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The Commoner.
VOLTJME 7, NUMBER U
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A Movement Against the Rockefeller Subsidy
A Washington dispatch printed in the New
York Press follows: "Attempts by Rockefeller to
subsidize niitl bribe American colleges, churclicw
and even leaders In the missionary Held with his
'tainted' money are to be resisted stubbornly. An
extensive movement will be undertaken to awak?n
the consciences ol all trustees against accepting
gifts from the Standard Oil king. Thomas W.
Phillips of Pennsylvania, himself a muiti-milllo'i-aire,
who made his money In honest Industry and
Investment, will take the lead in this work. Ho
Intends to make an earnest appeal In the hope that
right-minded people will 'draw the line.' Mr.
Phillips has been for years an independent od
operator. He could write a book of what he knows
about the Rockefeller ways and means. M;
Phillips was a member of congress and is the
author of the act creating the United States indus
trial commission and the law creating the bureau
of corporations in the department of commerce
and labor. He Is a college trustee, has been a
conspicuous figure in educational, religious and
philanthropic work, and feels keenly what he des
ignates as the 'American disgrace' the acceptance
recently of Rockefeller's gift of $32,000,000 for ed
ucational purposes. Mr. Phillips also is deeply
Interested in the record of the bureau of corpora
tions, and singularly this bureau's work has a vital
bearing on the 'tainted money' discussion, for, as
Mr. Phillips points out, that bureau has done much
to collect the ovldenee showing the utter lawless
ness of the Standard Oil trust Mr. Phillips has
been in Washington gathering the latest Informa
tion concerning the government's cases against
Standard Oil, and he speaks with posltlveuess
against the evil of permitting the streams of edu
cation and religion to be poisoned by Rockefeller
money. He said to the Press correspondent:
"It is speciously stated that there are no
'tainted dollars;' that all dollars arc alike, and
that institutions of benevolence are built by con
tributions from all persons without regard to the
source from which they come. It is also asserted
In apology for the acceptance of 'tainted dollars'
that they have been contributed for religious and
missionary purposes. But It must be borne in
mind that no benevolent or religious society should
solicit or receive them as such.
"General Booth of the Salvation Army, on his
arrival In New York the other day, when asked
the question in regard to taking 'tainted money,'
Is reported as saying that he 'would take tainted
money from John D. Rockefeller or anybody else.'
'I would take anything and wash It In the tears
of the widows and orphans.'
"But it must be remembered that tainted
money already lias been bathed in the tears of
widows and orphans. Can he bathe It again la
the same Count? It should be restored to those
whoso tears It caused to How, and It cannot bo
washed In the tears of others. Such men as Booth
should not encourage the practices of the men
whoso methods create the very poverty and dis
tress he aims to cure. The general's error has
been very forcibly staled by the New York Press,
when It says:
" 'We wish to say to General Booth, In all sym
pathy for the ,vork his organization is doing, that
he could not fall into a worse error than he does
by publicly soliciting subscriptions from Air.
Rockefeller. If he should get a few millions in this
way, he would lose other millions by the disgust
which will be felt throughout litis country with
an organization which goes Into partnership with
one of the biggest criminals of the age.'
"Wo have an account of the gift of the wid
ow's mite. No doubt much money was received
in the Temple without inquiring in regard to the
sources from which It came. But when Judas
brought his thirty pieces of silver, saying, 'I have
betrayed the Innocent blood,' it was at once 're
jected as. the price of blood,' and appropriated for
the purpose of buying a 'potters' Held' so that
money' donated for a benevolent or religious pur
pose which has been obtained In an illegal way,
and known to be such, should not bo received for
the promotion of any moral or religious object.
That already received should be returned, or
might be used to bury the dead, but not to corrupt
the living.
