IlLINOiS HISTORICAL SURVEY 
 
 'v.
 
 An Old Alan Looks Back
 
 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Reminiscences 
 
 OF FORTY-SEVEN YEARS 
 
 IN THE GENERAL OFFICES 
 OF CRANE CO. 
 
 BY JOHN B. BERRYMAN 
 
 CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD 
 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 PRIVATELY PRINTED 
 1943
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1943, BY CRANE CO., CHICAGO
 
 ' '10) I FOREWOR I) 
 
 LK^ 
 
 o 
 
 LD MEN like to rcniiniscc. And naturally so. For 
 them there is no future, so they live with their memories 
 and look back on the road they have traveled, because 
 the road ahead ends abruptly in the unknown and im- 
 penetrable valley of the shadows. 
 
 This little book is not an autobiography, although I 
 have included many personal incidents, interesting to me 
 as markers on the road over which I came, but the main 
 object is to give the men in our organization an idea of 
 what happened in the formative years of the Company, 
 the kind of men w ho did the work while the structure was 
 building, the background of ability and industry which 
 made Crane Co. what it is. Of necessity, I cannot cover 
 the whole field as it takes all manner of men to create and 
 operate a manufacturing and merchandising company; 
 administrators, salesmen, technologists, mechanics, clerks, 
 accountants, and run of mine labor; the producers and 
 distributors; and one is of no value without the other. 
 
 If it seems, in these memories, that I have confined my- 
 self unduly to the men in the general office and shops, it 
 is because I rubbed elbows with them, lived and worked 
 with them, not that I do not recognize ability outside of 
 my immediate environment. We had on the distribution 
 side in the branches many outstanding merchants and
 
 vi Foreword 
 
 organizers who were powerful factors in building the Com- 
 pany; among them, L. P. Ordway, St. Paul, one of the 
 best merchants who ever lived; Fred N itchy, Portland; 
 Lew Peeples, Los Angeles; Mort Robinson, Philadelphia; 
 and Fred Lally, New York — five outstanding men capa- 
 ble of filling any position in the Company. Two of them 
 have passed on; the others have retired from active busi- 
 ness. Crane Co. has been fortunate, over the years, in hav- 
 ing an organization exceptionally high class and high 
 minded. 
 
 If it strikes the reader that I have put down some very 
 trivial things, please remember that life is made up of 
 small happenings and not many large ones, and many 
 minor incidents linger in memory after the important 
 ones are forgotten. You may not remember how many 
 fish you caught three years ago, but you have a distinct 
 recollection of a member of your party in a row boat, 
 growling and swearing to himself over a snarled line, or 
 the day when some one slid into the water off a smooth 
 rock and sat in the shallows looking perplexed and sur- 
 prised. I remember, over forty years ago, a fat man with 
 a white vest standing on the deck of Fred Morgan's yacht 
 "Pathfinder", the white vest very prominent over his fat 
 tummy; a small boy on the dock yelled, "Hey! you, take 
 in your Spinaker." Did you ever see a Spinaker belly out 
 before the wind? If you have, you know how "pat" 
 
 that was. 
 
 John B. Berryman 
 Chicago, 1943
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 FIRST PERIOD I UNDER RICHARD T. CRANE 
 
 Page I 
 
 SECOND PERIOD : CHARLES R. CRANE, PRESIDENT 
 
 Page 45 
 
 THIRD PERIOD : R. T. CRANE, JR., PRESIDENT 
 
 Page 50 
 
 FOURTH PERIOD : JOHN B. BERRYMAN, PRESIDENT 
 
 Page 73 
 
 FIFTH PERIOD ! CHAS. B. NOLTE, PRESIDENT 
 
 Page 77 
 
 SIXTH PERIOD : JOHN H. COLLIER, PRESIDENT 
 
 Page 80 
 
 vu
 
 Richard T. Crane 
 
 FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT UNTIL I9I I
 
 FIRST PERIOD 
 
 UNDER RICHARD T. CRANE 
 
 1895-igii 
 
 o 
 
 N February ist, 1895, 1 left the more or less elegant 
 apartment in the old Tremont House for which I had 
 agreed to pay $ i .00, or perhaps it was $1 .50 per day, and 
 walked a little less than a mile to 10 N. Jefferson Street. 
 To me, it was something of an adventure. I had been en- 
 gaged to head a newly created department to handle high 
 pressure piping, valves, and such accessories as would 
 naturally go with the job. With the ordinary run of fit- 
 tings, valves, pipe, heating and plumbing supplies, which 
 make up the inventory of a jobbing house, I was familiar. 
 But high pressure power house piping was practically un- 
 known in the Minneapolis and St. Paul market from which 
 I came, and there was just a shadow of doubt in my mind 
 whether I could make good. However, youth is always 
 buoyed up with what a poet called, the "Divine Afflatus 
 of Hope," and I entered the dingy hall of 10 North with- 
 out any particular mental worry. I had known Joim 
 Murphy, the sales manager, for several years; had bought 
 supplies from him when I was with Rugg Fuller & Co., 
 and having managed a branch house, and so was a part 
 
 I
 
 2 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 of the organization, I had no feeUng of being a stranger, 
 but rather that I was coming home to what I hoped 
 would be my last job. 
 
 Reporting upstairs to John Murphy, I was introduced 
 to A. M. Gilbert, vice-president; A. F. Gartz, treasurer; 
 Frank Mulcahy, purchasing agent; A. D. MacGill, cost 
 accountant; Frank Winne, railroad sales; E. H. Raymond 
 and Billy Wentworth. John Mueller, manager of branches, 
 I knew already, as I had been under his unpleasant direction 
 in the Minneapolis branch. Mr. Crane had not yet come 
 in, but I was introduced to him later in the morning. The 
 "Old Man" as everybody called Mr. Crane — a term of 
 respect and regard none of his successors fell heir to — ^was 
 a large handsome man of dominating personality. He 
 dressed well, the only incongruous feature being high 
 boots tucked inside his trousers, a relic of early days in 
 Chicago. What struck you most was his piercing eyes, the 
 terror of evil doers. 
 
 I passed inspection and was glad to get it over. I was 
 assigned a room on the first floor to the right of the main 
 entrance. The city sales office was opposite, with the sales 
 counter a little further down. Beyond the counter were 
 stock bins. These offices had glass partitions so that you 
 could see and be seen. 
 
 It is possible to imagine a better office than the engi- 
 neering department then had. We were directly under 
 the brass finishing shop and at frequent intervals some- 
 body would dump a barrel full of castings on the floor 
 above and bring down a cloud of dust which had been
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 3 
 
 accumulating since 1865. There was constant traffic 
 through the entrance hall and a lot of noise. We became 
 accustomed to dirt and noise after a while and paid no 
 attention to it. 
 
 The assistant assigned me was a bright fellow named 
 Harvey W'illard who was intelligent and active, but a bit 
 careless at times. 
 
 The city desk was held down by Billy Webster, who left 
 shortly after to enter business for himself, with, I am sorry 
 to say, an unfortunate result. He was backed up by May- 
 nard Miller, a star salesman, and three or four others not 
 so good. Looking back at the lot, I should say that, except 
 Miller, none of them could make the grade today. The 
 city counter was in charge of fat George Seeley, a Civil 
 War veteran, with the able assistance of thin Jim Mul- 
 heran. In that early day the plumbers and steamfitters 
 called for their goods far more than now, and in the 
 morning there would be a line of contractors' wagons 
 waiting for supplies. 
 
 Leading from the city sales office to the upper offices 
 was a narrow stairway used by everybody, although there 
 was a second entrance from Randolph Street which was 
 usually closed. At a desk near the Jefferson Street entrance 
 stood Wm. Twohig, an old employee, whose job it was to 
 record in a large book the time the employees entered in 
 the morning. Who checked the record is uncertain, prob- 
 ably A. F. Gartz. At that time the office hours were from 
 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., with one hour for lunch, and if it 
 were necessary for any one to work over time, that was
 
 4 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 just his bad luck. We had not then heard of a 40-hour 
 week, or time and a half, or social security, or any other 
 kind of security. When the "Old Man" drove up to 10 N. 
 Jefferson Street, usually about 9 a.m., it was his custom to 
 stop for a moment at the city desk, to see if anything of 
 interest was going on and then climb the stairs to the 
 second floor. He never came in from Randolph Street. 
 
 On the second floor were two large and one small room, 
 one for the sales and cost divisions and the others for the 
 treasurer, credit manager, purchasing agent, cashier, 
 bookkeepers and files. 
 
 Entering the room to the left was Billy Wentworth, order 
 clerk, who afterwards became sales manager for the Pitts- 
 burgh Valve & Fitting Co. He broke down on that job 
 and had to retire from business altogether. Wentworth 
 was a nice fellow to work with and well liked. The next 
 desk was occupied by a man imported from the outside, 
 who formerly sold ploughs. I never found out what his 
 duties were, but he left during the year. Next to him was 
 John Mueller, branch house manager, who loaded the 
 Minneapolis branch, when I was manager, with a lot of 
 windmills we could not sell, and following him was rotund 
 Frank Winne, head of the railroad sales. 
 
 Directing Minds 
 
 At the head of the office on the Randolph Street side 
 were the directing minds — ^R. T. Crane, A, M. Gilbert, 
 vice-president, and John Murphy, secretary and sales 
 manager — a brilliant salesman in his own right. Near
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 5 
 
 Murphy on the right side was Eddie Raymond (after- 
 wards vice-president), who acted for Murphy in various 
 capacities, and next — the handsomest man in the com- 
 pany except the "Old Man'' — ^A. D. MacGill, in charge 
 of costs and catalogues. Assisting him was C. A. G. Way- 
 man (afterwards vice-president), and one or two others. 
 
 In the other room were Adolph F. Gartz, treasurer; 
 Dickinson, credit manager; Harry Gilbert on statistics; 
 Henry Fuller, chief accountant; A. F. Bennett, auditor; 
 Frank Mulcahy, purchasing agent; bill clerks, bookkeep- 
 ers, and the future vice-president of finance, P. T. Kelly. 
 
 In the shops, all brass goods were made at 10 N. Jeffer- 
 son Street under Jas. Hayden, superintendent; iron body 
 valves and cast iron fittings at Judd Street under \V. W. 
 Doolittle, superintendent; and malleable fittings across 
 the street under J. C. Kilgore. The pipe mill on Fulton 
 Street was under Henry Koester. 
 
 The flanged fittings and heavy castings were made in 
 a small foundry at 10 N. Jefferson under Peter Botham — 
 a large, rugged Englishman with a heavy fist, who knew 
 his business. To hear him tell it, Pete was more than a 
 foundry man, he was a Don Juan. The offices of vice- 
 president in charge of manufacturing, general superin- 
 tendent, and general works manager were acceptably 
 filled by Mr. Crane. Compared with the elaborate organ- 
 ization we have to-day, the layout may be considered 
 rather primitive, but it was a small compact body of men 
 who worked hard and accomplished much, and neces- 
 sarily so.
 
 6 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 • 
 
 In 1895 the country had not yet recovered from the de- 
 pression of 1892-3 and times were hard. Competition was 
 keen, and if corners were not cut and expenses kept to the 
 minimum it was impossible to show a profit, and profit 
 was one thing which the "Old Man" kept in mind. At 
 that time "production for use and not for profit" had not 
 been enunciated by the dreamers, who, having nothing, 
 want to take away the fruits of efficiency and industry 
 from those who have. Any business concern must make a 
 profit to survive and, conducted honestly, full value is 
 rendered and the people benefited. 
 
 The strongest motive in business is anticipated profit. 
 It inspires inventors, capitalists and industrialists, and 
 has made this country great. Socialism is a flabby thing. 
 What is everybody's business is nobody's business and it 
 cannot work, because the driving force in our lives is the 
 hope as the years go on, we can, by our own intelligence 
 and labor, better our condition, or the condition of our 
 descendants. 
 
 In 1895 Crane Co. had the plant in Chicago and ten 
 branches. The total sales were about $6,000,000.00, which 
 equals, probably, $12,000,000 or $15,000,000 today, as 
 costs and selling prices were based on common labor at 
 183^ to 20 cents per hour, and pig iron at about $1 i.oo 
 per ton. A good machinist could be hired for 25 cents. 
 Labor cost, of course, is the foundation of all costs but no 
 accurate comparison can be made of dollar values from 
 one period to another. The difficulty lies, not, in labor 
 rates only, but in evaluating the advance in machinery.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 7 
 
 tool steels, technique, and shop management. The bare 
 labor cost today is more than four times that of 1895, but 
 the production, per man hours, is so much greater that a 
 direct comparison of rates gives a very erroneous result. 
 Before going further let us see what manner of men laid 
 the strong foundation of the company. Naturally, we 
 start with the Founder R.T. Crane, the sun around which 
 the inferior planets revolved. 
 
 The'' Old Man'' 
 
 He was contemporary with and a part of that genera- 
 tion of active, driving, business men who made Chicago 
 — ^Armour, Swift, Palmer, Field, and others, who, dif- 
 fering one from another in temperament and methods, 
 were all endowed with force, vision, and determination. 
 In his own home, what little I saw of him there, he was a 
 genial host; in the office, an autocrat whose word was 
 law. The lesser lights had a good deal of latitude in the 
 conduct of the business, so long as they did not violate 
 any order which he might issue. Once given instructions 
 to do anything, you did it, or got out. I recall the case of a 
 metal buyer. When the "Old Man" went to California he 
 left instructions that no more iron was to be bought with- 
 out his approval. The metal market during the winter 
 was stifTening, and the first vice-president instructed the 
 buyer to take on additional tonnage. When Mr. Crane re- 
 turned in the Spring, he saw the pile of iron and imme- 
 diately called for an explanation. The buyer said the 
 market was advancing and in his judgment it was a good
 
 8 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 time to lay in a stock. This was a great mistake. He lost 
 his job. 
 
 In temper, Mr. Crane was inclined to be choleric. He 
 played golf and was pestered by a severe slice which he 
 could not overcome. To correct this fault, he designed a 
 head for his driver and tried to explain what he wanted 
 to Larry Pilkington, head of the pattern shop, who had 
 never seen a golf club. On Monday morning when Mr. 
 Crane came in from Lake Geneva, Larry placed the new 
 head, nicely polished, on his desk and backed away. The 
 "Old Man" took one glance at the head and yelled, 
 "Hey! This is not what I wanted," and threw the head 
 across the office missing Larry by a slim margin. Larry 
 kept on going. The slice was never rectified. He had 
 piercing eyes, which could bore through you, and a fac- 
 ulty for immediately detecting any stalling, or equivoca- 
 tion, and he came down on the delinquent like a ton of 
 bricks. But straightforward frankness and clear thinking 
 he understood, and those who met him that way got 
 along well. 
 
 The "Old Man" liked visual evidence of shop activity. 
 If things were evidently out of place he raised "hell," but 
 normal work in process, or piled up waiting for machin- 
 ing, was soothing to his eyes. One spring, in anticipation 
 of his return from California, I had the pipe shop cleaned 
 up until it was as neat as a good housekeeper's pantry. 
 My error. He walked around the place without comment, 
 evidently disappointed with something. As he was going 
 away he growled, "You don't seem to be doing any busi-
 
 Under Richa rd T. Crane g 
 
 ness." I said, "On the contrary we were never so busy." 
 He said, "Well, it does not look like it." The following 
 Spring he had to walk over piles of pipe and weave his 
 way between flanged fittings, which pleased him greatly. 
 
 It is foolish to make the same error twice. 
 
 He was brusque and hard-boiled like many others who 
 came up the hard way, from poverty to riches, but under- 
 neath he had a warm spot for the men in the shops. Late 
 in life he began to distribute some of the profits in yearly 
 gifts of five to ten per cent of an employe's earnings, and 
 before he died he had given away $3,500,000. 
 
