Chesty Child

Last week the Standard Oil Co. of Indiana, chesty child of a potent tribe, made a few announcements

1) Its net earnings for 1926 were $62,500,000--$6.03 a share-- 13.68% on the capital invested.

2) It has changed its president. Dr. William M. Burton, who "cracked" petroleum so hard that it yielded twice as much gasoline, was granted his wish to retire, was succeeded by Edward G. Seubert, a onetime newsboy. Soon, no doubt, the success magazines will be asking Mr. Seubert for the story of his rise. It is an epitome of the great U. S. biography, a machinist's helper at 15, a bookkeeper whose accounts balanced, a chief clerk who plugged, a vice president --one of the faithful rewarded when he reached a healthy 50.

3) Robert H. McElroy and Edward J. Bullock, both of whom had served the Standard Oil long and faithfully, were lifted to the rank of vice president.

These announcements and most maneuvers of importance in the Standard Oil Co. of Indiana are the work of a burly lawyer--Colonel Robert Wright Stewart, chairman of the board of directors. He did not rise from the bottom. He broke in at the middle and puffed out the chest of the Indiana oilcan. Babbitts could not understand how he did it. He had played football at Coe College (Iowa), plunged into the law at Yale, cavorted with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, dabbled in politics in South Dakota. But he was and is a shrewd lawyer. The Standard Oil wanted him. Soon the general counsel was made chairman of the board (1918).* He summoned lethargic directors to thrice-weekly meetings, made them agree unanimously on every decision. Under the Stewart impetus the company grew big with physical properties and profits. More than 15,000 employe stockholders shared the resulting pleasures.

Mr. Stewart's biggest coup came in 1925 when he combined the Pan-American Petroleum Co. (Edward L. Doheny's mainspring) and the British Mexican Co. with the Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. And that is why some say that Mr. Stewart is the toughest and least stoppable fullback in the oil field.

*A not unusual practice among great corporations within the last two decades.