Mr. Balfour: We owe you a profound debt of gratitude!
Witness (visibly affected): Thank you, Arthur. I can only repay you all by loyal service; and I think your kindness will be partly justified when I tell you that I am within sight of producing powder that explodes. Some has already gone off by accident in one of my sheds and killed a German.
[Witness here shook hands again warmly all round and went out.]
Mr. Elihu Z. Kapper swore that he was an American. In 1872 he first began to import mineral oil into this country. The people took kindly to it, and used it in a thousand ways. By 1880 he was importing 50,000 gallons a year of it. Meanwhile he was chiselled out by Mr. Rockefeller, and left to freeze. Mr. Rockefeller was a great man. He (witness) had then turned his attention to the English field, and had discovered vast lakes of oil in Devon, Norfolk, Denbigh, Cumberland, and Rutland. He had floated ten companies.
Mr. Balfour (aside): Wasted capital!
Witness: They had all gone bankrupt, and their bankruptcy was undoubtedly due to underselling from America. England had more undeveloped oil than any other country in the world.
Mr. Chamberlain: Now let me put you a practical question. If we prohibited the import of foreign oil, could you float an eleventh company?
Mr. Kapper (promptly): I have an eleventh floated already, Secretary—I could float a twelfth.