Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/428

 JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER 405 Vigorously prosecuting the Rockefeller ideas of increasing facilities and extending trade lines, the company established refineries from time to time at various points, principally at Baltimore, Philadelphia, Bayonne, and Brooklyn. Pipe lines were built more economically to transport the crude oil from the fields to these cities. Then came the tank car and the tank steamer for delivering the refined product The Stand- ard set the pace in every development. Mr. Rockefeller, in his reminiscences, gives much credit for the upbuilding of this giant corporation to his several asso- ciates of those days. On the other hand these men without exception have many times declared that the guiding genius of the development was Mr. Rockefeller. Unquestionably, these associates were largely responsible for the working out of the policies and details of trade extension both at home and abroad, but there is little doubt that it was the Rockefeller in- itiative that made possible the early successes of the consol- idation movement. Something of this remarkable ability was hinted at by Mr. Rockefeller in the story of his rapid-fire borrowing on one of the occasions when the Standard absorbed some important competing properties. At noon a message was received stat- ing that the proposed deal was possible if the necessary funds were immediately available. In order to accomplish it Mr. Rockefeller was compelled to borrow something like half a million dollars in cash and get away on a train at three o 'clock that afternoon. His ride from bank to bank in Cleveland was on the Paul Revere order. He stopped at each just long enough to ask the president or cashier to get together in cash all the funds he possibly could lay hands upon by the time he returned. He made the train and the deal was consmnmated. The history of the Standard Oil Company is too well known to require extensive review. SuflSce it to say that with a cap- italization of $100,000,000 it has been paying regularly for many years dividends aggregating seldom less than 40 per cent, of this amount. Prior to the recent court order of dis- solution its stock, which had a par value of $100 a share, brought something in excess of $1,400 a share when it sold at