The Seven Ages of Johns-Manville

A typical American corporation grows up. From single-hearted production to many-handed distribution. From hard-fisted Manvilles to hard-headed Morgans. From a family's source of livelihood to a nation's speculative favorite.

HE law delights in defying common of them presented an opportunity for in­ ing has been retarded by the long winter of T sense, but now and then its flights of sulation, just as every rising house had to depression. None the less, the reorganiza­ fantasy are touched with genius-as when, be roofed. In 1901, Mr. Johns was dead, tion has gone on, and Johns-Manville is al­ for example, it preposterously assumes that and Mr. Manville's business had passed in­ ready a much changed corporate person. a corporation is a person. Compare this to the hands of his able son T. F., who uni­ The ambition of its leaders is that it shall perspicuity of the law with the fatuity of ted the two firms and launche~ the new come to sit on the bench of the substantial, those men who regard a corporation as a H. W. Johns-Manville Company on a lover­ deliberate citizens, occupying in its own number in the great game of stock-exchange like, impassioned quest for profits. The right a place analogous to that, say, of Gen­ roulette, who would write a corporation's infinite complexity of the company that eral Electric. exists today is largely traceable to the young history in the form of a series of stock­ • • • market quotations. A speculator might re­ lover's adventures. cord as corporation history that he had The soldier (seeking the bubble reputa­ HE management of Johns-Manville sold Johns-Manville common at so% in tion even in the cannon's mouth). By 1918, T has so set its stamp upon the company 1926; that he had bought it at 242% in Johns-Manville had developed a magnifi­ that it is well worth while to examine the 1929; had sold it at go in the same year; cent physique; it had the power to strike men who in recent years have made it what bought it at 148% in 1930; and had ended hard where there lay a possibility of profit, it is. by selling it again at 48% on the seven­ and in the person ofT. F. Manville it had In the first place: T. Frank Manville. He teenth of December last. Actually, the spec­ a leader who struck boldly. In the few years came very near to being the type of the old­ ulator had done little but describe the of War-time expansion, Johns-Manville fashioned captain of industry. His career history of a speculator's state of mind. Com­ stormed one stronghold of profits after began in shirtsleeves and ended in the met­ pare these fantastic fluctuations with the another. It may not have been a well-ma­ aphorical silk hat, not only because his po­ much more credible and interesting story chined, well-regulated army, but it had ter­ tent touch turned things into gold, but of Johns-Manville, the corporate person: rific hitting power, and its success was in because it turned them into the property First the infant (mewling and puking in proportion. Virtually at the peak of its ca­ ofT. F. Manville. He talked at top speed in its nurse's arms). Sixty years and more ago, reer, when the bubble reputation was with­ a low voice that was hard to understand, H. W. Johns had a windowless office in Wil­ in its hands, T. F. Manville, its leader, fell and he would brook no interruption. He liam Street, New York, and a "factory" built in battle. That was in 1925. For the mo­ had a thorough grasp of the very simple on a filled-in swamp in Long Island City­ ment, Johns-Manville's genius for success principle that the way to make money was a factory with one full-time employee, a had outstripped its organization. The dead to sell things-any things-for more than superintendent who hired help whenever leader's field marshals were at a loose end. they cost. He liked salesmen to be worth big there was an order to be filled. About the Soon a new leadership had to be called in, salaries, and did not hesitate to pay them in same time, C. B. Manville was mixing ce­ but the era of soldiering bequeathed a com­ proportion. He had three great field mar­ ment in the cellar of his home in Milwau­ pany whose rank and file are veterans of shals of sales: L. R. Hoff, George Nicol, and kee and carrying it out in pails to cover his marches and assaults, of the days of raids J. S. Carroll. The result was that his sales neighbors' furnaces. This unprepossessing and conquests. staff literally sold roofing by the acre and infant business had, however, the traits The justice (his belly with good capon pipe insulation by the mile. The result is from which Johns-Manville grew. Johns was lined). In 1927, the company passed from also (according to report in the industry) making a roofing of felt and other sub­ family control and management to the that Johns-Manville probably has today stances waterproofed with pitch; Manville bankers and to the public, for its control more men of independent means on its pay was doing primary insulation. was sold by H. E. Manville (younger roll than any other company of equal size. Next the schoolboy (with shining morn­ brother of T. F.) and other executives of T. F. Manville not only built up his ing face). Asbestos had come into the mar­ the company to J. P. Morgan & Co. Johns­ shock battalions of salesmen; he had mag­ ket. Salesmen of Mr. Johns were explaining Manville now stood on a financial rock; nificent confidence in them. If any manu­ to customers what it was: a mineral, but not the soldier was home from the wars, facturing company was on the market, his a metal, composed of slender fibers and ready to settle down, eager for more stable impulse was to say: "Sure, my men can sell found in veins of rock; it made roofing successes. To obtain these, Morgan & Co. that product at a profit"; and accordingly and insulating materials fire resistant. The installed as president of Johns-Manville the he bought all sorts of unrelated businesses public was taking to it. Paper and a dozen most able executive they could lay