Career

In beginning the work I had some advantages. My father's training, as I have said, was practical, the course at the commercial college had taught…

For the next year, with $25 a month, I kept my position, learning the details and clerical work connected with such a business. It was a wholesale…

To begin with, my work was done in the office of the firm itself. I was almost always present when they talked of their affairs, laid out their plans…

As I was studying the same plumber's bills in great detail, checking every item, if only for a few cents, and finding it to be greatly to the…

Passing bills, collecting rents, adjusting claims, and work of this kind brought me in association with a great variety of people. I had to learn how…

We would receive, for example, a shipment of marble from Vermont to Cleveland. This involved handling by railroad, canal, and lake boats. The cost of…

I should estimate that the salaries of that time were far less than half of what is paid for equivalent positions to-day. The next year I was offered…

In those days, in Cleveland, everyone knew almost everyone else in town. Among the merchants was a young Englishman named M.B. Clark, perhaps ten…

At that time, 10 per cent. a year interest was a very common rate for such loans. At the banks the rate might not have been quite so high; but of…

It was a great thing to be my own employer. Mentally I swelled with pride--a partner in a firm with $4,000 capital! Mr. Clark attended to the…

I went to a bank president whom I knew, and who knew me. I remember perfectly how anxious I was to get that loan and to establish myself favourably…

For long years after the head of this bank was a friend indeed; he loaned me money when I needed it, and I needed it almost all the time, and all the…

Mr. Handy trusted me because he believed we would conduct our young business on conservative and proper lines, and I well remember about this time an…

The situation seemed very serious; my partner was impatient with me for refusing to yield, and in this dilemma I decided to go personally to see if I…

About this time I began to go out and solicit business--a branch of work I had never before attempted. I undertook to visit every person in our…

These experiences with my father remind me that in the early days there was often much discussion as to what should be paid for the use of money.…

This estimable lady was violently opposed to loaners obtaining high rates of interest, and we had frequent and earnest arguments on the subject.…

I have usually found that important alterations in public opinion in regard to business matters have been of slow growth along the line of proved…

One can hardly realize how difficult it was to get capital for active business enterprises at that time. In the country farther west much higher…

The holder of the mortgage had long demanded that he should be paid, but somehow even the interest was barely kept up, and the creditor finally…

It would be surprising if in an organization which included a great number of men there should not be an occasional employee here and there who acted…

It has been said that I forced the men who became my partners in the oil business to join with me. I would not have been so short-sighted. If it were…

In the summer of 1907 I visited again the room at the top of the Standard Oil Company's building, where the officers of the company and the heads…

For years the Standard Oil Company has developed step by step, and I am convinced that it has done well its work of supplying to the people the…

This plan of selling our products direct to the consumer and the exceptionally rapid growth of the business bred a certain antagonism which I suppose…

This is a very interesting and important point, and I have often wondered if the criticism which centred upon us did not come from the fact that we…

Every week in the year for many, many years, this concern has brought into this country more than a million dollars gold, all from the products…

None of us ever dreamed of the magnitude of what proved to be the later expansion. We did our day's work as we met it, looking forward to what we…

The enterprise being so new and novel, on account of the fearfulness of certain holders in reference to its success, we frequently had to take…

The 60,000 men who are at work constantly in the service of the company are kept busy year in and year out. The past year has been a time of great…

Another thing to be remembered about this so-called "octopus" is that there has been no "water" introduced into its capital (perhaps we felt that oil…

Beyond question there is a suspicion of corporations. There may be reason for such suspicion very often; for a corporation may be moral or immoral,…

The dangers are that the power conferred by combination may be abused, that combinations may be formed for speculation in stocks rather than for…

In the hearing of the Industrial Commission in 1899, I then said that if I were to suggest any legislation regarding industrial combinations it would…

I am far from believing that this will adversely affect the individual. The great economic era we are entering will give splendid opportunity to…

The great business interests will, I hope, so comport themselves that foreign capital will consider it a desirable thing to hold shares in American…

I may speak thus frankly, because I am an investor in many American enterprises, but a controller of none (with one exception, and that a company…

I confess I have no sympathy with the idea so often advanced that our basis of all judgments in this country is founded on money. If this were true,…

In reading the newspapers, where so much is taken for granted in considering things on a money standard, I think we need some of the sense of…

In my early days men acted just as they do now, no doubt. When there was anything to be done for general trade betterment, almost every man had…

Then, again, we had the type of man who really never knew all the facts about his own affairs. Many of the brightest kept their books in such a way…

My ideas of business are no doubt old-fashioned, but the fundamental principles do not change from generation to generation, and sometimes I think…

Many men of wealth do not retire from business even when they can. They are not willing to be idle, or they have a just pride in their work and…

Some of these men, however, are so absorbed in their business affairs that they hardly have time to think of anything else. If they do interest…

During the years when I was just coming to man's estate, the produce business of Clark & Rockefeller went on prosperously, and in the early sixties…

In 1865 the partnership was dissolved; it was decided that the cash assets should be collected and the debts paid, but this left the plant and the…

I had made up my mind that I wanted to go into the oil trade, not as a special partner, but actively on a larger scale, and with Mr. Andrews wished…

The story of the early history of the oil trade is too well known to bear repeating in detail. The cleansing of crude petroleum was a simple and easy…

These were the problems which confronted us almost at the outset, and this great depression led to consultations with our neighbors and friends in…

This enterprise, conducted by men of application and ability working hard together, soon built up unusual facilities in manufacture, in…

Several years ago, when asked how our business grew to such large proportions I explained that our first organization was a partnership and afterward…

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…

One Hogmanay night[2] an old wifey, quite a character in the village, being surprised by a disguised face suddenly thrust in at the window, looked up…

My Grandfather Morrison was a born orator, a keen politician, and the head of the advanced wing of the radical party in the district--a position…

I have not passed so far through life without receiving some compliments, but I think nothing of a complimentary character has ever pleased me so…

As my father succeeded in the weaving business we removed from Moodie Street to a much more commodious house in Reid's Park. My father's four or five…

Dunfermline has long been renowned as perhaps the most radical town in the Kingdom, although I know Paisley has claims. This is all the more…

In the performance of these duties I was often late for school, but the master, knowing the cause, forgave the lapses. In the same connection I may…

This is something of a commentary upon the truth that war breeds war, that every battle sows the seeds of future battles, and that thus nations…

One of the trials of my boy's life at school in Dunfermline was committing to memory two double verses of the Psalms which I had to recite daily.…