The land was poor and life was tough. To provide for the family William worked as a hired hand and cut and sold lumber in a little sawmill he had on the property. He was a gregarious, adventuresome and fearless man who worked hard and paid his debts promptly. Among other things, he got interested in botanic medicine, the selling of which occupied an increasing amount of his time and took him on longer and longer journeys away from home. Twice during these early years, the family moved to other farms in the southern tier of New York State, and then later to Ohio. The care of the farms and the five children fell importantly on his wife, Eliza Davison, a strong and disciplined woman of Scottish descent. As time went by, she looked increasingly to her eldest son, John, for comfort and for aid in looking after the youngest children. From a very early age, he milked the cow, drove the horse, split wood and worked in the large gardens which his mother always kept. At the age of seven, he started raising and selling turkeys for his own account, and doing odd jobs for neighbors. He was careful with the money he earned. Even at that early age, his mother taught him to give something of what he earned to those in greater need-usually 10% and more. The remainder he saved, and by the time he was eleven he was loaning out his savings. The character of the young man was thus set during these formative years by the precepts and examples of both his parents. It has been said that, "His mother drilled him in honesty, sobriety, industry, thoughtfulness, altruism and a fervent religious faith, supported by regular attendance at Sunday School and church." His father demanded self-reliance, thrift and industry and trained him to be keen-witted, honest and dependable. He insisted on precision, promptness and responsibility in everything the young man did. And as time went by, he taught him the sacredness of a contract, the importance of scrupulously carrying it out. C. ORIGIN OF THE FAMILY ETHIC Thus the roots of our family ethic were deeply implanted—an ethic based on the fundamental American values which has come down through the generations since then. These were the guiding forces throughout by grandfather's life, an ethic which his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller, profoundly strengthened. My grandmother's family, the Spelmans of Ohio, were deeply religious people. They operated a station on the underground railroad through which slaves were aided on their flights to freedom in mid-nineteenth century America. Not only was my grandmother a dedicated abolitionist; she was an equally determined prohibitionist. This family ethnic was transmitted by precept and example and conscientious daily instruction, from my grandparents to my father. And like my grandmother, my mother's life further reinforced this ethic, which was transmitted to each of us as children by both our parents. These have been the motivating and guiding forces in our lives as a family. And I mention this subject because I believe it is important to your judgment of me. D. GRANDFATHER'S EARLY YEARS By the time my grandfather was fourteen in 1853, his family had moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he went to high school. At sixteen, my grandfather left school and after weeks of diligently searching for the kind of work that would give him experience in business, he found a job as an accountant at $3.50 a week with a firm of commission merchants and produce shippers, where he remained for three and a half years. At the age of twenty, with $900 savings and $1,100 borrowed at interest from his father, he and a young Englishman organized Clark and Rockefeller in a new commodity commission business with $4,000 capital to deal in grain, hay, meats and miscellaneous goods. The business prospered, and four years later. he and his partner joined three others in forming a second company, called Andrews, Clark and Company, to go into the oil refining business. Two years later, when he was only twenty-six, he and Andrews bought out the three Clark brothers for $72,500, and formed a new oil company under the name of Rockefeller and Andrews. This was the beginning of the Standard Oil Company. Their refinery was already the largest in Cleveland and one of the largest in the country. During the ensuing years, the company grew rapidly into a totally integrated indus try, handling oil from the wellhead to the consumer on a world-wid basis To a degree far beyond anything my grandfather had dreamed of, the oil industry tapped the immense resources of oil, affecting every home and machine shop, starting a revolution in transportation and becoming a spectacular part of world commerce. "Thus," as Allan Nevins has said, "the size of his fortune was an historical accident." E. PHILANTHROPY-JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER My grandfather's early training in giving to help those in need became an increasingly absorbing part of his life. With the growth of his earnings, his giving increased. In the later years, with the phenomenal growth in the oil industry, he devoutly believed that Providence had made him a trustee of his fortune for the benefit of man, and was not to be kept but to be wisely distributed. In 1901, my grandfather created the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, thus establishing in the U.S. the first medical institution entirely devoted to the solving, through study, of the problems of disease. His objective was primarily to find ways of preventing and curing disease, not simply to treat it. In 1903 he founded the General Education Board to aid in upgrading education, particularly in the South. Here his underlying philosophy was that, by improving the quality of education for all people, they would be able to create better lives for themselves. Ten years later, in 1913, my grandfather created and endowed the Rockefeller Foundation to "serve the well-being of mankind throughout the world." My grandfather brought the same organizational ability to philanthropy that he had to business. But his greatest strength in business and philanthropy alike was the calibre, integrity and capacity of the men he picked as his associates, and his ability to lead and inspire them. It was clear to him that, if the work of these foundations was to be of lasting value, it must strike at the root causes of poverty and deprivation, not just their effects. F. PHILANTHROPY-JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR. My father's life was also molded by the family ethic, as expressed by his total devotion to his mother and father and his strong religious observance at home and in the church. He spent some time in business after graduating from college but soon found that his real love was in the work of the foundations. Thus he devoted his life to the service and well-being of others throughout the world, importantly in pioneering work in the fields of public health, education and scientific research. And he used the money he had inherited from his father to undertake over his lifetime a series of philanthropic projects for the benefit of all. These included such projects as the giving of three national parks, the saving of redwood forests, the restoration and maintenance of Colonial Williamsburg, donating the site of the United Nations headquarters in New York City, joining in the preservation of the Hudson River