John D. Rockefeller, every mention

Standard Oil Part II (Extended Cut) · Acquired Oct 19, 2021 · 100 mentions

• ▶ 1:05 Ben Gilbert We saw John D.
• ▶ 1:26 Ben Gilbert Uh, we're gonna cover Rockefeller's legacy and philanthropy and how today's world is a Rockefeller-shaped one in more ways than one.
• ▶ 5:03 David Rosenthal If John D.
• ▶ 5:06 David Rosenthal Today, he would not do the books himself.
• ▶ 5:08 David Rosenthal He would have Pilot do it.
• ▶ 8:37 David Rosenthal The political money is still, uh, flowing around, uh, like hotcakes, uh, or, uh, uh, fine wine, uh, which of course Rockefeller didn't drink because he, he,
• ▶ 9:54 David Rosenthal And then the big thing that we really just spent like, 15 seconds on last time was, uh, the whole, you know, like, oh yeah, JD retires.
• ▶ 10:33 David Rosenthal Right around, literally, like, right as the Sherman Act was passing, um, state legislature members in Ohio, remember, they're, like, they're pretty pissed at, at Rockefeller and, and at, uh, Standard Oil, and, like, this goes all the way…
• ▶ 12:25 David Rosenthal So they had figured out, Standard Oil lawyers had figured out that in the state of New Jersey, now they have operations, Standard Oil has operations in New Jersey, but there's no, you know, Rockefeller and crew, they're at 26 Broadway in…
• ▶ 14:15 David Rosenthal So, as, uh, turnout writes in Titan about this, quote, the 1892 overhaul was mostly shadow play, a charade to appease the courts.
• ▶ 14:52 David Rosenthal Nobody had to switch seats at the lunch table, and Rockefeller and his coterie ruled as absolutely
• ▶ 15:47 David Rosenthal Slowly, but, but then noticeably over the years, um, everybody starts to notice that, like, something's a little different about Rockefeller.
• ▶ 16:50 David Rosenthal Um, and there really are two things happening to Rockefeller at this time.
• ▶ 17:35 David Rosenthal Quote, in explaining his retirement, which this would lead to, the Rockefeller literature has always stressed his health and the heavy burden of his charities, though another factor contributed as well.
• ▶ 18:12 Ben Gilbert So what you're saying is Rockefeller is really only like a zero to one guy, and maybe like a one to 10 guy, and kind of like a 10 to a hundred guy, but maybe not a hundred to a thousand guy.
• ▶ 18:45 Ben Gilbert Yeah, and you know the public sentiment has to be weighing on Rockefeller too, where he's like, look, I believe in my heart of hearts that what I've done here is virtuous.
• ▶ 20:59 David Rosenthal Rockefeller, and a freaking great move for all of the other execs, especially Archbold at, uh, at Standard Oil.
• ▶ 21:08 David Rosenthal Uh, ok, so you said charity, and like everybody asking, you know, John D for his money.
• ▶ 22:00 David Rosenthal And now the general public who knows about this, that, oh, hey, you can just ask John D for money and he might give you money.
• ▶ 23:10 David Rosenthal So this is directly from Rockefeller about this time.
• ▶ 24:08 David Rosenthal Uh, so literally, you know, his, um, uh, folks might, might know who either were familiar before or have, you know, gone and looked up and, uh, John D on the internet since our, our part one, his appearance like radically changes during…
• ▶ 26:43 Ben Gilbert At this point in time, I think Rockefeller was trying to keep it pretty modest, these like, 11% annual dividends, but he himself was receiving three million in these annual dividends.
• ▶ 28:28 Ben Gilbert Comment on this Rockefeller wealth, you know, I mentioned that we're still in sort of this 1890 to 1892 time frame, but I mentioned that, that point when he's worth two hundred million in, in 19 oh two, the GDP of the United States at that…
• ▶ 31:03 Ben Gilbert It's crazy to me that he's looking at this as, uh, he's still the same old Rockefeller.
• ▶ 31:40 Ben Gilbert Large burden for him, and so that's why he ended up deciding, actually, I'm just going to go give it all to the Gates Foundation, and they can figure out, and then I don't have to think about it, whereas there is no, there are no…
• ▶ 32:03 David Rosenthal Well, and I think there's one key difference, though, between Rockefeller and Buffett,
• ▶ 32:25 David Rosenthal Rockefeller has the passion to do it himself, too.
• ▶ 32:42 David Rosenthal Like, that is, like, like, I think if they, you know, we're gonna have so much fun on this episode still to come, but, um, I think if there's one thing to take away from this part, too, it's, like, part one was Rockefeller and Standard Oil…
• ▶ 34:06 Ben Gilbert And I think they already, just to not overcredit, I think they already had, like, a few hundred people enrolled, and they were raising money locally, and they just had some debts, and so Rockefeller came in and just wiped out all the debt,…
• ▶ 34:27 Ben Gilbert And also worth, worth pointing out about Rockefeller's character, which I find fascinating, because a lot of times you study people from this era, and they just have such their,
• ▶ 34:41 Ben Gilbert And Rockefeller does have some less savory parts, uh, in reference to comments that he's made about sort of other ethnic groups here and there, but he went from, like, pre-Civil War being an abolitionist, a big supporter of Lincoln, to…
• ▶ 36:36 David Rosenthal And remember Rockefeller's Baptist, you know, all the Ivy league schools, uh, you just started as religious or quasi religious institutions, but they weren't Baptist, uh, with the exception of Brown.
