The Reminiscences of Mr. Herman L. Moekle From the Owen W. Bombard interviews series, 1951-1961 Accession 65 Interview conducted: March 1955 Transcript digitized by staff of Benson Ford Research Center: November 2011 OCR: Please note that this file has been made searchable through the use of optical character recognition. However, the quality of the original materials is such that full text searching is only moderately reliable. Copyright: Copyright has been transferred to The Henry Ford by the donor, and is made available through a “Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND,” indicating that you may make certain noncommercial uses of this material, provided that you give attribution to The Henry Ford without further adaption or modification. 20900 Oakwood Boulevard · Dearborn, MI 48124-5029 USA [email protected] · www.thehenryford.org The Besinfsceacee of Ml, BS8MA8 L. 891ILS Ford Motor Coarpaay Archive B Oral History Section March, 1955 The Kestl&lscences of MRvHBa«Mi..i>. mmm These re»ialBe©nc©e are tJa* result of a aeries of interviews with Mr. Hermua L. Moekle by Mr, Owen Boabari during the aont's of December, 1953 :and, January, 195% at Fair Mm? Be^rhorn. m& l&m. These interviews «re held under the auspices of the Ifeal History Section of the Ford Motor Company Archives. fhe intervlewr's questions ;-.^ve bean oMtted froa: i^.e .vc- count. The. questioning was prinarlly in tie form of toe icy su*jfrost^d to Mr. Hsrasa 1.. Moekle concerning vhlch he mi~ht t j.vo some infr.tfute knovledge. lo editorial insertions have be*» wade other than the brief synopsis of the donor's activities and the index, the language of the narrative Is entirely tlmt of the doaor. He has reviewed and corrected the mnuscript and by his signature be• low Indicated that it is a correct copy of his reminiscences, fhisjaeiaoir is deposited in the Ford Motor Company Archives with the understanding that it nay be used by qualified individuals in accordance vith accepted archival practice as administered by the Archivist. Bexwan £.. loekle it MS* BEffisui L. vomm ••• csmmmm l685 Born, Pittab vr , ?re.-dv.io • \i Mr. Koakl<9 was r«i.jCK.tf*i * •* P; • "re . ..• • .-*;> t , e„.awale»i ot* 0 -t, ,. school :.3 ,.*;it >* *?r*v\t : se:.0-3:1 and tb*n att"BCKM BufrV, fi.tKt.ves CoLb-o bo L.-t^r attended t- e 8v*>u'rio Sc^ OCL oJ bco-'-r ;c.i t I. bbwry't of Ptttsl-an™rs eao^lf-tbn^ to- c«> i> r. b\ 1 -1 *- I9I3 Saployt'd, Plvtsb-rv. Broac: cr t - 7or: -'-.to Co .0. 1315 Apjo'nted C -'if Cir>«e. P'tto'i*" Snar «,f ' . *V •« » r.i<' Company 1916 Assistant Mxw*r, Trott... Bianc , Foru -obo- Oo;j ... I51I7 Road H«-pr.»st. tatlvo, St. i*c< 'c B/*,tC ., For! ! otc» Ccu^t 1918 frauaferrect to Auoltfu*, & puts? >.t, i«" -Ms .•-1 «vr* !•. *, Ford Motor Co^yoa; 1919 Liaison Wan, T .owpaon * Black "00 . 1920 lu Cb-arg-?, le4?ol tiejt »•> r,*-t-"cn., Fori «<'._/s.r>r COMCW 1928 In Clarke, ftuJit *«• DopMHoi- tn, Foro x^or Co,-; »0 • 1><^3 Secretary anil Aee:sVa.-t *i,wy.o-\o-eo, Krrb -..-or .— Cw.. ••.-¾ 1-1½ : Vtca-fres^dtMtj. Fitane: , Ford "ol..or C0'«pa'O . 1^7 Retired Htl-'ir-.'ss: liS73i »*•• : •« * ii tro : . ." c ' iii A Career Begins x A Fori Branch.............. .................. 3 The War Interrupts 1;h Canter of Power ... • »*• •* •« 4 Faaiilv Corporatloa. V Flnancial Crisis b Fori of England. > - Ken and Met: ods.....»................*.«....»..•«•>•••«»••••* Growth of: a Colossus ,,..............,......•...*.«•>*»••••*•* 77 End of an, Bra • «9 Toward Self-Buffleiene, The Great Sepresiles..............................•»•.•'•«•• dCi The Old Order Changes • •* Ford Abroad .............................. 3£1 The Dealer's D'acooit i%0 A Bufeln* Holiday. 1^5 Th© Blue Sagle * •••• Labor in Ferment. XH The Arsenal of Deriocraej li>h k Sew Company. m I was born in Pittsburgh,. Feawyivaaia on October 11» 1¾¾*. % was educated; ia Flttsburgb. 1 had the ecpivalent of Mjpt school in. a private school and attended Buff"s Business College in Pittsburgh. I then attended the University of Httebwrgh, I went there to night school on business natters. 1 completed that course about 1910. 1 didn't actually get a degree from the university. 1 think they called it the Evening School of Economics. That would consist of accounting, commercial law, money and banking, and subjects of that kind. Today I think you would call it a business adminis• tration course. 