hands or acquired them in payment of debts, put­ other useful products were compounded on: T. F. Merseles, who had made an out­ ting them in the charge of his field marshal from asbestos, but asbestos cloth, still a rar­ standing success as head of Montgomery of production, W. R. Seigle. His salesmen ity, had to be imported. It was valued at Ward. He took matters in hand for a year once sold (besides roofing, insulation, and about $1 a square inch and was kept in and a half, when he, too, died. He was suc­ various asbestos products) such items as a office safes. In short, the business as a grow­ ceeded by one of his own lieutenants, Lewis speedometer, a refrigerator, a toilet seat, ing youngster was nourished not on shred­ H. Brown. At the time of Mr. Merseles' electrical fixtures, fire extinguishers, fiber ded wheat but on a new food, asbestos. death in 1929, business was already on the cuspidors, and wastebaskets. The almost The lover (sighing like furnace). Amer­ down grade. The fruits of the reorganiza­ fantastic variety of Johns-Manville products ica was the land of furnaces, and every one tion are yet to be tasted, because their ripen- today is in part a relic of this policy. Only

• 8 2 • THREE PRESIDENTS OF JOHNS-MANVILLE: LEWIS H. BROWN, T. F. MANVILLE, THEODORE F. MERSELES Young Mr. Brown, who today with quiet calculation charts a stable future for made it big by making big profits; and Mr Merseles, who ably and briefly held the the company; dominant Mr. Manville, whose bold leadership in a few years stage between them. last year did the company, in an attempt to Since then, "H.E." has become better chateau perches majestically on a hill. In rationalize its varied field of operations, known. He has a magnificent 385-acre estate 1928, his daughter, Estelle, was married give up marketing steam traps for radiators. at Pleasantville, New York, where a French there to Count Falke Bernadotte, nephew One evening in October, of the King of Sweden (but 1925, he went home to the Plaza without rights of reversion to Hotel, where he had lived alone the throne). The wedding was for three years, called a waiter of unprecedented splendor: col­ to order his dinner, and dropped ored spot lights played on the dead of heart disease. There is wedding cake and movie cam­ no doubt that he had wished to eras on the bridal party. Since put the company on such a basis then Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Man­ that it could consolidate its ville have made several sump­ gains after his death. Not long tuous trips to Europe in their before, he had negotiated for yacht (which has an extra­ sale of control to J. P. Morgan length bed for the tall King & Co., but had changed his mind Gustaf), the last of the trips, in before the transaction was con­ 1930, being marred by the death summated. He left a net estate of the Queen of Sweden. Mrs. of $22,179,049, and his will (as Manville immediately an­ reported at the time it was as­ nounced the cancellation of all sessed for taxation) gave 25,000 social engagements out of re­ shares of Johns-Manville stock spect for the royal family. Young to his son, T. F. Manville Jr. Count Gustaf Edward of Wis­ (by now twice divorced), who borg is named after the King was not in the picture as his and after his maternal grand­ father's successor; the same father, H. E. Manville. amount to his daughter, Lor­ At his brother's death, "H.E.'' raine, wife of the comedian Jay was among the employees who Gould; and 4o,ooo shares to be were given stock at half price sold at half its value to Johns­ (he likewise received a smaller Manville employees wl\o at that cash bequest) . It soon became time were receiving over $to,­ apparent that what the company ooo a year, and had been with most needed was strong finan­ the company five years. Some­ cial backing. To obtain this, he where between fifty and one purchased the 2 5,ooo shares of hundred employees profited in T. F. Manville Jr., and induced the neighborhood of $5o,ooo the other employees to sell him apiece under this provision. the stock which they had re­ So far as the mantle of "T.F." ceived at half price, so that it descended on any one, it fell on was possible in 1927 to sell con­ his younger brother, Hiram Ed­ trol of the company to J. P. ward Manville. During "T.F.'s" Morgan & Co. (a revival of the lifetime, "H.E." had always re­ transaction which T. F. Man­ mained in the background. He RELATIVES OF THE KING OF SWEDEN ville had failed to carry did not have his brother's ter­ His nephew, Count Bernadotte, and niece, Estelle, daughter of H. E. Manville through). rific drive, but he was univer­ (the only Manville still active in the company), at their gorgeous wedding three The sale to Morgan brought sally liked in the company. years ago. The ushers wear the gold and blue of their Swedish regiments. a new personnel upon the scene. to transport her to a new city. So he com­ muted to his head office in Chicago from his home in Bronxville, New York. He left New York every Monday on the Twentieth Cen­ tury and returned from Chicago every Fri­ day by the same train, doing a week's work in the interval. Thus passed some 250 weeks, and by 1926 Montgomery Ward showed a $9,ooo,ooo profit. This was the man whom Morgan & Co. made lord of Johns-Manville. At the time, Mr. Merseles knew practically nothing of the business. He was chosen only as an able specimen of the more or less mythical spe­ cies "executive." His first step was to lop off all possible expenditures, and subse­ quently to restore only those which were too badly missed. The year 1928 was pros­ perous in industry generally, so it is im­ possible to tell how much of Johns-Man­ ville's increase of 35.2 per cent in profits rightly can be credited to his management. His management, however, was vigorous. He made a habit of having one new idea for the improvement of the business every day. On a morning he might wake up with the idea of having a new product. When he arrived at the corner of Madison Avenue and Forty-first