 It might be inferred that such a stiflf disciplinarian 
 would be unpopular; the reverse was true. The men had 
 an extraordinary regard for him, and institutional morale 
 was high. 
 
 A. M. Gilbert 
 
 This gentleman left no impress on the company. He 
 was brought in by Mr. Crane from Fairbanks Morse & 
 Co., under a contract. He brought with him John Muel- 
 ler, superintendent of branches, and his son Harry. When 
 his contract expired in 1896, the three went out together. 
 Mr. Gilbert had a cold and austere temperament and 
 was as popular as a bull at a picnic. 
 
 John Murphy 
 
 Mr. Murphy had an Irish father and an English mother. 
 He had some of the steadiness of the English and the 
 charm and bon hommie which seems inherent in many
 
 I o An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 of the Irish. He was a brilHant salesman and had as many 
 friends in the trade as Boots Little had later. He was per- 
 haps not a detail organizer, but as far as that goes he had 
 not much opportunity with the "Old Man" doing what 
 he thought was necessary along that line, but he did build 
 up the sales, and in a period of severe competition man- 
 aged to turn in a profit. Among the men in the office he 
 stood ace high. 
 
 A. F. Bennett 
 
 A. F. Bennett was general auditor, later succeeding 
 John Murphy as secretary and sales manager. He was a 
 big man, inclined to be austere. He was an accountant 
 and a very good one. The accounting system in Chicago 
 and branches was developed by him and operated suc- 
 cessfully for many years. However, as a sales manager, 
 Bennett was out of his element. He had no liking for the 
 job, and the general sales development had to get along 
 as best it could while he gave most of his time to estab- 
 lishing and manning some 25 branch houses. He lacked 
 the approachability and aflfability of his predecessor, but 
 when you knew him you found a man of solid character. 
 He did much for the company. 
 
 A. D. MacGill 
 
 In 1 895 Mr. MacGill was a solid and rather stolid Scots- 
 man of some 50 years. He also had come up the hard way. 
 He was in a Glasgow cotton mill when about 10 years 
 old, so his early education was not extensive, but he had
 
 Under RicharclT. Crane 1 1 
 
 managed to acquire a good deal of "book learning" in 
 after years. His job in 1895 was the compilation of costs 
 on a system laid down by Mr. Crane. Our modern cost 
 accountants lift an eyebrow at the system, but Hke a 
 Model T Ford car, it worked. 
 
 "Mac" was a fine character with a definite sense of 
 humor, and was popular. He was convinced that Mr. 
 Crane was the Alpha and Omega of all wisdom, but there 
 was a limit to what he would stand. One day Mr. Crane 
 had been riding him too hard and "Mac" wrote out his 
 resignation and put it on the "Old Man's" desk. Mr. 
 Crane read it and called him over. "What in the devil 
 is this, Mac? You can't resign, damn it, you are going to 
 die here." A great joy filled the Scotsman's heart, for re- 
 signing was the last thing he really wanted. He was elected 
 treasurer in 1905; 2nd vice-president in 19 14; and vice- 
 president in charge of finance in 191 9. He died in 1925. 
 
 He was not enthusiastic about such a new fangled con- 
 traption as an automobile and especially disliked the gas- 
 oline cars, but for the pleasure of his wife he bought an 
 electric brougham which had the advantage of not being 
 able to go very far, or very fast. One morning when he 
 dropped in for a chat he said, "I was driving up Sheridan 
 Road yesterday and there was a lot of trafiic. The daft 
 loons in their gas cars kept honking at me and whuzzing 
 by about 50 miles per hour, Mrs. MacGill was talking her 
 head off, as usual, and between keeping one eye on the 
 road, the other on the cars going by, and trying to hear 
 what she was saying, I got quite nairvous and finally 1
 
 1 2 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 said 'Wumman, stop yer clackin'. This is no time for con- 
 versation!' " 
 
 There was a hidden side to his character. Remember- 
 ing his joyless childhood, he wanted his son Bob to have 
 advantages denied to him, and especially he wanted him 
 financially independent of a job. Labor in his eyes was 
 necessary and proper, but the labor should be voluntary 
 and not forced by necessity. This condition to his mind 
 made for a free man. One day he said to me, "In my long 
 life I have saved a little money — quite a bit of money — 
 which will go to Bob (his son, manager at Indianapolis) 
 when I die. All my life I have been a white slave and 
 worn a slave's collar, but, thank God, Bob will be a free 
 man." 
 
 Shortly after, Bob married a Jewess, an estimable young 
 lady, no doubt, but "Mac" was heart broken. It seemed 
 a terrible thing to an old, hard shell, Scotch Presbyterian. 
 In due time Bob inherited the money which his father 
 had laid up, dollar upon dollar, through thrift and self 
 sacrifice, but he did not live long to enjoy it and Mac's 
 savings passed into what he would have considered alien 
 channels. 
 
 There is a moral in this somewhere. 
 
 Charles R. Crane 
 
 This estimable and cultured gentleman had, I was in- 
 formed, an active part in the company affairs in previous 
 years, but in 1895 he must have been away on some of his 
 many visits to foreign points.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 
 
 3 
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. 
 
 In ilic latter part of 1895, or early in 189G, ihc Junior 
 came in, just out of Yale. He held the city desk for about 
 a year, and considering that he knew nothing about busi- 
 ness did quite well. Until his father's death, he was w ilh 
 us now and then, but never active. 
 
 Wm. W. Doolittle 
 
 As Mr. Crane w as the general manager of all depart- 
 ments, no one man had been developed to take general 
 charge, but in Bill Doolittle, superintendent of Dept. 2 
 (iron valve and fitting department), Mr. Crane had an 
 outstanding man of great force, inventive mind and me- 
 chanical ability. Of all the superintendents, he was the 
 only one who would stand up and give the "Old Man" as 
 good as he got, and enjoy it. 
 
 Bill invented the system of continuous moulding which 
 we now use. The system then was to make moulds until 
 two or three o'clock in the afternoon, stack them all over 
 the floor, melt the iron and pour them. They were still 
 doing this in the malleable shop for ten years afterwards. 
 Under the Doolittle system, the moulders worked all 
 day. The iron came down at 7:00 a.m. and the moulds 
 were poured continuously; it was a definite advance in 
 method. 
 
 All production men expect that in any new way of do- 
 ing things, bugs w ill develop and bugs did. Doolittle and 
 Gene Smith, the foundry foreman, were worried but not
 
 1 4 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 discouraged. However, in the eyes of the cost depart- 
 ment, the scheme was a failure because the cost of the 
 product was not lowered, but increased. Mr. MacGill 
 reported this to the "Old Man" in California, and he 
 sent back orders to throw the contraption out. Bill paid 
 no attention to the order and when Mr. Crane returned 
 the system was working so well and profitably, that in- 
 stead of getting fired, as expected, he was commended. 
 
 To Bill's credit, among many others, stand the mould- 
 ing system, the cupola charging machine, the swiper, 
 the multiple spindle tapping machine, and the automa- 
 tic nipple machines. 
 
 Bill is now over 90, but hale and hearty and enjoying 
 life in Pasadena. 
 
 Engineering Department Gets Started 
 
 For the first year business was very slow in the newly 
 established engineering and specialty department. We 
 had to do a lot of spade work in developing possible 
 sources of business. The new line of high pressure gate 
 valves, 6E, 7E, 9E, which we were to market, was not 
 ready and the specialties, so-called, were Crane's cement 
 (which John Murphy called "Berry's Butter"), pop valves 
 and No. 7 union bonnet brass valves just put on the market. 
 
 We were busy, but not getting anywhere very fast and 
 I was beginning to wonder whether the powers upstairs 
 were satisfied when I got a break. A jobber in Terre 
 Haute, whom we afterwards bought out, sent in a large 
 and very attractive list of staple material required for an
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 1 5 
 
 addition to a local distillery. Business was very slow and 
 that possible order looked like an angle worm to a hun- 
 gry bass. 
 
 Later on Herman Prox, the jobber, advised us that the 
 head of the distillery would not buy Crane product at 
 any price and he was out of it. I suppose John Murphy 
 must have been out of town for the letter came to A. M. 
 Gilbert. He sent for me and in his normal, glacial epoch 
 manner, handed me the letter from Prox, and a list of 
 material priced. He said, "Read the letter." I did. "Now 
 I want you to be in Terre Haute on Monday and bring 
 back the order." "I will do my best," I said, "but may 
 fail," "That," said A. M., looking at me with the genial 
 eye of a frozen fish, "is up to you." It had a sinister sound. 
 
 I look back on the week I spent in Terre Haute with 
 much satisfaction. It appeared that the head of the dis- 
 tillery had had a run in at some time with our Omaha 
 branch and he was still spitting fire when Crane was 
 mentioned. We had an interesting week, but his engineer 
 lined up on my side and on Saturday night I took the 
 train to Chicago with the signed order. Monday morning 
 I handed the order to A. M. and thought that I detected 
 something like a faint smile. It was probably an illusion. 
 He said, "Very good. Leave it with me." Incidentally, 
 the order would run about $20-25,000 today. Not a big 
 thing in these times, but it loomed large then. This lucky 
 incident benefited my personal future considerably. 
 
 The next year the engineering department did much 
 better. We took on quite a little fabricated work, flanged
 
 1 6 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 fittings, large iron valves, and made a small dent in the 
 pop valve market. Mr. Crane asked me one day why the 
 pops did not move better and I told him we were usually 
 about 20 to 25 per cent high. He said to cut the price in 
 two, which was done, although Mr. MacGill objected 
 bitterly.. It had some effect and later on we were able to 
 get prices on a more profitable basis. 
 
 In this year fate handed us our toughest assignment. 
 We went into the water works field with a new hydrant 
 and wedge pattern gate valves, in face of the fact that 
 nearly every water works engineer favored the double 
 disc type. It was hard sledding. We attended all the water 
 works lettings within a reasonable distance from Chicago. 
 Tom Tigan took some and I took in the others. Of the 
 smaller jobs, about one in four was honest and we got 
 them, but after spreading the expense of those we lost 
 against those gained, it was an unprofitable operation. 
 In that day, this was a field in which a company operat- 
 ing under Mr. Crane's ideas had no business whatever. 
 
 In the majority of the lettings, some one of the opposi- 
 tion managed to fix one or more councilmen. One repre- 
 sentative of a Detroit concern carried with him a roll of 
 bills, which, to use an old saying, would choke a cow. His 
 company blew up after a while, however. 
 
 One particular incident sticks in my memory. A muni- 
 cipality in the suburbs of Chicago was in the market for 
 hydrants and valves to the amount of $10,000 (about 
 $20,000 today). I went out there and met the "boys" and 
 had dinner at the house of the man who seemed to be
 
 Under Richa rd T. Crane 1 7 
 
 most influential. He made no proposition then, but asked 
 me to meet him at the Grace Hotel at 2:00 o'clock the 
 next day. I had an idea then that all was not well for 
 Crane Co. His proposition was that I pay him Si 000 in 
 cash, which he would place in the proper hands, and the 
 Council would accept the Crane bid. 
 
 As far as I was concerned there was nothing doing, but 
 I knew where he could catch the fish and so did he. At 
 the Council meeting that night the order went to the 
 Detroit Company and my competing friend with the 
 large bank roll took the whole Council to Chicago for a 
 round of pleasure, at his company's expense. 
 
 Later on I told Mr. Crane of our troubles and experi- 
 ences and we retired from the field. 
 
 McKinley Presidential Campaign 
 
 Some Old Timer may remember the hot political cam- 
 paign of 1896, when \\m. Jennings Bryan, the golden 
 tongued orator of Nebraska, was running for President 
 against \Vm. McKinley. The issue was the free coinage of 
 silver at a ratio of 16 ounces of silver to i ounce gold, in 
 place of a single gold standard. The Democrats were for 
 free silver, or anything else which would keep them in 
 power, and the Republicans for sound money, or per- 
 haps anything else, which would put them in the seats of 
 the mighty. Mr. Bryan made his elaborate speech at the 
 Democratic Convention, against the gold standard, in 
 which he refused to place a crown of thorns on the brow 
 of labor, or crucify mankind on a cross of gold, and Coin
 
 1 8 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Harvey flooded the country with his pamphlets on the 
 beauty of the ratio of 1 6 to i. 
 
 The business men of the country were solidly behind 
 sound money and Mr. Crane was no exception. The poli- 
 tical leaders in Chicago decided upon a great parade to 
 demonstrate to the voters the strength of the feeling 
 against free silver. I think it was pulled off in September 
 and it was a real parade. The "Old Man" passed out the 
 word that all of his hired hands would be expected to 
 march. They did. Of course, he had some hundreds, or 
 maybe thousands, of Poles who could not read nor write 
 the English language and had not the foggiest idea of 
 what it was all about. We formed ranks at the corner of 
 Lake and Jefferson Streets and marched up Lake Street 
 to Michigan Avenue and South to the Congress Hotel, 
 close to two miles, in company with many thousands from 
 other plants. 
 
 It was my unhappy lot to be chosen for a mounted 
 Marshall. I had not been on the deck of a horse for so 
 many years that I had forgotten how to ride. My station 
 was directly behind one of the bands and whenever they 
 tooted and the drums rolled, my steed danced all over 
 the place, giving me a few anxious moments. Behind the 
 reviewing stand on Michigan they had some artillery 
 firing twenty-one guns. At each discharge, my plug went 
 up about three feet and I went up with him and sat down 
 hard — twenty-one bumps, and each one I expected to 
 be my last. Watta day! Chicago streets were then paved 
 with cobble stones, diabolical things to walk on, and the
 
 Under Rich a rd T. Crane 1 9 
 
 men on foot, especially tliosc from the office, were as un- 
 happy as I was. 
 
 From my reserved seat on the horse I saw many of 
 them fall out about Monroe Street and make for a haven 
 called "Joe's" where they could rest their feet. The next 
 day the whole office was foot sore. I was sore, too, but my 
 feet were in i^ood shape. 
 
 Mr. McKinlcy was elected. 
 
 / Call on Sargent & Lundy 
 
 I think it was in this year, 1896, that I went over town 
 to see Fred Sargent, head of Sargent & Lundy, consul- 
 ting engineers for the Commonwealth Edison Co., with 
 the idea of getting our new high pressure gates into his 
 specifications. Sargent, who later became one of our 
 strong supporters, told me to go out and get a reputation 
 before talking to him. I said, "You may be right, but re- 
 member the case of the skeptic who went to church to 
 scoff and remained to pray." This tickled Fred and he 
 said, "Maybe I'll pray in your church some day, when 
 you get a reputation." 
 
 Not long after this a little incident occurred which 
 enabled me to rib Sargent about valves with a reputa- 
 tion. The Commonwealth Edison Company had a tem- 
 peramental chief engineer, C. G. Y. King, who did a 
 little business with us. He came in one morning and 
 started in by damning Crane valves and all connected 
 with them. An 8-inch high pressure gate at the Washing- 
 ton Street power house would not hold solidified mud.
 
 20 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Was it a Crane valve? Of course it was. We could not 
 recall a sale of a high pressure gate for that job; in fact, 
 we were just getting into production. However, as alpha- 
 betical King was a definite prospect, Harvey Willard, 
 King and myself went over to the plant. The valve was 
 high overhead, reached by a steel runway. Harvey 
 climbed up and looked at the wheel, the only visible spot, 
 as the rest of the valve was covered with asbestos. Harvey 
 called for a knife and I tossed him mine. He cut into the 
 covering and brought Chapman's trade mark to light. 
 King would not believe it until he had climbed up and 
 satisfied himself. The old boy had been shown up and he 
 just about exploded. The outcome was the sale of a high 
 pressure gate, the first to the Commonwealth Edison Co. 
 
