The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-28

of what. wares he offers whether they be shares of stock or something else Having honest goods to sell he may then exercise his ingenuity in attract
 ing the attention of customers Lack.
 ing honest goods with honest values, il
 isn't advertising. it's obtaining money by false pretences."
 It was while In this mood of doing
 for himself that c. F. King was drawn to a consideration of what properties became afterward-and still remain the basis of the King-Crowther cor poration. MT. King took hold of the enterprise in the autumn of 1901. Un. der his management, King -Crowther was organized as a corporation. The properties. oil lands, one hundred square miles in all. located In South western Texas, were untouched and un-
 mafked of influences more civilized and civilizing than should come from the unscarred occupation of coyotes antelope prairie dogs and jack rabbits That was six years ago. Today. dis placing those wild ones, there lives the thriving town of Crowther with its
 hotel and daily mail. and a number of
 oil wells drilled at enormous expense to prove up and determine beyond
 question an oil area so large as to be
 practically inexhaustible. In addition
 to this, the King -Crowther corporation
 owns and operates in the proven oil
 belts of Ohio and Indiana, sos oil wells,
 every one of them flowing night and
 day a golden stream into the coffers
 of the corporation. However. this is
 to get ahead of the story.
 Two years of faithful work c. F.
 King put in in uplifting King-Crowth-
 CT. He had the goods; failure was i'm
 possible. It was then. when King Crowther was beginning to stand strong
 ly upon its young legs. that the unex-
 pected happened. Texas sentiment
 went upon an antt-corporation crusade.
 It swept the State like a tornado; good
 or i'll, 1t blew all incorporated things
 as flat as a field of turnips. Insurance.
 brewing, oil, grocery companies, all
 were to suffer, and four hundred and
 forty three corporations were either
 uprooted or chased ino exile. Among
 the rest, King-Crowther was blown on
 it's infantile legs; its stock dropped to
 two dollars.
 To the Commander Belongs the Credit.
 This was discouraging to the verge
 of annihilating hope. It would have
 and other than c. F. King at the head.
 The tempest over. slowly. painfully yet surely he began to rebuild. That he succeeded, the town of Crowther bears testimony; as does also the fact that the company, earning a yearly 12 per cent is paying-quarterly-a per cent dividend. and investors are seek ing the shares at par. More than one wise shareholder, who bought King Crowther at two dollars. Is receiving dividends which equal his original in vestment every three months.
 As this is written c. F. King is iden- tified with various companies other than the King-Crowther Corporation for his business concerns have marvel lously broadened and deepened during the years since 1901. There are the Alton Manufacturing Company. the Erie Preserving Company. the Douglas Copper Company paint company in Worcester. and half a dozen others. the total capitalization of which exceeds SIG, 900, ,0O0 With all of them he has been identified as fnincial agent, Is president of two. represented on the boards of the others. but King Crow ther Is perhaps the only corporation that, strictly speaking. he may be said to have promoted"
 It Is an axiom of the companies that
 ''No corporation is strong enough to
 man" MT. King was in no sort slow in learning this; and so from the first he has been in sole command of the King Crowther Corporation. and may with justice claim the credit of having with in six years and despite a tempest-tos- sed babyhood. lifted 1t to its present
 prosperity as the second largest oil
 company of the United States.