the Standard Oil Company that I may say a word about that subject.
This company is interested only in oil products and such
manufacturing affairs as are legitimately connected therewith. It has
plants for the making of barrels and tanks; and building pumps for
pumping oil; it owns vessels for carrying oil, tank-cars, pipes for
transporting oil, etc., etc.--but it is not concerned in speculative
interests. The oil business itself is speculative enough, and its
successful administration requires a firm hand and a cool head.

The company pays dividends to its stockholders which it earns in
carrying on this oil trade. This money the stockholders can and do use
as they think fit, but the company is in no way responsible for the
disposition that the stockholders make of their dividends. The
Standard Oil Company does not own or control "a chain of banks," nor
has it any interest directly or indirectly in any bank. Its relations
are confined to the functions of ordinary banking, such as other
depositors have. It buys and sells its own exchange; and these
dealings, extending over many years, have made its bills of exchange
acceptable all over the world.


CHARACTER THE ESSENTIAL THING

In speaking of the real beginning of the Standard Oil Company, it
should be remembered that it was not so much the consolidation of the
firms in which we had a personal interest, but the coming together of
the men who had the combined brain power to do the work, which was the
actual starting-point. Perhaps it is worth while to emphasize again
the fact that it is not merely capital and "plants" and the strictly
material things which make up a business, but the character of the men