Street, at the Johns-Man­ THE LAYING-ON OF ROCK CORK ville Building, he would impart it vigor­ ously and repeatedly to his associates, who ... which is not cork at all but limestone fabricated into a light, fluffy wool, then made into slabs with as­ might scratch their pates in perplexity. Be­ phalt. In this dark chamber of a cold-storage plant, it serves as insulation against heat. It performs the same function in half the electric refrigeration units in use today, Frigidaires among others. fore the week was out, or the month, some one would discover, tucked away in his mind, a useful product that Johns-Manville "H.E." became chairman of the board, and Manville, but with a great difference. He, was equipped to produce. Other more de­ then chairman of the executive committee, too, had his own way of doing things. He liberate plans which Mr. Merseles had for the post in which he is active today. The himself did not bother with too many fig­ adding to the company's list of products board of directors, which had consisted ures and analyses. He carried a little black will be described presently. largely of the company's employees, was notebook in which were set down by months In January, 1929, he went to the Pacific transformed into a group of notables. To­ the gross sales and the net profits of what­ coast for a "vacation," which consisted in day the board includes, besides the present ever company he was with. Other statistics good part of visits to Johns-Manville plants president, two Morgan partners-Francis D. he left to his assistants. During his long ca­ and offices in California. He never returned. Bartow and George Whitney; also Alfred reer, he got on well with his boards of direc­ On the evening of the sixth of March, he P. Sloan Jr., president of General Motors; tors because he did not believe in telling died suddenly, like the other "T.F.," of I Walter H. Aldridge, president of Texas them too much; he showed them the results, heart disease in the Del Monte Hotel at Gulf Sulphur; Clarence M. Woolley, chair­ but did not invite them to worry about Del Monte. man of American Radiator; George B. Ev­ things they did not properly understand. His death did not result in a violent eritt, president of Montgomery Ward; and From his employees he managed to extract change in the character of the company. W. H. E. Manville. W. R. Seigle (former pro­ an immense amount of work; and although R. Seigle, who had been master of produc­ duction manager) is the unique chairman his decisions were instantaneous, his meth­ tion under T. F. Manville, was advanced to of this board. Much, if not most, of his time ods summary, he took infinite pains with chairman of the board; and Lewis H. is spent at the large New Jersey labora­ any man, young or old, who seemed to have Brown, brought originally by Mr. Merseles tories which have been created under the promise. from Montgomery Ward & Co., succeeded new regime; and so devoted is he to their In eighteen years as vice president and to the presidency. At that time Mr. Brown progress that, in the evening, when most general manager of the National Cloak & was only thirty-five, and there were a good board chairmen are returning placidly to Suit Co., he made his mark. It was of him many publicity-mongers who were eager to their Park Avenue apartments, he motors that the story was told concerning a woman,­ capitalize his comparative youth. He very to his home in exclusive Westchester where, employed as a stylist, who was very anxious wisely evaded them, for Johns-Manville was in an extensive private laboratory, he con­ to go to Paris to keep up with the trend of still in process of reorganization, and busi­ tinues his work far into the night. fashion. At last he consented, but when ness was already slackening-a foretaste of In July, 1927, the Morgan management she reported ready to set out, he gave her a the universal depression which for two years having taken charge, there was installed in ticket to Paris, Kentucky, and instructions has submerged many of the most ably con­ the presidency of Johns-Manville another to spend several weeks there, learning what ducted companies. man with the initials T. F. M.-Theodore her customers really wanted. It was merely Before turning his back on publicity and Frelinghuysen Merseles (accented on the an example of his method. retiring to work at his new desk, Mr. Brown penult). One might have expected that, in In 1921, J. P. Morgan & Co. took him announced a continuation of Mr. Merseles' this new era, individualism would disap­ away from the cloak-and-suit business to policies. There is a distinct difference, how­ pear from the company. As it happened, the make him president of Montgomery Ward, ever, between Mr. Brown and his prede­ Morgan influence, reaching out to find an which in that year enjoyed a deficit of cessor. Mr. Merseles was one of those able able executive, had chosen a man who was $9,ooo,ooo. He was fifty-eight at the time, executives who surround themselves with quite as much an individualist as T. F. and did not believe it was fair to his wife expert assistants-men who measure and ACRES AND INTERIORS Asbestos fiber embedded in cement and pressed into large sheets, either plain or corrugated-such is the product that Johns-Manville calls transite. It is used as siding and roofing (thirty-four acres are spread on the International Harvester plant above) as "flare-backs" (to prevent the spread of oil fires), as. a special pro­ tection against corrosive smoke and gases, as worktable tops, and even for deco­ rative effects-an example of which may be seen (right) on the walls and ceiling of a bedroom in the home ofJames L. Breese, Southampton, Long Island. catalogue the progress of a business. Their careful calculations he himself both absorbed and ignored until the time came to make one of his abrupt decisions. Mr. Brown was one of those expert assistants, the careful weigher and examiner-in the new tradi­ tion of business executive. In him the transition from the old regime