God's Gold: The Story of Rockefeller and His Times

by John T. Flynn

In 1932, John T. Flynn had begun to rethink his old-style "progressivism" and develop intellectually into a defender of markets as against the regimentation of government management. A first product of these steps was this classic and extraordinary full biography of John D. Rockefeller.In this highly sympathetic portrayal, Flynn shows how Rockefeller employed the tools of capitalism to become enormously rich in the service of others, and how this unleashed the most unexpected backlash from anticapitalists of all sorts, culminating in the breakup of Standard Oil. Flynn sees that this was done at the behest of Rockefeller's competition, and not in the public interest.This is the first and probably still the best biography of an American original.To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

Genres: Biography, History, Politics, Business, Economics, American

482 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

American journalist best known for his opposition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to American entry into World War II.
He started at the New Haven Register, but eventually moved to New York; there he was financial editor of the New York Globe. During the 1920s and 1930s, he wrote articles for such leading publications as The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, and Collier's Weekly. He became one of the best-known political commentators in the United States. Like Oswald Garrison Villard, another key figure in the Old Right, Flynn was a leftist with populist inclinations during this period. He supported Franklin D. Roosevelt for president but criticized the New Deal. In 1939, he predicted that Social Security would be under water by 1970, and insolvent by 1980.
During the Cold War period, Flynn continued his opposition to interventionist foreign policies and militarism. An early critic of American involvement in the affairs of Indochina, he maintained that sending US troops would "only be proving the case of the Communists against America that we are defending French imperialism."
Flynn became an early and avid supporter of Senator Joseph McCarthy. This was in part because Flynn (even in his early left-wing views) had always been firmly anticommunist and in part because McCarthy shared Flynn's dislike for the Washington/New York establishment.
In 1955, Flynn had a formal falling-out with the new generation of Cold War conservatives when William F. Buckley, Jr., rejected one of his articles for the new National Review. This submission had attacked militarism as a "job-making boondoggle." Flynn retired from public life in 1960.

Reviews

[Johnrh · Rating 4 out of 5]

...JOHN D. Rockefeller, that is, the founder of Standard Oil. This book was published in 1932 while John D. was still alive and it is available for free reading at the link above. It is a biography, a history of the commercial discovery and development of oil in Pennsylvania, and a history of the formulation (and eventual dissolution) of business trust of Standard Oil. (Think the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, trust-busters such as Teddy Roosevelt, and muckrakers such as Ida Tarbell's The History of Standard Oil.) If you have an interest in detail on all 3 subjects I highly recommend this book.

Throughout the book is the seeming conflict between the extremely pious Baptist devotion of John D. and his single-minded, no-holds barred, focus on building his business and accumulating wealth. It's the "no-holds barred" aspect that is so apparent and so difficult to prove. Curiously, to me at least, the author blames it on religion. In 1932 the author writes:

"A sounder explanation may be that the business man's religion is not the offspring of his business instincts. It is the other way around. His business instincts are the children of his religion. The religious boy is the father of the business man.

The most vital part of our present-day religion comes from the Old Testament. In the early days of Christianity an effort was made to apply the principles of Jesus to life and it resulted in a social order which was almost communistic. This lasted until a Roman Emperor was converted and the Christian religion became a state religion and Christian bishops became interested in state subsidies and rich benefices. After that the Christian religion began slowly to disappear and Europe went back to the Old Testament for its morals and its ethics. And the ethics of the Old Testament are bad ethics. Who has not observed the devotion of the modern Christian to the Old Testament? The New Testament is infinitely richer in spirituality and in elevated philosophy. But the Old Testament is richer in drama. It is indeed one of the greatest of dramatic narratives, teeming with high adventure, vigorous characters, stirring descriptions, and magnificent imagery, with salacious details, tragic situations, and poetic fervor. It is the Old Testament and its heroes that the modern Christian is in love with. I do not know a worse collection of heroes to hold up for the imitation of the young mind than these gentlemen.

