transporting oil in barrels could not last. The package often cost
more than the contents, and the forests of the country were not
sufficient to supply cheaply the necessary material for an extended
time. Hence we devoted attention to other methods of transportation,
adopted the pipe-line system, and found capital for pipe-line
construction equal to the necessities of the business.

To operate pipe-lines required franchises from the states in which
they were located--and consequently corporations in those states--just
as railroads running through different states are forced to operate
under separate state charters. To perfect the pipe-line system of
transportation required many millions of capital. The entire oil
business is dependent upon the pipe-line. Without it every well would
be less valuable and every market at home and abroad would be more
difficult to serve or retain, because of the additional cost to the
consumer. The expansion of the whole industry would have been retarded
without this method of transportation.

Then the pipe-line system required other improvements, such as
tank-cars upon railroads, and finally the tank-steamer. Capital had to
be furnished for them and corporations created to own and operate
them.

Everyone of the steps taken was necessary if the business was to be
properly developed, and only through such successive steps and by a
great aggregation of capital is America to-day enabled to utilize the
bounty which its land pours forth, and to furnish the world with
light.