to the new-in which Mr Merseles was the intermediate stage-is accomplished. The picture is the more striking because Mr. Brown is still under forty; because the company which he heads is filled with veterans of twenty years service in the cam­ paigns ofT. F. Manville: men like Hoff, Nicol, Carroll, and S. A. Williams, who had led many a spectacular assault. • • ALL this, the story of Johns-Manville and its management, is .l"\. practically the type development of American industry in the last few decades: from little to big, from family ownership to public ownership, from individualist to professional. There is another striking aspect of the corporation's character-the fields of its activity. The public has a crude notion that Johns-Manville manufac­ tures asbestos products for the building trades. The company has far outgrown this concept. Today, Johns-Manville products num­ ber some 1,300 to 1.400, and are not only too numerous but too dissimilar for inclusion in any one cata­ fields. The manufacture of asbestos cloth logue. In only the most general sense, for led to the making of brake linings for au­ the purpose of making its activities intel­ tomobiles and facings for clutches (used in ligible to the public, the company divides all sorts of industrial machinery)-things its products into four classes: building ma­ that have nothing to do with either roofing terials, insulation materials, acoustical or insulation, but which followed logically materials, and friction materials. Its wares from the desire to find uses for asbestos. include not only asbestos products, but also The third of these principles is that it products of magnesia, asphalt, limestone, makes for economy of sales effort to after and diatomaceous earth. The company runs a complete line of products for any given quarries, mines, paper mills, textile mills, type of service. Consider insulation, which brick kilns, and laboratories. It furnishes is one of Johns-Manville's four great fields (besides roofing, siding, and flooring) fire­ of activity. Johns-Manville had a variety of proofing and soundproofing materials, heat insulating products, most of them contain­ and electrical insulations, machine pack­ ing asbestos. They were excellent materials ings, friction materials. Its products are for preventing seepages of heat between the used not only in the building trades, but temperatures of 32 degrees and 1 ,sao de­ in steel manufacture, sugar refining, road grees Fahrenheit. If a Johns-Manville sales­ construction, automobile making, oil refin­ man called on a prospect who happened to ing, railroading, and refrigeration. This is SKELETONS AS INSULATION need insulation for temperatures under admittedly only a patchy outline of its This microscopic photograph reveals the remains freezing or over 1 ,sao degrees, he went away work. of the long-dead diatoms. Their skeletons of silica empty-handed, at least as far as that part of • • • collected ages ago on what was then the bottom of the the purchaser's requirements. With no ex­ sea. Because of the many small voids between skele­ tons, the sandstone which they compose is an excellent tra expense, the salesman could have sold HIS vast spread of activity is only insulator against high temperatures (up to 2,6oo de­ insulation of those types if he had had it to T partly the result of exuberant confi­ grees Fahrenheit), as well as a filter to take the im­ offer. What is more, he could have said to dence in being able to make profits at many purities from syrups out of which sugar is made. his client: "We are the logical people for trades-largely it is the result of three in­ you to do business with. We can sell you fluences common throughout industry, but Johns-Manville owns enough unmined as­ any insulation you need, and therefore we seldom found active together in one com­ bestos to supply its needs for from fifty to have no motive for selling you any prod­ pany. The first of these is the proposition seventy-five years. uct not the best for your purpose." that a company does well to secure its The second of these principles is that a Within the last three and one-half years, sources of raw materials. Johns-Manville company does well to find as many uses as Johns-Manville has worked out this very was a company making roofings and insula­ possible for its products and by-products. situation in the following way: an excellent tions, both of which contained consider­ Since it entered asbestos mining, one of high temperature insulation was being mar­ able quantities of asbestos. Over a period .Johns-Manville's products has been raw as­ keted by a company in California. There, of years, asbestos mines were acquired in bestos. To its manufacture of roofing and at a place called Lompoc, was a deposit of the province of Quebec and the state of insulation of asbestos, the company has diatomaceous earth. This stuff is in effect Arizona. As soon as J. P. Morgan took over added the manufacture of asbestos paper, a kind of sandstone, but it is composed of the company, it was determined to secure of asbestos cloth, asbestos shingles (made the siliceous skeletons of microscopic ani­ I ample supplies of future raw materials. Mr. of asbestos and cement), transite (of sim­ mals that lived and died in the sea ages ago. Merseles ordered a comprehensive survey, ilar composition but made in large sheets It is very porous, and therefore an excellent and the company's mineral-bearing proper­ for other uses). Some of these uses for as­ heat insulator. It is chemically of the same ties in Canada were so enlarged that today bestos have taken the company into far composition as sand, so it will melt or fuse

A HILL OF NATURE-MADE INSULATION AT LOMPOC, CALIFORNIA

In 1928, Johns-Manville, to complete its roster of insulation materials, pur­ at the top of the page, are cut directly from the sides of this quarry. When dry, this chased the Celite Co. Bricks of celite, the substance whose clm;e-up appears stone holds so much air in its pores that it floats on water .

