In a difficult decision, Cities Service elected to remain in the petroleum business.
It soon was doing one tenth of all the petroleum business in the United States.
"The truck stop industry is a service business, not a petroleum business," he said.
He continued in the mercantile business, becoming interested in the petroleum business later on.
He became a civil engineer and was engaged in mining and the petroleum business.
"The petroleum business here must earn a fortune, and they must deposit at least part of that profit in banks somewhere."
A half-cent sales tax earmarked for economic development was created after the decline in the petroleum business in the 1980s.
But the protesters didn't know anything about the petroleum business; if the regime fell, "Who's going to feed us?"
But the effect was offset by improvements in the performance of the company's petroleum business.
The solution, he added, was not a tax decrease but "more competition, more oversight" in the petroleum business.