Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1961)
Townspeople Win Stock fight With Big Finance, Keep firm In The Family By BRUCE AGNEW B1NGHAMT0N, N.Y. UPI- Come people had to sell apples to keep alive, but not. Helen Balanda. r. They kept her on the job dur ing the depression, even though they probably didn't need her. They paid the doctor bills (or Epifanio Bevelacqua's mother .through an illness that lasted 32 years. I They did things (or thousands Of others, too, and in many cases for their fathers, grandfathers end great-grandfathers before them., '; So it is not hard to understand Why the people of the "triple cities" Bingham ton and neigh boring Johnson City and Endicott -refused to stand by idly when they suddenly had a fight on their hands. They in reality stands for just one thing in this hilly, wooded part of New York State for the Endicott Johnson Corporation econd largest shoe manufacturer In the nation (the largest; Inter national Shoe Co., of St. Louis). It has been managed for three generations by members of a sin gle family, and folks speak of it imply as "E-J". ' So when a big New York City company began buying up huge blocs of E-J' stock early this month, people of the three cities took it as a serious threat by out siders to end hometown control of E-J. And that meant war. , This is the story of that fight, , nhich' E-J and the townspeople won last Thursday when Presi - dent Albert A. List of Glen Alden Corp. announced the holding com- - pany will sell back the E-J stock it had been accumulating. The people of the triple cities are ex cited and proud of victory and a little amazed, too. Certainly some of the fervor that went Into the battle came from self-interest, from a fear the "outsiders", might shut down some of E-J's 27 plants and wipe out jobs. But anyone wh.o has talked in I the townspeople can tell you that E-J was. helped by an invisible nsset that was never listed in the company's annual report to stock' holders. That asset was goodwill lamasuc ana even fanatic goodwill in the three cities toward a corporation whose policies have won it something between devoted affection and downright love. This was pretty much a stock market war, and it is very likely that many of the 130.000 citizens of the triple cities never fully un derstood the complicated strate gy. But that didn t stop factory workers, policemen, schoolteach ers, small businessmen and even 13-year-old Ed Wachtman from coming up with what was needed money. They dug into savings accounts cashed bonds, took out loans and pledged millions of dollars to buy stock in their company. Suddenly, E-J is more of their lives than it ever was before, and that is the way they want it. ' 1920, its employes raised funds to build two stone arches at the en-trances-to Johnson City and Endi cott. Carved on the arches is: home of the square deal." Merchants . Pitch In On Harvest EL CENTRO (UPI) - Imperial Valley businessmen, who said they would, help harvest the crops 'Of strike-plagued growers "if we are needed," kept their promise ' Friday when they went to work ' in a Brawley packinghouse. Sixty members of a citizens committee formed by an El On tro attorney to, harvest lettuce ' took over at the D'Arrigo Bros, packing shed for union workers who walked off their jobs Wednes day in sympathy with picketing field workers. Domestic laborers, i sparscd on by organizers of the United Pack inghouse Workers of America and , the Agricultural Workers Organ ; izing Committee, have struck 15 valley ranches attempting to gain union recognition and a 35-cent- bourly wage increase. , Sheriff s deputies stood by as the volunteers, members of a cit . lzens committee formed by How ard Jackson to help harvest the , valley s $18 S million lettuce crop, -crossed picket lines. There was . some verbal clashes but no physi cal violence. Garcia Extolls Island Economy MANILA (API-President Car los Garcia today painted an ex tremely rosy picture of the Phil ippine economy in bis nnual State of the Nation address to the 'Opening session of the Congress. - Garcia said dollar reserves in 1960 had reached a new high of . some $200 million, that the nation had a favorable balance of trade, that employment was up to about nine million persons and that the gross national product had grown at a rate of 6 per cent in 1960. Most of E-J's 27 plants are con centrated' in the triple cities. They are small industrial complexes surrounded by houses that ridge the rolling hills. Even in the cen tral business district of Bingham- ton, tree-covered hills without