. 86 . K.M. PYRAMID OF FLAME BY CHARLES BURCHFIELD, A MAN WHO SEES MERIT IN COMBUSTIBILITY only at terrific heats (over 2 ,6oo degrees polishing powders sold for household use. Manville likewise pioneered in the devel­ Fahrenheit) . It is cut in bricks directly Now Johns-Manville had filled the high­ opment of other types of insulation used from the hills or, for very high tempera­ temperature void in its insulation service. to keep refrigerator cars cold, and steel tures, is made into bricks from a powdered The low-temperature field remained. railroad cars warm enough for human be­ form. Therefore the company mining and There was also (in Indiana) a company ings to occupy in winter.) Like celite and selling this "celite," as it is called, was which had a patent on a process for melt­ asbestos, rock wool has secondary uses. It bought by Johns-Manville. ing a certain type of limestone and blowing is blown by fans into the walls of old Then Johns-Manville had a product to into it jets of compressed air and steam. houses, thereby insulating them against the sell for use in insulating blast furnaces and The molten limestone flew into the air and winters of New England and the summers oil-cracking stills, etc., which operate at came down a few feet away in a fibrous of Texas, and at the same time tending high temperatures. As in the case of asbes­ form resembling wool, and having most of to reduce ftre hazards. The Burgess Labora­ tos, possession of the raw material led to the advantages of both rock and wool. By tories of Chicago had invented a type of other activities. In concrete making, celite mixing this rock wool with asphalt, a fire­ perforated metal box filled with rock wool, is often used, in divided form, to make resistant, non-deteriorating slab was made which acts as an efficient sound absorber. the concrete pour more easily. Conse­ which could be used with advantage to re­ The rights to manufacture this product quently celite is sold for use in buildings, place cork as an insulator for cold storage were bought by Johns-Manville and "San­ road surfaces, and bridges. Celite in di­ and refrigeration. Accordingly, in 1929, acoustic" tile was added to the company's vided form is also an excellent filter. Johns-Manville bought the maker, Banner list of acoustical materials. So the endless Therefore, it is sold for straining the im­ Rock Products Co. chain of diversification goes on. purities out of many liquids, notably syr­ In this way, it acquired the insulation Behold the result-a vast and miscella­ ups before the sugar is crystallized out of which is used in many ice and cold storage neous spread of new activities-but a com­ them. It is also sold for filtering sewage, plants, in the Frigidaires of General Mo­ plete picture of insulation that may be for thickening certain kinds of paint, and tors; all told, about half the refrigerators summarized roughly as follows: as an ingredient of various cleaning and now in use are insulated with it. (Johns- [Continued on page IJ6J 1 The Seven Ages of Johns-Manville I [Continued from page 87]

Approximate ization of industry. Its manaae,., - cA.nd ?{ow­ Many Products Temperature Range ment has definitely adopted the From (in Fahrenheit degrees) policy of attending to its own CELITE ...... 400 to 2,500 RocK wooL ...... 1oo to 1,ooo problems and leaving the de­ Radio in Every Room pression to cure itself. The ASBESTOS ...... I 00 to 700 OTEL HOLLEN DEN in Cleveland, famous MAGNESIA ...... 100 to 6oo company can afford to sit tight for its comfortable, home-like atmosphere V\IOOL FELT ...... 40 to 200 with?ut alarm, for although H and courteous, unobtrusive service, now presents to its guests the latest in modern radio HAIR FELT ...... -400 to 100 earnmgs were only $2 3o,ooo, or equipment. Every Hollenden room is now pro­ RocK coRK ...... -400 to 1oo thirteen cents a common share vided with a four-station selective radio speaker, for the first quarter of 1931 , adjustable as to programs and volume. Full public This policy bore fruit in the address equipment is also available for conventions, insulation field and in other J?hns-Manville's financial posi­ meetings, etc. fields as well. Since 1928, Johns­ tiOn and organization are in­ Hotel Hollenden, right in the heart of the city, Manville has bought not only tact-as they could hardly have is the Cleveland home of discriminating business ?een had the management been and professional men, executives and experi enced Celite Co. and Banner Rock travelers. The famous Crystal Dining Room, the Products Co. It has also bought mtent only on the greatest pos­ Coffee Shop and the Oyster Bar provide a choice of the Weaver-Henry Manufac­ sible profits in the shortest good eating places, and the rates, starting at $3.00 possible time. The followina single, are moderate. A 300-car garage is in the turing Co. of Los Angeles (to building. improve the geographical dis­ outline may give some idea ~f I extend a cordial personal invitation to you to tribution of its roofing plants); what the problems of J alms­ make the