord: — Yes, but it is invested in land and houses, which have always been considered as private property. Mr. Democrat: — No, they have not; neither the ii6 Rockefeller Before a Jury one, nor the other. No absolute ownership of land is even today recognized by the English law. No man is, under it, the absolute owner of land, and landowners are merely tenants of the state. This is its legal status in courts of law; courts of equity and the common court of reason reaffirm this prin- ciple. Says Ralph Waldo Emerson: — "While another man has no land, my title to mine, your title to yours is at once vitiated." However, nobody today would deny your right to interest on the capital invested in houses. Houses are man's creation; land is not. The history of every country, Oriental and Occidental, testifies to the former communal character of land. As late as the commencement of the i8th century land in England was largely communal. Blackstone's Commentaries, still studied by the legal aspirants of our day, are so much devoted to communal rights as to bewilder and confuse the student. Lawrence's new system of Agriculture, published in 1726, states that ''it is believed that one-half of the kingdom are commons and a third of all the kingdom is what we call common fields." In l8j9 only 264,000 acres were common out of 3^ '57939^ acres. Such is the encroachment on the rights of the peo- Rockefeller Before a Jury iij pie. It has been appropriated by the superior force of warrior classes; acquiescence in their claims to ownership in perpetuity has been forced upon the defenseless. These claimants at first paid all taxes, dues and burdens, both in peace and in war; now, they hold the land, make the propertyless pay all taxes, dues, and burdens — even rent besides. Land has acquired special rights; land-owners have secured them, and society lost them. The more the landlord's interest in land is minimized, the greater will become society's share; and, con- versely, the fewer rights we grant to the ownership of land, and the more burdens we impose upon it, the greater will society's interest become therein — society becomes wealthy instead of the land-owner. You read a little Henry George, and get posted. Mr. Landlord: — That's news to me. I supposed land had always been considered property, as now. However, supposing all that to be so; suppose that property in land ought to be abolished. May I not, in the meantime, be a benefactor of society, according as I spend my money? Mr. Democrat: — Yes, if you spend it as society would, in case it had original, virgin control; or, if you spend your time and money trying to restore 1 1 8 Rockefeller Before a Jury the land to them from whom it was so unjustly taken and from whom it is now so inequitably withheld. Mr. Landlord: — But the people are not making any demand therefor. And even if they did, I would not know to whom to give my land, if I thought you were right. Mr. Democrat: — The people know something is wrong. With your leisure and ability you should find out what it is, and act accordingly. Property in land should not, and never will, be abolished. You are not to give your land to anyone. No one expects that. You would continue to hold posses- sion of your land as now, but mainly to draw inter- est or rent on the capital invested in your houses. Don't you see, that the more you tax an industry, the more you discourage it? Capital, instead of seeking burdened industries, seeks favored ones. Hence, if you tax land sufficiently capital leaves it and enters untaxed fields. Therefore, if you are a fair and just man, you will agitate for direct tax- ation, and the abolishment of all indirect taxes. Once your heart tells you that every man has a right to live, that society is organized for the bene- fit of all, rather than for the benefit of one, you Rockefeller Before a Jury 119 will look at this question in a different light; your eyes begin to open to the restless army of outraged mankind, standing in vain at the gate of nature, knocking for admission to her bountiful gardens, while the jailers have run away with the keys. Mr. Landlord: — But, if I had my money in- vested in business, either on my own account, or in these large trusts, I should have more work in the former case, and more worry in the latter. Mr. Democrat: — That's just it; society would profit by your labor. Now you render no service to society, which enriches you. Mr. Landlord: — In such case, my money and my work would enter into competition with other cap- ital and labor in industries already overcrowded. Would that not be injurious? Mr. Democrat: — No. Free competition has never yet been injurious; it is only its abuse, its prevention, which does harm. The rider never complains of the winning horse, when the race is fair; but, when one horse must ride with extra weight, over-checked, over-weighted, handicapped in time and space — who would not protest? Mr. Landlord: — Well, I never before heard so much on this subject. I propose to investigate this I20 Rockefeller Before a Jury matter myself. Yet, it seems to me that so many other improprieties now exist that should first be attended to. Tariffs, subsidies, street and steam railroad franchises — all these work as great harm as the land system, if that really be so detrimental. But, I have unnecessarily taken up your time, gentlemen. You are not interested in my education. As to the matter before us, I must vote "No." I think Rockefeller should work as long as he so desires. It is none of our business, nor that of the public. Besides, I am personally acquainted with him, and know him to be a fine fellow. I admire him! He is a self-made man in every sense of the word. What he has, he made himself. He owes nobody anything for his present greatness. And if the manner of the investment of my money be open to criticism, his certainly is not. His money is not invested in land; neither did he make it through speculation therein. I vote "No." "Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is — it is her shadow." — Bailey. "The self-same sun that shines up- on his court, Hides not his visage from our cot- tage, but Looks on aHke." — Shakespeare. FARMER Mr. Chairman : — I don't know what business I've got on this jury. I didn't know you were all speech-makers. If I had, I'd have told that lawyer, that I was preju- diced so as to get fired. I haven't really anything against John ; I'm not for him or against him. He has certainly done a big thing for many of us farmers. He's dug many a hole in our potato patches, so that many a duffer got the stuff to pay off his mortgage, who otherwise would have been a dead one, sure enough. Of course, I don't approve of John's owning all these oil-wells and skinning the public. But ain't that what all of you are doing? Ain't trade a 122 Rockefeller Before a Jury skin game all the way through? The manufac- turer organizes trusts to make us pay for his fun, the railroad magnates organize combines to make us pay the freight, the laborer organizes unions to make us pay his wages, but we farmers can't get together to make you pay for our wheat. Any good you fellows do in raising or boosting of prices is at our expense. We can't combine or organize or unionize 'cause there's too many of us and too far apart. We get it in the neck going and com- ing. We plow and manure and seed our acres, but somebody else gets the harvest. The legisla- ture shuffles the cards so we get a two-spot of spades, while the rest of you get the kings and aces of diamonds. M^e pay more than a fair pro- portion of the direct taxes, and more than our share of the hold-up taxes. But our corn and wheat don't grow any higher. After we've stood and delivered to the slick ones at home, we're permitted to throw our wheat in a common bin with the rag, tag, and bobtail of China and Russia and India. When this business of nursing suckling infants was first begun, it was to secure a home market for the farmer. We bit the bait, and now we see we were all played for suckers — we're exporting our crops more than ever. We got it in the neck; the Rockefeller Before a Jury 123 infants are eating porterhouse steaks and drinking champagne. From 1870 to 1904 the exports of agricultural products jumped from 361,000,000 bushels or about 236*^", while the population in- creased from 38,000,000 to 81,000,000 or about 213^". So it seems, the bigger the population, the less we eat our own foods. Instead of getting a home market for our goods, ave are losing our hold on it. Instead of getting artificial prices, like the rest of you patriots, our labor and product is in open competition with the wheat, corn, and oats of foreign cheap labor. We are the biggest pro- ducers of wheat, I know, but it only amounts to about 20*^° of the world's production; so, unless the tail wags the dog, the Rozhdestvenskys of Russia and Don Quixotes of South America and the Pariahs of India fix its price. But nobody wants a home market today. It's all the go now for a foreign market. The game has changed. We are to sell more than we buy. But if that's the game, can't Johnny Bull and Uncle Fritz and little Frenchy play it as well as we? Or, are these new bunco-steerers after the fat purse of Mr. Hottentot and Mr. Bushman perhaps? There's a big mix-up somewhere. Somebody is getting 124 Rockefeller Before a Jury awfully fooled. When I went to school my task- master told me that all the professors agreed that nations, as individuals, get rich when they get more than they give in a trade. And that's what Uncle Sam did before 1873. With the single exception of the year 1862, when our exports exceeded our im- ports by $1,313,824, our exports each year from i860 to 1873 exceeded imports by amounts varying from 30 to 180 million dollars. Ever since then the balance has been the other way, with but three exceptional years, in amounts running up as high as $500,000,000, I believe. Our outgo and ingo of things and cash is getting farther and farther apart in favor of the foreigner. I'll bet he's laughing in his sleeve at our smartness. He's really living on our cheap land, or I might say he's hired us to work for him on his land. It's all the same. He's just sitting in his easy chair and getting his check for his weekly rent of $10,000,000. This is the new doctrine how to get rich quick, as taught by our modern great "captains of industry." But they don't mean us when they speak of mak- ing the country rich — the country's themselves. For anybody who will look at the figures a little will see that our farms ain't worth as much today Rockefeller Before a Jury 125 as in 1870. That's the best proof, I guess, of the farmer's big load of prosperity. Why! In many states the farms with all improvements are being abandoned, really abandoned. I have before me a circular, issued in 1889 by the Commissioner of Agriculture and Manufacturing Interests in Ver- mont. He offers for sale 4,000 acres of land at $1 and $2 per acre and says "one-half are lands which formerly comprised good farms, but with buildings now gone, and fast growing up in tim- ber; some of this land is used for pasturage, and on other portions the fences are not kept up, leaving old cellar-holes and miles of stone-walls to testify to former'civilization." This is the case all over the East. In the year 1890 it constituted 3.45^° of the total farm acreage of Massachusetts. The Maine Labor Bureau reports 3,318 abandoned farms in that State, averaging 767 acres; and of the 25,746 townships in the United States in 1890, 10,- 063 actually had less population than in the year 1880. I guess that proves that the farmer's got a good hold on the tarred end of the stick. He forsakes his land as rats do a sinking ship. He's actually driven off of his land through inequitable taxation, partly direct but mostly indirect. He's got to carry too many infants; and it's the smell of 126 Rockefeller Before a Jury that champagne that staggers him all the more. But some of you may say the farmer's better off today than 50 years ago. He can eat and drink and travel as his ancestors couldn't. Well, that's so. We're partaking a little of the blessings of civili- zation and culture and peace and plenty and pros- perity. We're in the same position as the laborer. We get about the same pay for our goods and fill our stomachs pretty well; can afford a little nip now and then, wear good clothes on Sunday, and wear better shoes than formerly. We feel power- ful rich until we begin to look around, and we can't help doing that. Because if we should forget it occasionally the city Ho-Boes come along and toot their automobiles and holler at us to make us look at them. I suppose they think what's the use of having the stufif if you can't put on a little dog. The value of riches is the envy it can produce. So we and the laborer look around us and find we must do more work than formerly for these auto- mobiles and private car guys and that therefore we have gotten poorer relatively. And I guess that's all poorness or richness means — not the number of dollars you've got planted out in the corn-field, but your position in the ranks of power. Rockefeller Before a Jury 127 And while we're talking of prosperity let me tell you, that you get another think about the cause of it. Don't you swell up too much. Our prosperity is not ours. It's due to the big production of gold, the standard of all values. Why! Since 1870 the annual production of gold has tripled, and since 1893 doubled, and each year as much gold is now produced as in five years before 1870; that's w^hy prosperity is world-wide, in England and Germany and France, in Japan and India and China, in Mexico and Brazil and Paraguay. It's just a kind of April fool. Everybody thinks they're getting richer and that's what makes the world go. The chances are better for making money, and they think that means richness. So it does as long as the other fellows don't pile in the dough at the same rate. These fellows are all getting richer in their mind's eye. But I guess that's the same as though it really were so, because it makes them work, and they have their feelings of prosperity, which after all, is the main thing. But whenever there's a big change of values going on, the farmer tags behind in the procession in realizing its benefits — the army of agriculturalists in the world is so big that it's not very mobile; the captains have to tell us ^'to get a move on." 1 28 Rockefeller Before a Jury In so far as the United States figures up particu- larly big in production, in comparison with other nations, it's because of our large increase of popu- lation, and because nature has been kind to us. The wheat production, for instance, jumped from 235,000,000 bushels in 1870 to 637,000,000 in 1903 ; and last year the value of our poultry alone equalled the balance of trade. You fellows don't want to forget that we're a farming community. 