Rockefeller claimed that he ended rebate schemes when the Interstate Commerce Act was passed in 1887, and subsequent to the Elkins Act of 1903 and the Hepburn Act of 1906 but abundant evidence showed otherwise, and that Standard Oil's tentacles engaged in elaborate schemes to hide its malfeasance. He was being sued for the offenses of his Standard Oil empire. Rockefeller used to toss pennies to street children from his carriage, and he uttered the self-effacing words inn the cartoon's caption to reporters in Chicago in 1906.Ĭynics, including Keppler, a young judge named Kennesaw Mountain Landis (later the power Commissioner of Baseball), and millions of Americans, saw the Uriah Heep tendencies in Rockefeller's pious words. Or like the dry goods millionaire John Wanamaker, who served as postmaster general in the Administration of Benjamin Harrison, identifying himself frequently as a Sunday School teacher, and arranging political corruption the other six days of the week.Īndrew Carnegie endowed libraries J. Keppler and many reformers of the day were cynical when business titans and trust moguls spoke, or wrote in memoirs, about love and compassion. Many people in everyday life, and in other contexts and conversations, are referred to as a Uriah Heep. Oftentimes someone who refers to a Uriah Heep will stoop the shoulders, look plaintive and wring the hands. In the book, Uriah Heep was a law clerk who schemed his way up his office's ladder until he was undone by his own trickery he is branded as a sycophant, an insincere flatterer, forever adopting a servile air of exaggerated humility. Almost certainly, everyone has encountered someone with the personality traits and deficiencies of Dickens's memorable character. Some people might know of the epithet, a harsh denigration of someone as 'a' Uriah Heep. RockefellerĬomments and context Comments and Context:Ĭontemporary Americans, those who have not read Charles Dickens's classic novel David Copperfield, might not be familiar with the name or character of Uriah Heep. Two logbooks on the floor at his feet are titled 'Competitor Business' and 'Rebate Schedules,' and hanging on the wall is a paper that states 'The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.' Caption: 'Men, I want to tell you that systematic saving and self-denial, with a good deal of hard work, form the foundation for every large fortune. Rockefeller appears as Uriah Heep from the Dickens novel David Copperfield. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Description:

Uriah heep of david copperfield