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IVJM SON’S WEEKLY i I 11 11 JEFFERSONIAN *— 4 bfv EDITED BY T THOS. E. WATSON y Vol. IL No. 36. Reading the Nelvs —Does It Pay 7 ‘•SKfit. \ <6, /MU \ V> /flHMwz) v* JkSWE V v. j po'> •* /^ -— // jj /_ Z'^-^^c-*/A * I y I | ” -- -/L DRAWN BY GORDON NYE. Six 'Billions in Hands of Six Men to Use at Will. The secret figures of Standard Oil’s profits wrung from the trust officials in the government’s suit to dissolve the illegal monopoly have made the public gasp, from the At lantic to the Pacific. That a corpo ration with $100,000,000 capital could pile up prfits of nearly half a bil lion dollars in eight years—s49o,- 315,934.68, to be exact—and in the meantime increase its assets by $160,- 000,000, was never dreamed of out side of Wall street. According to the trust’s own fig ures, more than $180,000,000 of un divided profits still remained in the treasury at the close of the year Atlanta, Ga., Thursday, September 26, 1907. 1906. Dividends amounting to more than $80,000,000 were paid out in 1906, and the average amount of an nual dividends for the past eight years has been nearly $40,000,000. Five men with estates the stock of which is voted as those controlling spirits which practically own the Oil Trust, and these five in eight years, from 1899 to 1906, divided among themselves more than $100,000,000 in dividends. They have the absolute control of the great corporation in their hands. Their names are John D. Rockefeller, William Rockefeller, Henry H. Rogers, Henry M. Flag ler and Charles M. Pratt. With John D. Rockefeller as lead er, because his share in the Oil Trust amounts to more than all of the oth ers combined, these five men, with the addition of one more, James Still man, William Rockefeller’s brother in-law, have used this colossal engine of wealth to get control of industrial, commercial and financial combina tions which have a combined capital of over five billions of dollars. Time was when a man expected to reckon with the Oil Trust when he contemplated entering the oil busi ness, but now there are few lines of trade or finance which are not domi nated by the small group of men so Price five Cents. closely banded together, and the “Rockefeller interest” is as jealous of competition in any line of trade or finance as ever was the oil monop oly. What this power of wealth and orl ganization means is evident in the every-day life of millions of citizens of this republic. The control of 500 great corporations, including 60 per cent of the railroads, means the fixing of prices of products, manufactured and natural, the entire output of which is controlled by this group of six men. Byron W. Holt, secretary of the Reform Club’s Executive Com (Continued on Page Twelve.)