44^^^ of our people are directly engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. Add to that all the tingle-tangle of humanity, the barbers, butchers, storekeepers, and salesmen, and the transportation, banking, and por- fessional rifif-rafif, dependent on them for support, and you find that at least 80^^ of our people rely on sunshine and rain and manure for our prosperity. Why! Our manufactured goods comprise but T-Sj^^" of the total internal commerce moved on American railways. You let nature go on a strike some year, as she did in '93 and you'll find you've got a panic on your hands notwithstanding all economies of waste now going on. Some of you, gentlmeen, talk a great deal about economy of production, or the saving of waste. Well, I don't know much about these new-fangled expressions. But I see every time there's a saving Rockefeller Before a Jury 129 of waste, there's a big lot of empty stomachs. A saving of waste is generally a division of producers and a multiplication of paupers. They are thrown on their hands and knees for another job in another field concerning which they know nothing. The result is they get children's wages or the poor- house. We want a waste of production because that means work and a full stomach. We want a waste of consumption because that puts ginger in our production. Gentlemen, we must look more to the prosperity of the farmer — his good fortune is ours. When he's prosperous, everybody is. Such fellows as Rockefeller are an unimportant factor. They are but the butterflies hovering about the rose-bushes in the farmer's garden. They're pretty to look at, but they don't raise the bush. So, because we can't give the farmer any advan- tage over other people through protective tariffs, or through consolidations, or through labor unions, I think immigration should be prohibited, and every farmer should have a bounty on every bushel of wheat, and corn, and on every pound of cotton and wool produced, the same as England did last century when she allowed sometimes a bounty, sometimes an export tax, on corn. For who will 130 Rockefeller Before a Jury deny that if any class is to be benefited by legisla- tion, the more numerous the class, the better? The farmer is the biggest class of people. That's why I'm opposed to trusts — they benefit a few individ- uals. That's why I'm opposed to labor unions — they benefit a comparatively small number of peo- ple. The agriculturalists should be unionized, organized, trustized. I guess I'll vote for John in the hope that he'll come out West and do a few kindly things for us. If he'll come and organize us, I'll vote for him for President of the United States, or ask our Congre- gationalist minister to secure a seat for him aside of me in heaven. I sometimes think that he would never organize us, because if the farmers were or- ganized and had a few trump cards, it might be a winning hand — it might take in all of Rock's cards. But in the hope that he will do something for us, especially since he's getting so good lately, I'm going to vote against putting him on the shelf. I vote "No." "Learn to be pleased with every- thing-; with wealth, so far as it makes us beneficial to others ; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for ; being unenvied." — Plutarch. "The Kingdom of God is not meat, nor drink." — A^eiv Testament. "The unwarlike man conquers. He who submits to others, controls them. By this negation of all things we come into possession of all things. Not to act, is the se- cret of all power." — Tao. "The source of all evil is the de- sire for things which change and pass away. Annihilation of the de- sires is perfect happiness." — Budd- hism: MINISTER Brethren: — The question before us has been discussed with much learning and ability. I doubt whether a more enlightened or better qualified jury could have been impanelled to pass on the matter before us. I thank the Lord especially that He has per- mitted me to be among you and has given me this opportunity of promulgating His work, His will, and His desire. 132 Rockefeller Before a Jury And yet, gentlemen, it grieves me greatly to notice the display of so much passion and feeling in a cause essentially irreligious. This discussion has served to accentuate the one fact that our national life is spent in the search for things, and not in the attainment of our spiritual welfare; the realization of this world and not the next; the satisfaction of earthly desires, and not the soul's aspirations. Your thoughts are focused on a single moment in a life everlasting. You are turning your atten- tion to but a single sand on a boundless ocean shore. There's another world besides this, a future as well as a present. Its joys and pleasures are beyond description; its duration outruns human concep- tion of time; its extent is illimitable. Those who enjoy this world will not know the delights of the next; and those selected by Divine Grace for His Providence there, must forfeit the pleasures of life here. "He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto Life Eternal;" "He that soweth unto the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting." Rockefeller Before a Jury 133 Brethren, all of you have been discussing by what process and in what manner man may mul- tiply the number of things in this world, and how this booty may be more equally divided. Indeed, some of you are merely intent on the production of things without even a thought as to their distri- bution. Is this not wasting man's divine nature on ignoble matter? Has anyone ever in this world become permanently happy through the acquisi- tion or accumulation of this world's products? How often am I reminded of Paul's significant admonishments: "As sorrowful, yet always rejoic- ing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." How plain this all is to the real seeker of truth! How simple the teaching of God, and how close His kingdom even on this earth! The Holy Book nowhere says: Accumulate wealth and save, care for your own and the economic welfare of your family ; but it does say : "Take no thought of your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for the body what ye shall put on; lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal." Pleasures of mind and of sense, develop- 134 Rockefeller Before a Jury ment of physical capacity, fame, honor — all these things are foreign to a true Christian life. We nowhere read: Have a care for the development of your natural capacities, train the body by gym- nastic exercises, make it strong and beautiful, train the intellect and senses, so that you may appreciate the creations of art and poetry, the products of philosophy and science; but we do read: "If one of thy members offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee." We nowhere read: Try to obtain honors, help your friends to achieve fame and position; but we do read: "There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven's Sake." We nowhere read: Go and serve the state with the sword or with thy counsel ; but we read : "My kingdom is not of this world." We nowhere read: Go and labor for the happiness of the human race; but we read: "The world passeth away and the lust thereof." We do not read of gain of things as the Love of God, but "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust Rockefeller Before a Jury 135 of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." Is it not apparent to all of you that on the authority of the Holy Book your pursuits are ignoble, your strife unworthy, your pride inglor- ious, and your wealth poverty? Are not all your ideals steeped in the pleasures of this world? Are they not the desires of carnal beings? Do they not even grow with satisfaction? Have they ever administered to happiness in this life? I notice a predisposition on the part of each of you to the frequent use of the word "Love." What a noble word! What our language, our civiliza- tion — indeed, our life — without it! What the value of any religion which does not apotheosize it! Indeed, has a religious system ever been revealed or created, written or spoken by mortal or immortal man without "love" as its keystone? Love and life, are they not the same? Must they not forever be linked together? But not in the sense you use it, brethren; not love of mankind for the enjoyment of this world, but for a seat in Heaven. But many of vou may still misunderstand me. Perhaps you will better interpret my language in 136 Rockefeller Before a Jury this: "But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him also the other. And if any man shall sue thee at law and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." So; "Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him." Again ; "Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not suffer yourself to be defrauded?" Not the accumulation of money and things, nor the gracious, liberal, and merciful spending is "Love," but: "Go thy way, sell whatever thou hast, and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven." A voice: — Your idea of Love then is abnegation. Mr. Minister'. — Yes. Voice: — That is an antiquated, primitive inter- pretation. Mr. Minister: — But the primitive Christians made Christianity what it is; they struggled for it; they created it; they knew its strength and its weakness. Then it was a living instrument in the hands of an army of sincere idealists and earnest enthusiasts. They spent their time thinking of the hereafter; we are solely concerned with the here. They interpreted Christianity as the denial of self^ Rockefeller Before a Jury IT,J the humiliation of man before his fellowman and God — the belittlement of our earthly significance. This, my friends, is not only Christianity, it is "Love," the basis of all religions. It is the yard- stick, true and reliable and certain, by which every theology and all human conduct can and must be measured. It is, indeed, religion itself. Love, submission, humiliation, abnegation, religion — all these are synonymous terms. Love and humility before God is, of course, the primary doctrine. But this is only a stepping-stone to the greater and higher virtue of submission to mankind, his most eloquent creation, his most divine revelation. And it is irrelevant both from an ethical and from a religious point of view whether our God be per- sonal or impersonal, the great Unknown in man or in nature, or whether it be Nature herself; for each of these conceptions will prompt the same spirit and conduce to like morality. Such interpretation of love, Christianity, and religion does not sway to and fro with the passions of men. What was once a virtue does not in the course of time become a vice. What is good in the interpretation of one, does not exegetically become bad for another. With this conception man can 138 Rockefeller Before a Jury no longer be both a minister of the Gospel and a butcher of men; he may not carry the bible in one hand and wield the sword with the other. Chris- tianity is not two parellel creeks joining and form- ing one muddy channel, but one grand silent stream of pure crystal water, overflowing our droughted and parched acres, making them rich and productive; it is the fertilizing loam of the Nile deposited on the desert sands of our steriliz- ing wants and desires. Thus, with this understanding of the basis and purpose of Christianity, do we sift out the prevail- ing mysticism and expunge its obscurantism and symbolism. A definite measure is adopted in place of an ambiguous, elastic, varying, double- dealing standard. The latter is as baneful to the cause of religion as local, ever-changing, and con- tinually fluctuating standards of weights, measures, and coinage would be in our commercial life. He who cannot devise an absolute rule or standard for the measurement of religious and moral values is a weary wanderer on the endless shores of caprice and fancy, a blind mariner on a foggy sea; his religion is a nameless afifair, a pretence of good- ness, a mere mirror for the reflection of the bril- Rockefeller Before a Jury 139 liant lustre of its enviable possessors. In the name of virtue and religion such a person may even be enlisted in the cause of crime. But "love" — as humiliation, as abnegation of life — can be under- stood, acted and appreciated by all. No mystic standard, requiring minister or priest, church or shrine, rights or ceremonies, is necessary for its elucidation; no ambiguity in Greek or Latin or Sanscrit verse obscures its meaning. It is under- stood in every language. Its vivifying influence permeates every race, black or white or yellow. Its star sheds its brilliant lustre in every clime, in the south as in the north. The Wise Men of the East know is magic spell