 Our facilities for power plant work were, at that time, 
 very inadequate and primitive. Peter Botham made the 
 castings and the machining was done in a small room 
 next the foundry on Star feed lathes. The work was good 
 enough, but the operation extremely slow. In fact, all 
 shop operations were slow, because high speed steels had 
 not yet been made and the cutting time was determined 
 by the ability of the old carbon steels to stand up. 
 
 The pattern shop was under another Englishman, 
 Larry Pilkington. Larry was ingenious and a good man 
 for the job. We had not yet reached the age of standardi- 
 zation and nearly every job was special. Each engineer 
 had his own ideas about flanges and drilling and when 
 they were in the mood they would send drawings of ex- 
 traordinary special fittings. It was all right, because we
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 2 1 
 
 had no standards ourselves and really operated a job 
 shop. Larry was quite a genius at coopering up fitting 
 patterns from odds and ends, which saved money at a 
 time when competition was murderous and we had to 
 cut corners. 
 
 The large pipe was cut and threaded in Dept. 2 at Judd 
 Street, which necessitated frequent trips between the 
 office and the shop. There was no transportation, so we 
 walked the two miles there and back. Infrequently we 
 needed a pipe bend, which I think was made by Tom 
 Bethune at the Crane elevator shop. The walk to Judd 
 Street did not bother us much; in fact, it was a relief 
 from the dirt of the office and noise of the pop valves 
 being tested a short step away, just beyond the doctor's 
 office, by the way. What a spot for a doctor! 
 
 It may be well to note at this point that A. M. Gilbert's 
 contract expired and he retired, taking with him Harry 
 Gilbert and John Mueller, manager of branches. If any 
 one grieved over this, he bore it in silence. A. M. returned 
 to Fairbanks Morse; Harry Gilbert entered the Buda 
 Foundry Co., and John Mueller made a connection in 
 Baltimore. 
 
 Mueller's place was filled by bringing in Al Fowles from 
 Rundle Spence Co., Milwaukee. Al was a good scout per- 
 sonally, but someway or other, he did not make a ten 
 strike with the "Old Man," or perhaps the "Old Man" 
 did not make a hit with him. Anyway, his term in office 
 was limited. After a time Wm. Donovan was brought in. 
 I think his line was manufacturing bolts. He was a large
 
 22 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 man with impressive personality and genial manner. Also 
 he was a good business man when he felt like working at 
 it. The engineering department was indebted to him for 
 contacting an English engineer who was building a large 
 power plant in Dublin, if my memory is correct. I went 
 to New York with Donovan, and we closed for the whole 
 job and shipped the material to Dublin ready for erection. 
 
 His term in ofBce was longer than Fowles', but after a 
 while he bowed himself out. 
 
 A modest, but much appreciated windfall, dropped 
 into my lap in 1896 or 1897. John Murphy wanted a 
 telegraph code and asked me if I could compile one after 
 hours for a little extra money. It was an easy job and the 
 extra money was welcome. 
 
 Pocket Size Catalogue 
 
 In 1898 I noticed that no city salesman carried a 
 catalogue because it was too large and heavy. The brief 
 case for catalogues, lunches and perhaps a small beer, 
 was not current then. Now, a catalogue is, or should be, 
 as necessary to a salesman as a palette to a painter, or a 
 drill to a dentist. The thought struck me that if we could 
 get out a miniature edition of the large catalogue at a 
 low price, every salesman would put one in his pocket 
 and we could also distribute them freely to friend or foe, 
 our own people, our jobber customers and jobbers who 
 stocked opposition goods. The latter were included, be- 
 cause, if an opposition salesman pulls out a Crane cata- 
 logue, he was automatically advertising us.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 23 
 
 Dan Boyle, a printer's salesman, who handled a part of 
 our staple work, undertook to put the job through. He 
 had the large book photographed down, made zinc etch- 
 ings, printed and bound the book, all for 10 cents a copy. 
 John Murphy liked the idea and it worked out so well 
 that we distributed 100,000 copies — probably ten times 
 as many copies as any fitting catalogue ever had. The 
 jobbers' salesmen liked the book. One concern ordered 
 75; one 50, and others in proportion. Times and methods 
 have changed and we cannot do it now, perhaps, but it 
 was good advertising. 
 
 For the remainder of the term ending in 1900 the en- 
 gineering department made definite, if somewhat slow 
 progress. The high pressure valves were meeting with a 
 good reception and we took in enough fabricated work to 
 keep our rather limited facilities quite well employed. It 
 is a funny thing, but I cannot recall who took the city 
 desk, just across the hall, after R. T. Junior threw up the 
 job, unless it was Eddie Raymond. Upstairs the develop- 
 ment of the Branch House system was progressing. In 
 1897, Sioux City; in 1898, Oakland; in 1899, Cincinnati; 
 and in 1899, St. Louis. 
 
 I9OO-I905 
 
 About the turn of the century, Mr. Crane sold the 
 Crane Elevator Co. to the Otis Elevator Co. This left 
 vacant the machine shop and foundry at 219 South Jef- 
 ferson Street. As power plant piping and other lines
 
 24 A^ Old Man Looks Back 
 
 assigned to the engineering department, had developed 
 and outgrown our faciUties, Mr. Crane decided to move 
 the pipe cutting and bending, the flanged fittings and 
 large pop valves into the vacant buildings as a unit, to be 
 called Dept. i. Charley Olson (later general superin- 
 tendent) was made superintendent, with Sam Richard- 
 son as assistant. Peter Botham and Pete Larson were 
 given charge of the foundry, and Jim Smith put in charge 
 of the pipe shop. The engineering department was moved 
 from the general office about 1901 and installed in a large 
 office on the second floor of the main building. 
 
 At first we rattled around a bit in a lot of vacant floor 
 space, but as we added steam traps, separators, and vari- 
 ous items, we soon filled up. As an aside, I will note here 
 an incident which brought in a lot of grist to our mill. 
 Frank Howell, who had been a salesman for Crane Ele- 
 vator Co., was sent by John Murphy on an exploring ex- 
 pedition to Africa to see what business, if any, could be had 
 there. Frank did not sell anything, but he made contact 
 with H. Ainsworth, a dealer in Johannesburg. Later on 
 Mr. Ainsworth turned up in Chicago, and John Murphy 
 made a deal with him. This resulted in large orders for 
 mine columns, flanged fittings and miscellaneous mate- 
 rial for the Johannesburg mines. 
 
 There was quite a demand for steam and oil separators 
 at that time and it looked like a good item to add to our 
 power house line. We wanted something that was not an 
 exact copy of the separators on the market, and I had an 
 idea that better scrubbing action could be had by put-
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 25 
 
 ting the baffle plate fins on an angle instead of vertical. 
 Consulting Sam Richardson, who had succeeded Charley 
 Olson as superintendent, we decided to build a separator 
 with removable baffle plates — one with vertical fins and 
 one with angular fins, and check performance. 
 
 In this separator we put windows of heavy glass to see 
 what happened inside. The turbulence and dehydrating 
 action in the separator was extremely interesting. As the 
 theory of inclined fins seemed to be born out by the ex- 
 periment, I applied for and received a patent on the 
 machine. 
 
 Pipe Bend Studies 
 
 Among our other activities in Dept. i, we started in a 
 crude way to study the expansion of pipe and bends. The 
 elaborate tables on bends, now in our printed matter, 
 grew out of that early work. This came about through 
 some trouble at the W'estern Electric Co. Hawthorne 
 plant. The piping contractor had placed in service a very 
 long line of pipe in which, as he thought, the expansion 
 had been fully compensated. He came in one day and in- 
 sisted that we were making rotten flanges because he had 
 a place on the line where the flanges broke as fast as they 
 could put them on. We gave him an extra-heavy flange 
 to try. It did not stand up. Then we told him to send in to 
 us the piece of pipe bearing the cracked flange and we 
 would put a flange on which would hold. This was done. 
 A few days later we called him to see if the flange held. 
 He said, "Hell, yes, but the valve next to it was destroyed."
 
 26 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 The pursuit of knowledge went on in 1 905 as it does 
 today, and while we never expect to know all we should 
 about the behavior of metals under stress, yet we have 
 compiled a lot of informative data not to be found in the 
 text books, and the investigations go on constantly. 
 
 In the engineering department one of our important 
 lines was cast iron flanged fittings. We did not know, how- 
 ever, the strength of these fittings compared with tubing 
 and proceeded to find out. Over a period of four years, we 
 burst a large number of tees and ells from 6 to 24-inch in 
 which the tensile strength of the metal was definitely 
 known. From these tests we deduced rules for our own 
 use which were reasonably accurate. 
 
 Rule i — ^Thickness and tensile strength of body metal 
 being known, to determine the bursting point: 
 
 Divide the thickness of the wall by the inside 
 diameter and multiply by 65 per cent of the 
 tensile strength of the metal up to 1 2-inch and 
 60 per cent on larger sizes. 
 Rule 2 — ^Bursting point being given, to determine the 
 thickness of metal: 
 
 Multiply the bursting point by the inside diam- 
 eter and divide by 65 or 60 per cent of the ten- 
 sile strength of the metal. 
 Checking rule No. i against a 12-inch extra heavy 
 flanged tee, having metal i inch thick, the tests showed 
 an average bursting point of 1,380 p.s.i., and a minimum 
 of 1,100 p.s.i. The rule gives 1,238 p.s.i., which is as close 
 as may be expected.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 27 
 
 I mention this simply to show that in our work we took 
 nothing for granted that could be proved, and our de- 
 signing department still carries on the good work. 
 
 These reminiscences are but jottings from memory and 
 are not in many cases in chronological order, so let us 
 digress for a moment and cast an eye on Barney Little, 
 foreman of the core room, Dept. i. Barney was but a 
 humble worker in his Lord's Vineyard and does not rate 
 posthumous fame, were it not that in 1903 he guided the 
 stumbling feet of a young man just out of college, destined 
 to be a future president, to a scoop shovel and pile of core 
 sand. To paraphrase Longfellow's poem about the brown- 
 eyed maiden, the young man stood 
 
 " * * *, with reluctant feet 
 Where sweat and sand and shovel meet." 
 
 What Mr. Collier knows about sand and shovels he 
 learned from Barney. 
 
 And give a nod towards Nordburg, the engineer, who 
 dragged the same future great out at 6:30 a.m. to bull a 
 temperamental engine off center, while he turned on 
 steam. I should like to think Mr. Collier got extra pay for 
 this, but anyway he was drawing down $1.25 per day, 
 quite sufficient for his simple needs. 
 
 Experiments in High Pressure Piping 
 
 As we developed a market for high pressure piping, it 
 became apparent that much future business would re- 
 quire steel fittings and valves instead of the traditional 
 cast iron. Chas. R. Crane came in contact with a German
 
 28 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 named Zenzes who held patents on a small converter. He 
 sent Bregowsky, our chief metallurgist, to Germany, to 
 investigate. Bregowsky brought Zenzes back with him, 
 and from his drawings we built the converter. I remember 
 it was quite a red letter day when the first blow was made 
 and the initial fitting cast. After the men got the hang of 
 the thing the converter turned out a good tough steel, 
 which could not be held to the exacting limits now de- 
 manded, but we never had a failure in service. Later on 
 this method of making steel was abandoned in favor of 
 the electric furnaces we are now using. 
 
 An incident came up about this time which had a far 
 reaching effect. Our Omaha branch reported that the 
 Electric Light Co. in that city was having trouble with 
 their piping and asked us to send some one to suggest a 
 remedy. I took the train that night, and in company with 
 one of our local men, called on the chief engineer. It de- 
 veloped that they were carrying a pressure of 175-200 
 pounds with a high degree of superheat. The engineer 
 rolled up some paper into a cone and placing the end on 
 the main lead asked me to look through. The piping 
 showed a dull red. 
 
 All fittings and valves in the station were cast iron, not, 
 however, made by Crane Co. and they were going to 
 pieces rapidly. The engineer was worried, naturally, as 
 he had to keep going with a plant obviously unsafe. Two 
 fittings which had been taken out were sent to Chicago 
 for analysis. The laboratory made tests and found that 
 the tensile strength of the metal was about 13,000 p.s.i.
 
 Under Richa rd T. Crane 29 
 
 Now it was plain that this iiiclal, wliicli analyzed quite 
 normal in carbon, silicon, etc., must have had an original 
 strength of 20 to 22,000 pounds, and the difference had to 
 be laid to the effect of heat. At that time we had no data 
 on the effect of heal on metals and there was quite an 
 argument about it. 
 
 The upshot of this particular investigation was a recom- 
 mendation to the Electric Co. to replace the cast iron 
 with steel and they sent the order. 
 
 Following the Omaha experience, we had additional 
 food for thought when the Commonwealth Edison Co. 
 sent in a 14-inch high pressure cast iron gate valve, series 
 E, for repairs. The valve had been on the lead to one of 
 the turbines at Fisk Street, subjected to superheated 
 steam, and both disc and body rings were loose. On the 
 face of it, it looked like another Omaha case with ex- 
 panded metal and reduction in strength. The valve was 
 measured and found to be yi or ^^^-inch longer than it 
 should be. Now, our boys did not go around with microm- 
 eter instruments in those days, but they never made an 
 error of >^-inch in 22>^ inches. I reported the matter to 
 the engineer of the Commonwealth Edison Co. and sug- 
 gested that a steel valve be substituted as the iron valve 
 was dangerous. We received the order and eventually re- 
 placed the remaining iron gates with steel. 
 
 It struck ever^'body after these experiences that we had 
 better find out something about the effect of high heat on 
 cast iron. Did cast iron "grow" and, with permanent ex- 
 pansion, lose strength? Our first effort was crude and not
 
 30 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 scientific, but it told us something. We took some cast 
 iron flanges and turned them to a definite diameter, 
 measuring them very carefully. These we placed in the 
 large core ovens at Dept. 2 where the heat varied some- 
 what, but was in the vicinity of 400 degrees. At the end of 
 30 days the flanges were taken out and measured. There 
 was a definite increase in diameter, and test bars cut from 
 them indicated a decrease in strength. 
 
 Our metallurgical department became very much in- 
 terested and hunted through the literature on the subject 
 without much success. In fact, very little information was 
 available so Ivan Bregowsky and L. W. Spring began a 
 series of experiments to determine the effect of heat on 
 metals. It was ground work and laid the foundation for 
 the many investigations of other metallurgists on the 
 same subject. In 191 2, Bregowsky and Spring presented 
 a paper on the subject, before a scientific society and in 
 19 13 we wrote it up in the Valve World. 
 
 Since that time our metallurgists have accumulated an 
 enormous amount of information on the eflfect of heat on 
 all metals, ferrous and non-ferrous, and also the effect of 
 extreme cold, perhaps the most extensive file in the coun- 
 try. The work has been tremendously valuable to engi- 
 neers and to the company. 
 
 It may be truly said, that while many other investiga- 
 tors had made tests to determine the eflfect of heat on 
 some metals, principally bronzes, none had done so ac- 
 cording to a definite plan. The work had been done more 
 or less at random and the range was limited. As this in-
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 3 1 
 
 vestigation has been such an important contribution to 
 the science of metallurgy, it is interesting to note how 
 Ivan Bregowsky and L. W. Spring went about the job. 
 The apparatus and method had to be easily and quickly 
 applied, for a busy commercial laboratory with a daily 
 routine of physical and analytical tests has very little 
 time for research, so they adopted a simple method, not 
 absolutely correct, but practically so. 
 