1 started to work in 1907, as 1 remember, with the Pittsburgh Coal Company and I stayed with it from that time until early ia 1913« My dutlesi were general clerical and accounting work. 1 was in. the office of the vice-president in charge of operations for several years. Then I was in the office of the controller for apfroxiaately the last three years, The Pittsburgh Coal Company was one of the very larae coal sitting cofflpaaies. It had fifty or sixty mines aad had coal >- •.1--:» stations ia the Great lakes region and down the Mississippi Valley us far as Hew Orleans, as I remember. I was doing general clerical »ork in the controller's office also. A goe# deal of that time 1 spent specifically on insurance -1- natters. I handled the office end of a large inaur&nes -account. The company carried a great variety of insurance on its properties; lia• bility inwtraace, holler insurance, fire insurance on properties, and aarine insurance oa «srin« properties* I handled the office end of that. Aa engineer handled the field end of it. this was the period when the liability laws were undergoing a certain aaount of transfonsation in the courts. 1 did see it, but it all seeffled to be quits a natural evolution and i don't think It ever aad© any great impression on me. 1 left this coapany in the early part of 1913 because 1 wanted to get into auditing work, the field for that in the Pittsburgh Coal Coapwy sssned close! to as. They wanted ae to stay in the office, particularly to handle the insurance accounts, which .1 should have considered as a compli»est because they had a great deal of trouble before I:took it over. They wanted as to stay with it aad 1 wanted to get out into the auditing work. I left the company for that reason. Then 1 tried to get a$rself established in the insurance business, I started out on ay own. I worked at tbat for several isoaths but wasn*t able to accomplish it to ay own satisfaction. I had a friend, 0. L* Arnold, whom I had gone "to school with at the University of Pittsburgh, and who was associated with the fort Motor Company as cashier or clerk at the Pittsburgh branch. He had invited ae several tines to work for the Ford Motor Company and I finally did that. -2- I went to work for the Pord Motor Company m July 86, 1913. there wasn't aay special procedure that 1 had to go through before 1 eould atart to work for the Coapany. Mr. Arnold introduced ae to Mr. P. I, Weir vho «as then manager of the Pittsburgh branch. After a talk with him, they put me on the payroll starting right at that moment. The branch vaa then located on Satan Boulevard. I 've for• gotten the number. It was about a Kile fros the last location that the Ford Motor Company .had in Pittsburgh. : this nasn't aa assembly branch. It was a distribution and sales branch. It had a certain territory which it supervised and throughout which it distributed cars. Also at thst time it had a re• tail salsa; force of its own which sold cart at retell in the Pittsburgh district* ©here vas a, service organization connected vith this branch. Hr. Weir was manager, and at that time there was a fir. Cy Perkins ae his assistant manager. Mr. Weir gave his attention to the ©ver»*all affairs. Mr. Perkins gave his attention to the sales end of it. ©iey had a superintendent whose name was Mr, Woo2.eni.aek. He was 1» charge of the preparation of cars and in charge of service generally • la addition to that they had a road force that covered the territory, fhey had a Distribution Itepartmsnt which distributed the cars and, of course* an Accounttog Department to take care of the .record end of it. It kept individual books. I don't recall mm whether it was an actual profit center or not. I think at that tlm -3- both cars tm& parts were charged to the branch and It aade an accounting of profit. The branches at that time- operated under the direction of Mr. I. A. Hawkins who was the sales manager. The various divisions in the Detroit offices, th® Servlco division, and the Accounting di• vision* had representatives who visited the branches and supervised their particular section. In other words, the Service division in Detroit under.Mr. I. P. Hobart had eertain travelers who cans to the branch to supervise and discuss and audit our service work. Mr. L. H, Turrell, who was then the auditor, had auditors that visited our branch to make accounting cheeks. The Sales division, under Mr. Hawkins directly, had certain people COM to m ia connection with sales matters. Xach branch was given a certain territory which it operated. It would choose dealers. Contracts were made with dealers yearly. Territories were fixed yearly for each particular dealer and thea the dealers' operations were supervised to sows extent; that Is, they were supervised with the idea of helping them to sell the moat possible cars.