oss to our nation and its
workmen.

One of our greatest helpers has been the State Department in
Washington. Our ambassadors and ministers and consuls have aided to
push our way into new markets to the utmost corners of the world.

I think I can speak thus frankly and enthusiastically because the
working out of many of these great plans has developed largely since I
retired from the business fourteen years ago.

The Standard has not now, and never did have a royal road to
supremacy, nor is its success due to any one man, but to the multitude
of able men who are working together. If the present managers of the
company were to relax efforts, allow the quality of their product to
degenerate, or treat their customers badly, how long would their
business last? About as long as any other neglected business. To read
some of the accounts of the affairs of the company, one would think
that it had such a hold on the oil trade that the directors did little
but come together and declare dividends. It is a pleasure for me to
take this opportunity to pay tribute to the work these men are doing,
not only for the company they serve, but for the foreign trade of our
country; for more than half of all the product that the company makes
is sold outside of the United States. If, in place of these directors,
the business were taken over and run by anyone but experts, I would
sell my interest for any price I could get. To succeed in a business
requires the best and most earnest men to manage it, and the best men
rise to the top. Of its origin and early plans I will speak later.

THE MODERN CORPORATION

Beyond question there is a suspicion of corporations. There may be
reason for such suspicion very often; for a corporation may be moral
or immoral, just as a man may be moral or the reverse; but it is folly
to condemn all corporations because some are bad, or even to be unduly
suspicious of all, because some are bad. But the corporation in form
and character has come to stay--that is a thing that may be depended
upon. Even small firms are becoming corporations, because it is a
convenient form of partnership.

It is equally true that combinations of capital are bound to continue
and to grow, and this need not alarm even the most timid if the
corporation, or the series of corporations, is properly conducted with
due regard for the rights of others. The day of individual competition
in large affairs is past and gone--you might just as we