 A test bar was cast of the metal to be investigated, 16 
 inches long with 2 inches in the middle turned down to 
 an exact size. The ends were left rough to take the grips 
 of the testing machine. The apparatus consisted of a 6- 
 inch sleeve of sheet iron, wrapped with a layer of j/^e-inch 
 sheet asbestos for insulation and then wound 16 turns to 
 the inch with one layer of nickel resistance wire about 
 ,028 diameter. An outside layer of sheet asbestos, shrunk 
 on, kept the wire from excessive corrosion at the temper- 
 atures employed. The top of the test bar was drilled out 
 along the central axis to within half an inch of the turned 
 part. In testing, the coil was slipped over the smaller end 
 of the bar down to the shoulder, which brought the 
 turned, smaller part of the bar, where fracture was to 
 occur, exactly midway between the ends of the coil. 
 
 The ends of the bar were gripped in the jaws of the 
 testing machine, the bar being so placed that the coil was 
 equidistant from the upper and lower jaws and a iio-v 
 current turned on until the resistance wire showed the 
 color desired through a piece of mica placed in the outer 
 layer of asbestos. In the hole in the top end of the bar was
 
 32 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 inserted a thermometer or pyrometer couple, which indi- 
 cated the temperature at any time on the inside of the 
 bar, where the fracture was forced to occur. 
 
 The investigators had an idea that electrical induction 
 might have an effect on the metals tested and ran a num- 
 ber of experimental tests with the current on but no heat. 
 The effect of induction proved negligible. Now let us see 
 what bearing these tests have on the valves and fittings 
 we manufacture, which have to be made to meet all man- 
 ner of conditions of heat, cold and pressure. 
 
 Example I — Crane Hard Metal 
 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 33-735 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 600° 23.150 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 950° 10.825 lt>. 
 
 Obviously, a metal not suitable for very high tem- 
 perature. 
 
 Example II — Aluminum Bronze 
 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 35-205 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 750° 6.425 lb. 
 
 Also not suitable for high temperatures. 
 
 Example III — Crane Regular Steam Metal 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 31.780 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 500° 20.260 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 750"^ 10.280 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 950° 6.650 lb. 
 
 Example IV — Crane Manganese Bronze 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 56.250 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 500° 37.200 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 750° 7-35© lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 950° 2.365 lb. 
 
 A very strong bronze at 70° but very poor at 750°.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 33 
 
 Example V — Soft Cast Iron 
 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 22.060 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 600° 21.240 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 860° 21.590 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 1000* ig.820 lb. 
 
 Up to 1 ,000° cast iron holds up well, for a time but de- 
 teriorates under long exposure. 
 
 Example VI — Ferrosteel 
 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 32.692 lb. 
 Average tensile strength at 1000° 27.310 lb. 
 
 This metal also holds well up to i ,000°. 
 
 Example VII — Cast Carbon Steel 
 
 Average tensile strength at 70° 73.325 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 600° 67.366 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 720° 58.713 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 750° 41.388 lb. 
 
 Average tensile strength at 1000° 17.568 lb. 
 
 We learn from this that carbon steel up to 750° is a 
 strong metal, but for higher temperatures, an alloy steel 
 is indicated. 
 
 From the hundreds of tests made by our laboratory over 
 the years we are able to determine what metal is suitable 
 for any possible purpose, from pressures running into 
 thousands of pounds per square inch, to temperatures 
 from minus 60° to plus 2,000°. Without such data en- 
 gineers would be all at sea. 
 
 These two metallurgical chemists were highly regarded 
 in their profession. L. \V. Spring graduated in this coun- 
 try and reached us via the Illinois Steel Co. Ivan Bre- 
 gowsky studied in Russia, and, while a student at the 
 University, was suspected by the Czar's men of subver- 
 sive activities. He was arrested and sent to Siberia and
 
 34 ^^ Old Man Looks Back 
 
 for the next five years cooled his heels near the Arctic 
 Circle, where a nice winter day had a temperature of 60° 
 below zero. 
 
 Many opportunities for observation came up in the 
 engineering department which sometimes turned to good 
 account. One day we received a complaint from the 
 C.&N.W.Ry. that a high pressure valve in their shop line 
 would not hold up. I went out there and found one of our 
 high pressure (8oo-lb. test) brass valves on a water line 
 connected to a hydraulic press, which carried the usual 
 accumulator. The pressure was only 300 or 400 p.s.i. nor- 
 mally, but after watching the gauge I noted that when 
 the accumulator dropped the pressure ran up to 2000 
 p.s.i. It was this water ram that was knocking a hole in 
 the valves they were using. 
 
 Brass is a good metal, but continued shocks will belly 
 out the walls of a valve and eventually thin the metal to 
 the breaking point. We gave the railroad another valve of 
 different type and it may be there yet. This experience 
 led us to decline an opportunity to bid on a water line for 
 the Standard Steel Car Co., Hammond, Ind. The speci- 
 fications called for cast iron throughout and not very 
 heavy at that. We told the engineer in charge that the 
 line would blow up in time and we would rather not be 
 responsible. He said that a Pittsburgh company of much 
 experience had already made them a proposition and if 
 we did not want the business it was all right with him. 
 About six months later the line was out of commission 
 and I think we replaced the cast iron material with steel.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 35 
 
 More Branches Opened 
 
 So far I have been rambling along about the engineer- 
 ing department — perhaps, because it was my baby and I 
 have a vivid recollection of what took place in that small 
 comer of a large business, but the other departments were 
 not idle. Crane Co. was growing. Fifteen branch houses 
 were opened; in 1901, Bakersfield (since closed); 1902, 
 Seattle and Salt Lake; 1903, Chanute (since closed); 
 1903, Watertown (since closed); 1904, Independence 
 (since closed); 1904, Dallas, Baltimore, Fargo, Spokane, 
 Memphis; 1905, Bartlesville (since closed); Butte (since 
 closed); Savannah, Oklahoma City and Birmingham. 
 Some of these were small subsidiary warehouses of no 
 importance. 
 
 In December, 1902, John Murphy left, ostensibly to 
 take a trip around the world on a year's furlough. How- 
 ever, Chas. R. Crane intercepted him at London, pur- 
 chased his stock and took his resignation. We suspected 
 that all was not well when he left. John was the most 
 popular man in the office and when he did not return it 
 was a matter of general regret. He was followed by A. F. 
 Bennett. 
 
 In 1905, A. F. Gartz, treasurer, retired, and A. D. 
 MacGill took his place. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting in December 1905, I was hon- 
 ored by being elected a director. This elevation meant 
 neither an increase in responsibility, nor emolument, but 
 it did indicate some degree of recognition from the "Old
 
 36 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Man." A roll call of the directors at that meeting covered 
 the following: R. T. Crane, Chas. R. Crane, R. T. Crane, 
 Jr., A. F. Bennett, A. D. MacGill, C. A. Olson {general 
 superintendent), J. C. Kilgore {building department), J. T. 
 Hayden {superintendent brass shop), W. W. Doolittle {ma- 
 chine design), J. B. Berryman {engineering department). A 
 compact Board, not given to dissension, nor idle dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 The directors met once a year to hear the president 
 read off the estimate of profit for the year (it was an esti- 
 mate only, as the books were not closed) , and to declare 
 whatever dividend the president had decided upon. One 
 meeting sticks in my memory. The president stated that 
 the company had made so much money he was ashamed 
 — and then he laughed. The hired hands laughed and a 
 good time was had by all. The "Old Man" was not one 
 who despised profit — his idea of money as an end was 
 stated in one of his articles in the Valve World, "money 
 is not the whole thing, but it is 75 per cent of it." 
 
 During this period Bill Doolittle was moved from su- 
 perintendent of Dept. 2 to the newly created "depart- 
 ment of machine design" to take advantage of his mechan- 
 ical and inventive ability. One Caldwell was brought in 
 from the outside to take over Dept. 2. He was a very par- 
 ticular man, strong for detail and impatient over sloppy 
 work — ^not at all popular in the shop. His outstanding 
 contribution to the production of valves was a thorough 
 overhauling of shop drawings. It is a lamentable fact that 
 these were in a chaotic state. Changes would be made in
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 3 7 
 
 the shop for various reasons and not noted on the draw- 
 ings and, in consequence, no one could say whether the 
 drawings represented the valve as actually made. 
 
 With the aid of A. M. Houser (who is still with us), 
 Caldwell restored order and started the system we now 
 follow. He held his position for a few years and then 
 moved to Bridgeport to superintend the new plant Chas. 
 R. Crane was building. His successor was C. A. Olson 
 from Dept. i . I think it was in Caldwell's time that a man 
 named Prince was brought in as foundry superintendent. 
 He had been with the Worthington Pump Co. and was 
 unfamiliar with our line of work. Thirty days was enough 
 for him. He told John Wrath that we did not have a foun- 
 dry, it was a sausage factory. 
 
 It is worth noting here that while the "Old Man" 
 brought in men from the outside who were already de- 
 veloped, such as Gilbert, Mueller, Fowles, Donovan, and 
 Caldwell, none of them stayed, but after a comparatively 
 short term, resigned either voluntarily or by request. The 
 underlying organization then took over and carried on. 
 
 1905-I9II 
 
 There were many changes in this period. The engineer- 
 ing department and Dept. i were getting along quite 
 well. Sam Richardson had succeeded Charley Olson as 
 superintendent and turned out to be a very efTicient man 
 on the job. We added to our line the Crane tilt traps, and 
 until the bugs were out of it, this apparatus was a head-
 
 38 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 ache. The valves would stick in a short time, until Sam 
 designed the one now in use and got over that hurdle. 
 The receptacle was originally made of pressed steel, but 
 that was a dismal failure and we changed to cast iron. 
 These traps had a large sale for many years and are 
 still going. 
 
 The site of the old butt weld pipe mill on Fulton Street 
 was sold to Sears Roebuck & Co. in 1905 and the mill 
 moved in 1906 to a large piece of property then owned by 
 Mr. Crane, on Ogden Avenue, near i6th Street. The 
 skelp furnaces were heated by producer gas and keeping 
 them going added a few white hairs to Henry Koester's 
 head. The mill was not operated very long, as in 1909 a 
 contract was made with the National Tube Co. and the 
 mill shut down. In a hindsight view, this was probably a 
 mistake. Henry Koester was an efficient man and it was 
 difficult to stump him when it came to pipe. The engi- 
 neering department had a large time contract which re- 
 quired a length of 20-inch o.d. 5/i6 pipe to complete. We 
 could not get it from the mill for months. Koester said if 
 we would get him the plate he would make the pipe. We 
 found the plate and he turned out as smooth a piece of 
 hammer welded pipe as any one would want and at a 
 price closely approximating what the piece would have 
 cost had it come from the mill. 
 
 J^ew Building Program 
 
 The old and obsolete building housing the malleable 
 fitting department was showing signs of senility. The base-
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 39 
 
 ment was a forest of timbers holding up the first floor and 
 the construction in general such that no modernization 
 was possible. It was decided to build a modern structure 
 at 15th Street and Canal. The design and mechanical 
 equipment was entrusted to Bill Doolittle who, in the 
 erection of the equipment, had the able assistance of Vic- 
 tor Flodin, afterwards general superintendent of all Crane 
 plants. Vic was a big man in the organization in after 
 years and he was proud to say that he started at 30 cents 
 per hour. 
 
 This new plant was a great success. 
 
 Another old time building housing the general office 
 at 10 N. Jefferson also became a little shaky and time 
 worn, besides being quite inadequate for the expanding 
 business, so Mr. Crane engaged Louis Sullivan, a bril- 
 liant but unfortunate architect, to put up an office build- 
 ing at Canal and Judd Streets, and also a new brass shop 
 opposite on Judd Street. This brass shop was in addition 
 to the original shop at 10 North Jefferson Street and a 
 new shop which had been erected on DesPlaines Street 
 on the site of the iron foundry moved to 219 South Jef- 
 ferson Street. At one time we had in operation three brass 
 finishing shops and four brass foundries. Into the new 
 offices moved the general office force and the engineering 
 department, leaving the city sales in the old building. 
 This broke up our happy family at 219 South Jefferson, 
 which I regretted at the time, but became reconciled 
 afterwards. 
 
 One feature of the new office I liked was the restaurant
 
 40 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 we installed in an old building on Judd Street next to the 
 office. As there were no eating facilities within a radius of 
 nearly a mile, the top men from the shops and office 
 patronized the place nearly every day. It was a place for 
 the interchange of gossip and information, and the close 
 contact between the production and selling departments 
 was very beneficial. 
 
 Next to the restaurant building the company built a 
 garage. To clear the site two old frame buildings were 
 torn down. Believe it or not, those two dilapidated old 
 buildings had bathrooms with enameled iron tubs, but 
 the late occupants had used the tubs for coal bins. 
 
 The Crane property on the East side of Canal Street 
 ran from 12th Street to below 15th Street, and while we 
 are talking about buildings let us glance for a moment at 
 a small red brick building which jutted into the Crane 
 property. Before this building was bought by the com- 
 pany it was occupied by a Semitic gentleman who dealt 
 in old rags and bottles. After the purchase, nipple ma- 
 chinery was moved in and the young man, John Collier, 
 previously mentioned as the guy who bulled the steam 
 engine off center at Dept. i , was promoted and placed 
 in charge. He was more or less humorously referred to as 
 the head of the rag shop. In view of his present position, 
 may we say that he rose from rags to riches? 
 
 In this shop was installed the first Doolittle nipple ma- 
 chine, an automatic machine which revolutionized the 
 method of making close and short nipples. That machine 
 is still in use, with a production record of many millions.
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 4 1 
 
 In the latter part of 1907 there was a panic. It was 
 called a "Bankers' Panic," and it ran through most of 1 908. 
 For a time, trading in Chicago and other cities as well, 
 was done with clearing house certificates as the banks 
 would not release cash. Crane Co., however, was an excep- 
 tion, as James B. Forgan, president of the First National 
 Bank, and the leading banker in the city, assured Mr. Crane 
 that the cash would be forthcoming for his payrolls, 
 and we paid in currency all through the depression. 
 
 This brings to mind a story told to me by A. D. MacGill, 
 then treasurer: About two weeks before the trouble came 
 to a head, Mr. Crane who was at Lake Geneva called 
 "Mac" on the telephone and asked him if he had any 
 paper in the banks. "Mac" replied that one note was out 
 for quite a sum. Mr. Crane said, "Pay it off today. We are 
 headed for trouble and I do not want to owe any bank 
 anything." Now "Mac" was a Scot who liked to see 
 money coming in and hated to see it go out, and he 
 started to remonstrate, but Mr. Crane said "Do as I tell 
 you and do it today," and rang off. \Vhen the panic came 
 on Crane Co. was in fine position, with no debts except 
 the usual current accounts. 
 
 / Become Assistant Secretary 
 
 In 1 9 10 good fortune tapped me on the shoulder and I 
 was appointed assistant secretary to aid A. F. Bennett. 
 My old job went to C. S. Pitkin who, after graduating 
 from Bill Doolittle's hard school of machine design, had 
 worked in the engineering department for many years.
 
 42 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 The way we got Pitkin was this: The "Old Man" was 
 opposed to education higher than the 8th grade and the 
 engineering department needed men who could draw 
 and interpret drawings. I had to get them through the 
 drafting rooms. Pitkin had had his knuckles banged up 
 by Doolittle's ruler and was glad to change into a more 
 civilized environment, and Doolittle was, perhaps, glad 
 to see him go. 
 
 A. F. Bennett, secretary and general manager of sales, 
 was a first class accountant whose life had been spent 
 among figures. In his own line he did much for the com- 
 pany, but he was not a sales manager and, in fact, hated 
 the job. As his assistant, I took over the details and I think 
 aided him in a small measure. At this time he made an 
 experiment in human nature. He selected three men, one 
 from the engineering department (the most likely), one 
 from the office staff and one from the country sales. These 
 he sent out on the road. The engineering boy could not 
 stand prosperity and went wrong with women and drink; 
 the office man tried it for two months and then quit cold. 
 He said that he could not sell stoves in Alaska and he was 
 right. The third man was the smallest and least likely 
 looking of the lot, but he made good from the start and 
 later on became manager of a branch house. The lesson 
 here (if there is one) is don't bet on a horse because he is 
 good looking; the homely nag may be faster. 
 
