There she is. There she is.
Ladies and gentlemen… I’ve traveled over half our state to be here tonight. I couldn’t get away sooner because my new well was coming in at Coyote Hills and I had to see about it. That well is now flowing at two thousand barrels and it’s paying me an income of five thousand dollars a week. I have two others drilling and I have sixteen producing at Antelope; so, ladies and gentlemen, if I say I’m an oil man, you will agree. Now, you have a great chance here, but bear in mind, you can lose it all if you’re not careful. Out of all men that beg for a chance to drill your lots, maybe one in twenty will be oilmen; the rest will be speculators – that’s men trying to get between you and the oilmen – to get some of the money that ought by rights come to you. Even if you find one that has money and means to drill, he’ll maybe know nothing about drilling and he’ll have to hire the job out on contract, and then you’re depending on a contractor who’ll rush the job through so he can get another contract just as quick as he can. This is… the way that this works.
I do my own drilling, and the men that work for me work for me. and they’re men I know. I make it my business to be there and to see their work. I don’t lose my tools in the hole and spend months fishing for them; I don’t botch the cementing off and let water in the hole and ruin the whole lease. I’m a family man. I run a family business. This is my son and my partner, H.W. Plainview.
We offer you the bond of family that very few oilmen can understand. I’m fixed like no other company in this field and that’s because my Coyote Hills well has just come in. I have a string of tools all ready to put to work. I can load a rig onto trucks and have them here in a week. I have business connections so I can get the lumber for the derrick – such things go by friendship in a rush like this – and this is why I can guarantee to start drilling and to put up the cash to back my word. I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, no matter what the others promise to do, when it comes to the showdown, they won’t be there.
Ladies and gentlemen? Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for visiting with us this evening. Now, I’ve traveled across half our state to be here and to see about this land. Now, I daresay some of you might have heard some of the more extravagant rumors about what my plans are; I just thought you’d like to hear it from me. This is the face. There’s no great mystery. I’m an oilman, ladies and gentlemen. I have numerous concerns spread across this state. I have many wells flowing at many thousand barrels per day. I like to think of myself as an oilman. As an oilman, I hope that you’ll forgive just good old-fashioned plain speaking. Now, this work that we do is very much a family enterprise; I work side by side with my wonderful son, H.W. – I think one or two of you might have met him already – and, uh, I encourage my men to bring their families, as well. Of course, it makes for an ever so much more rewarding life for them. Family means children; children means education; so, wherever we set up camp, education is a necessity, and we’re just so happy to take care of that. So let’s build a wonderful school in Little Boston. These children are the future that we strive for and so they should have the very best of things. Now something else, uh… and please don’t be insulted if I speak about this – bread. Let’s talk about bread. Now to my mind, uh, it’s an abomination to consider that any man, woman or child in this magnificent country of ours should have to look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury. We’re gonna dig water wells here and, uh, water wells means irrigation. Irrigation means cultivation. We’re gonna raise crops here where before it just simply wasn’t impossible. You’re going to have more grain than you know what to do with. Bread will be coming right out of your ears, ma’am. New roads, agriculture, employment, education – these are just a few of the things we can offer you, and I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that if we do find oil here – and I think there’s a very good chance that we will – this community of yours will not only survive, it will flourish.
I thank you all so much for visiting with us at this time. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some of you, and I hope, very much in the months to come, I’ll be able to visit with each and every one of you. Ah… I’m better at digging holes in the ground than making speeches, so let’s forget the speech for this evening, just make it a simple blessing. You see, one man doesn’t prospect from the ground. It takes a whole community of good people, such as yourselves… and, uh, this is good. We stay together. We pray together, we work together and, if the good Lord smiles kindly on our endeavor, we share in the wealth together. Now before we spud in Mary’s Well number one – named for the lovely Miss Mary Sunday here by my side, a proud daughter of these hills – I’d just like to say God bless these honest labors of ours; and, of course, God bless you all. Amen.
Mr. Bankside, I’m not going to waste your time; I’d certainly appreciate it if you didn’t waste mine. Now, if you wish to sign with me, we can have a well drilling within ten days, but your lot is further north from the discovery well up here, and so… Well, that means we’ll probably have to dig deeper. And if there’s as much oil here as I think there is, it’ll be harder to reach, but once we find it, we can take it right out. You have to act quickly, because very soon these fields will be dry. Now… I need you to know what you want to do. Now, because of the distance from the discovery well, I’ll pay you a smaller royalty than you’d get down there, but I’m prepared to give you a thousand dollar bonus on your lot.
I’m finished.
