Rockefeller v. Stewart

The annual meeting of the stockholders of Standard Oil Co. of Indiana will be held on March 7. Only a handful of the 58,000 stockholders* will be present. But practically every stockholder will be represented by a proxy, for a bitter fight is to be settled. One group of proxies will be held by a representative of John Davison Rockefeller Jr. The other will be held by Col. Robert Wright Stewart. The fight is over the re-election of Colonel Stewart as Chairman of the Board.

On the day last week when Mr. Rockefeller Jr. was gazing at the Rock of Gibraltar, en route to Egypt on an expedition with famed Digger James Henry Breasted of the University of Chicago, the Rockefeller office in Manhattan made public a letter which he had written to the stockholders of Standard Oil of Indiana.

In the letter, Mr. Rockefeller Jr. told how he had lost confidence in Colonel Stewart's leadership because of Colonel Stewart's testimony before the Senate Committee on Public Lands, concerning the oil scandals; how he had asked for Colonel Stewart's resignation last April; how Colonel Stewart has continued to ignore his request. "I am therefore," wrote Mr. Rockefeller Jr., "asking the stockholders of the company to join me in opposing his re-election."

Forthwith Colonel Stewart returned from Manhattan to Chicago with the words: "If the Rockefellers want to fight, I'll show them how to fight. . . . I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that I owe fully as much to the person holding ten shares of Standard Oil of Indiana . . . as I may owe one who has so much wealth that he has to hire experts to spend his income for him."

In his Chicago office, Colonel Stewart received reporters, photographers, talked freely, posed pleasantly. He was confident of enough proxies to secure reelection.

Meanwhile, Frank J. Hogan, smart lawyer for Colonel Stewart, pointed out that the oil man had been tried and acquitted of charges of contempt and perjury growing out of his testimony before the Senate committee. Lawyer Hogan made public a statement signed by the twelve jurors of the perjury trial, saying: "It was our intention that our verdict should stand as a vindication of Colonel Stewart."

Editorially, most metropolitan newspapers supported Mr. Rockefeller Jr. Said the conservative New York Evening Post: "He [Rockefeller] is right. The other position is only a variation of a famous exclamation to make it read, 'principle be damned.'

" Practically, Wall Street estimated that previous to the Rockefeller letter, only 17% of Standard Oil of Indiana stock was in Rockefeller hands, while Colonel Stewart and allies controlled 51%.

It was not entirely clear, last week, who would be the Rockefeller candidate for Chairman of the Board./- Nor was it clear why Mr. Rockefeller Jr. had gone to Egypt on the eve of his biggest fight.

*Standard Oil Co. of Indiana has issued 9,160,000 shares of capital stock. /-President E. G. Seubert of Standard Oil Co. of Indiana was mentioned in the Rockefeller letter as a "loyal and devoted" leader. But he had long been considered a Stewart man. Now he may be the crux of the battle.