with old associates and many new ones, and it was a source of great
gratification to me to find that the same spirit of coöperation 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 of selling our products direct to the consumer and the
exceptionally rapid growth of the business bred a certain antagonism
which I suppose could not have been avoided, but this same idea of
dealing with the consumer directly has been followed by others and in
many lines of trade, without creating, so far as I recall, any serious
opposition.