no better than the unciv- ilized of the West. Thus interpreted, "Love" is the foundation-stone of every religion now liv- ing, as it is of the hundreds already dead and still to come. It is only as this fundamental truth is lost and forgotten that religions die. Love pro- duces the same conduct in Christian, Mohamme- dan, Buddhist, Hindoo, and Confucian lands. Theist, polytheist, pantheist, and atheist may and do worship at her shrine. Her invocation is the fountain of peace and contentment. Christ taught it in its most sublime form. He clothed it with 140 Rockefeller Before a Jury Sunday attire. He showed us the way of its appli- cation in word and conduct. Let us follow His example! But if abnegation is not expressly taught in the good book as the sole basis of love, must we not necessarily thus deduce it? For, how can we love others without humiliating ourselves? Love of self, its antithesis, at every step and turn conflicts with the like instinct of others; love of others, in the sense of abnegation or humiliation, cements, attracts, joins together. The key to love is sub- mission, the annihilation of will. Not my will but yours — this is love, this is abnegation, this is Christianity, this is every Theology — this is relig- ion itself — so simple and yet so great. Selfishness goes one way, unselfishness the other. Pride is the world's estate, humility religion's legacy. Mercy, charity, beneficence, graciousness — these are all species of the same genus, abnegation — can only be measured and valued by the quantum of this parent virtue. Abnegation and love, they are the two wings of the Dove of Peace ; the portals of this earth are always open for her welcome; the Great Pylons of Janos are never closed on her there. A voice: — But how can everybody negate him- self? It is an impossible ideal. Rockefeller Before a Jury 141 Mr. Minister: — But there is no danger that all will do so. The carnal man will always be with us! What is the value of an ideal within the reach of any and all? Just the height of our ideal is its fascination and allurement, its nobility and gran- deur. This, brethren, then, is the corner-stone of relig- ion. In every theology the lesson is occasionally forgotten, only to be retaught and relearned after society has become sufficiently degenerate and decayed. Confucianism arose out of a state of cor- ruption, Buddhism sprang from an emasculated Brahmanism, Christianity from a degenerate Juda- ism, and Mohammedanism was the product of internal Christian strife. Each of these theologies in turn have had their ebb and flow, their day of action and repose, their state of purity and corrup- tion, until we find their adherents protesting against the old, and proclaiming the new construc- tion of the same doctrine. Buddhism, for ex- ample, has over 100 sects, Mohammedanism 65, Christianity about 150, and Brahmanism embraces them all — every sect and every creed. In Juda- ism the Pharisees were not always pharisees. At the time of their organization they arose as a pro- 142 Rockefeller Before a Jury test to the then prevailing corruption. So undoubt- edly with many other sects, as the Nazarites, the Talmudites, the Sadducees, and the Samaritans. And now if we would avoid the calamity of con- signing Christianity to final repose, the forgotten lesson of the cause and purpose of religion must be relearned. The relative decrease in the num- ber of theological students compared with the stu- dents of other sciences, the mad intoxication for material things, the wild carousal of sensual indul- gence in all fields of worldly desire, the filthy debauching of artistic taste in literature, and paint- ing, and sculpture — all this indicates that Chris- tianity is undergoing an anarchy of form and an absolute change of meaning. Our church enroll- ment is increasing but the cost of spiritual inspira- tion is multiplying. Our churches are becoming the monumental palaces of the debased purposes of the age. She has married the corruption of our day, and added the glitter and gloss of the white and yellow dross to her raiment. Matter is holding dominion over us — not mind. Who, today, would die for his faith as the early Christians did? Who, solely for the sake of example, would deny all pleasure as did hundreds Rockefeller Before a Jury 143 of thousands of hermits, monks, and nuns in the "dark" ages? Who renounce the world? The trouble is that Christianity is now at peace with the world; it must combat it, or forever remain impotent. The pursuit of worldly things can never be reconciled with the object of religion; the former tends towards inequality; the latter towards equality. But some of you may not be religious and refuse to weigh your pursuits by the holy edicts. You may think, as many aver, that the world has ever preached altruism and practiced egoism. But this is not so; the world has not always been so selfish and commercial as it is today. Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Cicero, for instance, all condemn interest. In early Judaic times property in land was not absolute; it was conceived as belonging to God. No individual could own it in fee simple; he could only use it. If through poverty or misfortune he temporarily parted with its possession it was returned to him in the year of the Jubilee. Inter- est was positively forbidden between members of God's kingdom. No permanent mortgage indebt- edness was possible on either land or capital. Both in Grecian and Roman days trade was a base pur- 144 Rockefeller Before a Jury suit and those engaged therein were the lowest class of society. Even as late as the 13th century these ideas still prevailed. Thomas Aquinas, one of the ablest writers of the church, said that trade was base and even sinful when carried on for the sake of gain, and that interest should not be asked of the borrower of money. The canon law laid down the proposition that private property was not known in the law of nature and that all things are common to all men. How, under such conditions, could man's avarice, greed, covetous- ness find vent or employment? Is the desire for the ownership of things, or commercialism, not the basic discord to the harmony of men and the symphony of life? Such is my honest opinion, brethren. Believing, therefore, that the love of worldly things creates all evils and that the love of God will cure all, you can readily see how I must vote on the matter before us. I vote "Yes." "Self renunciation is the essence of morality." — Schopenhauer. "Love is the abnegation and for- getfulness of self." — F. W. Robert- son. "For ever)' grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else ; and for everything you gain, you lose something. If the gatherer gathers too much, na- ture takes out of the man what she puts into his chest ; swells the estate but kills the owner. Nature hates monopolies and exceptions." — R. IV. Emerson. PHILOSOPHER Gentlemen'. — I speak with some diffidence on this subject — I feel that I might destroy some of your highly cher- ished ideals. Should I not hesitate under such cir- cumstances? Would I, in such case, be a benefac- tor or a malefactor of my race? However that may be, I shall urge the philosopher's justification : The search for truth is more important than its possession. My mode of thought is essentially dififerent from 146 Rockefeller Before a Jury yours: by vocation and habit I am accustomed to clear away conventional debris of popular thought in the search for the crooked and winding paths leading to wisdom and reason. I am no idealist, as all of you appear to be; that is, I don't see but one side of a question ; hence I am no enthusiast. What each of you advocates as a Utopia, I pur- sue to its end, to its logical conclusion — I reduce to its lowest terms, so to speak, in order that I may know whether you use terms advisedly or care- lessly. Accordingly I have concluded that none of you really mean what you say. You express yourselves in glittering generalities; none of you really advise anything of a definite nature; your point of view is narrow, without proper considera- tion of the causes and relation of things. Let me briefly particularize: (Minister) First, as to my good-hearted Mr. Minister — what shall I say of him who estimates things differently from each of you? who values not this world, but the next? He says substantially that virtue tends towards the negation, and vice towards the affirmation of life. Negation he identifies with love in its broad sense, namely, love of others; and affirmation of life is, to Rockefeller Before a Jury i^j him, pride, selfishness, love of self. We cannot criticise him; he, at least, has a standard. His religion is not a correction of this world, but a sev- erance from it. And, if the next world be more important than this, he is right. But he must see, with maturer consideration, that all people cannot deny life; that denial by some necessarily involves affirmation by others; that only thus, compara- tively, is self-abnegation a virtue. But if he pos- tulate this necessity of negation by some, and affir- mation by others, does he not again divide society into two classes? Does he not then provide us with an aristocracy of '^negators," who would look with disdain and contempt upon the large mass of sinners, as the hundreds of thousands of hermits and ascetics did during the dark ages? His love would thereby become egoism — become that which he would avoid. But we must not forget that the social mind, involved wholly in speculation concerning the next world, must necessarily lose sight of this: our industry, culture, education, science, indeed, our civilization, must suffer an abrupt change — yes, it must even retrogress to the stage of primitive Christianity and modern Brahmanism, if the 148 Rockefeller Before a Jury attainment of the next world be our primary purpose in this one. Contemplation of heavenly bliss minimizes the joys of our earthly paradise; vice versa: to locate heaven and hell here, neces- sarily dispels interest in the immortal days to come. Perhaps, after all, the idealistic theologies — those with an ideal impossible of attainment — are a mistake. Confucianism, alone, of all existing theologies, teaches that virtue in the moral world is a mean between two extremes ; that extremes in all cases are to be avoided. Neither complete self- renunciation nor full affirmation, neither love of others nor love of self, neither pride nor humility are ideals; true morality lies somewhere between. But exactly where, nobody can tell, or will ever know. (Tramp) ]yjj.^ Tramp may lead an exemplary life — so thousands of summer sojourners in their va- cation days annually testify. But can it be a sole ideal? Can we all be tramps? From which provender would the generous house-wife satisfy her charitable instincts? Mr. Tramp can only lead his life, while the majority of mankind earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. Thrift and laziness, avarice and dissoluteness are Rockefeller Before a Jury 149 all vices when taken in big doses, and virtues when partaken of moderately. The true life is some- where between contentment and discontent, be- tween work and rest, between leisure and play; but who ever will be able to rigidly define their limit? Mr. Socialist talks much of the brotherhood (Socialist) of man, but his end is rather the brotherhood of property. He pleads for the socialization of all means of production; but this, carried to its logical conclusion, would mean the sacrifice of the selfish instinct — the destruction of the idea of property, the stifling of personal endeavor. With pride gone, what is left of the idea of gain, or the sense of property? The socialization of man carried to its utmost limits is a surrender of self, a submission of one to the other, and the other to the one, and so on — to death itself. It necessarily involves more centralization of govern- ment, and a corresponding surrender of individual liberty. Socialism must live with individualism; otherwise there is no virtue in either. But, at what degree do we reach boiling and freezing point of human endeavor? Does it not change with the seasons of time and with the state of our moral and intellectual culture? No static socialism ever will satisfy or indeed be socialism. 