 During the summer of 1910 good old Bennett was very 
 unhappy. The "Old Man" was putting strong pressure 
 on him and on Harry Haldeman, then superintendent of
 
 Under Richard T. Crane 43 
 
 branches. Haldeman resigned first and Bennett cracked a 
 little later. When he was cleaning out his desk he said, 
 "John, I think you will be offered my job. Don't take it. 
 Keep your present position and enjoy a peaceful life. 
 The 'Old Man' will break your nerve as he did mine." 
 My reaction to this was that if the job came my way I 
 would take it and risk my nerves. 
 
 Elected Secretary 
 
 The next day Mr. Crane called me over by crooking 
 the first finger of his right hand, a favorite gesture of his, 
 and said "Berryman, have you had a vacation this 
 year?" "No sir." "Can you stand another year?" "Yes 
 sir." "Take Bennett's desk." That was all. Short and 
 sweet like a donkey's trot. At the Annual Meeting I was 
 formally elected secretary. It was no surprise. A nomina- 
 tion by the "Old Man" was as good as a Democratic 
 nomination in Georgia. 
 
 Bennett's doleful prediction about my future unhappy 
 lot as secretary did not come true. My relations w ith the 
 "Old Man" were pleasant and peaceful all through the 
 year. He gave me a little good advice now and then. 
 Once, referring to an early article of his in the Valve 
 World, he said "Now on organization, as I said before, 
 there are no men 100 per cent. All have their weak spots. 
 The thing to do is to try to keep the average as close to 
 100 per cent as you can. If you average 75 to 80 per cent 
 you will do well." And at another time he said — and this 
 was the foundation of his business philosophy — "Never
 
 44 ^^ Old Man Looks Back 
 
 spend a dollar unless you can see a dollar and ten cents 
 coming back." 
 
 The ''Old Man'' Dies 
 
 In January 191 2 Mr. Crane died, thus closing the first 
 cycle of Crane history. The period between 1905 and 
 1 91 2 was marked by the following rapid expansion of 
 the Branch House system. 
 
 1 906 — Boston, Tacoma and Winnipeg. . . 1 908 — DesMoines, Wichita, 
 Newark, Little Rock, Atlanta and Vancouver . . . 1 909 — Washington, 
 Muskogee, Terre Haute, Muncie, Indianapolis . . . 1910 — Sacra- 
 mento, Aberdeen . . . 1 9 1 1 — Texas City (closed) , Great Falls, Detroit, 
 Knoxville. 
 
 All this was done without issuing stock or creating a 
 funded debt. The profits of the business, except a little 
 drawn out by Mr. Crane and his family, were ploughed 
 back, as they had been since the business started. 
 
 There was some work involved in opening twenty 
 houses in five years, but it was the type of work for which 
 A. F. Bennett was well fitted. The outside work fell on 
 the able shoulders of P. T. Kelly and his assistant, who 
 had the job well systematized. The growth of the company 
 during Mr. Crane's lifetime is shown by this table: 
 
 Capital Surplus Sales Employees 
 
 1855 None Unknown 
 
 1865 S 200,000 Unknown 200 
 
 1875 798,200 S 982,000 
 
 1885 1,031,900 2,013,700 
 
 1895 3,282,500 6,037,200 
 
 1905 9^708,900 20,831,600 
 
 191 1 18,281,000 36,391,000 7300
 
 Charles R. Crane 
 
 PRESIDENT, 191 2-1 91 4
 
 SECOND PERIOD 
 CHARLES R. CRANE, PRESIDENT 
 
 1912-1914 
 
 A 
 
 .T THE Annual Meeting in January 191 2, the follow- 
 ing directors were elected: Charles R. Crane, R. T. 
 Crane, Jr., R. T. Crane, III, A. D. MacGill, VV. W. Doo- 
 little, J. C. Kilgore, R. W. Leatherbee, R. B. Stiles, 
 J. B. Berryman. Chas. R. Crane became president; R. T. 
 Crane, Jr. ist vice-president; R. T. Crane, III, 2nd vice- 
 president; and this writer 3rd vice-president and secre- 
 tary; A. D. MacGill, treasurer. 
 
 Chas. R. Crane, the new president, had a tempera- 
 ment quite unlike his father. He was a student, a travel- 
 ler, an observer of world's movements, but at heart not a 
 manufacturer or merchant. Kindly by nature, consider- 
 ate and lovable, he lacked the force and dominating per- 
 sonality of his predecessor. In his term of office the com- 
 pany reached its then peak in sales, about $40,000,000. 
 In 1 91 3, sales slipped a little to $39,000,000. The demand 
 throughout the country was slackening and in the latter 
 part of the year, 1914, when World War No. i was de- 
 clared, we struck a very sharp depression. 
 
 We opened branches at Ogden and Davenport in 191 2, 
 
 45
 
 46 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 and Springfield, Mass. in 1913, but the business outlook 
 was cloudy and did not invite expansion. We marked 
 time. However, several very important matters had to be 
 settled and the two brothers worked together on them. 
 An agreement was reached with the Chicago, Burlington 
 & Quincy Ry. for the sale of all Crane properties on Ca- 
 nal Street between 12th and 15th Streets. The general 
 office, brass shop and garage on Judd Street passed later 
 to the C.M.St.P.&S.S.M.Ry., and the terminal of that 
 road now covers the site. I recall going to the office of the 
 C.B.&Q,. with the contracts and returning with a check 
 for over $1,000,000 as first payment. To my unsophisti- 
 cated eyes it looked like a whale of a lot of money. And in 
 that primitive time it was. 
 
 This forced the selection of a new site for the plant. The 
 two brothers and myself scoured the town and had under 
 consideration three sites. However, the Miller tract of 160 
 acres on Kedzie Avenue was so much better than the oth- 
 ers that it was unanimously selected in spite of the fact 
 that the neighborhood was sparsely settled and an ade- 
 quate labor supply not immediately in sight. This latter 
 defect was soon remedied when we got going. Labor goes 
 where the work is. I was instructed by Charles R. to see 
 Mr. Miller and buy the land. He told me that he had 
 heard that $640,000 would get it, but not to hesitate on a 
 little more if necessary. Mr. Miller and I spent part of a 
 pleasant afternoon discussing the matter. Miller said he 
 did not care whether he sold or not, but eventually we got 
 together for $600,000 cash. A little high for the time, but
 
 Charles R . Cranes Pre side n t 47 
 
 it was a good sale Tor Miller and a gcuxl buy for Clrane Co. 
 
 Following the sale of the general ollice, brass shop and 
 garage on Judd Street to the C.M.St. P.«&:S.S.M.Ry., the 
 Crane brothers decided to locate the general office on 
 Michigan Avenue, and leased the40xi6o'corner of Mich- 
 igan Ave. and 9th Street from the University of Chicago. 
 On this leased property we erected the building which we 
 now occupy. This building is on concrete piers extending 
 95 feet below the surface, to bed rock. As the excavation 
 for the piers went down, old man trouble came up. At 
 some time in the past a creek had run through the prop- 
 erty. The sub-soil was full of water and quicksand and 
 w hen the water was pumped out the Y.W.C.A. next door 
 began to sink, the roadway on our side of the street 
 dropped 12 inches or so and stones began to fall off the 
 church on 9th Street and Wabash Avenue. On the foun- 
 dation of the Young Woman's building was carved *T was 
 a stranger and ye took me in." The building settled 
 enough to obliterate the "ye took me in" and left visible 
 "I was a stranger." Probably the Young Women did not 
 like to have their slogan eliminated as they sold the build- 
 ing some years later. 
 
 The builders put jack screws under the Woman's build- 
 ing and had men go over them every half hour until the 
 caissons were completed. This kept the ladies from sink- 
 ing into the quicksand and becoming angels before their 
 time. Chas. R. ordered payment of all damage to them 
 and put back the stones on the church. 
 
 The office building is too narrow for a perfect layout
 
 48 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 and, at times, has been too small, but we have gone 
 along quite welf for forty years. 
 
 THE CHICAGO WORKS 
 
 W. W. (Bill) Doolittle having shown by his work at the 
 malleable building on Canal and 15th Street, that his 
 genius was not confined to machine design, was entrusted 
 with the layout, the spacing, the designed movement 
 from the raw material to the loading platform, and the 
 interior equipment. He selected some able assistants, in- 
 cluding John Collier, Vic Flodin, Frank McCreary, Fors- 
 berg, and others, and went to work as soon as the future 
 site was selected. The first step was to measure the floor 
 space in the company's scattered buildings, analyze the 
 output, and calculate the probable rate of increase for ten 
 years; next, to determine the movement of product from 
 raw to finished, the space required for brass and iron foun- 
 dries, machine shops and railroad tracks. These areas 
 were then laid down on a plat of the property, leaving 
 vacancies here and there for future buildings. Naturally, 
 there was a good deal of rubbing out and marking in, for, 
 as Bill Doolittle used to say, "It is easier to change a 
 line on the drawing board than in a finished building." 
 
 Infinite pains were taken to insure a plant which would 
 not only be mechanically correct, but be good for several 
 generations, and the men employed on the job travelled 
 far and wide to study the most modern plants already 
 built or under construction. 
 
 The architects were Graham, Anderson, Probst &
 
 Charles R. Crane, President 49 
 
 White (all dead now). To them goes the credit for the 
 pleasing and harmonious treatment of the buildings, but 
 outside of that, the piciiii stands as a monument to Bill 
 Doolittle's vision, genius and infinite capacity for taking 
 pains. Many additions have been made in 28 years, l)ut 
 the new buildings occupy the spaces originally laid out 
 and no material alterations have been made to disturb 
 the symmetry of the original plan. The first building was 
 erected in 19 14 and the last in 1942. 
 
 It was a tremendous task to move all the machinery 
 and stock from Canal Street, 10 N. Jefferson Street and 
 219 S.Jefferson Street, into the new buildings, but fortu- 
 nately it did not have to be done all at once, but was car- 
 ried out as each section was completed. The manufac- 
 turing division handled the job so successfully, that we 
 experienced no noticeable delay in filling orders. 
 
 .\s the new plant was laid out for future expansion, we 
 rattled around in acres of unused space for a while, but 
 the uplift from World War No. i and the tremendous de- 
 mand in 1920 soon took care of that. 
 
 In the summer of 1 914, Chas. R. and his brother, for 
 reasons known only to themselves, agreed to disagree and 
 it came down to a question of buy or sell. The Junior was 
 much the larger stockholder in Crane Co., but Chas R. 
 owned the big plant at Bridgeport in his own right. Both 
 plants were included in the deal; the Junior was high bid- 
 der and took control. Chas. R. was paid by issuing to him 
 about $15,000,000 bonds of Crane Co., bearing 53 2%- He 
 dien retired permanently from the business.
 
 THIRD PERIOD 
 
 R. T. CRANE, JR., PRESIDENT 
 1914-1931 
 
 Xn August 19 14, a new Board of Directors was elected, 
 made up of: R. T. Crane, Jr., A. D. MacGill, W. W. Doo- 
 little, R. B. Stiles, H. P. Crane, E. H. Raymond, A. F. 
 Bennett, J. H. Wrath, C. A. G. Wayman, C. H. Penny, 
 J. B. Berryman. R. T. Crane, Jr. was elected president; 
 I became ist vice-president; A. D. MacGill, treasurer, 
 and E. H. Raymond, secretary. 
 
 A few months afterwards C. H. Penny died and W. S. 
 Beville was elected a director in his place. 
 
 A new name, E. H. Raymond, appears on the board. 
 A great many men, still active in the company's affairs, 
 remember Eddie. He was an assistant to John Murphy in 
 1895, and after filling various minor jobs was promoted 
 to a branch house. He made a great record in Philadel- 
 phia by pulling that branch out of the red and putting it 
 on a very profitable basis within two years. After I went 
 up to first vice-president, we called him in to take charge 
 of sales.When nature was making the little man there was 
 material enough for a large head with brains in it and a 
 normal body, but not quite enough for legs. Sitting down 
 
 50
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. 
 
 PRESIDENT, 1914-1931
 
 R . T. Crane, Jr. _, Pre side n I 5 1 
 
 he was a good size — standing up, very short. As a sales 
 manager, he functioned well, but would have done bet- 
 ter if he had had a less abrupt and snappy disposition. 
 
 Once Eddie made a trip to Europe and "Boots" Little 
 said, "Eddie has now been at sea three days. Last night 
 his cabin steward jumped overboard and tonight the 
 head waiter will follow suit," but joshing aside, we all 
 knew that Eddie was an able man who understood the 
 business. His end came suddenly some years later. He was 
 on a business trip through the South with Boots Little; he 
 complained of feeling tired, but seemed to be in normal 
 health. They left Houston for New Orleans on the night 
 train and Ed was found dead in his berth next morning. 
 
 Another new name, or rather an old name reinstated, 
 was A. F. Bennett who resigned in 1910. He was elected 
 because Chas. R. had made him general manager of 
 Bridgeport, and when that plant was taken over by Crane 
 Co. he was placed on the board to represent it. 
 
 At this time Crane Co. was an out and out family affair 
 under totalitarian rule. The board was made up of em- 
 ployees who had nothing to say until they found out what 
 the president wanted. No free speech, practically no dis- 
 cussion, except when the Junior was absent and I was in 
 the Chair, tlicn the lid was off as far as speech went, but 
 no action was taken other than routine work. 
 
 Great Period of Expansion 
 
 After the reorganization in August 1914, the Company 
 started on what was to be the most active period of ex-
 
 52 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 pansion in its history. The new president was, we knew, a 
 democratic, approachable gentleman, without any busi- 
 ness training, who was taking on a very stiff job. We did 
 not know whether he could handle it, but the underlying 
 organization was sound and we expected to get along. 
 The time was unpropitious. After the declaration of war 
 between England and Germany, business stopped in the 
 United States and our sales began to slide down, like a 
 ship on greased ways. The new plant in Chicago was un- 
 der construction at a cost far exceeding the money re- 
 ceived for the old one; the newly acquired plant at Bridge- 
 port had to be kept running and financed, and on top of 
 all we faced a debt of $15,000,000 with an interest charge 
 of $825,000 per year. 
 
 If the Junior had not been the world's greatest opti- 
 mist, with faith in his lucky star, he might have been dis- 
 turbed, but it did not seem to affect him much. One day, 
 after he had signed 2500 bonds and I had signed 13500, 
 we were driving to lunch, and he said with his character- 
 istic chuckle, "John, that job is done. Charley gets the 
 bonds and I suppose they will be paid some day, but how 
 and when?" I suggested that wars meant business in our 
 line and we would feel the effect before long. As a matter 
 of fact, business with us did not pick up in any great meas- 
 ure until 1916. However, this is what happened in the 
 next eight years. We started with a bonded debt of 
 $15,000,000, carrying an interest charge of $825,000, and 
 very poor business. 
 
 The great plant on Kedzie Avenue was built and
 
 R, T. Cram', Jr. , President 53 
 
 equipped at a cost of, at least, tliicc times llie amount 
 wc received from the C.B.&Q^. for the old property. 
 
 A manufacturinc; i^laiii was built and e(|uii)ped in 
 Canada. 
 
 Tlie Mutual Pottery at Trenton to which (Iranc Co. 
 contributed Si, 000, 000 was built and equipped. 
 
 Twenty branch houses were opened and 8 or 10 of them 
 had new buildings. 
 
 The Atlantic City show room was built. 
 
 The New York show room remodeled and equijjj)ed. 
 
