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to nearby communities at night, but nearly all lived as bachelors and
went home every other Thursday afternoon. They worked until noon on
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the company provided transportation to the home communities within
the Eastern Province. They would return on Friday evenings to begin
the new workweek on Saturday morning. It was natural for employees
to want better housing for their families and to have such housing rea-
sonably close to their work locations. The Saudi Minister of Petroleum
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expense, maintain the homes and community facilities required and to
do so at a very nominal charge to the employees. Construction costs in
Arabia were far higher than in the U.S. because virtually everything
had to be imported. It was easy for company executives to see that bil-
lions of dollars would be required in the initial capital investment and
scores of millions each year would be required for continuing operating
expenses. The company also realized that no one loves the landlord, no
one would have a stake in proper maintenance of their company home,
and when an individual retired, he would lack a home.

I am proud of the alternative program that the company devel-
oped. The company proposed that if the government would grant unde-
veloped land to Aramco employees, the company would grade the land,
install sewer and water lines, provide a set of standard home designs
free and would provide construction inspection. A formula was estab-
lished for the size of the home loan keyed to the employee salary level.
No down payment was required. The company would pay the construc-
tion costs of the home, provide a repayment schedule and the company
would contribute one Riyal for every four Riyals the employee paid on
his mortgage. Very few oil companies anywhere around the world pro-
vided family housing at that time and this program ultimately resulted in
the construction of over 10,000 houses for Saudi employees in the next
dozen years or so. It is the most successful program of its kind in any
company in the world.

In 1957, it had been arranged for an employee family commu-
nity to be built in an area called Rahaima, about a mile from the Ras
Tanura main gate to company operations. It was about a ½ mile south of
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