150 Rockefeller Before a Jury Socialism is merely a movement, a process, a tendency towards equality. It has existed in all ages, swaying backward and forward. In some ages greater importance is attached to socialism; in others, to individualism. Athens in the days of her glory was a socialistic city. She owned and operated land, mines, forests, fields; she built temples, baths, theaters, gymnasia; she controlled and conducted commerce, art, worship, games; the w^hole Greek social conception was that the indi- vidual existed for the state rather than the state for the individual. Likewise in Judaism; the law defended the fatherless, the hireling, the stranger, the poor, the oppressed, the widows; the Essenes in the days of Christ lived in communities having all property in common. In the Christian era we have the early attempt at communism in the prim- itive churches; and later the monastic institutions, which w^ere the civilizing centers of the Middle Ages. Feudalism was the prevailing social form; yet its harshness was tempered by the duty, more or less recognized, of the feudal lord to care for and protect his inferior. Indeed, no fact in history- is more marked than the persistence of the social ideal of the life in common. Plato dreamed of such a community in his "Republic;" the writings Rockefeller Before a Jury 151 of the Christian fathers are full of this ideal. It has never wholly been apart from human thought. A socialistic element is found in all legislation — no law ever was passed purely to oppress people. There is more than a grain of socialism in the most extreme individualism. As the latter is advocated as an improvement of society, so likewise is the cause of socialism urged for the sake of the indi- viduals composing it. Hence we might say that individualism itself is a species of socialism; and, vice versa, socialism is a grade of individualism. Even the most radical individualist here, our dem- ocratic friend, favors denuding land of its privacy and privilege — a socialistic movement in effect, and hence a primary and fundamental plank in our socialist's platform. But as Mr. Socialist finds life in love, so (democrat) Mr. Democrat finds life in selfishness; the one would socialize, the other individualize hu- manity; the former would abolish all com- petition, the latter encourage it. But a free field and a fair fight — does it not blight the finest fruit of human effort? In this free-for-all fight, is not love and sympathy a forgotten virtue? Competi- tion has become a worn-out ideal; the activities of 152 Rockefeller Before a Jury financial men in all branches of industry within the last twenty-five years proves this, and public opin- ion has ratified it. Yet, while the public conscience declares that competition by individuals or corporations, as employers, is vicious and destructive of commercial progress, it has decreed that competition by indi- viduals, as employees, is a virtue. It is the estab- lished law that the unemployed have the free right to labor, — ridiculous as it sounds, for who wants to labor? An empty, valueless right. But should this right, then, not remain his property, even when another man wants his job? Public opinion stamps a state as derelict in its duty when it refuses to enforce this primary and most sanctified right of each man to compete with every other. Police, militia, martial-law, judge, and sheriff — these are all invoked unhesitatingly and speedily, whenever this sacred right of the unemployed to labor is threatened; the right of one man to another's job must be unquestioned. "Competition is the life of trade" among men — among laboring men; but consolidation or non-competition is the life of trade — among employers. An unbiased interpre- ter of our laws must logically reach the conclu- Rockefeller Before a Jury 153 sion that the debasement of labor, and not merely its competition, is the present social ideal — per- haps thoughtlessly, unconsciously, but, neverthe- less, effectively. "Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost," is pure unadulterated selfishness. The world never will consent to its apotheosis. Com- petition is a virtue where there is too little freedom of trade. Too much competition is as unhealthy as a lack of it. Over-competition, as well as under- competition, is the death of our industrial and social order, a waste of wealth, and a blight upon the efforts of man. Exactly where, between these extremes the dimly visible, but ever receding, El Dorado may be, nobody knows, or attempts to say in intelligible, definite terms. Mr. Laborer has aptly and in glowing terms (Laborer) portrayed the progress and ascent of man, a story of greatness which we never tire of hear- ing. We feel that somehow we personally are the cause of it. But the rise of the cause of man and his labor is intimately connected with the rise of property — they are twin-brothers in a struggle for supremacy. As man has become free of the lord of the manor he has become a slave of property. 154 Rockefeller Before a Jury Feudal barons no longer forcibly compel tribute, nor do slave drivers enchain slaves; but the obliga- tion of service is the germ conceived in the idea of rent. The laborer still remains obligor; the obligee has merely changed his name. ''Land- lord" sounds more dignified than master or robber- baron. The equality of man was preached five hundred years before the Christian era; Egyptian monu- ments erected 4000 years ago are full of such expressions of "love" as would do credit to any people of the last two thousand years; and Cicero, in a celebrated speech, said "The whole world is the fatherhood of the noble minded." But this brotherhood, in every age, has taken on and assumed a different form. Rome and Athens had virtues which we have not; and the "Love" we boast of, they had not. Speaking radically, how- ever, and disregarding these distinguishing forms, man's real and essential condition of fealty, of sub- serviency to a small minority, has not changed. On the other hand, is the absolute equality of man desirable? The individualization of man sounds nice, and we like to think of drawing the rich, the powerful, down to our own mediocre con- Rockefeller Before a Jury 155 ditions, never thinking of the correlative duty of sharing in the sorrows, misery, and squalor of the many more needy. There are those below, as well as above us, as measured in material possessions. The idea of pulling down the rich to our level can never be disassociated from the uplifting of the less fortunate. Absolute equality of man is as ruinous of strife and ambition, as destructive of human efifort and progress, as sterilizing of en- deavor and pride and selfishness, as discouraging of private initiative and invention as absolute inequal- ity would be. Inequality is the non sine qua of life, the absolute condition of existence, the essence of all being and doing. It is the virile force gen- erating all activit)^, the wind that fills the sails of all pursuit and endeavor — without it the ship of life could neither navigate the calmest sea, nor sur- vive the slightest storm. Every gain of science, every advance of civilization is reared on individ- ual pride and vanity — the piers of the arch of existence, with inequality as the keystone. Then, too, we must not forget that man's gain of greater individualization is correlated with a di- minishing power and influence in the state — as the federation of American States proved and China's 156 Rockefeller Before a Jury present condition evidences. A strong government means a weak individual ; and strong individuals signify a w^eak state. The freedom of the individ- ual conflicts with the power of the state at every turn; for instance, the state passes a law limiting the hours of service of employees; to the employee they are beneficial from a moral and expedient standpoint, but injurious from a political. Such laws augment the power of the state, but depreci- ate the power of the individual — his personal lib- erty is encroached upon. The gain in one respect becomes a loss in another. So with the inequality of man — it has its advan- tages as well as disadvantages. It produces humil- iation, toleration, love, unselfishness, in short, the negative virtues, which spring from the man who has lost hope of future industrial advancement. The humble alone understand the grandest of religious injunctions: "Do unto others as you would be done by." To the rich — never being needy or in want — the thought of "how they would be done by" never occurs. Hence only the poor really and fully learn this lesson of love and sacrifice. It is, likewise, only the humble — and for the same reason — who understand the injunc- Rockefeller Before a Jury 157 tion: "Love thy neighbor as thyself." It is only as we feel the injustice of others that we think of these things. Did you ever see anyone who would concede that he was conceited — that he loved himself? Of what value then is this injunction except to the oppressed, the lowly, the poor? Oh! the wealth of poverty, physically, mentally, socially and religiously — will it ever be appreciated? Three-fourths of mankind are subjects of her crown, few recognize her power, all lament her cruel, but withal, beneficent reign. Mr. Banker and his wealth! Well may he (Banker) boast; little else is left for him. The indo- lence, the pride, the arrogance that are his inher- itance, or appurtenant to the acquisition of wealth — do they not degrade the opulent? Is his wealth not the unerring and unfailing sign of the coming degeneration of himself, his family, and their off- spring? "Where wealth accumulates, men de- cay," says Goldsmith. Their fate, unquestionably, is a slow deterioration both of mind and of body. Centralization of wealth leads to centralization of power — the imperialism of government. Un- less the wealth of a country is possessed by a large middle class, the few owners seek the strong arm 158 Rockefeller Before a Jury of government for the protection of their property and assumed rights. This arm of government is maintained only by a strong army, by the centrali- zation of the powers of government, and the absorption of man's individuality, just as individ- ualism absorbs the powers of the state and central- izes, aggrandizes man. No nation or individual so quickly learns self-control, as that without weapon or power. Disproportionate wealth leads to an aristocracy, and this, finally, to a monarchy. This is the story of history over and over again. But Mr. Banker wants an accumulation of cap- ital so that we can manufacture cheaper and send more abroad. Such talk is really very chestnutty. If we send more goods and money abroad than we import, goods and money, we are getting poorer, aren't we? So England thinks, and so every mer- chant knows. During the year 1903 England imported over $1,200,000,000 more value than she exported; yet her imports of gold and silver bul- lion always exceed her exports. She doesn't want any of our economical wisdom. If all we send abroad were paid for in gold, as the modern capitalist perhaps believes, we would import annu- ally about $450,000,000 in gold; the fact is, how- Rockefeller Before a Jury 159 ever, that our imports and exports of the metals generally about offset each other. But, suppose the excess of exports were paid for in gold and silver, what would be the effect? Would such a condition be desirable? What would be the result of such additions to our stock of primary money? It would raise prices so high at home, and cheapen prices and labor so much abroad, that the increased prices at home and the reduced prices abroad would necessarily send foreign goods over here; and if a tariff temporarily interfered with the operation of this law, through the continual inflow of fabulous sums of gold and silver, the prices would become still higher each successive year at home, and still lower abroad, until the difference in prices would surmount the highest monument protection ever yet has reared to the inequality of man. An equality of prices in the respective coun- tries would thereupon be effected by increased im- portations, through industry abroad and its stagna- tion at home. Our statistics prove this. And, even if goods were not imported immediately, can you not see that the high prices, caused by the importation of so much gold, would induce the emigration to our land of men, against whom there i6o Rockefeller Before a Jury is no tariff? These men would then compete with our labor, which, again, would tend to equalize conditions. Is it not about time we legislate for increased consumption instead of increased production? You say that it is the same thing. Well, then, try it! Let the ideal be cheap food, cheap clothes, cheap rent! Let that be primary, not secondary. The consuming power of the American people is be- yond the wildest dreams of the American pro- ducer. Their still unsatisfied consuming power is a hundred-fold that of any 9,000,000 yellow, white or colored, tropical or semi-tropical people. It is a home market. It is close by. It is acquired most cheaply. It requires not the expenditure of one billion of dollars in rusty ironclads for its acquisition; no soldiers, bayonets or guns for its forcible retention. It would be a permanent asset. It would yield the greatest return. It would be the most noble expansion. It would not only reflect glory, but also add strength to our nation. The stars of the American banner would again shed their luster in the van of progress and civil- ization. I favor imperialism of the American consumer. If we can conquer him, we have added Rockefeller Before a Jury l6l an empire of wealth to a republic of sense ; benevo- lent assimilation to a beneficent union. Undoubtedly some of you think with the ma- jority of our people, that the American market is already supplied, that the American people's wants are already satisfied, their purchasing power ex- hausted before the exportation commences. A very narrow vision, gentlemen! The American consumer's capacity — as his literary and psychical appetite, so with his physical wants — is unlim- ited. The wearing apparel of himself and family, the necessities and luxuries of the table, the ele- gance of his fireside, the eloquence of his book- shelf, his longings for travel, the duration of his vacations — whose mind is so bare, whose imagin- ation so sterile, whose thought so fettered not to see that no man — not even the Czar of Russia, with his $100,000,000 annual income — can satisfy every want? Everybody's wants exceed their ability to supply them; they expand and multiply with our means of satisfying them. You need but to read history to find that the average man "con- sumes" ten times as much wool and cotton, twice as much meat, five times as much fruit, three times as many shoes, etc., as he did one hundred years 11 162 Rockefeller Before a Jury ago. Ladies wear silks and satins, where formerly they were contented with calico and homespun. Men who formerly wore patched canvas misfits, nowjiress in the finest, woolen tailor-mades. Where one hat lasted two years, the same man requires two each year. Where men formerly wore dog- skin gloves, they now wear undressed kid. Now we ride where we formerly walked. Saturday half holidays, Sunday excursions and July vacations take the place of three