In for a penny
Sir: Martyn Harris (Arts, 10 July) leaves out of his litany of the sins of John D. Rockefeller one that just may be at the base of the pyramid, and not only in his case. To 'sharp practice, secrecy and deceit' should be added greed.
About 1935, when 'John D.' was regard- ed as the richest man in the world, my grandmother was visited by one of the army of lawyers owned by Rockefeller. It was a time of deepest family crisis because of the Depression, and the visitor had tracked her to a two-room bungalow in a Los Angeles suburb that had for a bedroom for three people an earth-floored garage. The lawyer asked her if she was aware she was a rela- tive of John D. Rockefeller. The great man, he told her, had gone to considerable trou-
ble to trace his living relatives, every one of them, and she qualified. She replied that she had been aware of the shared name in the family, but not the kinship. The lawyer asked her whether, in view of this, she would accept a once-for-all payment that would absolve Rockefeller from any and all claims that she or her children might make when he died, because he was setting up a foundation to support his philanthropies and his choice of church. If she accepted, the award to her would be tangible and immediate. Seeing salvation appearing out of the clouds, she agreed to do this and signed the paper which the lawyer pro- duced.
In a few days she received a money order in the mail for ten cents, which even in the Depression bought only two apples. Aside from the apples, the settlement of this lega- cy gave the family a valuable insight into Rockefeller's philanthropy. They already had a fairly good insight into the price of kinship, and that was discounted.
G.B. Hummer
Talbot House, Queens Street, Hook Norton, Oxfordshire
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