 Cash dividends aggregating Si 2,298,000 were paid and 
 the bonds paid off as follows: 
 
 Prior to 191 7 S 135,000 
 
 1918 7,723,000 
 
 i9'9 37M00 
 
 1920 2,424,000 
 
 1 92 1 96,000 
 
 1922 4,904,000 
 
 $15,658,000 
 
 In addition to these large outlays, the Junior contin- 
 ued his father's policy of paying extra compensation to 
 the men at Christmas. The rate was 10 per cent of a 
 man's earnings in 1 914 to 1920 inclusive, and 5 per cent 
 in 192 1 and 1922, and the aggregate amount so dis- 
 bursed was Si 1,51 1,000. It is an extraordinary rectjid. 
 
 The Junior's optimism was justified and the selling di- 
 vision had done an outstanding job. They were, fortu- 
 nately, not hampered by a lot of alphabetical bureaus, 
 but could operate on the law of supply and demand. The 
 demand was greater than the supply and within reason- 
 able limits, wc got what the traflic would bear.
 
 54 ^^ Old Man Looks Back 
 
 In May 1919 Jack Houlihan, superintendent of Dept. 3 
 (malleable fittings), reported that his stock bins were fiiU 
 and he wanted to put up a temporary building across the 
 street to store the surplus. This, of course, did not appeal 
 to us, because we could not see anything but a normal de- 
 mand in the near future. The obvious course was to slow 
 down, something superintendents hate to do when things 
 are running smoothly and they are making good costs. 
 However, through a strange surge in demand, which oc- 
 curs once in a while, orders for malleable began to pile in 
 and in thirty days we had sold all the fittings in stock and 
 were working on a shortage. Then came the great strike. 
 
 Before Crane Co. bought the land between 12th and 
 1 6th Streets on Canal Street, I was told a cluster of Irish 
 men's shanties covered the property around 15th Street. 
 The place was known as "Hell's half acre." Jack Houli- 
 han was born on the site of the large malleable fittings 
 plant, of which he was afterward superintendent. A rise 
 in the world, possible, probably, only in America. He was 
 an exceptionally good man, industrious and intelligent. 
 The business manager of the department was another 
 Irishman named Wm. (Bill) Twohig, son of the old door- 
 keeper at 10 N. Jefferson Street, as keen as the superin- 
 tendent. The Junior liked to drop in on this department 
 to hear Houlihan and Twohig pass the ball to one an- 
 other. When Houlihan was describing some of the activi- 
 ties of the plant, he always said, "Aint that so. Bill?" and 
 Twohig would answer solemnly, "You're right. Jack." 
 The formula never varied.
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. , President 55 
 
 The Strike 
 
 War has a bad psychological effect on young men. They 
 come back out of tune with civilian life, uneasy and reck- 
 less. Every war has had an aftermath of crime, committed 
 by the mentally, or nervously, unstable men, lately in the 
 forces. Fortunately, they are not in great numbers, or the 
 authorities could not handle the situation. Our strike had 
 its inception in the reckless desire of some ex-servicemen 
 to start something. Prior to the strike, the directors had 
 under discussion the necessity for raising wages, as the 
 cost of living was going up very fast. The concensus was 
 an increase of 8 per cent, which we expected to announce 
 in a few days. We were a little slow on the trigger. The 
 next day, about 50 ex-soldiers scattered through the 
 plant, threw down their tools and yelled, "Strike! Strike!" 
 stampeding the men like a herd of cattle. The foremen 
 were caught flat footed and could not restore order. So we 
 were in for it. We decided that our best policy was to shut 
 down and not try to open with strikebreakers. We could 
 do this because Bridgeport was unaflfected and our 
 branches were fairly well stocked. As far as that goes, we 
 got along quite well for six weeks. Anticipating more vio- 
 lence than actually occurred, we engaged a regiment of 
 guards to stay inside the plant which was quite as well, 
 because a gang came over the 39th Street fence one night, 
 bent on destruction. 
 
 As fast as they came over, the guards tossed them back. 
 The battle did not last long. One, or more, of the strikers
 
 56 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 got a room across Kedzie Avenue and began shooting 
 through our windows, without hitting anybody, to their 
 regret no doubt. The pohce chased them out. They beat 
 up an office boy and Dr. Harvey rescued him. They also 
 tried to kill one of the guards who was on his way home. 
 He shot one of them and was vindicated by a jury. 
 
 The majority of the men, mostly veterans and the older 
 employes, went home and stayed there until the trouble 
 blew over. Some 1500 gathered at a beer garden a few 
 blocks away and held meetings under the direction of a 
 sweet scented labor leader named Kilkuski. This man 
 signed them up as a Union and collected $5.00 each. Not 
 bad picking for a little oratory. He and another labor 
 leader, whose name slips me, split the swag. This Kilkuski 
 was the head of one of the unions in the Stock Yards, and 
 through his devotion to the pursuit of wine, women and 
 song, he managed to get away with the Union funds. 
 About six months after our strike, some person or persons 
 unknown, put a few slugs in him and ended his career. 
 Nobody seemed to care much. He never will be missed. 
 
 A conciliator came from the Department of Labor, 
 Washington, and after interviewing the men in the beer 
 garden, came in to see me. He wanted a meeting between 
 the officials and the men to adjust the grievances. I told 
 him we would meet with them at any time, provided the 
 committee selected was made up of Crane men only. He 
 arranged matters and the meeting was held under his su- 
 pervision. Flodin, general superintendent; Charley Han- 
 sen, superintendent production; C. A. G. Wayman, and
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. _, President 57 
 
 myself represented the company. There may liave been 
 others, I have forgotten. We did not get very far. They 
 had a list of demands drawn up by the labor leaders cov- 
 ering, probably, three times more than they ever expected 
 to get. One of the items we rejected was abolition of piece 
 work and the other a Union shop. 
 
 I explained to the men that we were paying higher 
 rates than our competitors (which was a fact) and if we 
 acceded to their demands we could not sell our product 
 in competition. This meant shutting down eventually and 
 we might as well do it now. One man did quite a little 
 talking, and I asked him how much he made. He said 90 
 cents per hour. In what department? The galvanizing, 
 but, he said, "I must get more money because the acid 
 eats up my shoes." After that the committee retired 
 to the beer garden to think things over. 
 
 During the strike \'ic Flodin, Chas. Hansen, Geo, Lar- 
 son and the department superintendents stayed in the 
 plant every day. I went out there three or four times a 
 week. The Junior was in the East. Flodin got a tip that 
 they were going to lay for him as he went home. After 
 that he carried a revolver on the dash board of his car and 
 was accompanied by one of the guards. The tip was false, 
 nobody disturbed him. 
 
 After a while information filtered in that the beer gar- 
 den was losing its charm and the labor leaders were grow- 
 ing indifferent because there was no more money in sight. 
 We decided to open and sent a letter to all employees 
 asking them to return at an advance of 8 per cent and un-
 
 58 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 changed conditions. On the day set about 700 or 800 
 came in, more the next day and by the end of the week 
 the plant was in full production. Not many of the original 
 trouble makers came back, although we offered to take 
 back any one without discrimination. 
 
 World War I 
 
 When President Wilson declared war in the spring of 
 191 7, this country was about as ready for combat opera- 
 tions as a choral society with a bank of sopranos. The War 
 Department called into service many retired Colonels, 
 Generals and other Officers, to organize sources of supply 
 for Ordnance and military equipment. Among them was 
 a Col. Seymour, I think that was his name, and we re- 
 ceived a call from him to report in Washington. I went 
 down. The Colonel had an office in an old residence 
 which was equipped with a battered second hand desk 
 and two kitchen chairs. He said it brought back memo- 
 ries of his early campaign days when they had nothing 
 but discomfort. The Colonel had an idea that we could 
 make rifles. I disabused his mind and told him we had 
 shops equipped for fittings and valves, only; that there 
 was a great demand for our product and it was better to 
 let us do an important job, which we could do well, 
 rather than disorganize the plant with something we 
 knew nothing about. He said perhaps I was right, but we 
 had to take on something for him and he pointed to a 
 Stokes mortar on the floor and said, "Can you make it?" 
 I said, "Yes." We made some later.
 
 R . T. Crane, Jr. , Pre side }i t 59 
 
 The draft went iiUt) t-iU'ct shortly afterward. An army 
 of great size was being mobilized, but there was no place 
 to pill liu' men. No barracks, no training camps, no noth- 
 ing. The Army decided to l)iiild a number of canton- 
 ments with living quarters for four million men. Speed 
 was the order of the day. Building contractors were found 
 who could run up the wooden barracks in short order — 
 and did — but the buildings had to be heated and supplied 
 with sanitary conveniences. The Army had no men equal 
 to laying out and gathering the necessary material and 
 Crane Co. was called in. At that time we had in our Gov- 
 ernment department in Washington a man named Frank- 
 lin, who was not only an expert on plumbing, but under- 
 stood the installation of it. He had the confidence of the 
 Department and the Army was only too glad to throw the 
 w hole work of obtaining material into our office. The 
 sales division, therefore, entered into a contract to supply 
 pipe, valves and fittings of our make and to buy for the 
 Government all other equipment. Crane goods was sold 
 at our established prices and on purchased goods we were 
 given a commission of 5 per cent. 
 
 This 5 per cent did not reimburse us for the trouble and 
 time expended, but we considered it as a contribution to- 
 ward the conduct of the war. The operation turned out 
 well. The cantonments were built and wc kept the equip- 
 ment flowing in as fast as the contractors could install it. I 
 do not recall any serious complaint in that year. A nod of 
 appreciation is indicated at this point toward Franklin, 
 Eddie Raymond, Bert Seymour, Charley Moran and
 
 6o An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Wm. Beville, purchasing agent. There was also great ac- 
 tivity in the Navy Department. New naval units had to 
 be built and the older vessels remodeled. This brought in 
 a flood of orders for brass valves. Our new brass foundry 
 was a large building, containing 80,000 sq. ft. of floor 
 space, but we soon reached the limit there and had to 
 build a smaller foundry adjoining. Even then we barely 
 kept our heads above water. 
 
 To add to our troubles there was great activity in com- 
 mercial shipbuilding. Ships and more ships were called 
 for to take men and materials over seas. Unlike the pres- 
 ent war, where everything has to be steel, these commer- 
 cial ships were fitted with iron body valves. This demand 
 taxed our facilities to the limit. The Commercial Ship 
 Division in Chicago was headed by an engineer named 
 Ed Sessions. He was on our necks most of the time and 
 finally convinced us that we must erect another finishing 
 shop. We had no idea then, that the war would end the 
 following year, so we went ahead and erected one of our 
 standard steel and concrete buildings in the C line. It 
 cost about $500,000 and never a wheel turned in it. For a 
 while it looked like a white elephant, half a million of 
 frozen capital, but later on became very useful. Today it 
 is more than useful; it is indispensable. 
 
 Session was a consulting electrical engineer with a fine 
 staff* of young men. Our bill for current was very large 
 and in the hope that a saving might be made by some 
 change in the wiring or otherwise, we engaged him to 
 look over the installation. His experts made a thorough
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. , President 6 1 
 
 study, bill could noi IhkI any place where an alteration 
 would be beneficial. This was a feather in the caps of 
 Harry Stewart, cliief electrician and his assistant. Hob 
 Dussman, who had laid out the work. 
 
 One day tlie late Charles Piez, then president of the 
 Link Belt Co., dropped in and asked me if I knew Ses- 
 sions. Finding that I did, he said, "Tell me, frankly, is 
 Ed. a genius or a nut?" I told him that the line between 
 the two was sometimes faint and perhaps Ed. was strad- 
 dling it. 
 
 A little incident came up in the early part of 1 9 1 8 which 
 gave me some satisfaction. I was on the committee con- 
 trolling the distribution of coal in this area. The chair- 
 man was Fred Pease, an arbitrary individual, who was 
 inclined to carry things with a high hand. Our brass 
 foundry was running short of anthracite. At that time we 
 melted in pit furnaces and had just begun to experiment 
 with electric melting. This was not very promising as the 
 electric furnace had not been fully developed, and our 
 technique not as good as today. Pease refused to let us 
 have coal so I went over to see him. He said we could use 
 gas and brought in his so-called combustion engineer to 
 prove it. We had explored that angle already and had 
 found that the Gas Company did not have a main on 
 Kedzie Avenue large enough to carry the load. 
 
 The combustion man suggested coke. We had tried 
 that and failed. Then Pease said we should use electricity. 
 I asked him what the Navy Department would do while 
 we were changing over the plant. He said tlial was our
 
 62 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 trouble and flatly refused coal. We wired the Admiral in 
 charge of construction at Washington, setting out the 
 facts. He came back with a message to tell Mr. Pease to 
 deliver what coal we required and if he did not do so, he 
 would divert enough cars at the mine. Two cars of an- 
 thracite were on our track in the morning, but Fred Pease 
 was mad through and through. 
 
 Before I forget it, W. W. Doolittle resigned in 191 6 
 after some misunderstanding with the president. We, of 
 the working force, regretted this for "Bill" was rough and 
 tough, but square. You knew where he stood all the time; 
 he was a friend or an enemy and did not care who knew 
 it. The department of machine design went to Carl New- 
 house, an able draughtsman. We did not build many ma- 
 chines after that, but Vic Flodin and Newhouse designed 
 a machine for making unions, far superior to anything we 
 had used before. 
 
 The new plant on Kedzie Avenue was fairly well along 
 and in production by 191 6- 17. Vic Flodin was general 
 superintendent (the same man who was making 30 cents 
 per hour not many years before) and Chas. Hansen, su- 
 perintendent of production. These two men were pillars 
 of strength. Flodin was a superb judge of machinery and 
 master of shop layout. Hansen was cool and collected un- 
 der any and all circumstances, and he took the brunt of 
 the pounding from the order department. They worked 
 well together. Crane Co. was fortunate in having in the 
 production end, strong men who understood their busi- 
 ness. This was true in the Founder's time and it is true to-
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. , President 63 
 
 day. As the years pass, nu-n pass, but the baton is liandcd 
 on to their successors and tradition and ideals aic ( arried 
 on without a break. 
 
 CANADA 
 
 In 191 7 the president announced that he intended to 
 open a phint in Canada. It was an unpropitious time. 
 That small country had gone all out for four years in a 
 great war and was bled white in men and money. To 
 operating men it looked like the worst possible time to 
 establish a business there, and as a matter of fact it was. 
 To the mind of the Junior, however, it seemed the best 
 possible time. He said that the people of Canada would 
 welcome us more, if we started when everything was blue, 
 than if we went in after prosperity had set in. This may 
 have been good psychology (I am not a judge), but we 
 did not find our established competitors meeting us with 
 a band and floral offerings. Quite the contrary, they 
 ganged up on us and gave us a stiffbattle for several years. 
 
 In 1 919 the plant on St. Patrick Street, Montreal, was 
 completed. In 1920 we bought the Dominion Pottery in 
 St. Johns, Quebec. In 1922 we erected an office building 
 on Beaver Hall Square. In 1926 we purchased the plant 
 and good will of Warden King & Co. (boilers and radia- 
 tors) and in 1930 we purchased the Port Hope Sanitary 
 Mfg. Co. at Port Hope, Ont. (enameled ware) and at va- 
 rious times established 13 branches throughout Canada. 
 The other branches were originally established by Crane 
 Co. of Illinois. This Company is now a strong, well estab-
 
 64 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 lished concern, but we had our troubles when it was in 
 the making. 
 
 ENGLAND 
 
 In 19 1 9 I was in San Francisco and received a wire 
 from the Junior saying he had a chance to acquire Ben- 
 nett's jobbing business in London and did I think it bet- 
 ter to buy, or go in independently. I replied that if he had 
 made up his mind to open in England, it was much bet- 
 ter to buy out Bennett and have a nucleus to start with. 
 Before I got back the deal was closed. The Junior then 
 went to England and selected a site for a new plant at 
 Ipswich, about 60 miles from London. James E. Bennett 
 was elected managing director, a position he still holds. 
 