Hollenden your headquarters the next the Preformed Asphalt Prod­ Manville are: time you are in Cleveland. . In the first place diversifica­ Sincerely yours, ucts Co. of Dayton, Ohio (~vhic~ _makes asphalt expan­ tiOn-of goods in type and price; ~~ siOn JOints, useful in roads of customers; and last but not Vice Pres. g Gen. Mgr . built of celite concrete, and least, of raw materials. Johns­ Manville's policy has · been In Cleveland-itsThe asphalt planking used to sur­ face bridges as well as for floor­ aimed at all these ends. At the HOLLENDEN ing purposes); the Biegler Man­ n:om~nt, the raw material ques­ THE O. D E WITT. Vice Pres. and Gen. Mgr. ufacturing Co. of Chicago (mak­ tiOn IS as much to the fore as ers of asphalt floor tile, an ad­ any of the others. Asbestos was dition to Johns-Manville's line for years the chief ingredient of floorings). As with insulation, of many, if not most, Johns­ as with building materials, so Manville products. The · world also (largely) with acoustical at present uses about a quarter III Ill\ IIIII materials and friction materials, of_a million tons yearly of this Johns-Manville increases its mt~eral , the largest producer I Half a Pair of SLears products and buys companies . be 1 n g Can a·d a , w i t h I esse r progressing toward that millen­ amounts in South Africa, Rho­ nium when in each of its fields desia, and Russia. it shall be the Great Omnipro· In the years since the ducer. \Var, Russia has been practi­ USING Market Research or Technical cally out of the picture, but is Research alone, is like using half o pair of now returning. Already Russia is producing about three times shears. One is worthless without the other. o much for the picture of S Johns-Manville, a complex its pre-War quantity, and at the organism with a complex past. completion of the Five-Year Spending money for Technical Research for What of its present prospects? Plan will have multiplied its a product for which no market exists or spend­ We are in the midst of a de­ present production by five . The ing money for Market Research for a product pression, a thoroughly whole­ threat of Russian dumping faces which cannot be economically manufactured souled and heartfelt depression. this industry as it faces others, Johns-Manville is there with but Johns-Manville, by having is ruthless waste. the rest of corporate humanity. branched out in the uses of Its sales and profits are reduced. other raw materials, celite, rock B K W Service co-ordinates its research adivilies. Waste­ The building industry, the au­ wool. etc., is already partly pro­ ful research is eliminated, for each problem is viewed both tomobile industry, the oil tected from the resulting price industry, the steel industry, the disorganization. from the Technical and the Market angle. railroads-in short, most of its In the second place, Johns­ An interview incurs no obligation y et [rom it may develop large customers are in 'the Manville has the task of making slough. a deFnile research program [or creating proFts. continual adjustments to its Many similarly situated com­ markets. The demand for some panies are laying grandiloquent of its numerous products peri­ BIGELOW, KENT, WILLARD schemes, not only for recovery, odically disappears, and the and Co ... pany, Inc. but for preventing any repeti­ company must be continually tion of the situation, ever. on the alert to find others to re­ Consulting Engineers and J\ccounlanls­ Johns-Manville has attempted place them. In 1927 and 1928, MercLandising Counselors to lay no plans of this kind, the company had a large sale PJ\RK SQUJ\RE BUILDING, BOSTON whether good or bad. It sits in of insulated roofings for oil no conferences for the reorgan- [Continued on page IJ9]

• I 36 • storage tanks, perhaps $1 ,ooo,­ bases to absorb the sound and ooo worth of business in a year. vibration of machinery-is well Abruptly, the oil business placed to take advantage of the changed its methods, ceased new demand for restful sur­ storing oil above ground, and roundings. abruptly the $1 ,ooo,ooo market Yet foresight is not the only vanished. Johns-Manville made thing required in facing a se­ a swift about face and devel­ ries of changing markets. Fore­ oped a good overnight business sight must be backed by prepa­ in insulation for pipe lines, and ration and a good part of prep­ high-temperature insulation for aration is research. Since the oil-cracking stills. A few years new management took charge, ago, the sudden popularity of Johns-Manville has become a the four-wheel brake on auto­ company with a first-rate re­ mobiles at once greatly in­ s~arch laboratory. There ques­ creased the demand for brake tiOns of pure science are in­ linings, and made the old style vestigated but (unlike Gen­ linings obsolete. For .Johns­ eral Electric laboratories, for Manville, it was practically a example) only such questions question of developing a new as have a bearing on manufac­ material. Not only have faster t~lfing problems. Its appropria­ driving speeds and growing tiOn for research, patents, and trafftc