It was with this idea that we proceeded to buy the largest and best refining concerns and centralize the administration of them with a view to securing greater economy and efficiency.  The business grew faster than we had anticipated.

This enterprise, conducted by men of application and ability working hard together, soon built up unusual facilities in manufacture, in transportation, in finance, and in extending markets.  We had our troubles and set-backs; we suffered from some severe fires; and the supply of crude oil was most uncertain.  Our plans were constantly changed by changed conditions.  We developed great facilities in an oil centre, erected storage tanks, and connected pipe-lines; then the oil failed and our work was thrown away.  At best it was a speculative trade, and I wonder that we managed to pull through so often; but we were gradually learning how to conduct a most difficult business.

FOREIGN MARKETS

Several years ago, when asked how our business grew to such large proportions I explained that our first organization was a partnership and afterward a corporation in Ohio.  That was sufficient for a local refining business.  But, had we been dependent solely upon local business, we should have failed long since.  We were forced to extend our markets into every part of the world.  This made the sea-board cities a necessary place of business, and we soon discovered that manufacturing for export could be more economically carried on there; hence refineries were established at Brooklyn, at Bayonne, at Philadelphia, at Baltimore, and necessary corporations were organized in the different states.

We soon discovered, as the business grew, that the primary method of 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.