• ▶ 36:46 David Rosenthal Brown had a lot of Baptist, um, influence and that's where junior Rockefeller's son went.
• ▶ 37:35 David Rosenthal JD, of course, is the perfect benefactor for this, so he gets involved.
• ▶ 37:51 David Rosenthal He ends up sort of scheming, um, uh, Rockefeller's oldest daughter, uh, Bessie ends up marrying his son.
• ▶ 38:00 David Rosenthal Uh, so they get like very involved, but then the project falls apart and Rockefeller withdraws his support.
• ▶ 38:45 Ben Gilbert and so it's a lot cheaper to get building materials out there and hire construction crews, and then of course you have Rockefeller who really wants to do these good works because he thinks they're the right things to do, not because he…
• ▶ 39:39 David Rosenthal So you're saying, like, the opposite of what Rockefeller wants might be something like, um, oh, I don't know, like, Leland Stanford University, or Vanderbilt University, or Duke University.
• ▶ 40:06 Ben Gilbert Rockefeller started, founded the University of Chicago, and that is exactly what he was going for.
• ▶ 40:14 David Rosenthal So like, obviously, probably some of you are thinking like, well, you're talking about how Rockefeller pioneered philanthropy and all that, but like, you guys are missing something.
• ▶ 41:28 David Rosenthal That was not Rockefeller's style.
• ▶ 43:31 David Rosenthal Uh, and sure now is this great, great quote of Rockefeller talking to it, to his son, to junior.
• ▶ 43:48 David Rosenthal Rockefeller placed the scientists at this institution, not the trustees in charge of expenditures, and this was revolutionary.
• ▶ 45:41 David Rosenthal So during Rockefeller's life, he never created a, or intended to create a university with his name on it.
• ▶ 45:51 David Rosenthal This is a quote from Winston Churchill talking about John Rockefeller.
• ▶ 45:58 David Rosenthal When history passes its final verdict on John D.
• ▶ 46:28 David Rosenthal Of these rich men, John D.
• ▶ 48:08 David Rosenthal Remember like this is, you know, we're talking about how modern Rockefeller is and how modern standard oil is and how modern this philanthropy is.
• ▶ 48:35 David Rosenthal Which Rockefeller was actually sympathetic to himself, uh, for a long time.
• ▶ 48:42 David Rosenthal You know, they, Gates and, and Rockefeller and the family, they work with Flexner and they say, how can we, you know, we've done all this research in this science.
• ▶ 50:31 Ben Gilbert So like, this is so Rockefeller and so standard oil, like, you know, and is this being sort of managed by Frederick Gates?
• ▶ 50:48 David Rosenthal Um, but Senior and Junior and Gates, the three of them together, along with the staff that they're building, uh, they're driving all of this.
• ▶ 50:58 Ben Gilbert So listeners, as you can tell by now, Standard Oil Part Two is really like Rockefeller Part Two.
• ▶ 51:28 David Rosenthal You know, we're seniors getting older.
• ▶ 52:55 David Rosenthal Um, you know, Rockefeller, Standard Oil, he won business.
• ▶ 53:39 David Rosenthal Should not have left your name on the door, John.
• ▶ 53:58 Ben Gilbert Rockefeller had sort of handed over to, to Archibald, you know, the, the day-to-day of, of running the company.
• ▶ 54:23 David Rosenthal Which Rockefeller actually was not happy about, paradoxically.
• ▶ 55:37 Ben Gilbert Keep in mind, Rockefeller is making 25% of that.
• ▶ 56:20 Ben Gilbert And so, even in his retirement, Rockefeller's real wealth ends up getting piled on top of his
• ▶ 57:10 David Rosenthal So in 1897, right as this run up in the auto industry is starting, uh, and right as JD had fully, you know, tried to walk away, uh, from the business.
• ▶ 58:13 David Rosenthal Rockefeller actually gets called to testify in this case, and he puts on this great show.
• ▶ 1:00:43 David Rosenthal Uh, his campaign manager, McKinley's campaign manager, a guy named Mark Hanna, actually went to high school with John D back when he was going to high school before, uh, Wild Bill pulled him out.
• ▶ 1:02:07 Ben Gilbert It's like, if, if, if, uh, Rockefeller was bad, there's a chance Theodore Roosevelt was badder.
• ▶ 1:02:27 David Rosenthal Theodore Roosevelt, a little, like all the glee that we had in part one for Rockefeller and Standard Oil and Flagler and like all these, uh, mafia dons and everything that they're doing.
• ▶ 1:04:24 Ben Gilbert That is gonna challenge John D.
