The oil income was swelling, swelling, and the number of sound investments limited, even more limited than it is now.

It was through no special eagerness for more gains that the Rockefellers began to branch out from oil into other things.

They were forced, swept on by this inrolling tide of wealth which their monopoly magnet irresistibly attracted.

They developed a staff of investment seekers and investigators.
It is said that the chief of this staff has a salary of $125,000 a year.
"The first conspicuous excursion and incursion of the Rockefellers was into the railway field.

By 1895 they controlled one-fifth of the railway mileage of the country.
What do they own or, through dominant ownership, control to-day?
They are powerful in all the great railways of New York, north, east, and west, except one, where their share is only a few millions.