a building on them seem to be with in easy walking distance. Fifteen thousand persons in the triple cities work at E-J plants about a third of the area s to tal industrial employment. ' But Endicott Johnson and the Johnson family have grown to mean much more than a paycheck or a boss My dad worked for E-J for 42 years. He s retired now. he s 78. E-J pays all his medical bills, everything. My mother, before she died, was sick for 32 years. E-J paid her medical expenses. I m sure it was over $25,000. That's why Epifanio Bevelacqua, 40, of nearby Vestal, a leather cutter, bought nearly $800 worth of stock 25 shares. A World War I veteran remem bered even further back. "You can't imagine what it was like after World War I," said H. Clair Sturdevant, 65, of Bing hamton. "Men were starving, sell ing apples, standing in line at soup kitchens, everything else. But E-J was one of the few com panies in the country that gave every soldier his job back when he got home." E-J also gave $15 a week to de pendents of employes who went off to fight. Sturdevant's veterans of World War I barracks (666) put up $400 for stock. Mrs. Helen Balanda, 61, who lives on North Arthur Ave., in En dicott, works at an E-J plant pushing leather through a ma chine that levels it to a uniform thickness. Her husband, Mike, works at an E-J tannery. Mrs. Balanda smiles a lot, and when she does her eyes crinkle behind her glasses. "In the depression, everybody had work," she recalled. "Maybe two, three days of work a week, but steady work. No layoffs." During the depression, George W. Johnson, son of the company's builder, also handed out free shoes to every child in the triple cities. And if an unemployed man needed medical care, he got it. Helen and Mike Balanda put $1,000 of their savings into stock. Endicott Johnson has given the triple cities parks, playgrounds, recreational centers, libraries and a golf course. It has built homes, and let workers buy them on long-term, low-interest loans. In In the first week of this year, all this was threatened. The Glen Alden Corp., a New York holding company which controls a wide range of companies, bought a large bloc of stock from an Endi cott Johnson director and offered to buy additional stock at $30.50 a share. In the triple cities, there was one conclusion Glen Alden was trying to take over E-J. There were many fears that Glen Al den would close the shoe com pany, which had lost money in 1960 for the first time in years that Glen Alden would close some of the plants; that it would dis card pensions and benefits, and stop caring about the workers. Almost no one knew what to do "They were all puzzled," said Joe Christina, SO, of Endicott, a big-boned man with. a lined, leath ery face who has worked at En dicott Johnson since he was 16. "People didn!t know they couldn't understand how the John son family didn't have 51 per cent. r Christina and three other work ers, met with a lawyer, and he suggested a petition to authorize the company to use $10 million out of the more than $50 million pension fund to buy stock. Monday morning, the start ot the second week, the four-man committee called a meeting of about 200 workers representing every plant. "They didn't even know what it was about," Christina said. "All they knew was we had to get out of this somehow. We told them if we can't help ourselves, there's nobody who can help us." The 200 had questions the four- man committee couldn't answer. So they telephoned Frank A Johnson 52-year-old grandson of founder George F. Johnson and the fourth of his family to run the huge company and asked him to come over and talk to them. Johnson came over, and with that appearance he began a hec tic week that took him into every plant, to explain what was hap pening, to answer questions) and1 to tell his people why he felt his already-begun plans for modern izing, for new styles, for new sales techniques, promised a good future for the company. ' "I never asked them to buy stock," said Johnson, a big lean man with thinning gray hair who runs instead of walks up the stairs to his, second floor office in the original Endicott Johnson plant. "I wouldn't ask anyone to buy stock. That was their own idea." But Johnson did tell them. "This is the worst thing ever to face Endicott Johnson." And the workers, who call him "Young Frank" and shout hello to him the street, believed him. While Johnson visited the plants, the key task of master minding the slock market cam paign and organizing a drive to buy $5 million worth of stock was carried out in a small building, in