of comradeship which I have always observed.
It has been one of the most real things in my
experience. Standard Oil has always been essen­
tially an organization of men."
From many of his utterances in similar vein,
such as the following expressed on the occasion
of Sohio's 70th Birthday anniversary, it is clear
that he thought of the company as an abiding
human institution existing not merely for the
benefit of all present stockholders, employees
and customers, but for the benefit of all future
stockholders, employees and customers:
"The incorporation of our company 70 years
ago (he said in January, 1940) marked the
beginning of a stabilized and business-like indus­
try. It marked the beginning of a new ind ustrial
era. But to us of this company, it must mean
the start of a great human institution."
Motivated by this conviction, Mr. Holliday
never ceased to devote himself, and to inspire
Soh i 0 people to devote themselves, to the
improvement and advancement of their company.
No ,vonder that under his "regime" there
existed and flourished a definite feeling among
all ranks of Sohio personnel of working for, and
belonging to, a good and progressive human
company high in public esteem.
Mr. Holliday was always
ready to pay generous trib­
ute to Standard Oil person­
nel, men and management,
who had preceded the begin­
ning of his administration.
One such occasion was in
January, 1940.
"In these seventy years of
our company we may say,
roughly, there have been
three generations of men.
A generation covers about
twenty years. First there was
the old guard, the pioneers.
Mr. Holliday's contribution to
the war effort was personal as
well as official. Here he waits on
service men at one of the armed
forces canteens in
Cleveland.
Then there was the intermediate generation, men
trained by the pioneers and succeeding them.
And now there is our own generation, many of
whom worked with the men of the second genera­
tion. Three generations of Standard Oil men,
each meeting different kinds of problems, but
each, as I see it, carrying on a common tradition.
"The men of t hat first generation were
pioneers in every sense of the word. That second
generation of Standard Oil men was a splendid
group, too. They 'were different from the first
and third generations, because their problems
were different. But they helped to build up, and
carried on, and cherished the Standard Oil
traditions in a ,val' which should be the envy of
all of us who follow."
Mild-mannered in his personal dealings with
others, Mr. Holliday was a forthright and unyield­
ing opponent of unfairness wherever he encoun­
tered it, whether in high places or low. He was
quick to go to bat for Sohio employees; he just
as quickly lashed out at what he thought to be
unfair and demagogic attacks on big business,
the oil industry, and top management, by poli­
ticians, reformers, and others who willfully or
ignorantly misrepresented the truth about busi­
ness and industry on its higher levels. Some