Abraham, afraid of being slain by some monarch who coveted
his wife, passed Sarah off on Pharaoh and then on Abimelech as his
sister. Sarah herself was not above telling a lie outright directly
to God himself. Jacob put over on Laban when dividing the goats
a deal as raw as any real estate shark ever practiced on an unsuspecting
prospect. He was guilty of an abominable deception on his
poor blind father to rob his own brother of his rightful blessing
and he was abetted in the swindle by his mother Rebekah. As for
Jacob's son Joseph he knew how to turn a pretty trick whenever
it served his purpose and he became famous for one of the most
complete and ruthless grain corners in history when as Pharaoh's
minister he got the Egyptians at his mercy during a famine and
stripped them of their cattle, their lands, and their treasure. These
men were not the villains of the stories. They were not the black
sheep. They were the prophets of the Lord—the holy men of
the race who walked and talked with God. Jacob, fresh from his
shameless swindle of his brother, was immediately confirmed
without reproof by his father in the blessing he had stolen and
went forthwith to the famous dream of the ladder of angels where
the Lord made him a big grant of land and said to him, "Behold,
I am with thee." Indeed God himself was represented as not above
a little swindle, for did He not instruct Moses how to advise the
Jews on the eve of their deliverance to go about borrowing jewelry
from their Egyptian neighbors so that when a few days later they
would move out of the house of bondage they would have a nice
load of ill-gotten loot to carry off with them?"

(pp. 402-403 GOD'S GOLD)

"It was a moronic kind of religion seen nowhere
in its undiluted form better than among the negroes. "Glory to
God!" the ejaculation with which the colored worshiper punctuates
the singing of his spirituals and the chant-like exhorting of his
preachers, is a perfect expression of this religion—not a religion
of thought or a religion of ethics, but a religion of praise-giving
and glorification of the Lord God of Hosts. Thus it
is possible for the practical business man, confronted
with the hard necessity of "succeeding" each day, to adopt practical
measures to that end. That's business. And when he wants religion
he puts business behind him, goes to prayer meeting or Sunday
School and contributes glorification to the Lord without stint. Or
he builds a church or endows a mission for the Glory of God.
Perhaps it will be a gain for society when this religion of praisegiving
is utterly done for; when the business man who wants to
be religious will have to find refuge in a religion with fewer hymns
and more ethics. 1

1 This chapter originally appeared in The Forum, Aug., 1930, and is reprinted
by permission."

(pp. 404-405 GOD'S GOLD)

Uhhh, well! Interesting hypothesis in 1932. I presume the author didn't care much for religion. Suffice it to say these pages on religion are but a very few of the fascinating, historical, 500 in this book. Now, 76 years later, I suppose we are in the throes of New Testament communism when we ask 'What would Jesus do?'. Not too far off, perhaps.

But I digress. Some defend the consolidating effect of the trusts as efficiencies of scale, as can easily be seen today in every area of business, such as big farms and big-box stores like Wal-Mart. This seems perfectly logical. It's how they went about obtaining those efficiencies that perhaps is the question (and thus is the substance of the entire book). One method that made me do a mental double-take was the "drawback". By guaranteeing large shipments of oil on the railroads, Standard Oil demanded and got a rebate, paying say $1\barrel and receiving $.40\barrel rebate, for a net cost of $.60\barrel. Makes sense to me. But they also got a "drawback" on competitors shipments. If a competitor paid $1\barrel, STANDARD OIL would receive from the railroad $.40\barrel of the COMPETITORS cost. This is harder for me to swallow. I suppose you could argue that the railroad as a free enterprise could do whatever it wanted to keep a quantity customer. In the 1860's and 1870's there were no "public carrier" requirements for railroads and rates. Still, these rebates and drawbacks were kept as secret as possible. All this subterfuge is what makes the book engrossing.