not have been so short-sighted.
If it were true that I followed such tactics, I ask, would it have
been possible to make of such men life-long companions? Would they
accept, and remain for many years in positions of the greatest trust,
and finally, could any one have formed of such men, if they had been
so browbeaten, a group which has for all these years worked in loyal
harmony, with fair dealing among themselves as well as with others,
building up efficiency and acting in entire unity? This powerful
organization has not only lasted but its efficiency has increased. For
fourteen years I have been out of business, and in eight or ten years
went only once to the company's office.

In the summer of 1907 I visited again the room at the top of the
Standard Oil Company's building, where the officers of the company and
the heads of departments have had their luncheon served for many
years. I was surprised to find so many men who had come to the front
since my last visit years ago. Afterward I had an opportunity to talk
with old associates and many new ones, and it was a source of great
gratification to me to find that the same spirit of cooeperation and
harmony existed unchanged. This practice of lunching together, a
hundred or more at long tables in most intimate and friendly
association, is another indication of what I contend, slight as it may
seem to be at first thought. Would these people seek each other's
companionship day after day if they had been forced into this
relation? People in such a position do not go on for long in a
pleasant and congenial intimacy.

For years the Standard Oil Company has developed step by step, and I
am convinced that it has done well its work of supplying to the people
the products from petroleum at prices which have decreased as the
efficiency of the business has been built up. It gradually extended
its services first to the large centres, and then to towns, and now to
the smallest places, going to the homes of its customers, delivering
the oil to suit the convenience of the actual users. This same system
is being followed out in various parts of the world. The company has,
for example, three thousand tank wagons supplying American oil to
towns and even small hamlets in Europe. Its own depots and employees
deliver it in a somewhat similar way in Japan, China, India, and the
chief countries of the world. Do you think this trade has been
developed by anything but hard work?

This plan o