hundred and sixty-five' 14 hour days of annual drudgery. There is no limit to man's capacity to consume except his ability to produce. Kings and queens, without physical exercise, with all their wants anticipated, without hunger, still have appetites costing thousands of dollars monthly to satisfy; the cloth buttons of their servants they would replace with brass, and one palace of pine and silver does not satisfy regal greed and avarice as would a half dozen of rose- wood and gold. Our balance of trade, big as it is, amounts to but about 5'^'' of the total American production. The man who cannot find 5^° more wants at home, is mentally and hopelessly deranged. How shall we go about it? Start with these fundumental tenets: Rockefeller Before a Jury 163 First, That man cannot produce as much as he can consume, rather than vice versa. Second, That, to the extent that he does produce more than he consumes, a natural law is violated; somebody, either the state or individuals, takes it away from him. Third, To consume more than we produce is a better ideal than to produce more than we consume. After you have these fundamental tru- isms thoroughly engrafted on your mind as a basis, you will readily find application for them; the mist of tariffs, reciprocities, navies, and all other diseases of our social body, will disappear like a fog before a northern wind. The signers of our constitution understood this principle. They provided that no tariff, except for revenue, should ever be adopted ; but a cunning and hypocritical aristocracy has found ways and means of skilfully evading this provision, although it involve our administrative and legislative de- partments in the practice of fraud and deceit, and commit our judicial department to the deaf and dumb asylum — for, how else shall we charac- terize the failure of our courts to take ''judicial notice" of such patent, public, notorious, hypoc- ricy? 164 Rockefeller Before a Jury The fathers of our country believed that con- sumption at home, by an American citizen, was worth far more than its enjoyment by a foreigner — that we should enjoy the benefits of the foreign- er's cheap labor and not he take all the advantages of our skill and natural opportunities. They legis- lated for increased consumption; our laws are all for a greater production. Were they not more right than we? Mr. Banker speaks of our large bank deposits. Well, of course, it isn't proper to speak of "we,'* when only one person in ten has a deposit, and when of this small percentage, a single class may have ten accounts. Then, too, this is individual wealth. Let us not forget that large individ- ual wealth may, and generally does, mean poverty of social wealth. Suppose that, instead of our boasting of the possession of billions of capital in private railroads, and in private banks, and in private insurance, and in private telegraphs, and in private express companies, etc., these should all, through wise measures become governmental state institutions. Billions of private capital would disappear, while the institution (the prop- erty these companies really own is not worth lo*^" Rockefeller Before a Jury 165 of their capital stock) would remain. The social wealth is far greater, for example, in Germany than in the United States. Should we nationalize all the ventures which are public there, at least $20,000,000,000 of capital stock would become social, and nowhere would it appear as an asset. As to this splendid capital stock of these quasi- public corporations and large trusts — if a progres- sive income tax were levied tomorrow; or if all taxes would suddenly become direct and should r be levied on land only at its value as now estimated by these stock-holders, and, then, if all indirect taxes should be abolished, what would become of this capital stock? This mythical, fantastic wealth would vanish in a single night, as surely as the morning dawn disappears before a rising sun. Do you not see that capital stock, generally speaking, is merely the present worth of the legalized power of exaction, capitalized at 6^° annual return, for time indefinite? If we have the largest combina- tions in the world it is because they have the most power here, because they are exempt from those restrictions and burdens on them usually imposed in other lands. They pay no income tax, nor rent tax, scarcely any personal tax; their issued bonds generally go scot free, as well as their big capital 1 66 Rockefeller Before a Jury stock. Even the few direct taxes which they do pay are evaded by shifting them upon others. This explains the number and size of our trusts — and this only. Compare the present condition of our country with that of fifty years ago. Then we had the same amount of land, but it had little value. We had oil wells, but they had no value. We had then all the coal, iron, copper, gold, and silver mines we have now, but they had no value. But we have, in this broad expanse of God's most bountiful country, more men and more energy, and that only is wealth. And should our population increase within the next 50 years as it has during the last half of the 19th century, every coal and iron mine — indeed, every patch of land, be it ever so poor — will in- crease enormously in value. Its real value will be no greater, but the wants and necessities of a larger population will grow, and consequently increased opportunity for their exploitation will be appur- tenant to the ownership of these things. The amount of ready labor seeking investment is the measure of the value of the capital stock of land and its products as well as all rights in, under, over, and out of the land. Let all men work only one- Rockefeller Before a Jury 167 half time in our country, or let one-half of our population emigrate, and one-half of our boaster's value would take wings. If Mr. Banker has dem- onstrated anything, it is that individual wealth is social poverty; that wealth, in truth, is power in somebody, and a corresponding obligation of serv- ice in others. It follows as logically as night does day, that extreme riches conditionextremepov- erty; that great consolidations of capital increase the great army of unemployed and paupers — we might almost say that such is its object; for, should labor secure greater power by capital's consolida- tion, the latter would never be effected — that's a& plain as the nose on your face. But, if all this so-called wealth should vanish, our venerable Mr. Banker wishes to know what retired gentlemen would do for investments. That is very simple: They would not retire so early, and when they did, it would not be so indifferently. Would that be a calamity? They would be com- pelled to invest their money in real industry, and watch it more carefully. Now, they are simply waiting for the European pauper to enrich his stock company. With their money invested in real industry, and not in mere power of exaction 1 68 Rockefeller Before a Jury or tribute or monopoly, they would be concerned forever in production and progress. This concern, gentlemen, is life — life for the producer and health for the state; his unconcern is his death and the state's disease. They go hand in hand, are one and inseparable. The conditions of poverty, disease, and inequal- ity will ever give, to the true American, occupation of the noblest kind, until his final resting day. It is only so long as the retired man seeks to hold what he has and to acquire more, that pains and penalties are invited and visited upon him, and wasting death beckons him away to her dark and gloomy corner. (Republican) Mr. Republican — who would have believed, without his telling us, that the Mississippi flows, the Alleghenies rise, and wheat grows solely through his labor; that the sun rises and the clouds weep at his suggestion. To listen to his boasting, one would think he were the Crea- tor of land and sea, and that our constitution ema- nated from his fertile brain — the fact being that he emigrated from Austria only six years ago, and that he became an American citizen by adoption but two months ago. Apparently fortune has dealt Rockefeller Before a Jury 169 kindly with him ; for his plea is the boasting prattle of the possessed, the idle babble of the satiated, who are always happy and contented with the old ; they do not crave the new, they fear it. This kind of bluff is sometimes called optimism; but the satis- fied and contented never have contributed to the progress of the world. Never has the contented mind counted for anything but retrogression — bag- gage on the backs of the discontented and dis- gruntled, on their onward march up the hills of adversity. "Let well enough alone" is the paraly- sis of effort and struggle and progress. They are retrogressionists ; the pessimists, the progressionists. This kind of boasting is also sometimes called patriotism. Our country does possess institutions which are the product of the combined wisdom of all; these I glory in. But as to this material wealth, that is "ours" — it is not mine, nor yours. Why should I exult in that which may serve as my oppression? Vainglorious pride and vociferous patriotism have been the sport of feeble and intox- icated minds in every land and in all ages. Every country glories in something which it finds lacking in others. The bureaucracy of Russia boasts of its strength, of its immunity from popular representa- lyo Rockefeller Before a Jury tion; the Prussian boasts of his military excellence; the Frenchman boasts of the elasticity of his gov- ernment; the Indian of his negation of will, his contentment and quiescence ; theChinese of his gov- ernment through love and intellect; the Japanese of his religious toleration. Each of these boasts is justified in part. But our boasting ceases when we learn that efficiency and merit in one respect is necessarily the predicate of deficiency and demerit in other respects. Patriotism, as love of country, is a virtue, decried by almost every Grecian and Roman philosopher, and by the grand literary lights of modern times. As we get to know men of other climes and coun- tries, as we become familiar with their wants and aspirations, and find that the human heart beats in one accord, the same tune the whole world over, we become cosmopolitan, not metropolitan ; inter- national not national — love and reason then de- throne pride and ignorance. He lauds the American fireside, the number of marriages, and the size of our families; but he does not seek their causes, which when examined, dispel all self-congratulation. They are briefly as follows: ist. About tsvo million more men Rockefeller Before a Jury 171 than women live within our territory, while in Europe the tables are generally turned about; in Germany, for example, there are about one million more women than men. This explains the menial service of woman there, her relatively lower station of life, the large per cent of illegitimacy, and many other social diseases. 2nd. The foreign immi- grant generally arrives single, and marries soon afterwards. 3rd. Land is cheaper, and oppor- tunity for the maintenance of a family far better. We must bear in mind that were the population in the U, S. as dense as that of France, we should have, excluding Alaska, 555,000,000; if as dense as Germany 658,000,000; if as dense as that of Eng- land and Wales 1,452,000,000. Whether our large families should swell our national bosom with pride depends upon very many questions. When we entertain the belief that competition is already too keen, that mental and physical suffering are already too great, we are inclined to believe in small families ; the care of the needy, forsaken, and deserted then excites our sym- pathy and attention. But when we harbor the opinion that little misery prevails, that joy and pleasure await the new-born, then every child is an 172 Rockefeller Before a Jury additional asset to its parent and the state. Nor is it any reply that the parents are wealthy and can afford to care for their children. If there are already too many people on this earth, then each child of opulent parents becomes an additional competitor; except for such birth, the parents could and would render greater assistance to the children of the misguided, the ignorant, the unfortunate. And who will say that the rearing of a family is a virtue from any other standpoint than its effect upon the state, the common welfare? Hegel, the noted German philosopher, says that marriage, for any other purpose than its beneficial effect on the state and mankind, is no better than the grossest concubinage, that it is plain, unadulterated self- indulgence. Assuming, however, that little misery really exists and that "there is always room for one more," must not this equivocal virtue be measured by the value of the child's life to society? Will it leave society better or worse because of its being? As this is answered yea or nay will depend the ethical value of our large families. The so-called "upper crust" in every civilized land contend against large families; the higher the culture, the smaller the family. It is so in England, France, Rockefeller Before a Jury 173 and Germany. In our own country statistics show a gradual decline in the birth-rate not only among the rich and opulent, but even generally. On the other hand, the uncivilized South Afri- can has families of fifteen and twenty. The rich and elite of every land, as a rule, have the smallest encumbrance. They wish to travel, to get rich, to enjoy material things; the "intellectuals" seek satisfaction and contentmxCnt in books. The moral of Malthus is practised not by the poorer class, who are prolific, but by the well-to-do classes, who are systematically sterile. Dr. Billings and Dr. Edson have recently investigated quite thoroughly the diminishing birth-rate, especially in the