a great part of my working hours. Petroleum is used very extensively
in Germany for illuminating purposes by the poorer part of the
population, especially in the farming villages and industrial
towns. This oil used in Germany comes from two sources of supply,
from America and from the oil wells of Galicia and Roumania. The
German American Oil Company there, through which the American
oil was distributed, although a German company, was controlled by
American capital, and German capital was largely interested in
the Galician and Roumanian oil fields. The oil from Galicia and
Roumania is not so good a quality as that imported from America.

[Illustration: PROGRAMME OF THE MUSIC AFTER DINNER WITH THE KAISER
AT THE ROYAL PALACE, BERLIN.]

Before my arrival in Germany the government had proposed a law
creating the oil monopoly; that is to say, a company was to be
created, controlled by the government for the purpose of carrying
on the entire oil business of Germany, and no other person or
company, by its provisions, was to be allowed to sell any
illuminating oil or similar products in the Empire. The bill
provided that the business of those engaged in the wholesale
selling of oil, and their plants, etc., should be taken over
by this government company, condemned and paid for. The German
American Company, however, had also a retail business and plant
throughout Germany for which it was proposed that no compensation
should be given. The government bill also contained certain curious
"jokers"; for instance, it provided for the taking over of all
plants "within the customs limit of the German Empire," thus
leaving out of the compensation a refinery which was situated
in the free part of Hamburg, although, of course, by operation