congestion put new calls sales engineering has mounted on automobile brakes, but the steadily, even during the de­ public constantly demands pression, to the figure of $750,­ an more of its brakes in the way ooo a year (equal to 27 per cent of silence, efficiency, and wear. of the amount of dividends on A taxi company, for example, the company's preferred and cannot tolerate squeaking brakes common stock). In the third International Tribute because it would soon lose all place, Johns-Manville has a its business. To cap the situa­ problem in gaining the recogni­ I tion, good brake performance tion ~hich it deserves. It oc­ is dependent not on abstract cupies a unique position-it has to BALTIMORE "quality" of brake lining, but ~ompetitors but no competitor: on its rightness for a particular m nearly every product that it vehicle; a difference in brake ~r?duces, i_t i~ faced by compe­ design or in the weight of the titiOn; but m Its field as a whole, STABLISHED in 1706, and famed -its rail and water facilities-ap­ automobile usually requires an or even in any large part of its E throughout the world for the pealed to us as ideal for serving a entirely different brake lining. field, no one company face .~ it quality and flavor of their products, national market. Besides, it answers \'\lith manufacturers changing with an equivalent array of Crosse & Blackwell located their all demands for handling the inter­ their cars every year, the brake­ products. More curious still, in American plant in Baltimore. We national trade, both of raw materials lining business is in a contin­ most of the individual fields in were interested in knowing why. and finished goods. For example, ual state of flux. which it competes, it is not the So we asked Mr. ]. T. Menzies, 95 % of our raw materials from other Sometimes their trends are largest producer of a given prod­ President of the American Branch, parts of the world come in direct constructive (for the company) uct (more often the second or rather than destructive. The in­ _th~rd largest); yet as a company, for the facts. Here they are: through the Port of Baltimore. creasing distaste for nerve-rack­ 1t 1s larger than almost any other "For over 200 years our company "Then again, Maryland is noted company competing with it ing noise in all departments of sent its goods from England to all for the quality of its fruits and veg­ in any way. This situation gives life is such that Johns-Manville's corners of the earth . Due to etables, many of which find their pioneering in the control of it certain advantages. For ex­ changed conditions following the way, as raw materials, into Crosse sound is gradually bearing fruit. ample: it can afford to spend Elsewhere, the noiseless type­ more on research than any sin­ \V orld War, we found it advisable & Blackwell products. Your laws writer has been recognized, gle competitor, the overhead of to manufacture at world centers. In encourage manufacturing and your and the silenced subway turn­ employing able scientists being the last ten years Crosse & Blackwell financial institutions understand stile; Maxim has invented a divided between the various has manufactured in France, Bel­ industry." branches of its business, no sin­ gium, Italy, Ireland, South Africa, silencer for open windows, and The Baltimore Trust Company the replacement of telephone gle one of which could individ­ South America, Germany, Canada specializes in developing and financ­ bells by lights is going on in ually afford to hire the technical and the United States. places; there is an outcry in knowledge that is available to ing foreign trade. If we can be of cities for silent welding to re­ it as part of the whole. "Baltimore's natural location service, please command us. place noisy riveting in the con­ On the other hand, Johns­ struction of buildings; and Lon­ Manville products are most of Write fir our booklet "Locate in Baltimore' ·. don is talking about silencing them of such a nature that they its subways-a job that would cannot be patented. The result be in Johns-Manville's field, is that many competitors who and which is already being spend nothing whatever on re­ BALTIMORE TRUST studied in J.-M.'s laboratory. search or development are able MEMBER Meanwhile Johns-Manville­ to imitate Johns-Manville prod­ FEDERAL having developed half a dozen ucts. This situation would be of COMPANY RESERVE types of interior finishes that less significance if Johns-Man­ BALTIMORE · MARYLAND SYSTEM absorb sound instead of reflect­ ville could gain public recog­ ing it back again and again to nition for the wide range of its the human ear, and also special services and products-a range

