Random Reminiscences of Men and Events | Page 2

The Benevolent Trust--The Value of the Cooperative Principle in
Giving
CHAPTER I
SOME OLD FRIENDS
Since these Reminiscences are really what they profess to be, random
and informal, I hope I may be pardoned for setting down so many small
things.
In looking back over my life, the impressions which come most vividly

to my mind are mental pictures of my old associates. In speaking of
these friends in this chapter, I would not have it thought that many
others, of whom I have not spoken, were less important to me, and I
shall hope to refer to this subject of my early friends in a later chapter.
It is not always possible to remember just how one first met an old
friend or what one's impressions were, but I shall never forget my first
meeting with Mr. John D. Archbold, who is now a vice-president of the
Standard Oil Company.
At that time, say thirty-five or forty years ago, I was travelling about
the country visiting the point where something was happening, talking
with the producers, the refiners, the agents, and actually getting
acquainted.
One day there was a gathering of the men somewhere near the oil
regions, and when I came to the hotel, which was full of oil men, I saw
this name writ large on the register:
_John D. Archbold, $4.00 a bbl._
He was a young and enthusiastic fellow, so full of his subject that he
added his slogan, "$4.00 a bbl.," after his signature on the register, that
no one might misunderstand his convictions. The battle cry of $4.00 a
barrel was all the more striking because crude oil was selling then for
much less, and this campaign for a higher price certainly did attract
attention--it was much top good to be true. But if Mr. Archbold had to
admit in the end that crude oil is not worth "$4,00 a bbl.," his
enthusiasm, his energy, and his splendid power over men have lasted.
He has always had a well-developed sense of humour, and on one
serious occasion, when he was on the witness stand, he was asked by
the opposing lawyer:
"Mr. Archbold, are you a director of this company?"
"I am."

"What is your occupation in this company?"
He promptly answered, "To clamour for dividends," which led the
learned counsel to start afresh on another line.
I can never cease to wonder at his capacity for hard work. I do not often
see him now, for he has great affairs on his hands, while I live like a
farmer away from active happenings in business, playing golf, planting
trees; and yet I am so busy that no day is long enough.
Speaking of Mr. Archbold leads me to say again that I have received
much more credit than I deserve in connection with the Standard Oil
Company. It was my good fortune to help to bring together the efficient
men who are the controlling forces of the organization and to work
hand in hand with them for many years, but it is they who have done
the hard tasks.
The great majority of my associations were made so many years ago,
that I have reached the age when hardly a month goes by (sometimes I
think hardly a week) that I am not called upon to send some message of
consolation to a family with whom we have been connected, and who
have met with some fresh bereavement. Only recently I counted up the
names of the early associates who have passed away. Before I had
finished, I found the list numbered some sixty or more. They were
faithful and earnest friends; we had worked together through many
difficulties, and had gone through many severe trials together. We had
discussed and argued and hammered away at questions until we came
to agree, and it has always been a happiness to me to feel that we had
been frank and aboveboard with each other. Without this, business
associates cannot get the best out of their work.
It is not always the easiest of tasks to induce strong, forceful men to
agree. It has always been our policy to hear patiently and discuss
frankly until the last shred of evidence is on the table, before trying to
reach a conclusion and to decide finally upon a course of action. In
working with so many partners, the conservative ones are apt to be in
the majority, and this is no doubt a desirable thing when the mere
momentum of a large concern is certain to carry it forward. The men

who have been very successful are correspondingly conservative, since
they have much to lose in case of disaster. But fortunately there are also
the aggressive and more daring ones, and they are usually the youngest
in the company,