 We had the usual troubles inherent in a new venture 
 and some ups and downs, but on a whole the business has 
 done quite well, and has justified the investment. 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 This venture grew out of a desire on the part of the 
 Junior to help the Crane men in the overseas forces. He 
 sent Austin Murphy to Paris to open a meeting room on 
 the Place deL'Opera, to distribute cigarettes, etc., give 
 the boys a place to write letters, receive mail when they 
 were in Paris, and give them advice and assistance. His 
 next step was to open an expensive show room exhibiting 
 plumbing fixtures. We did not make plumbing goods in 
 Europe and could not sell those made in America on ac- 
 count of the tariff, but the Junior said the idea was not to
 
 R . T. Crane, Jr. , Preside n ( 65 
 
 sell ill France, but to advertise our product to the Amer- 
 ican travelling public. Later on it cost us a lot of money 
 to get out of that lease. 
 
 Following this a small shop was opened in Rue Le- 
 courbe for pipe fabricating and we put in a small stock of 
 fittings and valves. Came the time when the French tariff' 
 on valves was raised so high that importation was out of 
 the question. The Junior then decided to build a plant 
 and manufacture in France. A very good site w as selected 
 and a small but well equipped plant laid out. The prod- 
 uct is excellent in quality and was finding a market when 
 the war broke out. We have heard nothing from them for 
 two years, except indirectly. The buildings, at last ac- 
 count, were still there. 
 
 BRIDGEPORT 
 
 This large plant was owned outright by Chas. R. Crane. 
 The output was taken by three large customers and Crane 
 Co. In August 1 9 14, when Crane Co. took over, the prin- 
 cipal outside customer was Jenkins Bros, for whom they 
 manufactured, under contract, the Jenkins valves. This 
 work was done in the Main Street plant and the iron 
 valves and fittings were made at the new West End plant. 
 Nearly all the output of this plant was marketed by Crane. 
 Later on we sold the Main Street plant to Jenkins Bros, as 
 our Chicago plant could make all the brass goods we could 
 sell and the Bridgeport capacity was superfluous. 
 
 In the earlier years Chas. R. engaged our ex-purchas- 
 ing agent, Frank Mulcahy, as general manager and upon
 
 66 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 his death appointed A. F. Bennett, our ex-secretary, in 
 his place. Not long after Crane Co, took over, Mr. Ben- 
 nett resigned and John H. Collier slipped into his shoes. 
 Mr. Collier, with the able assistance of Wm. Noone, the 
 superintendent, overhauled the Bridgeport plant and 
 modernized it. (I remember Billy Noone as a black haired 
 kid chasing orders in Dept. 2) After they were through 
 the rehabilitation job, the plant produced the same ton- 
 nage with 1000 less men. Mr. Collier operated the plant 
 for nine years until his transfer to Europe to oversee the 
 English and French plants. 
 
 In 1922 we were reaching the bottom of the financial 
 barrel and if the great expansion which the Junior had in 
 mind, was to be carried out, additional capital was neces- 
 sary. The Junior did not like the idea of issuing bonds; an 
 issue of Common stock was undesirable for several rea- 
 sons, so it was decided to sell $15,000,000 of 7 per cent 
 Preferred stock. The employees subscribed for a large 
 amount and the balance was sold to underwriters. The 
 Junior greatly desired a large stockholding by employees 
 and to make the issue more attractive, the employees 
 were guaranteed i per cent additional, making the issue 
 worth 8 per cent to them, a rate of return which looks 
 fabulous today. He, later on, to further carry out his idea 
 of employee ownership of stock, gave to the employees 
 out of his personal holdings, a great many shares divided 
 among them, principally on length of service. 
 
 I recall vividly the great surprise I had in Del Monte. 
 We were in a zone meeting of Pacific Coast managers at
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. , President 67 
 
 the Del Monte Hotel. The Junior passed me a slip of pa- 
 per on which he had written, "Can you draw a trust 
 deed?" I penciled on the bottom, "Yes" and returned it. 
 Back came another paper, "I want to give 80,000 shares 
 of my stock to the employees, on this basis (terms set out). 
 Draw up a trust deed to Tom Kelly and yourself and get 
 it back here in half an hour." The stock was worth at that 
 time about $4,000,000 and the transaction surprised me 
 not a little. I w ent down to the writing room and drew up, 
 on a sheet of hotel paper, what was intended to pass as a 
 trust deed and he signed it. When we got back to Chicago 
 he signed a single certificate and Kelly and I split it 
 up according to instructions and distributed the shares 
 among the beneficiaries. This generous act was the high 
 light of that meeting and one of the high lights in the 
 Junior's life. 
 
 Still Greater Expansion 
 
 The years from 1922 to 1930, inclusive, were active and 
 profitable. We paid 7 per cent on the Preferred stock and 
 an equal amount on the Common and opened about 90 
 branches or warehouses. Of these the O'Fallon business 
 in Denver and the Columbus Supply Co., in Ohio, were 
 acquired by purchase. Most of the others were put in 
 from the ground up and some 35 buildings were erected 
 to house them, the others were in rented property. 
 
 One year, coming back from the Coast on Mr. Crane's 
 private car, we were discussing the business and the Jun- 
 ior turned to me and said, "I wint you to establish 50
 
 68 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 branches in the next year." I explained that it was impos- 
 sible. There were not 50 good places left and, anyway, we 
 had not sufficient capital nor men available: "Neverthe- 
 less," he said, "I want it done." Bert Seymour chimed in, 
 "Mr. Crane, you are not talking of branches, you mean 
 filling stations." The Junior laughed and said, "That is 
 the idea, Bert." 
 
 We did put in 20 houses next year and it strained us to 
 do that much. We were also spreading out in other direc- 
 tions. We had a half interest in Mutual Pottery Co. at 
 Trenton, the other half was held by the Trenton Potteries 
 Co. The output of the Mutual was not sufficient, so it was 
 decided to buy the Trenton Potteries Co. outright. This 
 was done by buying nearly all of the outstanding stock by 
 private sales engineered by a New York stock broker 
 named Coe. 
 
 Following this purchase, but several years later, it was 
 decided to manufacture boilers and radiators. The boilers 
 were designed and patterns made in Chicago. Inasmuch 
 as we had had no experience in the manufacture of radia- 
 tors, we bought the Landon plant in North Tonawanda, 
 to get the advice and knowledge of Archie Landon who 
 owned it. The idea was unsound. We paid too much for 
 the outfit and had to rebuild the plant before we could 
 get economical production. 
 
 Following the Trenton purchase the Junior wanted an 
 enamel plant for bath tubs, lavatories, etc. The only 
 available plant was the Cahill Iron Works in Chatta- 
 nooga. We bought it. It did not take long to find out that,
 
 R . T. Crane J Jr. , President 69 
 
 so far as the production of iron enameled ware at a com- 
 petitive price, was concerned, the plant was impossible. 
 We then built a brand new plant at Alton Park, just out- 
 side Chattanooga. After a world of trouble with incom- 
 petent management, we finally sent Arthur Nelson who 
 had been trained in Dept. 2, to take charge. He. had 
 quite a few headaches, but finally got things going and 
 the plant did well. 
 
 Hindsight is better than foresight by a damnsite, and 
 looking back it is evident that except in the case of the 
 Trenton Potteries, where we fell heir to a highly efficient 
 going concern, the other plant purchases were mistakes. 
 We could have done better by hiring the necessary talent 
 and going ahead on our own hook. We did eventually. 
 
 I am going to detour here to place on record the direc- 
 tors who, theoretically, were moulding the destinies of 
 the Company: 
 
 1925 1930 
 
 J. B. Berryman J. B. Berryman 
 
 VV. J. Clark W. J. Clark 
 
 H. P. Crane H. P. Crane 
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. R. T. Crane, Jr. 
 
 J. A. Murphy J. A. Murphy 
 
 E. H. Raymond R. B. Stiles 
 
 R. B. Stiles C. A. G. Wayman 
 
 C. A. G. Wayman C. R. Crane, II 
 
 C. R. Crane, II V. E. Flodin 
 V. E. Flodin A. F. Gartz, Jr. 
 A. F. Gartz, Jr. P. T. Kelly 
 
 P. T. Kelly D. G. Park 
 
 D. G. Park W. Evensen 
 J. H. Collier C. D. Little 
 
 L. P. Ordway H. VV. Seymour
 
 70 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Now, we made a great deal of money in the years 1 9 1 5- 
 1930. The capital of the Company had been increased, in 
 addition to the earnings, by $15,000,000 of Preferred 
 stock, $2,000,000 by liquidation of the Main Street plant 
 in Bridgeport, and some minor additions. As an offset to 
 this, we paid Chas. R. Crane $15,000,000 so practically 
 the Company had been expanding on earnings. Out of 
 these earnings were paid dividends on the Preferred stock 
 ($1,000,000 per year) and $1.75 (7%) on the Common 
 stock (about $4,000,000 per year). What was left was in- 
 vested in Canada, England and France, in branch houses 
 and branch buildings; in plants for enamelware, pottery, 
 boilers and radiators, and to increase the capacity of the 
 Chicago Works. 
 
 In 1930 we had a nominal surplus of some $20,000,000, 
 in bricks, machinery, inventories and accounts receiv- 
 able, but not much cash. The company was sound as a 
 bullet, but so far as further expansion was concerned had 
 to wait future earnings. This did not suit the Junior; he 
 had ideas which he wanted to put into effect at once, so 
 we saw Eugene Stevens, president of the Continental Illi- 
 nois Bank, and made arrangements with him to issue 
 $12,000,000 Debentures. 
 
 This large transaction did not take over half an hour 
 as we were not hampered by an exacting S.E.C. in those 
 days. Looking back, it seems extraordinary that this 
 transaction could have been handled at all. The stock 
 market crash came in 1929 and business in 1930 was 
 slowing up and the general outlook was bad. However,
 
 R. T. Crane, Jr. , President 7 1 
 
 the company's credit standing was so high that the issue 
 was taken up almost immediately. During the latter part 
 of 1930 and the early part of 1931, the Junior reversed 
 himself on immediate investment and we simply com- 
 pleted what buildings were under way and carried out 
 other commitments. When he passed on we had a large 
 part of the bond money left and in light of what happened 
 in 1 93 1 -2-3 it was most fortunate. 
 
 In 1930 the operating men sensed that all was not well 
 in the business world. Sales were slipping and competi- 
 tion was becoming sharper. We wanted to take some can- 
 vas off the ship, but the Junior said it was a diamond jubi- 
 lee year, 75 years since the Founder had run the first 
 mould, and he wanted it marked by good feeling. We had 
 the good feeling right enough, but very little profit. In 
 1 93 1 the operating men knew that we were in for serious 
 trouble and put pressure on the Junior for permission to 
 do what had to be done. He either would not, or could 
 not see that the conditions in the country were very bad. 
 He thought the selling division was laying down on the 
 job. This was an illusion. The selling division was doing 
 all it could, but no one can sell anything unless there are 
 buyers. We did something towards reducing expenses in 
 1 93 1 but, unfortunately, not nearly enough. In Novem- 
 ber, the Junior had a stroke and passed on. No finer man 
 ever headed a company. His integrity and honesty were 
 so firmly fixed that he leaned backwards and he insisted 
 that all transactions should be based on his own high 
 standard. His faith in the honesty of the force was so
 
 72 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 great that he gave orders to cancel all fidelity bonds on 
 men handling money, with the proviso that should any 
 one prove crooked he was to be prosecuted to the limit. 
 
 In his term of office and after his death by Will he made 
 outright gifts to the employees of 366,000 shares of Crane 
 Co. from his personal holdings. His heart was in the com- 
 pany and he was governed by a strong desire to make the 
 company outstanding; to make it a household word. Per- 
 haps there was some personal egotism in this but, if so, he 
 did not recognize it as such. He was a plain democratic 
 man, easily approachable, kindly and considerate, with a 
 vision, but too optimistic. He had not come up the hard 
 way like his father. The axiom "never spend a dollar un- 
 til you can see a dollar and ten cents coming back" was 
 not in his lexicon. He would spend freely, sure that to- 
 morrow would fill up the chest again. Perhaps he was not 
 the best business man in the world, but he was one of the 
 finest men I ever met. 
 
 One of his conceptions was the Veterans' League, made 
 up of employees who had been with the company 25 
 years or more. To each member he gave a gold medal 
 with a bar for every 5 years. Once a year he gave the vet- 
 erans a banquet at his own expense. At the last one, held 
 in the Grand Ball Room of the Stevens Hotel, I think 
 about 1 100 sat down which gave him extraordinary satis- 
 faction.
 
 John B. Berry man 
 
 PRESIDENT, 1 932-1 935
 
 FOUR in I'l RIOD 
 
 JOHN B.BERRYMAN, PRESIDENT 
 
 XoLLOWiNG Mr. Crane's death the directors elected me 
 president. It was a stop gap, because I was considered too 
 old to cany the load for any great length of time. The di- 
 rectors were right, of course. As far as I was concerned, it 
 was a change of title, but not a change in job as I had 
 been operating head of the company (with some inter- 
 ference) since 19 14. I do not look back on this period 
 with pleasure. When I took over, we were losing some- 
 thing like Si, 000,000 per month and that leak had to be 
 plugged or we were sunk. There was only one way to do 
 it. Trim down the force and cut the salaries and wages of 
 those remaining. Not a pleasant way, but the only way if 
 the company was to survive. In this I had able support 
 from Bert Seymour, D. G. Park, P. T. Kelly and most of 
 the branch managers. Some of the managers complained, 
 but eventually they saw the light. 
 
 Our sales kept shrinking about as fast as our retrench- 
 ments for a while and it was a tough proposition. To illus- 
 trate: In the years 193 1-3 we received very few industrial 
 orders; the steel mills, the great barometer, were running 
 
 73
 
 74 ^^ Old Man Looks Back 
 
 about 20 per cent of capacity. The public utilities were 
 not expanding as they had excess capacity and residen- 
 tial building had almost ceased. The decline in residential 
 building, taking 1928 as a base, was 1929 — off 32 percent; 
 1930 off 60 per cent; 1931 off 70 per cent; 1932 off 90 per 
 cent. The oil companies were doing rather better than 
 other industrials, but the competition in that field was so 
 sharp that there was no profit in the orders we did get. 
 A trip through the Chicago Works in those bleak days 
 was a depressing experience. The flow of material through 
 the shops had fallen from a river to a trickle and in the 
 acres of idle space, the black machines stood silent and 
 waiting. It recalled to my mind the well known lines: 
 
 "I feel like one who treads, alone, 
 A banquet hall, deserted, 
 The guests have fled, the flowers dead 
 And all, but he, departed" 
 
 In 1932 the majority of the banks in the country folded 
 up. We had as usual a large amount on deposit in banks 
 all over the country. Tom Kelly, in the financial depart- 
 ment, was worried and I want to take off my hat to him 
 for his extraordinary diligence and acumen in a very try- 
 ing time. He would get a tip on one of our banks, pull out 
 the money and deposit in another. The second bank 
 would be groggy and Tom would get out at once and 
 hunt for another haven. He kept on top of the job day 
 and night, and we came through with practically no loss. 
 
 When there is but little business, manufacturers and 
 dealers try to keep up enough volume to pay expenses.
 
