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Rockefeller incorporated the Standard Oil Company in 1870. He was extremely successful and eventually became the richest man in the world.
Rockefeller was always generous: "In his teens, he was regularly donating money from his first job to his Sunday school and other activities of his Baptist Church."
(Rockefeller Foundation)
People hypothesize that Rockefeller started donating more than he had in the past for two reasons. Ironically, the first reason was that he was inspired by Carnegie.
"As [Rockefeller's] personal wealth grew, so did his generosity. Impressed by an 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller wrote to the philanthropist, “The time will come when men of wealth will more generally be willing to use it for the good of others.” It was that year that Rockefeller began his own philanthropic work in earnest, making the first of what would become $35 million in gifts, over a period of two decades, to found the University of Chicago."
(Rockefeller Foundation)
"I believe the power to make money is a gift of God. . . . I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience."
(American History ABC-Clio) -John D. Rockefeller (Interview, 1905)
What others were throwing away, Rockefeller was turning into profit. All because he had faith in God's benevolence and wisdom. But that was the story of Rockefeller's life. He became America's first billionaire largely by practicing the virtues he learned in church: thrift, hard work, honesty and benevolence.
(Industrialist John D. Rockefeller- Inventors Business Daily)
Others say that it was not until Anti-Trust laws brought Rockefeller to trials and ultimately to the Supreme Court that he started to give his money away more freely. There is no doubt that Rockefeller did a great deal of philanthropic work in his day, but his motivations are what drove a lot of people to be very suspicious of his actions.
"As the 19th century drew to a close, competitors such as the Pure Oil Company and the Gulf Oil Company gained ground on Standard Oil, particularly in the new gasoline market for automobiles.The public also pushed for action against Standard Oil, prompting the U.S. Supreme Court to dissolve Standard Oil's holding company arrangement in 1911 as a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, an act Congress had passed specifically to curtail business practices like those employed by the Standard Oil Trust. After the Supreme Court ruling, the company was broken into about 70 separate corporations. Rockefeller and his colleagues, however, had already become some of the richest men in America by that time."
(American History, Jim Marshall ABC-CLIO)
"That the combination during the period named had obtained a complete mastery over the oil industry, controlling 90 percent of the business of producing, shipping, refining and selling petroleum and its products, and thus was able to fix the price of crude and refined petroleum and to restrain and monopolize all interstate commerce in those products."
(Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States 221 U.S. 1 1911)
Rockefeller was always generous: "In his teens, he was regularly donating money from his first job to his Sunday school and other activities of his Baptist Church."
(Rockefeller Foundation)
People hypothesize that Rockefeller started donating more than he had in the past for two reasons. Ironically, the first reason was that he was inspired by Carnegie.
"As [Rockefeller's] personal wealth grew, so did his generosity. Impressed by an 1889 essay by Andrew Carnegie, Rockefeller wrote to the philanthropist, “The time will come when men of wealth will more generally be willing to use it for the good of others.” It was that year that Rockefeller began his own philanthropic work in earnest, making the first of what would become $35 million in gifts, over a period of two decades, to found the University of Chicago."
(Rockefeller Foundation)
"I believe the power to make money is a gift of God. . . . I believe it is my duty to make money and still more money and to use the money I make for the good of my fellow man according to the dictates of my conscience."
(American History ABC-Clio) -John D. Rockefeller (Interview, 1905)
What others were throwing away, Rockefeller was turning into profit. All because he had faith in God's benevolence and wisdom. But that was the story of Rockefeller's life. He became America's first billionaire largely by practicing the virtues he learned in church: thrift, hard work, honesty and benevolence.
(Industrialist John D. Rockefeller- Inventors Business Daily)
Others say that it was not until Anti-Trust laws brought Rockefeller to trials and ultimately to the Supreme Court that he started to give his money away more freely. There is no doubt that Rockefeller did a great deal of philanthropic work in his day, but his motivations are what drove a lot of people to be very suspicious of his actions.
"As the 19th century drew to a close, competitors such as the Pure Oil Company and the Gulf Oil Company gained ground on Standard Oil, particularly in the new gasoline market for automobiles.The public also pushed for action against Standard Oil, prompting the U.S. Supreme Court to dissolve Standard Oil's holding company arrangement in 1911 as a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, an act Congress had passed specifically to curtail business practices like those employed by the Standard Oil Trust. After the Supreme Court ruling, the company was broken into about 70 separate corporations. Rockefeller and his colleagues, however, had already become some of the richest men in America by that time."
(American History, Jim Marshall ABC-CLIO)
"That the combination during the period named had obtained a complete mastery over the oil industry, controlling 90 percent of the business of producing, shipping, refining and selling petroleum and its products, and thus was able to fix the price of crude and refined petroleum and to restrain and monopolize all interstate commerce in those products."
(Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States 221 U.S. 1 1911)