ding them full scope for their ability; they were given
opportunities to buy stock, and the company itself helped them to
finance their purchases. Not only here in America, but all over the
world, our young men were given chances to advance themselves, and the
sons of the old partners were welcomed to the councils and
responsibilities of the administration. I may say that the company
has been in all its history, and I am sure it is at present, a most
happy association of busy people.

I have been asked if my advice is not often sought by the present
managers. I can say that if it were sought it would be gladly given.
But the fact is that since I retired it has been very little required.
I am still a large stockholder, indeed I have increased my holdings in
the company's stock since I relinquished any part in its management.

WHY THE STANDARD PAYS LARGE DIVIDENDS

Let me explain what many people, perhaps, fully appreciate, but some,
I am sure, do not. The Standard pays four dividends a year: the first
in March, which is the result of the busiest season of the whole
twelvemonth, because more oil is consumed in winter than at other
seasons, and three other dividends later, at about evenly divided
periods. Now, these dividends run up to 40 per cent. on the capital
stock of $100,000,000, but that does not mean that the profit is 40
per cent. on the capital invested. As a matter of fact, it represents
the results of the savings and surplus gained through all the
thirty-five or forty years of the workings of the companies. The
capital stock could be raised several hundred per cent. without a
penny of over-capitalization or "water"; the actual value is there. If
this increase had been made, the rate would represent a moderate
dividend-paying power of about 6 to 8 per cent.

A NORMAL GROWTH

Study for a moment the result of what has been a natural and
absolutely normal increase in the value of the company's possessions.
Many of the pipe-lines were constructed during a period when costs
were about 50 per cent. of what they are now. Great fields of oil
lands were purchased as virgin soil, which later yielded an immense
output. Quantities of low-grade crude oil which had been bought by the
company when it was believed to be of little value, but which the
company hoped eventually to utilize, were greatly increased in value
by inventions for refining it and for using the residues formerly
considered almost worthless. Dock p