"Any church or moral institution receiving
money obtained in a criminal or Immoral way,
tind knowing the fact, must necessarily become
partrccps crlmlnls, and will naturally bo consid
ered as porsons receiving stolon goods. Those who
Icnowlngly receive and appropriate such money
must in a measure Indorse the criminal or illegal
practices by which It was obtained. It must con
taminate both the Immediate and ultimate recip
ients with some of the evil of the giver .and per
petuate the same in coming time. CoininoiK offend
ers give, claiming no credit, but the great monop
olist expects that they who receive the gift shall
be silent as to his methods and give eulogy to his
questionable acts. The Apostle said to Sirnon the
Sorcerer, 'Thy money perish with thee because
thou hast thought that the gift of God may be
purchased with money.'
"The history cf the Standard Oil company as
shown by Hudson, Lloyd, Tarbell and others and
as exhibited in the court proceedings and Investi
gations of the various state, legislative and con
gressional committees as well as in the investiga
tions conducted by the United States industrial
commission, the interstate commerce commission
and the bureau of corporations, and their findings,
constitute the darkest page of commercial crime
thus far written in the history of this country or
of the world. Their offenses have become so great
that more than 0,000 indictments, of which the ag
gregate fines would amount to $150,000,000, al
ready have been found against them in the courts
of the country. The monstrous magnitude of their
total offenses in the whole nation has cast a dark
shadow of crime across the continent. These thou
sands of indictments already found against the
Standard Oil Trust are based only on transpor
tation offenses nnd do not include Oie much
greater and more numerous wrongs committed
against the producers in the oil industry, to say
nothing of the limitless extortion practiced on the
consumers by the destruction of competition.
"The trust has sought to inculcate in the public
mind the false idea that it has reduced the price
of oil to the consumer, when the truth is the op
posite; for all the great discoveries which cheap
ened oil were made by the competitors of the trust
"All colleges or churches that contemplate so
liciting or receiving contributions from Rockefeller
or his $43,000,000 education fund should obfaln
from the United States department of justice, and
read carefully, the charge made by direction of
the United States attorney general in November,
1900, and now pending, against John D. Rocke
feller and the Standard Oil company in the United
States court for the eastern district of Missouri, in
which it is set fortli 'that said Rockefeller and his
associates, in or about the year 1870, and at ill
times since, have been engaged in a conspiracy
to restrain and monopolize trade and commerce
In petroleum,' nnd 'that said trust did crush out
and eliminate competition by rebates and secret
preferential rates.'
"The government further charges that the
Standard Oil Trust has declared and paid cash
dividends amounting to more than .$500,000,000,
and that their profits in each and every year and
in 'the aggregate greatly exceeded in amount the
said dividends.'
"In addition to this their accumulated property
and plants amount to many hundred millions of
dollars. After using nearly 300 pages of type to
recite 'the combinations and conspiracies against
the laws and in derogation of the common rights
of all the people of the United States' committed
by John D. Rockefeller and his associates, the
United States attorney says that to set forth ill
of the places and instances 'would render this bill
unduly volunmious.'
"President Gates of the General Education
Board is quoted as saying that 'the board aims to
be better acquainted with every college in the
United States than is any member of its own
board of trustees.' An eminent lawyer speaking
in favor of the jury system, instead of one judge,
once said: 'It takes a very smart man to know
more than twelve men. But here Is a single board
appointed by Rockefeller that claims to know more
of every college in the United States than any
member of its own board. Does this imply tint
the colleges will have to come to this board for
knowledge of what they are to teach as well as
for money supply?
"In a strong editorial under the title 'Rocke
feller Bribery,' the New York Press says: 'An
other big gift issaid to be forthcoming from John
D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller's millions
are brilTes offered to public opinion, and this is the
most insidious form o'f bribery. We say with
out qualification, and shall din it into the public's
ears until the evil is appreciated, that every man
who makes himself a party to the bribery of pub
lic opinion by John D. Rockefeller is an enemy to
the republic and deserves the detestation of his
follows.'
