JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 407 carious financial conditions. Among them were the Rockefel- ler investments. To protect himself he was forced to acquire control of these other interests. This in itself was an easy task as the stock was tossed at him in bundles. Raising the ready money to buy it all was another matter, but his borrow- ing ability again stood him in good stead. At panic prices he secured control of thousands of acres of ore lands which to- day are worth untold millions of dollars. With characteristic enterprise he immediately began building vessels with which to transport this ore to market, and when these properties, known as the Lake Superior Consolidated Mines Company, were finally disposed of to the United States Steel Corpora- tion in 1900, the fleet comprised fifty-six vessels, the largest and of most improved types in the lake ore trade. By this transfer Mr. Rockefeller obtained his extensive steel holdings. The real extent of the Rockefeller fortune is a much mooted question. Probably Mr. Rockefeller himself has no very def- inite idea of the money value of his myriad holdings. He is generally accepted as the country's richest individual, and doubtless this is true. A popular estimate of his income is a doUar a second. In his many benefactions he is remarkably unobtrusive, a rather odd trait in a man of preponderous wealth. Recently it was estimated that within the last quar- ter century he had given away something more than $150,000,- 000. To but one of his many philanthropies has he given his name, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, of New York. Eventually, however, the Rockefeller Foundation will perpetuate his name and administer the further philanthropies of his estate. To the General Education Board of this body, whose primary task is the endowing of colleges and univer- sities in the United States, he has donated an aggregate of $53,000,000. The general plan followed in these endowments is to subscribe a definite sum to an institution on the condition that it raise certain specified supplemental amounts. Approximately $5,000,000 has been donated to the Rocke- feller Institute, which has accomplished noteworthy results in combating cerebro-spinal meningitis, the hookworm, and other deadly diseases. Other notable gifts were $22,000,000 to the
