| Introduction
Champion
As a champion of independent American business, Sinclair is second
to none. The organization has been for all its life a major factor
in the survival of free competition in an area more essential to
American life than any except food and shelter. Sinclair
has also been a large
purchaser of crude oil from independent operators in America.
Its "Buy American" policy of the time put $400 million
annually into the pockets of independent oil producers. Sinclair
also sponsored and sustained about 26,000 so-called "little
businessmen," who operated
service stations, home fuel
delivery systems, or local distributing centers, retailing Sinclair
products.
In Four
Enormous Industries
Sinclair, one of the largest independents to be organized in the oil
industry since the trust-busting era, at age fifty exerted powerful
force as an independent in four enormous industries: oil and gas
production, manufacturing, transportation, and marketing. Thus, the
enterprise had made important contributions to keeping alive the
independent American spirit throughout the national economy.
Sinclair still emphasizes independence: for itself, its suppliers
and dealers; and, for its customers, the right of free choice as an
essential of American progress.
A
New Brand Name
Sinclair added a new brand name, equated with superior quality, at a
time when presumably all the big oil companies which the economy
could support had been formed. Within six months of its founding,
Sinclair went on to create enormous new wealth, investment and
career opportunities, job security, vast tax revenues, and a
dimension of independence in a vital industry, without all of which
this nation would be measurably poorer.
At its Fiftieth Anniversary, Sinclair had successfully made the
transition from thirty-three years of one-man leadership to a
decentralized management team. In the process, the legacy of Harry
F. Sinclair had been doubled, and the Sinclair complex of companies
had become a billion dollar enterprise.
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