United States, and its causes. The generalization tenta- tively reached by them is that civilization in gen- eral checks the rate of increase of population, in spite of a diminishing death-rate; that city life is on the whole unfavorable to the natural increase of population, and that what the economists call the "raising of the standard of life" operates in the same way. Does this evidence not efface the glory of our Mr. Republican's loud boast in the Amer- ican family and fireside? Mr. Artist pleads for aristocratic art, and (Artist) 1/4 Rockefeller Before a Jury the creation of a class to give it direction. Kings, indeed, do lend aid to art, but such support is a mere trifle of the enormous salaries they cause to be voted to themselves out of the general treas- ury. The Czar of Russia receives about $12,000,- 000; the Kaiser of Germany about $4,000,000; the King of England over $2,500,000; the emperor of Austria-Hungary about $4,000,000; the King of Italy about $3,000,000; the King of Saxony, a Kingdom of about four million population, re- ceives about $735,000, which is double the aggre- gate salaries of the President of the United States and all the Governors of the States, namely, about $300,000. Even the King of little Greece draws more salary than all our Governors together, to- wit: $260,000. How any people can vote millions to kings, and go into ecstacy over the gracious return of a few thousands by way of bounties in support of theaters and court-flattering artists, is beyond my comprehension. The penalty mankind pays, in this royal support of art, is that its tendency and direction become kingly, aristocratic, and effeminate. That art which cannot appeal to healthy, normal, active-minded men, and receive their unbiased support, should Rockefeller Before a Jury 175 die — it has no value ; it serves no broad, democra- tic purpose, it becomes merely the sport of the idle and immoral. The gentleman's notion of art is very circum- scribed. He talks of art as some mystic, magic, dark lantern process, into the secrets of which only the elite are initiated, together with a con- ceited royalty, who direct its purpose and sphere. Art is merely the transference of feelings of one person to another, by whatever means. Under this definition, everybody is an artist; its execution, its elegance, its value is another thing. It thrives best where it is free and democratic, not aristocratic. It should teach and instruct, not merely please, says Aristotle, Aristocratic, courtly art has never yet been enlisted in elevating mankind. It has never been the inspiration and incitement to a sin- gle noble deed of a single individual. In all the galleries of Eujrope, the highest and the most enduring art is that which has had the sanction of the people, that which is the source of universal, religious inspiration, hope, and contentment. If the gentlemen will read the earnest, studious, and finished thoughts on this art subject by Milton or Ruskin, or better still, of Tolstoi, he will get an- 176 Rockefeller Before a Jury other notion of the significance of this much abused term. Mr. Retailer contends in effect, that the bus- iness ideal should be the greatest possible num- ber of small, independent dealers, and a cor- relative diminished number of large dealers. Such an ideal omits from consideration all that grand saving of social waste, which these large corporations are daily affecting — the moving cause of their organization. The realization of an end through the least effort, is the rule of man and society, the stimulant and cause of all progress. Can we strike that axiom from the list of civilized aims with impunity? He says that the poor are getting poorer, and the rich, richer. But how can that be proven? Rich and poor are relative terms. If all fortunes were multiplied by two, would anybody be richer? And those who are rich, from the standpoint of pros- perity, are they not paupers from the angle of adversity? The Bank of Prosperity pays one kind of interest, the Bank of Adversity another. History is but the continual reiteration of the insolvency and bankruptcy of the one in favor of the creditors of the other; the latter in all cases becomes trustee Rockefeller Before a Jury ijj and liquidator of the waste and extravagance of the former. Prosperity develops the repulsive quali- ties of the human nature; it produces satiety or a fat heart. Only in the cradle of adversity is love, and sympathy, and generosity nursed and reared. The much abused Mr. Landlord — shall we (Landlord) throw him out upon the ash-heap? Is he a boon or a bane to society? If he administers his own estate personally and thereby earns money, some say he is a producer, and therefore a benefit to society. But, by continuing to accumulate, is he not taking the bread from some one else's mouth? Would such added accumulation further the equality of man? On the other hand, some maintain that if he does not administer his own estate, he is a consumer and not a producer, and therefore a wart on society. But, does his refusal to produce not tend more towards equality than continued production? Indeed, is not the lack of the spur of necessity positive evidence of the com- ing degeneracy of himself and his posterity? And is not his estate thereby hastening on to the broad avenues of uniformity and equality? As to the propriety of discouraging excessive speculation and undue property in land, I fully 178 Rockefeller Before a Jury agree with Mr. Democrat. But this is only a par- tial remedy. His scheme would only partially abolish the present evils. It would not destroy inequality, although it might restore juster condi- tions, giving added opportunity to willing labor, which is certainly an ideal worth striving for. Mr. Landlord calls John D. Rockefeller a "self- made man," etc. Nothing could be more inappro- priate. Man can exist only in society; it creates him and his wealth. Not a single silver dollar nor a copper cent has value, except as man may use it in society. All wealth is merely others' opinion or estimation of the value of desired things; in other words, a social evaluation. Rockefeller's individuality and wealth w^re made out of, in, through, and by society, and it should be for so- ciety. If this is an exaggeration of the creative value of society's fiat, it is no greater than Mr. Landlord's exaggeration of individualistic power. Mr. Landlord likewise speaks of Rockefeller's wealth not being made in land speculation, but, through industry. I cannot agree with him. Rock- efeller's wealth depends entirely on title-deeds in land — the implied agreement with the state that it will keep all others off of certain lands, except Rockefeller Before a Jury 179 himself and his appointees. It is all landordism — shoving the other fellow off of the earth except he pay for the privilege. I am inclined to think that Mr. Farmer has (Farmer) struck the key-note of our present industrial activity: the basis of trade is gain, an advan- tage of the buyer over the seller, or vice- versa. The invocation of the golden rule as a business basis is the rearing of a monument to the decease of all commercial life. "Do unto others as you would be done by" would prevent every sale, every bargain, every purchase. The purpose of every sale is to get more value than you give, and of every purchase to give less than you get. Advantage in trade corresponds to pride in social conduct; as the latter is necessary for the life of the individual and society, so the former is a prerequisite to industrial activity. Of course, we often slip up in our appraisement of these advan- tages. For instance, our foreign exports of money and goods exceed our imports by $500,000,000. The difference is accounted for in great part by the fact that our sons go to Europe for an education, and our daughters to learn art, when in truth we have the best of these things at home. All this business i8o Rockefeller Before a Jury must be paid for out of real productive business, and in our country it's the farmer who provides us with the most genuine unadulterated exchange. Without his productive business we would be com- pelled to stay out of these unproductive ones. Even our big exports of manufactures are based on his good-will ; for, as these exports are possible only by the manufacturer charging a high price at home and a low one abroad, we can readily see that Mr. Farmer's prosperity solely conditions our large exports of manufactured goods. Not only are we seeking an advantage in foreign trade, but also at home — each of us is seeking it against each other. It is as Mr. Farmer says: "Each class of people organizes to benefit itself, irrespective of all other classes." If all classes organized and secured the same proportionate raise of prices no one would profit thereby. Let us be thankful that Mr. Farmer is such a good-natured fellow, permitting the organization of everything and everybody against him. But if Mr. Farmer is an angel from one stand- point, from another he is not. He seeks the most advantageous land, near the cities, near creeks and rivers, in valleys, near the railroads, etc., in short. Rockefeller Before a Jury i8i the advantage of good land over poor lar;d. In- deed, the success of the American farmer is based on the favorable comparison of his lands, in quality and quantity, with foreign farms. When our farm- land finally becomes as dear as foreign farms, it will mean good-bye to the exports of agricultural products, and hence of manufactured products, until we are ready to compete on a level, that is, earn sales through merit, rather than through sub- sidy. But if Mr. Farmer is correct in the assumption that all trade is based on selfishness, in which he is ably seconded by Mr. Banker, and opposed by Mr. Socialist, one thing we may all agree upon: Its condition is the state of peace, and its results altru- istic. Were it not for the trade ideal, Europe would constantly be embroiled in turmoil; France and Germany ere this would have been at each other's throat. Were it not for business, the eccen- tricities of Kings, the caprice of Queens, the itch for glory and pride of monarchs would more fre- quently seek the historical forms of expression. The desire to extend domain, to bequeath the title of "Great," and to stand in marble, giant size, in a public garden, with a St. George spear and gigan- 182 Rockefeller Before a Jury tic sword, is not yet entirely dispelled. But a $100,- 000,000 customer in these days is not to be sneezed at; an offense to such a customer becomes a national calamity; his displeasure may be incurred only when other customers with a still fuller purse stand ready to take his place. Governments may ruthlessly, recklessly, blind- ly waste hundreds of millions of dollars for a navy; but the people of no first-class commercial power will ever again consent to the waging of war; wherever they have the forms and opportunity of free expression, perpetual peace is assured. Self- ishness is the purpose of trade, peace its condition, and love its end. The firing of a gun usually car- ries a loss solely to the enemy; not so in the peace- able war of trade. There every gun is aimed at the gunner. Among some reputed statesmen the notion still prevails that billion dollar navies must be main- tained to guarantee peace and tranquillity, the nec- essary conditions of commerce — in other words, to protect its citizens on the highways of international trade as against the grand larceny of other nations. This is really laughable. Where's the pirate? Is it France? Or Germany? Or England? Is it Rockefeller Before a Jury 183 Russia or Japan or China? Have they not each and every 'one, the same commercial interests? And as to the fishing pirates off the coast of Tangiers, would they not frighten at the sight of a modern trading greyhound? Only the entertain- ment of the belief that trade is based on force, or bullying power, will fully explain this ruthless extravagance and waste of money — the mushroom ideal of the last quarter of the 19th century. These navies are but the mob in front of a busy store blocking the passage of real customers. They intimidate foreign trade and investment; they're an eyesore to honest international good-fellowship, a source of irritation, and threat of war. Of course, to perpetuate the serfdom already imposed on weak, subject people they must be maintained. As well, however, might a merchant hire a policeman to keep his best customers away from his front door as to build a navy for the protection of legitimate trade. International trade never will develop to its utmost so long as enterprising merchants must look into the barrel-hole of threatening foreign guns. And so, gentlemen, I have trodden the path that you respectively have taken. I have generally at- tempted to advance a single step beyond you, and 184 Rockefeller Before a Jury to admonish you of the pitfalls ahead. I have tried to show you that there is decay in plenty, and wealth in poverty; that socialism accompanies indi- vidualism; that trade is based on love as well as on selfishness; that all conduct contains within itself the germs of both egoism and altruism; that love lingers behind hate, and that hate is the prompting of love ; that every action is a virtue or vice accord- ingly as it is measured by the affirmation or nega- tion, or other dualities of life: duty or inclination, conventionality or originality, youth or age, egoism or altruism, subjectivity or objectivity, voluntarism or involuntarism, etc. I have tried to show that pessimism from one standpoint is optimism from another; that too much centralization of govern- ment is as objectionable as too much decentraliza- tion; that extreme socialism and extreme individ- ualism are each to be avoided. But exactly where between these two extremes