 John B. Benyman , President 75 
 
 This brings about ruinous prices. At one time our sales 
 showed a net loss of 25 per cent, but a new sun arose to 
 warm us when wc were decidedly chilly. General Hugh 
 Johnson, w ilh his Blue Kaglc and his codes. Every one in 
 our industry could see the possibility in a code and under 
 legal guidance the valve and htting industry got very 
 busy. I think I made nine trips to Washington and New 
 York while we had the Blue Eagle cooking. Good old Al 
 Jupp of Lunkenheimer worked so hard tliat lit- had a 
 stroke and passed out. The upshot was that the industry 
 got together and we eliminated some of the cut-throat 
 competition, always keeping well within the law as it 
 was then. 
 
 During the depression, we sought for something to 
 make which would keep the shop busier than it was. 
 
 The magazines and newspapers were exploiting the 
 possibilities of air conditioning in their usual dramatic 
 way; many well chosen words and little real knowledge. 
 One of our directors became quite interested and sug- 
 gested that we enter the field. I could not see it, because 
 conditioning as done by Carrier, was entirely out of our 
 line and the small units contributed practically nothing 
 to shop employment; the line promised to cost a lot of 
 money we could not spare, with a problematical return. 
 The American Radiator Co. plunged in and lost so heav- 
 ily that when Harry Reed became president he closed out 
 the line as quickly as possible. 
 
 Undoubtedly, quite a good deal can be done to make 
 homes more livable in hot weather in a simple and inex-
 
 76 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 pensive way and we shall, probably, develop something 
 salable one of these days. 
 
 In 1934 there was some improvement in business and 
 we turned the corner with a net profit of $ i ,02 1 ,000. Dur- 
 ing my term we, of course, did not expand nor, in fact, do 
 much except sit steady in the boat and bail. Certain re- 
 forms in the organization were desirable, but they could 
 wait. When a ship is sinking, it is better to put the crew at 
 work plugging the leaks rather than painting the super- 
 structure. We had, however, an eye on the future and 
 called in John Collier from Europe to take the position of 
 vice-president (manufacturing) vacated by C. A. G. 
 Wayman who, after serving the company intelligently 
 and well for fifty years, had reached an age when he felt 
 like getting out of the harness. We also called in P. R. 
 Mork to take the position of vice-president (sales divi- 
 sion) formerly held by C. D. Litde and H. W. Seymour. 
 Mr. Seymour had died and Mr. Little was retiring to 
 take his ease on the Magnolia River where the fish bite 
 once in a while. 
 
 Under Jules Stark, a committee worked on a new gen- 
 eral catalogue which was badly needed. The old cata- 
 logue was out of date and the committee did a fine job 
 checking the sales of every item, eliminating all the dead 
 wood and adding new material. 
 
 Under D. G. Park a committee revised our General 
 Rules, cutting out those which were obsolete, but 
 the basic rules as written by the Founder were retained 
 intact.
 
 Chas. B. Nolle 
 
 PRESIDENT, 1 935-1941
 
 FIFTH PKRIOD 
 
 CHAS. B. NOLTE, PRESIDENT 
 
 I 
 
 N March 1935 my active, operating days came to an 
 end and the directors elected a new president. It is with a 
 good deal of satisfaction that I record that we of the oper- 
 ating force, having gone through the fires of adversity, 
 turned over to the new management a business well 
 manned, sound and making money. 
 
 A new board of directors was elected, with the number 
 reduced to nine instead of seventeen. The members were: 
 J. B. Berryman, Cornelius Crane, A. F. Gartz, Jr., P. T. 
 Kelly, F. R. Lillie, Mark \V. Lowell, C. B. Nolte, E. A. 
 Russell, C. A. G. Wayman. 
 
 The board elected the following officers: J. B. Berry- 
 man, chairman; C. B. Nolte, president; P. R. Mork, W. J. 
 Clark, J. H. Collier, C. R. Crane, II, P. T. Kelly, C. D. 
 Little, D. G. Park, L. B. Peeples, H. W. Seymour, C. A. 
 G. Wayman, vice-presidents; H. P. Bishop, secretary; 
 Walter Evensen, treasurer. 
 
 This is a formidable list of vice-presidents, most of them 
 holding over from the administration of R. T. Crane, Jr., 
 who liked to spread the title around. Some years ago, the 
 
 77
 
 78 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 jokers of the Press related that two Americans met in Eu- 
 rope and one said to the other, "What is your occupation 
 when at home?" "I am vice-president of the Guaranty 
 Trust." "Shake, brother, so am I." The company was 
 most fortunate in having on the board an available man 
 of C. B. Nolte's caliber and the directors' choice of him 
 for president was a happy one. 
 
 Mr. Nolte was a man of abounding energy and a bril- 
 liant mind, trained to read from cause to effect, or from 
 effect to cause. Without any experience in our line of 
 work, he grasped the essential features within a short 
 time and settled down to carry on successfully the con- 
 duct of the business. Some changes in office and shop or- 
 ganization were made under his direction to the com- 
 pany's betterment and he did it without friction. During 
 his term the 7 per cent Preferred stock was refinanced at 
 5 per cent and the Debentures finally refinanced at 2^ 
 per cent, the lowest interest rate on Debentures so far as I 
 know, obtained by any manufacturing company. This 
 brings to mind a small incident which happened when 
 our fortunes were at their lowest ebb in 1932-3. Mr. 
 Sloane of the General Motors gave a dinner at the World's 
 Fair. Among others at my table was the head of a Trust 
 Company in St. Louis, whose name I have forgotten. He 
 said, "You may not know it, or realize it, but the credit of 
 your company rates with the first ten in the United 
 States." I said, "I am glad to hear that, but as we are not 
 making money, in fact losing, it may lower our standing." 
 He said, "Not at all. Everybody, nearly, is in the same
 
 Chas. B. Noltt\ President yg 
 
 boat and depressions never last forever. You will come 
 back." Which cheered me up like a gallon of oats to a 
 tired horse. And he was rii^ht. 
 
 It is regrettable that a splendid IcUow likt- Clharley 
 Nolte, through a surplus of energy, which drove him all 
 the time, had to burn out at a comparatively early age. 
 He w as a good man for Crane Co. 
 
 In 1938 my old friend, Bert Seymour, vice-president, 
 passed on after a lingering illness full of suffering, which 
 he bore with great fortitude. He was a fine man and one 
 of the best sales managers we ever had. I was traveling 
 with Mr. Crane in his private car from Chattanooga to 
 Trenton and got ready to leave at Baltimore. He said, 
 "What's the idea" and I told him we were thin at the top 
 and I hoped to get Seymour to help Ed Raymond. After- 
 ward, Bert said I took him out of a comfortable position 
 and threw him into a tough job.
 
 SIXTH PERIOD 
 
 JOHN H. COLLIER, PRESIDENT 
 1941- 
 
 A 
 
 ,.T THE Annual Meeting in March 1941 the following 
 directors were elected: J. B. Berryman; A. O. Choate, 
 capitalist, New York; J. H. Colher; A. F. Gartz, Jr.; F. R. 
 Lillie, scientist; Mark W. Lowell, vice-president, Conti- 
 nental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company; Syd- 
 ney G. McAllister, president, International Harvester Co. ; 
 P. R. Mork; Chas. B. Nolte; Wm. R. Odell, lawyer and 
 capitalist; E. A. Russell, vice-president, Otis Elevator Co. 
 
 The make-up of the board indicates a definite change 
 in Company ownership. It is no longer a vest pocket cor- 
 poration, but a national organization with some 11,000 
 stockholders scattered all over the country. 
 
 The officers elected were: J. B. Berryman, chairman; 
 Chas. B. Nolte, president; J. H. Collier, vice-president; 
 P. R. Mork, vice-president; C. R. Crane, II, vice-presi- 
 dent; D. G. Park, vice-president; J. L. HoUoway, secre- 
 tary and assistant to president; Walter Evensen, treasurer; 
 F. H. Kaiser, comptroller. 
 
 Mr. Nolte died in April and at a meeting of the board 
 May 5th J. H. Collier was elected to succeed him. It was 
 
 80
 
 John H. Collier 
 
 PRESIDENT, I 94 1-
 
 John H. Collier, President 8 1 
 
 a good selection as Mr. Collier is a trained production 
 man, and production is our great problem at this time, 
 hut \\c is also a man of liii^h character, even tempera- 
 ment and ^ood judgment. As I have, in earlier pages, fol- 
 lowed his career from the sand \)'\\q to xice-president, it is 
 not necessary to go over it again, but 1 was curious to 
 know how he got in in the first place. As many of you 
 know, the "Old Man" was opposed to liigher education 
 for men in business life. He wrote a book on the futility of 
 it, so I asked Mr. Collier to tell me how he crashed the 
 gate. 
 
 It came about in this way. Wanting to earn some money 
 during the college vacation period, he braced the "Old 
 Man" for a temporary job. Mr. Crane said, "Why tem- 
 porary?" So Collier told him that he needed money to 
 enable him to continue his studies at Purdue University. 
 The "Old Man" brightened up at the prospect of saving 
 another brand from the burning and said, "You are wast- 
 ing your time. We can teach you more here in one year 
 than a college can in a lifetime. I want you to read my 
 book and not waste your life." Collier said, "Mr. Crane, 
 do I understand you are offering me a steady job?" "Per- 
 haps I am. Look over the place and see how you like it." 
 He called Wayman over and told him to take the boy 
 through the shop. He got a job, but the "Old Man" 
 dropped him in a tough spot to see if he could stand ihe 
 gaff. He did and you will notice that before long he com- 
 menced to move up. 
 
 At the Annual Meeting in Marcii 1942 Mr. George
 
 82 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 Eastwood, president of Armour & Co., was elected a di- 
 rector to fill the vacancy caused by Mr. Nolte's death. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Crane Co. has a background covering 88 years since 
 the founding and 78 years since incorporation by a spe- 
 cial Act of the Illinois Legislature. It is one of the older 
 companies of the country and has successfully weathered 
 the depressions of 1873, 1886, 1892, 1907, 1921 and 1930- 
 2-3. My information is, that, with the exception of the 
 worldwide crash of the thirties, the company has always 
 come out on the right side of the ledger. Today it is 
 stronger in personnel and material assets than ever be- 
 fore. During my lifetime, I have seen a great many com- 
 panies rise, shine and fizzle out; some old well established 
 concerns like Mott & Wolff dry up and die. The sands of 
 time are strewn with the wrecks of brass manufacturers 
 who knew how to undersell their competitors, but Crane 
 Co. has prospered. There must be reasons for this, prob- 
 ably to be found in customers relations, competitors rela- 
 tions, and our policy of distribution. 
 
 Customers 
 
 The buyer pays the freight, cost and profit (if any) . He 
 is our No. I man — the most important factor we have to 
 deal with. We have been serving him for many years and, 
 probably, have made a pretty fair job of it. We have es- 
 tablished a reputation for square dealing, in so far as we 
 have delivered to him honest merchandise at a price fair
 
 John H. Collier, President 83 
 
 to him and ourselves. He comes back again and again. He 
 is the outward symbol of that intangible, but enormously 
 valuable thing, called "Good will," which we possess in 
 greater measure than our competitors. In business the 
 cultivation and retention of good will is the keystone of 
 success. 
 
 Now this good will may be lost through bad manage- 
 ment and imperfect product. It is not a finished mirror 
 which we can hang up and admire our reflection. If we 
 get too smug and self satisfied good will cannot be held; 
 only hard work and horse sense will do the job. The con- 
 tact with the customer lies in the field of the distributing 
 force. To them the customer looks for courtesy, prompt 
 service and rapid adjustment of complaints. The distrib- 
 utors look to the manufacturing division for products 
 which they can offer with confidence. Between the two 
 we have all the elements which go to make a successful 
 business. Failure on either side is disastrous. 
 
 And touching on the quality of product, in this we do 
 not take off our hats to anybody. In any of our lines, 
 valves, fittings, boilers, radiators, enamelware and pot- 
 tery we can stand the most critical comparison. If I were 
 a manager and a salesman told me that he could not sell 
 anything we make at an even price with a competitor, I 
 should consider that man's usefulness at an end. Of 
 course, I understand, that there are cases where the buyer 
 is unfriendly, or possibly wants to turn the business over 
 to a friend for various reasons. I know of two of such 
 cases, where we got over the hurdle by selling the friend.
 
 84 ^n Old Man Looks Back 
 
 but by and large we always stand a good chance at an 
 even break. Now let us consider our relations with com- 
 petitors. 
 
 It is not necessary to treat our competitors as arch ene- 
 mies in order to avoid violation of the sacred Sherman 
 Act. Certainly, we cannot make any agreements in restraint 
 of trade or agreements of any kind and do not wish to. On 
 the other hand, there is no reason why we cannot deal 
 with our competitors as honorable business men. Com- 
 mon sense tells us that there must be a market level of 
 some kind and that senseless cut throat competition will 
 not get anybody anywhere except the bankruptcy Court. 
 
 Therefore, we believe in a spirit of live and let live in 
 the secondary markets, not as philanthropists but because 
 we make more money that way and sell just as much. Of 
 course, it is never going to be all sweetness and light in 
 this business, because that destructive trio — greed, envy 
 and malice — are always with us. A very poor way of 
 bringing about local good feeling was shown at one of our 
 zone meetings in the central district. The chairman had 
 asked the managers about competitive conditions and it 
 came the turn of a manager of an important house. He 
 said "I have little to do with my competitors because they 
 are a lot of bastards." Now what bearing on the question, 
 had his assumption that the male ancestors of his com- 
 petitors were bachelors? 
 
 The sales manager of a large company, who has since 
 passed on to whatever reward he is entitled, once said, 
 "Crane has a bunch of self-righteous guys who consider
 
 John H. Colliery President 85 
 
 themselves better than the rest of us." We got quite a 
 kick out of that, for, as a fact, we did consider our opera- 
 tions a Httle more ethical than his. I do not think we are 
 overly righteous. Since Boots Little retired there may be 
 some other one in Ralph Mork\s division entitled to wear 
 a halo, but I have never seen him. In all seriousness we do 
 try to be square, but we are very realistic and quite un- 
 derstand that our manufacturing competitors are out to 
 do us if they can and we have no intention whatever of 
 being done. 
 
 Distribution 
 
 What success we may have had, is not entirely attrib- 
 utable to good relations with customers and competitors. 
 A great factor is the control of the facilities for distribu- 
 tion. Any one with money enough can build a plant, staff 
 it and produce, but the money is wasted unless there is a 
 market for the product. By taking the product to the 
 buyer we find our market. Through branch houses or dis- 
 tributing warehouses, we reach the secondary market, 
 where instead of a few large buyers, we find thousands of 
 smaller ones buying something every day. And don't 
 think that the small buyer can be ignored. I wish we had 
 two hundred thousand of them; they stay with you and 
 turn in a good profit. 
 
 Unfortunately we do not control all the channels of dis- 
 tribution. The task is impossible for one thing and the 
 Government would not permit it even if u c could, but 
 our method of selling does bring us in contact with a
 
 86 An Old Man Looks Back 
 
 great many buyers and is the best system I know of. If we 
 have done fairly well for a long time that success is due to 
 coordinated effort starting with production and ending 
 at the final sale. To my mind we are just beginning to 
 find ourselves. The possibilities in this business are very 
 great and we shall no doubt, exploit them to the full in 
 the years to come, and take it from an old man who has 
 been through the mill, if we stick to our present methods 
 and ideals, the waves of opposition will beat ineffectively 
 against the granite structure that many hands and many 
 minds have built well over the years. 
 
 With age, we have acquired something intangible, but 
 real. The company is more than a manufacturing and 
 merchandising company; it is an institution, with tradi- 
 tions and ideals. I am proud to have had a small share in 
 the upbuilding. 
 
 THE RECORD 
 
 Capital and Surplus Sales 
 
 1865 S200,ooo Unknown 
 
 191 1 18,281,000 S36,ooo,ooo 
 
 1942 98,000,000 190,000,000
 
 PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY 
 THE LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, U. S. A.
 
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