Palisades, establishing the Cloisters Museum of Medieval Art, International House, Riverside Church, the Dunbar Apartments, the restoration after World War I of Versailles, Fontainebleau, and the Chartres Cathedral in France, and the restoration of the Agora, the birthplace of democracy, in Athens. The building of Rockefeller Center, which was his only important business venture, was really an accident of the times. In 1928, he signed a 23-year lease with Columbia University for three Fifth Avenue blocks as the site of a new home for the Metropolitan Opera. But when the depression set in, the Board of Trustees of the Opera informed him that they could not raise the money and would have to abandon the project. This left father with a 23-year lease, at $3 million a year, on three blocks of old run-down brownstone houses. But my father's faith in this country and its future was unbounded. So at the depth of the depression, he set out to build a business, entertainment and shopping center in the heart of midtown Manhattan. He was ridiculed and attacked for the project at the time-except by the thousands of unemployed workers in the building trades to whom he gave work for years to come. G. INFLUENCE OF MY MOTHER My mother devoted her life to her husband and family and was an active leader in the Young Women's Christian Association and in the field of the arts. Like my father, mother also was deeply motivated in an ethical and spiritual sense-witness the following letter she wrote to three of her sons: Dear John, Nelson and Laurence: For a long time I have had very much on my mind and heart a certain subject. I meant to bring it up at prayers and then later have it for a question to be discussed at a family council; but the right time, because of your father's illness, has never seemed to come. Out of my experience and observation has grown the earnest conviction that one of the greatest causes of evil in the world is race hatred or race prejudice; in other words, the feeling of dislike that a person or a nation has against another person or nation without just cause, an unreasoning aversion is another way to express it. The two peoples or races who suffer most from this treatment are the Jews and the Negroes; but some people "hate" the Italians, who in turn hate the Jugoslavs, who hate the Austrians, who hate the Czecho-Slovaks, and so it goes endlessly. You boys are still young. No group of people has ever done you a personal injury; you have no inherited dislikes. I want to make an appeal to your sense of fair play and to beseech you to begin your lives as young men by giving the other fellow, be he Jew or Negro or of whatever race, a fair chance and a square deal. It is to the disgrace of America that horrible lynchings and race riots frequently occur in our midst. The social ostracism of the Jew is less brutal, and yet it often causes cruel injustice and must engender in the Jews a smouldering fire of resentment. Put yourselves in the place of an honest, poor man who happens to belong to one of the so-called "despised" races. Think of having no friendly hand held out to you, no kindly look, no pleasant, encouraging word spoken to you. What I would like you always to do is what I try humbly to do myself: that is, never to say or to do anything which would wound the feelings or the selfrespect of any human being, and to give special consideration to all who are in any way repressed. This is what your father does naturally from the fineness of his nature and the kindness of his heart. I long to have our family stand firmly for what is best and highest in life. It isn't always easy, but it is worth while. Your Mother And so we as children grew up in a closely-knit, religious family, involved in human concerns, influenced by cultural forces, and inspired by father's credo that, "Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity an obligation; every possession a duty." III. FAMILY'S FINANCIAL HISTORY Now, before reviewing my own activities up to the present, there is one other phase of the family's history that I want to mention to you, in view of my nomination by the President for this position of high public trust, and that is the personal financial relations between generations and my own financial position as of now. A. GRANDFATHER 1. Grandfather gave a total of $5501 million to establish various foundations and philanthropic institutions including the Rockefeller Foundation, The General Education Board, the Rockefeller Institute, and the University of Chicago. He also contributed to countless religious and missionary undertakings and, in addition, inspired by his wife, he gave generous support to virtually every women's college and black college in the United States. 2. During his lifetime, he personally paid a total of $67 million in Federal, state and local taxes." 3. He gave to his only son, my father a total of $465 million. There were additional substantial gifts to his two daughters, Alta Prentice and Edith McCormick, and to other members of his family but the bulk of his money went to charity and to his son. 1 All financial figures are approximate or rounded. 2 It should be noted in connection with the total amount of Grandfather's tax that the Federal income tax law was not enacted until 1913 and that tax rates were relatively low until the war years of the early 40's. Grandfather died in 1937. B. FATHER 1. Father gave to various foundations and other charitable and philanthropic activities a total of $552 million. 2. He paid a total of $317 million in Federal, state and local taxes. 3. He gave to the members of his family-my mother, brothers, my sister, myself and his then living grandchildren, a total of $240 million. He also gave to his second wife $72 million, most of which on her death went to philanthropies. C. FOLLOWING SAME PATTERN I have tried to follow the same pattern. Up to now: 1. During my lifetime, I have given a total of $33 million to various philanthropic and charitable institutions and undertakings. And I have pledged to give for public use an additional $20.5 million of art and real estate. This will bring total gifts to $53.5 million. 2. I have paid a total of $69 million in Federal, state and local taxes. Attached is a summary of the taxes paid for the past ten years which was requested of me. 3. I have given to members of my family $15.5 million. In addition, upon my death my children will become the life beneficiaries of the trust which my father created for me. They will also receive the remainder of the principal of the trust created by father for my mother, of which I am a one-third beneficiary. There is one point I would like to bring out with regard to the $69 million of total taxes paid during my lifetime. In one year, 1970, my total federal, state and local taxes were down to $814,701 because I had no Federal income tax that year. This was because major shifts in the investment portfolio of the trusts were made in 1969. These shifts, over which I had no control, resulted in major capital gains on which the trust paid $6,250,000 in Federal, State and city capital gains taxes in 1970. The net effect of that payment was that I was not subject to Federal income tax that year. This was the only year that I have not paid a Federal income tax. What I want to make very clear is that in 1970, the total taxes paid to Federal, state and local governments by me and the trust amounted to $7,064,701. |