s giant creature, "Standard Oil," can best be described so that the
average man may understand it as a group of money-owners--some
individuals and some corporations--who have a right to use the name
"Standard Oil" in any business undertakings they engage in. The right to
use the name is of priceless value, for it carries with it "assured
success."

Standard Oil, the seller of oil to the people, transacts its business as
does any other corporation. It plays no part in my story and I shall not
hereafter touch upon its affairs, but confine my meaning, wherever I use
the name "Standard Oil," to the larger and many times more important
"System."

There are only three men who can lend the name "Standard Oil," even in
the most remote way to any project, for there is no more heinous crime
against the "Standard Oil" decalogue than using the name "Standard Oil"
unauthorizedly. The three men are Henry H. Rogers, William Rockefeller,
and John D. Rockefeller. Sometimes John D. Rockefeller uses the name
alone in projects in which Henry H. Rogers and William Rockefeller have
no interests. Henry H. Rogers or William Rockefeller seldom, if ever,
uses the name in projects with which neither of the other two is
associated. Sometimes, but not often, John D. and William Rockefeller
use the name in connection with projects of their own in which Henry H.
Rogers has no interest. Henry H. Rogers and John D. Rockefeller, I
believe, never are associated in projects in which William Rockefeller
has no interest. Henry H. Rogers and William Rockefeller frequently
bring to bear the influence of the magic-working syllables in connection
with joint affairs in which John D. Rockefeller has no interest--in
fact, during the past ten years the name "Standard Oil" has been used
more in their combined undertakings than in all others put together.

There are eight distinct groups of individuals and corporations which go
to make up the big "Standard Oil":

1st. The Standard Oil, seller of oil to the people, which is made up of
many sub-corporations either by actual ownership or by ownership of
their stock or bonds. Probably no person other than Henry H. Rogers,
William Rockefeller, and John D. Rockefeller knows exactly what the
assets of the Standard Oil corporation are, although John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., son of John D. Rockefeller, and William G.
Rockefeller, that able and excellent business man, son of William
Rockefeller and the probable future head of