"Can any college ?afford to take orders or money
from such a source? A monopoly or trust is the
segregating for the benefit of one or a few of that
which was formerly the common right of all The
fundamental principles of our government forbid
the granting of such privileges; yet this power has
been usurped and used to practice extortion on
the whole people.
"Take, for instance, the industry in which the
Standard Oil company accumulated its vast wealth,
sometimes depressing the price of oil and buying
large producing properties, then advancing the
price and assessing the world to pay for the same.
Thus they have made the people who are wholly
dependent on the oil industry serfs. Their profits
reaped from this serfdom have been governed
only by their greed, and their accumulation of
wealth and enormous dividends have startled the
world.
"If educational institutions and benevolent
and Christian organizations solicit or receive
tainted dollars which are contributed from this
source, they are mistaken; such institutions must
remember that the people will live and the Stand
ard Oil company will die. Right will prevail.
Furthermore, the informed will not bequeath
money to nor educate their children in schools
where moral culture may be handicapped by such
gifts.
"Should a foreign missionary society solicit or
be sustained by such funds as John D. Rockefeller
recently contributed to the Congregational Mis
sionary society to civilize, moralize and Christian
ize pagan nations, if such money has been accum
ulated by methods in direct violation of the funda
mental principles of Christian morality which mis
sions are intended to propagate? Can the Gospel
propagated by illicit money be effective to purify
the present life and give hope of life beyond?
"The contributions of men like Rockefeller are
but a pittance of the great mass of gifts to tho
cause of religion and education. The people are
strongly opposed tc the evil methods by which in
recent times many of the large fortunes have been
built up; and they are rapidly learning not to give
their honest dollars to supplement the dollars which
they feel have been illicitly obtained. Consequent
ly these large contributions are drying up the very
.sources of benevolence; for it is from these mil
lions of small gifts from the hands of honest men
and women that the great works of religious and
educational endeavor are sustained. It is clear
that this illicit money is injuring instead of aid
ing the causes to which it is given.
"Institutiongrieceiving the funds of the monop
olists naturally enter into a species of bargain by
which they in a measure bind themselves to keep
silence as to the offenses of the giver. This has
already been demonstrated in some institutions to
which they have given large donations. Educa
tional and religious organizations Instead of sanc
tioning and sharing in wealth accumulated by op
pression and injustice should use all the weight
of their influence to condemn and abolish these
commercial and industrial wrongs and stand for
the fullest economic, commercial and religious lib
erty for the people.
"We should be warned by the fate of past civ
ilizations which have perished from the earth when
they permitted the destruction of justice, liberty
and equality. This result was largely brought
about by the abuses arising from the inordinate
and unjust accumulation of wealth concentrated in
the hands of a few at the expense of the many
The moral and civil codes of all peoples, to sav
nothing of religion, require the return of dollars
unlawfully obtained to the rightful owners
"Philanthrophy Is one of the noblest traits of
man. Fortunes won by honest means will be re
spected, but money obtained by unjust methods
will not be respected, and its possessors cannot
repay in acts of benevolence by returning in part
to a few that which they have wrongfully taken
from the many." J
THE SAGE FOUNDATION
The New York Press differentiates between tho
this way'" dy aUd m Sage founon in
MrJhilS7Spaper ff?rs its conatulations to
Mrs. Russell Sage upon her .$10,000,000 endowment
StKB1SS5 SCial and "ving-conditions
First, because the gift is made for an object
to which, although billions have been spent in this
country upon charity, education and religion ' our
Philanthropists have not devoted themselves suffi
ciently Mrs. Sage says "it will be within the
scope of such a foundation to investigate and study
the causes of adverse social conditions, Including
ignorance, poverty and vice; to suggest how these
conditions can be remedied or ameliorated, and to
end.'" operation any appropriate means to that
vieSv0nA ?ri th? ason that tiuTSage millions,
even if tainted with avarice, do not require a r
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