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 property was secured at low prices
and made valuable by buildings and development. Large unimproved
tracts of land near the important business centres were acquired. We
brought our industries to these places, made the land useful, and
increased the value, not only of our own property, but of the land
adjacent to it to many times the original worth. Wherever we have
established businesses in this and other countries we have bought
largely of property. I remember a case where we paid only $1,000 or so
an acre for some rough land to be used for such purposes, and, through