[TheStellarEnsemble.com] The Godfather - Mario Puzo

him and voluntarily paid him twenty dollars each week for his “friendship.” He had only to visitthe game once or twice a week to let the players understand they were under his protection.Store owners who had problems with young hoodlums asked him to intercede. He did soand was properly rewarded. Soon he had the enormous income for that time and place of onehundred dollars a week. Since Clemenza and Tessio were his friends, his allies, he had to givethem each part of the money, but this he did without being asked. Finally he decided to go intothe olive oil importing business with his boyhood chum, Genco Abbandando. Genco wouldhandle the business, the importing of the olive oil from Italy, the buying at the proper price, thestoring in his father’s warehouse. Genco had the experience for this part of the business.Clemenza and Tessio would be the salesmen. They would go to every Italian grocery store inManhattan, then Brooklyn, then the Bronx, to persuade store owners to stock Genco Pura oliveoil. (With typical modesty, Vito Corleone refused to name the brand after himself.) Vito ofcourse would be the head of the firm since he was supplying most of the capital. He also wouldbe called in on special cases, where store owners resisted the sales talks of Clemenza and Tessio.Then Vito Corleone would use his own formidable powers of persuasion.For the next few years Vito Corleone lived that completely satisfying life of a smallbusinessman wholly devoted to building up his commercial enterprise in a dynamic, expandingeconomy. He was a devoted father and husband but so busy he could spare his family little of histime. As Genco Pura olive oil grew to become the bestselling imported Italian oil in America,his organization mushroomed. Like any good salesman he came to understand the benefits ofundercutting his rivals in price, barring them from distribution outlets by persuading storeowners to stock less of their brands. Like any good businessman he aimed at holding a monopolyby forcing his rivals to abandon the field or by merging with his own company. However, sincehe had started off relatively helpless, economically, since he did not believe in advertising,relying on word of mouth and since if truth be told, his olive oil was no better than hiscompetitors’, he could not use the common strangleholds of legitimate businessmen. He had torely on the force of his own personality and his reputation as a “man of respect.”Even as a young man, Vito Corleone became known as a “man of reasonableness.” Henever uttered a threat. He always used logic that proved to be irresistible. He always madecertain that the other fellow got his share of profit. Nobody lost. He did this, of course, byobvious means. Like many businessmen of genius he learned that free competition was wasteful,186