• ▶ 1:11:08 Ben Gilbert By going to Titusville to rekindle her roots and remember what it was like and, like, stew up some feelings of anti-Rockefeller before embarking on doing this.
• ▶ 1:15:40 Ben Gilbert Like, this whole, all this stuff we said in part one, like, we wouldn't know without Ida, because the only other real account is Rockefeller talking to his official biographer, William O.
• ▶ 1:17:16 David Rosenthal Standard and Rockefeller, when all this comes out, even though the antitrust cases are going on, they don't do anything.
• ▶ 1:20:31 Ben Gilbert I think, yeah, he's the one that, like, got Rockefeller and, and June and Rockefeller's on Rockefeller Jr. on the board of directors of U.S.
• ▶ 1:21:27 David Rosenthal Uh, they subpoena JD to come, uh, in and testify, uh, in front of a grand jury in these, this investigation.
• ▶ 1:21:49 David Rosenthal They issue a warrant for Rockefeller's arrest.
• ▶ 1:23:41 Ben Gilbert Well, and at this point, those guys are, a lot of them are sort of like defending themselves and throwing him on Rockefeller to the bus.
• ▶ 1:24:20 David Rosenthal This quote from Rogers says, quote, we told him, Rockefeller, JD, that he had to keep the title of president.
• ▶ 1:24:45 David Rosenthal You know, Rockefeller, he can stay on the run, he can stay on the lam as long as he wants, but like,
• ▶ 1:27:52 Ben Gilbert At that point, John D had left the company, and so you, you do have this really interesting sort of scenario where, like,
• ▶ 1:30:05 David Rosenthal Did you read about Rockefeller's reaction when he gets the news?
• ▶ 1:31:46 David Rosenthal So Rockefeller, he had, he had come out of hiding at this point.
• ▶ 1:32:03 David Rosenthal He, he subpoenaed Rockefeller and was willing to, uh, cause he wanted him to come, you know, testify and was willing to grant him criminal immunity, uh, if he came to testify.
• ▶ 1:32:11 David Rosenthal So Rockefeller was like, I'll take that.
• ▶ 1:33:31 Ben Gilbert Oh, does Rockefeller buy?
• ▶ 1:33:32 David Rosenthal Rockefeller.
• ▶ 1:33:33 David Rosenthal Rockefeller.
• ▶ 1:34:14 David Rosenthal Rockefeller does Buffett one better.
• ▶ 1:36:06 David Rosenthal He turns to the priest smiling, and he says, Father Lennon, whose name is Lennon, um, have you some money, and everybody in the golfing party is like, uh, geez, John, I mean, I know this is bad that Standard's going to get broken up, but…
• ▶ 1:36:32 David Rosenthal So he's like, what, uh, Father Lenin's like, uh, uh, what, why do you ask John?
• ▶ 1:36:39 David Rosenthal Rockefeller says, because if you did, you should buy some standard oil stock right now.
• ▶ 1:37:01 David Rosenthal Uh, but in the long run, uh, to Rockefeller, you know, the whole, the, the line, and it's true is that he made more money in retirement and after Standard Oil was broken up than he did while he was working.
• ▶ 1:37:12 David Rosenthal So what happens, and it turns out right here, this was literally the luckiest stroke of Rockefeller's career.
• ▶ 1:37:19 David Rosenthal Precisely because he lost the antitrust suit, Rockefeller was converted from a mere millionaire with an estimated worth of net worth of three hundred million in 1911 into something just short of history's first billionaire.
• ▶ 1:40:08 David Rosenthal I don't know if it was alongside the sports section or whatnot, keeping track of Rockefeller's net worth.
• ▶ 1:40:57 David Rosenthal Instead, at JD's suggestion, you know, sort of like voice from, from the golf course, he's like, how about y'all meet for coffee at 10:30 instead?
• ▶ 1:45:30 David Rosenthal Um, that's not what Rockefeller and the cronies and all the people that were having lunch at 26 Broadway or coffee,
• ▶ 1:47:52 unnamed speaker Which is a little cute wink wink nudge nudge by Rockefeller and crew to say, and we're still S-O.
• ▶ 1:50:38 Ben Gilbert I want to end with just, like, illustrating Standard's wealth here, because, uh, uh, or in more, more in particular, Rockefeller's wealth, because we've talked about a few figures over time.
• ▶ 1:52:26 Ben Gilbert But, you know, there is no one who controls two to three percent of the nation's GDP in their pockets the way that, that Rockefeller did in 1913.
• ▶ 1:52:42 David Rosenthal He had already given away about half of his wealth at that point.
• ▶ 1:53:16 Ben Gilbert Like, if you think that Rockefeller, he sort of had the potential to have, like, seven, eight hundred billion in terms of the amount of, of sort of influence of the nation's wealth that he controlled.
• ▶ 1:53:46 David Rosenthal Uh, but, uh, but this is the scale, like, yeah, nobody could touch Rockefeller.
• ▶ 1:56:53 David Rosenthal You know, again, because like when we're talking about the philanthropy, like Rockefeller didn't want his name on stuff.