is the Golden Mean, I cannot tell you; nor can any other living soul do so; nor has anyone ever attempted it in definite, concise terms. Even the Golden Mean, instead of being immu- table, is as uncertain, elusive, and elastic as ex- treme idealism. The conflict in philosophic thought between their merits has occupied the best minds Rockefeller Before a Jury 185 of all ages; yet we have progressed no farther than did the Ancients. The Golden Mean, or realism, is understood only in terms of idealism; and the latter, idealism, must be expressed and interpreted in terms of reality — it is intelligible only in cur- rent terms, borrowed from the visible processes of nature, of man, of animal and inorganic forms. Every word in the English language is borrowed from a condition or process of nature. Swedenborg expresses the idea thus: "There is nothing exist- ing in human thought even though relating to the most mysterious trust of faith, but has combined with it a natural and sensuous image." We can- not improve on the senses; we may for a moment attempt to soar in flights of fancy — only for a moment, then to return with increased velocity to mother-nature. She not only conditions our exist- ence, she permeates our language; she is our lan- guage. Our ideals are expressed in her terms. We cannot rise above her in this life. "Our words and thoughts," says Emerson, "are formed by nature's help. Every noun is an image." And Jean Paul affirms the same idea when he says that "every word is a faded metaphor." Shall we wonder that the Chinese worship Nature in human conduct, 1 86 Rockefeller Before a Jury that is, conventionality; that the Hindoos impute life to her; that the Egyptians adored her power, that the Greeks and Romans personified her pro- cesses; and that the Teutons rendered homage to the spirits domiciled within her realm? That even Christians find an impersonal God or spirit- ual power, "in all, through all, above all"? And are not all ideas of justice likewise predi- cated on nature? The Christian systems of judi- cature are based on the Roman law ; and the Roman law, both civil and moral, were based on nature. And if, perchance, someone tells you that the law of some countries in Europe or America is based, or has been reared, on "reason," question him a little further, and see whether he mean anything else than the revealed processes of nature. When- ever in past history Kings or Emperors have as- signed ground for their action, it was nature, natur- al reason, humanity, equity or common sense — all, says Brice, the learned political writer, mean the same thing, and are convertible terms — the law of nature. And nature speaks in as many terms as there are things, and with as many voices as there are persons, with apparent cross purposes and diversifying ends. I Rockefeller Before a Jury 187 The same doubt and uncertainty arises in seeking a standard for the truths in ethics. The common- place, conventional, or natural moulds of thought, current in ancient days, still rule supreme. So far as ethics has attempted to provide a norm for indi- vidual action, equally applicable to all, it has failed ingloriously. No rule has ever been postulated, to the detailed application of which any two ethical writers would agree. The science is upon no higher plane than in the days of Aristotle. None of its truths are more firmly established; if any- thing, they are more questioned. The contest be- tween the moral worth of good ivill on the one hand with the beneficial effects on the other will ever be the juggling feats of strong, acrobatic, ethical minds, but the winner can never be finally and definitely settled upon. In aesthetics the good, the beautiful, and the true can be found neither solely through the senses, nor through reason ; founded solely on the senses, the science, if such it may be denominated, becomes immoral; based solely upon reason, it becomes unnatural, unreal. In religion, where between doubt and dogma shall man take a stand? Both conduce to its de- 1 88 Rockefeller Before a Jury velopment and vigor; the lack of either emascu- lates its influence and hastens its end. Some seek escape by taking a middle course, they walk with a little dogma in one hand and a little doubt in the other. They cling to that mightily prized Roman, middle-of-the-road virtue, namely, toleration, as the only life-raft in the shipwreck of dogma on the sea of doubt. Toleration enjoyed in Roman ethics and religion, approximately, the conception which our word "love" occupies in ours ; by it they meant, more particularly, breadth of view and generosity of mind, which in practice we can read- ily see might operate to effect the same conduct as our "love." However, as usual, virtues pos- sessed in an inordinate degree, lose their color and brilliancy. As too much coal, or too little, puts out the fire, so too much or too little toleration creates doubt and despair in all fields of inquiry. The contention, for example, that all religions are good, or equal each other in value, depreciates all; they lose their vital force, their exclusiveness, their superiority, their life. The X-Ray of ignorance is more intense and powerful than the manifold radiations of wisdom. Supreme toleration smoth- ers all incentive to exemplary conduct. Dogma in Rockefeller Before a Jury 189 religion, and absoluteness in morals, are neces- sary to give life and vitality to them. It was undoubtedly this knowledge, by the Italian states- men and clergy of the middle ages, of the former decomposition of Grecian and Roman religions, morals, and philosophy through Sophistic disbe- lief in an absolute norm or rule of action which inspired the resolute purpose of crushing in the bud every encroachment on ecclesiastical author- ity and every attempt at private interpretation of religious doctrines. This explains, too, undoubt- edly, the fury of the Spanish inquisition, the vir- tue of frequent political murders in more recent times, and the outward support of all Kings and Queens today, in all monarchical countries, of the cause of religion. They believe that whatever affects religion, affects morals; and that whatever affects morals, affects the social contract; and that whatever affects that, afifects the public welfare, and endangers their position and power. Toleration, or enlightenment, therefore is a dubious virtue, and offers us no escape in the con- flict between doubt and dogma. It elevates us no higher than the Immutable Mean — conventional- ism of the present, or the sanctification of the past, or naturalism — sublimates the Chinese. The ideal- 190 Rockefeller Before a Jury ism of the Occidentals fructifies morality no more than the naturalism of the Oriental, because as already explained they are expressed in terms of each other. So, it seems, in these recited fields of learning — universal judgments being objectionable, and absol- ute truth unattainable — that truth can only be individualistic and relative. None of us bears a letter of authority from Him, certifying to our divine nature, or to the infallibility of our reason, or to the accurateness of our vision. Either no person on this earth is divine, or, all are; conse- quently, no one possesses the truth, or all do. But as mankind is, and forever must remain, vain and conceited, it is better to adopt the latter alternative. Accordingly, we must say that as many angles of truth exist as there are individuals. As to the profoundness of human knowledge we can only predicate this: as we attempt to probe into nature's mysteries, we get lost in the gloom. The deeper we go, the narrower we get; the wider we dig, the shallower the hole. How deep our probe and wide our scope should be, is beyond the capac- ity of man to decide. With every prick under the surface, new worlds of complexities rush forth ; Rockefeller Before a Jury 191 new relationships rush hither and thither, inter- lacing, intertwining, counteracting, until the mind is forced to cease its useless inquiry, exhausted from utter bewilderment and sheer desperation. In the science of medicine, for example, special- ists are increasing annually in numbers; they seek insular, unrelated truth; and, consequently, the more expert they become in their special field, the less efficient are they as general advisers. Hence we can readily conceive their knowledge extended to the point of barrenness and impotency. In the simplest matters of the greatest importance and most general interest the divergence of opinion is becoming wider and wider. For example, the wildest disagreement prevails as to whether alco- hol in one form or another be injurious ; or whether water should be drunk with, or before, or after meals; or whether our dinner should be at 12 or 6 o'clock; or whether food taken before retirement conduce to sleep; or whether cold baths be more efficacious than hot ones; or whether inclination or reason be the best guide to health; or whether cotton or woolen underwear conduce best to com- fort and longevity. In the industrial life we notice the same man- 192 Rockefeller Before a Jury ifestations: men become specialized to the point of utter incapacity for any other labor. The man who makes part of an engine very often does not know its purpose and could not construct the whole. Likewise, in the science of political economy, the author of a complete treatise on the subject must be a ver\^ shallow man. Every single branch in this science has been discussed at such length, and with so muqh learning that the mastery of the writings and treatises in a single branch would require a life-time. Indeed, it is questionable whether we have lifted our knowledge of political economy to the dignity of a science. Not a single axiom is established and generally accepted. The theory of rent, the theory of value, the theory of wages, of price, of wealth, of money, of capital are becoming more and more debatable and uncertain with the increase in the number of students. Such simple questions as : Is thrift commendable? Or, should we explain child labor by reason of added opportunity, or because of increased necessity? are and always have been unsatisfactorily and equiv- ocally answered. Only as \Nt eliminate past learning, and mon- umentalize our own, is there room for our wisdom. Rockefeller Before a Jury 193 The deeper we pry into the entrails of nature the more mysterious are the results; because, the more we follow her in her processes the less do we observe her relativity. The more we learn by cold objec- tivity, the less w^e must know of the warm foun- tain i,pring of life, or subjectivity. All of the humanistic sciences treat men as things, coldly, unfeelingly, objectively. Perhaps it is necessary to do so in order to acquire general deductions; but nevertheless just therein is the parasite eating at the vitals of every law — it renders these sciences empty, impotent, stultifying. So Emerson says: "Science was false by being unpoetical. It as- sumed to explain a reptile or a mollusc, and iso- lated it — which is hunting for life in graveyards. Reptile or mollusc or man or angel only exists in system, in relition." Furthermore, as sciences depend on the use of our senses for their inductions there never can be much advancement because added thought will always diversify opinion. Old, established, and sanctified laws in every physical science are daily suffering changes and deterioration; the wear and tear of the old is as rapid as the growth of the new. More truths are rediscovered and likewise more 13 194 Rockefeller Before a Jury exceptions. Sciences, philosophies, and theologies come and go, if our horizon be but wide enough and our telescope big enough. "The Patent Office Commission," says Emerson, "knows that all ma- chines in use have been invented over and over; that the mariner's compass, the boat, the pendu- lum, glass, movable types, the railway, power loom, etc., have been many times found and lost from Egypt, China and Pompeii down; and if we have arts which Rome wanted, so had Rome arts which we have lost." I look at another side of this question: How may we pass judgment upon the question of the retirement of Rockefeller, unless we can correctly judge of the value of his accumulation? And how can we properly estimate that, unless we know to what purpose his wealth may be devoted during the remainder of his life, or even after his death? Suppose, for example, that he should use his wealth hereafter in life, or by will after his decease, for the socialization of the world, as he has spent his energies for its individualization. Must that not alter our estimate? If any doubt arises as to the use he may make of his wealth in the future, must that not afifect our attitude toward this question? A Rockefeller Before a Jury 195 In other words, the question cannot be decided until his death or perhaps after. But I am sworn to honestly and truly try the defendant. I confess, this confusing uncertainty of knowledge is not very conducive to a firm deci- sion. The French have a saying, "Tout compren- dre, est tout pardoner." And yet I must take a positive stand. I must vote. Yes or No. I still have a few moments before the taking of the vote, during which I shall attempt to arrive at a con- clusion. "It is not the truth of which any one is, or assumes himself to be possessed, that makes the worth of a man, but the upright endeavor he has made to arrive at truth ; for not by the possession, but by the inves- tigation, of truth are the powers expanded, wherein alone is ever growing perfection." — Lessing. The President: — I believe all have now had the floor; are there any further remarks? *'We live more by example than reason." — Latin Proverb. A MEMBER Mr. Chairman : — I wish, in but a few words, to supplement the learned remarks of the able gentleman w^ho has just