• I 3 9 • that is not out of keeping with valued at inflated prices-or to its ambition to be a sort of obtain the cash for such acqui­ General Electric in its own sitions by selling stock to the GEO. H. WHEARY field. But the fact that Johns­ public. Manville activities are so com­ In 1926, Johns-Manville had plex and have no common de­ $16,6w,ooo invested in land, THE "EDISON" nominator has been an obsta­ buildings and equipment; in cle to public appreciation of 1929, $25,748,ooo. The differ­ OF TRUNKS what Johns-Manville really is. ence represents cash invest­ Moreover, because Johns-Man­ ment. This money came partly AND LUGGAGE ville products are so diverse, from earnings and partly from they have to be distributed in a reduction of working capital, 'Presents some cases to consumers and in which had apparently been un­ others to dealers, to jobbers, or necessarily large. Invested in to manufacturers; so the distri­ fixed assets, it is yielding a a NEW bution problem is very complex higher return than it did for­ and troublesome. Diversity is merly as current assets. How­ LUGGAGE .INVENTION the company's strength, and ever, even in 1929, a boom complexity is its stumbling­ year, the company's net income block. per dollar of fixed assets was less than before (twenty-two EFORE you buy any • • • cents in 1929; twenty-nine luggage be sure to visit B THAT of the policies and cents in 1926). the Wheary dealer of your l A cit y and see G eo . H. V V progress of the company In weighing these consider­ Wheary's ingenious new in­ under its new management? ations, of course, it must be ventions. He has modern­ Have all the acquisitions made borne in mind that the com­ ized luggage, by eliminating by the company been wise? The pany is in a state of transition, unnecessary weight and per­ first thing done when control that it takes a certain time to fecting new practical features passed to the bankers was to bring new properties to a full which carry all of your clothes invest in a large ore reserve of degree of productivity. For a - without wrinkling! asbestos. Thereby the company larger view of Johns-Manville's growth, one must go to some Now, you have clothes press­ obtained assurance against a ed before you pack. Remove scarcity of the mineral. A few such figures as those below (it same at journey's end, neat, months hence, the Tariff Com­ should be mentioned that until fresh and unwrinkled, wheth­ mission is to hold hearings on the new management took er you travel by train, steam­ the question of the "dumping" charge in 1927, the company's ship, plane or automobile. of Russian asbestos fiber, and annual report consisted simply I A V. I AT 0 R .Johns-Manville will be one of of a single sheet of figures signed Four basic Wheary Mod­ the companies appearing to by the president without certi­ ernized Luggage Inventions, (Patent Pending) urge a permanent embargo (a fication by a public accountant). shown below, represent the The results for 192 8 are not ideal luggage equipment ev­ Carries one or two men's suits temporary embargo has already ery modern home should without wrinkling. Ample been established by President highly significant because they space for neat, systematic ar­ Hoover). On the surface, this represent a year of transition; have. Replace old, worn rangement of other apparel, cumbersome "baggage" with shaving outfit, etc. Greatest circumstance would suggest that the results for 1930 are for ob­ these smartly styled inven­ improvement ever made in overproduction, and not scar­ vious reasons even less repre­ tions. Fashioned in Wheary men's fine luggage. Various city, is the most immediate raw­ sentative of normal operation. coverings, handsomely lined. Duckoid-canvas, luxurious Only 24" long. Light in weight. material problem. Another Nor is the really significant leathers or fabrikoid cover­ $18.50 and up question of wisdom arises in thing about the company that ings, enhanced by beautiful connection with the Johns­ its stock touched 48% last De­ linings. Send for interest­ Manville practice of paying cember, or that, in 1929, boom ing literature. Wheary Trunk enthusiasm for the names of Co., Racine, Wis., or 295 cash for its new properties. FifthAve.,NewYork,N. Y. The justification of this meth­ Morgan and Merseles drove the od of purchase is that cash stock up to 242%. Indeed, the can always command a slightly only certain fact of importance better bargain than securities; is a fact that can not be reduced and that now, in time of depres­ to figures: that Johns-Manville sion, the company is not under is today a widely diversified the necessity of paying divi­ business, which means excep­ dends on a capital inflated by tionally able management is re­ the sale of quantities of stock. quired to tie all the strings to­ However, most of the purchases gether; that it is managed by were made before the fall of able professional executives; prices late in 1929, during a that their plans are laid for time when most farseeing com­ building a sound, stable con­ panies seized the opportunity cern; that every pulse beat of to make similar acquisitions in the business is recorded and exchange for their stock. then under control.

Sales Net Profits 19 13 (pre-War) ...... $16,636,ooo $1,103,000 1925 (last year under T. F. Manville) ... . . 39,201,000 3,017,000 1928 (first year under T. F. M erseles) .... . 47·945,000 5·589,000 1930 (first year of the depression) ...... 49>492,000 3,268,ooo