finished. Indeed, I may say that sincerity, earnest- ness, and ability have characterized the remarks of each of you, not excepting Mr. Tramp. And I realize that each of 3^ou expresses part of the truth. It is only with some of the ideas of Mr. Philoso- pher that I now wish to find fault. Not that he has not digested this subject wisely and fundamen- tally, but, like all philosophers, when he cannot find one efficient cause, he condemns all. He has be- Rockefeller Before a Jury 197 come so broad that he fails to see the point. He affirms both the affirmative and the negative of every proposition. Of what value can such learn- ing be, however well grounded, however deep? Toleration begets indifference; wisdom breeds hes- itation. Adopting his profound generalizing man- ner, I might say that too much study causes a nar- rowness of vision, a sterilization of mind, an effem- ination of body, and a paralysis of action. He can- not see the trees for woods. From his lofty height he sees not a house or a street, but a village; but in this village are bleeding hearts and wounded souls, the victims of the more selfish, the vain, the proud, the strong, the indifferent. "The doctrine of equality," he says, "is bosh." "It never can be, it never was, it never will be, it never should be — equality is death," etc., he says. Mr. Philosopher is right; it never was, can, or will be; man's pride, shallowness, ignorance, ego- ism, selfishness, will take care of that. These self- ish qualities need not, however, be idealized. They never were, will be or should be virtues. They will forever thrive plentifully, in spite of all the preaching and practicing of equality. With this fundamental truth man may commence oper- 198 Rockefeller Before a Jury ations. Their continuance is the basis of all ideal- ism — yes, it is the selfish qualities which condition and necessitate the ideal of humility and toleration and love. They do not destroy the ideal, they create it. Without selfishness there would be no unselfishness; without immorality, no morality. Every virtue would fly from its orbit did not the vices give it centrifugal and centripetal force. So I advocate the equality of man, not because it will ever be realized, but in order that this ever- lasting blessing may ripen into a sweeter and more nutritious fruit — that the rose may not wither in the bud for want of rain and sunshine. And to secure the equality of man I advocate the equality of opportunity — conditions that will the more freely enable him to work out his own destiny, unhampered and unincumbered by inherited cus- tom, debt or institution. No privilege of individ- ual or corporation, state or nation, should be his burden; no debt of ancestry should be his obliga- tion. No institution of monopoly, secret or pub- lic, partial or complete, local or national, should fasten its tenacles in the womb of his birth. The equality of man is, indeed, a political slogan; yet it is expressed in the Golden Rule, which appears in I Rockefeller Before a Jury 199 every theology — the basic chord of all religious harmony. It must forever be the key-note of every system of ethics; otherwise, the science is subver- sive of its very purpose. It requires no profound wisdom to assert that conflict will ever reign concerning the merits of individualism and collectivism, anarchy and social- ism, democracy and imperialism, love and hate, egoism and altruism. Indeed, both egotistical and sympathetic impulses permeate every act, individ- ualistic or social, political or economic, religious or secular. No exclusively selfish or unselfish act or life ever has existed. (Even Jesus did not practice love when he chased the money-lenders out of the temple. The practice of pure love would have condoned the ofifense. Likewise did he forget him- self in his denunciation of the Pharisees, the most popular sect of the day, when he characterized them as hypocrites and whited sepulchres and denounced them as the offspring of vipers and ser- pents, less qualified for admission to heaven than publicans and harlots. In his calmer moments Jesus would not have imputed to an all-loving Father the offense of reprehensible creation; nor would he have forgotten his own admonition : 200 Rockefeller Before a Jury "Judge not, that ye be not judged." For Christ knew that the Pharisees were God's creatures and served some good purpose. Christianity never would have been evolved nor have seen the light of day but for these same Pharisees.) Now the one set of feelings predominate; now the other; the norm of excellent conduct will ever sway backward and forward with the lapse of time. But, shall we therefore fold our hands and submit to the irony of fate? These vacillations of the mental process are but the gymnastic feats of physical life; they import life, change. In the waiting-room of uncer- tainty and inactivity is never given the signal for the departure of the train of progress. The scin- tillation of mind is but the barometer indicating our activity, endeavor, strife. No panacea exists, yet we and each of us are instrumental in the creation of conditions of health or disease in all spheres of human conduct. Man is mortal. His ideals will never be fully realized. But yet our sympathies, our labors, our hearts, our minds are always enlisted either in fur- thering the equality, nobility, and divinity of man, or in broadening the gulf of inequality. Their relationship is never stationary. The conditions of Rockefeller Before a Jury 201 inequality may be ameliorated; or they may be intensified and fortified. The only question here is, what position shall we assume? Which class shall we foster? In what direction shall we throw our influence? Or, shall we be a reed to be blown by the wind? Accordingly as this underlying motive impels us in the one direction or the other, would I evaluate the arguments here presented. The doctrine of universal brotherhood, whether taught in religion or art, in ethics or politics, whether presented by a socialist or anarchist, by Mr. Tramp or Mr. Banker, is always one and the same universal pole-star, guiding the destinies of all mankind all over the world. And whether the resultant efifect of our conduct, or the benevolence of our inclinations, be the highest good, is irrele- vant and immaterial. In tracing the fountain-head of all these gushing and ever-flowing springs of virtuous action we find that all emanate from the same source, they flow in the same direction, and they all finally become merged in the grandest of Mississippis — Loving Life — they, each and all, land us on the boundless shores of rest, peace, and contentment. Accordingly, our Mr. Landlord, in demanding 202 Rockefeller Before a Jury a cessation of vice, as a condition precedent to the surrender of his privilege, is a thorn in the flesh of progress. Progress is not furthered by delay and procrastination, nor by the vain hope of our neigh- bor's timely virtue; but through our example, by our showing the way. No nation exists which would not break the ranks of her army, and dis- mantle her ironclads, if all others had previously adopted such policy. Appraisers of merchandise and snifflers of trunks at seaports, would lose their jobs in America, if all Europe had open ports. No man would practice vice, if all others were vir- tuous. Men will never live perpetually, and yet the science of medicine is multiplying its devotees. The physical body will never be all-powerful, and yet we practice physical culture. Intemperance has reigned in all ages, in every land, and among all people; but just there, among them, we also find the apotheosis of temperance. Mr. Philosopher and Mr. Landlord are right; but they need advance but one more step— only one — toward the humble and oppressed, toward the shackled and fettered, the unfree and unborn. That IS the fundamental virtue, the measure of all others. They need but give battle to the hydra- Rockefeller Before a Jury 203 headed monster, inequality, whenever and where- ever he shows his fangs; they will find him in all walks of life, secular and religious, public and pri- vate, in mansion and in hovel ; they will find him every hour of the day and every day of the week and every week of the year from now until eternity. Is Rockefeller giving him battle? Or is he feed- ing him? Accordingly as you answer this ques- tion — and it seems to me the answer is perfectly plain — must you vote here in this matter. "E Pluribus Unum." 204 Rockefeller Before a Jury Thereupon the jury commenced balloting. The result of the first ballet was 7^ nays, 4^ yeas. After taking a hundred and thirty-five ballots, the vote was still 7^ nays, 4I/2 yeas, which result con- tinued until the two hundredth ballot. In discus- sing the proceedings further, the fact developed that Mr. Philosopher was casting a half vote both affirmatively and negatively, his explanation being merely that both sides were right. Whereupon, on motion, the jury decided to return and report their disagreement to the court, which accordingly was done. The jury thereupon was discharged, and a new jury immediately impanelled and sworn. A record of their proceedings will be found on another page. INDEX Abnegation, 136, 147. Art, its former state, 69 ; in Germany, 70 ; its support by Royalty. 83 ; in Europe, 174 ; its meaning, 175 ; democratic, 84, 175. Artist's Speech, 69. Balance of Trade, 158. Banker's Speech, 13. Benefactions, 20. Bounties for farmers, 129. Capital Stock of trusts, 75. Captains of industry, princes of peace, 22 ; our emperors, 88. Centralization of government, 87, 157. Charters, former treatment of, 39. Christianity, 136 ; its proper in- terpretation, 137, 147. Civilization, its artificiality, 33 ; its progress, 51, 85 ; an indict- ment against, 92 ; Its mean- ing, 108. Competition, the necessity of, 79, 89 ; its consequences, 108 ; a virtue and a vice, 152. Concentration, our age is, 18. Confidence, the basis of busi- ness, 15. , Constitution, our, 63. Consumption, better than pro- duction, 25, 104, 160. Country, our, 59 ; intellectually, 59 ; politically, 60 ; socially, 6 1 ; industrially, 63 ; its fu- ture, 64 ; what is, 82. Crime increasing, 95. D Democrat's Speech. 72. Deposits, bank, in U. S.. 17. E Economies, their meaning, 129. Education, our, its sterility, 33 ; our high standard, 59 ; in Eng- land, 48. Employers, number of, decreas- ing, 40, 93. Employers, number of, increas- ing 93. Employment, of women, 96 ; of infants, 97. Endowments, 20. Equality, the laborer's battle, 49; formerly taught, 154; not desirable, 154; the parent vir- tue, 197. Evolution of the corporation, 39. Exports, 123, 128. Exports and imports, 124, 158, 179. F Families, large, a virtue, 171. Farms, size of, increasing, 42 ; abandoned, 125. Farmer's condition, 126. Farmer's Speech, 120. Farming, our main industry, 128. Freedom, political, 102 ; econ- omic, 103. G Golden Mean, 184. H Haste to get rich, murder, 36. Healthy thought, Its condition, 57. Ideal, American, 13; Rockefel- ler's, 13. Immigration, value of, 19, 62. Imporialism, 105, 160. Individualism, 149. Inequality, an ideal, 18. Infant employment, 97. 206 Index K Knowledge, its limits, 190 ; its barrenness, 33. Labor, its former condition, 45; in England, 46; in France, 47 ; in Germany, 48 ; its un- employment, 93. Labor organizations, their ben- efits, 52. Labor unions, trusts, 53 ; based on selfishness, 130. Laborer's Speech, 45. Landlord's Speech, 113. Land monopoly, its effect, 94, 102, 114; its abolishment, 118. Land owners, number of, in Eng- land, 92 ; in Scotland, 92 ; in Germany, 92 ; in U. S., 94. Land tenure, our, the cause of trusts, 76. Law makes wealth, 79, 102. Life, present, its cheapness, 132 ; future, 148. Love, 135 ; in various theologies, 139 ; in Judaism, 143. M Market, home, 122, 160. Marriage in U. S., 170 ; its ties looser, 95. Middle class, disappearing, 43, 96. Millionaires make tramps, 28. Minister's Speech, 121. N Navies, 105, 182. O Optimi.sm is decay, 81, 169. Organizations, effect of, 122. Panics. 66, 128. Patriotism, 170. Perpetuity of land, titles, the real basis of trusts, 77. Pessimism is ideal, 81, 169. Philosopher's Speech, 145. Poverty, in England, 92 ; in U. S., 93. Prosperity, the farmer's, 125 ; its cause, 127 ; its effect, 176. R Religion, what is, 137. Republican's Speech, 58. Retailer's Speech, 36. Retirement, consequences of, 21. Riches, their meaning, 126. Rockefeller, his social services, 22 ; his benefactions, 23 ; his fortune, others poverty, 36 ; his services as a trust organ- izer, 55 ; his services as an art supporter, 70 ; a self-made man, 178. S Slavery, 100. Socialism, its aspirations, 90, 109 ; its meaning, 149 ; in Athens, 150. Speech of Banker, 13. Speech of Tramp, 24. Speech of Laborer, 46. Speech of Republican, 58. Speech of Artist, 69. Speech of Democrat, 72. Speech of Socialist, 90. Speech of Landlord, 113. Speech of Farmer, 120. Speech of Minister, 131. Speech of Philosopher, 144. Statute of Laborers, 46. Tariffs, a limitation of, 75. Toleration, 189. Thrift, a vice, 25 ; 148. Torture formerly practiced, 48. Trade, based on selfishness, 122, 179 ; based on love, 106. Tramp's Speech, 24 ; his oppor- tunities, 31. Trusts, bigness of American, 16, 41 ; missions of mercy, 16 ; il- legality of, 38; their iniquity, 54 ; their benefits, 66 ; their injury, 73 ; different kinds of, 74 ; their capital stock, 75 ; how to tax them, 76; secret of their power, 77 ; eliminate panics, 66. U Unemployment, 93. W Wealth, is power, 14 ; its ephe- meral aspect, 76 ; is merely law, 79 ; in U. S., 17 ; what is, lOe, 166 ; private vs. social, 76, 164. Wheat crop, 123. Woman in industrial life, 96. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles Thl, book 1, DUE on .he lasl da.. ..amped below. •JAN 8 1985 gtCO to-'"" SIPD IDURl 3 1158 00305 4052 T" 035 200 3