Endicott, across the street from an E-J recreation center Wayne Cawley, tall, 43-year-old owner of an electronics company, had organized the committee from the three Chambers of Com merce during tliat first confused week. He sat down behind his long wooden desk and began lit tering it with papers the follow ing Monday, Jan. 9. Three phones ' sat by his left hand, one a direct line to New York. They rang constantly. During the first two days, com mittee members ' made phone calls all over the country, asking tndlcott Johnson stockholders to keep their shares and support the Johnson family. They placed ads in newspapers and on radio and television, and distributed thousands of campaign buttons reading, "All the ' way with E-J." Children loved the campaign buttoiu. So did every one else. With the aid of two investment counselors from New York, they began buying E-J stock, slowlv, and balancing to keep the price staple. i, . . jobs like mowing lawns and I stockholders were "friendly." shoveling snow." Glen Alden, at best, had 10 to Ed said he bought the stock U per cent. purely "for the investment." ''I think we're home free," he Then after his mother prodded said. "I hope." Many businessmen in the triple cities warn under their breaths that winning this fight is only the in styles and in salesmanship. But last year s loss came from the shock of reorganization and Monday, January 23, 1961 HERALD AND NEWS, Klamath Falls, Oregon . In Elmira, N.Y., about 50 miles away, Joel Carroll, 60, heard about what was going on, and thought back on his life in Bing hamton before he moved away, 35 years ago. He picked up the phone and ordered 10,000 shares of stock about $320,000. "When I was a young boy," Carroll said, '"all, my aunts and uncles worked for E-J, and their children did, and now three or four generations of my family have. So naturally, I have a great attachment and affection for t h e company. Carroll, who is retiring as head of a building business, was the biggest buyer. One of the small estone share and only 13 years old was Ed Wachtman of Ves tal. 'I'm head of my own firm," the blond, crew-cut boy bragged. "Comet Enterprises. We do odd him he said he had rcallj bought it to support E-J. "I cashed in two bonds to bin the stuck." he said. "I've g0t!DeEln"in8. that Endicott Johnson enough to buy another share now.nas lot problems to solve. I guess I will, too." ' rraiiK jonnson agrees. E-J was Tim bW buvers ami the littlei,amS Dcmna me times, ne says. hnv-r. unre all wplrnme Individ. '" ",B ul w,ue "eea, uais, paient-teacher groups, pri vate clubs phoned or sent delega tions to the committee headquar ters. A furniture store ottered h share of stock with every $200 purchase. In Wayne Cawlcy's of fice, the phones kept ringing. "More people in the triple cities have learned more about the stock market this week than they ever dreamed of knowing," said Cawley with a tired grin. In the middle of that week, E-J supporters won a court order that stopped Glen Alden from buying the stock. Then the petitions came in, with' the signatures of 8.200 workers asking that pension fund money be put into E-J stock. Friday night, the triple cities celebrated with a torchlight pa rade. Only seven days before, they had been confused and wor ried. How they felt they were win- ning. . ' ' ' Early in the third week of the crisis Cawley added up the re sults. At least 50 per cent of the from inventory write-downs get ting rid ot a lot ot shoes we should have cleaned out a long time ago. "We started work on reorganl zation two years ago, and started building a team in I960. I feel very confident." So do the triple cities. And they have a bigger stake in it now than ever before. Victory came Thursday when Glen Alden and E-J jointly an nounced agreement for Glen Al den to sell its shares to the E-J pension fund. PAGE 5 And there was no doubt who said Glen Alden President List, turned the tide. "Glen Alden has had no desire to "I have been deeolv moved hv force "P01" U employes , . I I ,1.. tl ..1 uu (, the loyalty to the Endicott John son Corp. evidenced by employes and members of the community," and the other shareholders. ft N. J. Rosenbaum INCOME TAX CONSULTANT Commerce Bldg. 11 1 1 Walnut Ave. Ph. TU 4-5903 or TU 4-5863 In Klamath Falls Since '46 M.nd.ri In HiIId lhr rk. l OFFICE MACHINE REPAIRS Typewriters, Adding chlnM cleaned, repaired, verhanled. Ovaraateed Warkmaaibtp JONES' Office Supply rhm TU t-MOl W oil for 4Uttr AdverlUemanl If you were born before 1900.:. . . . let us tell you how you can still apply tor a $1,000 life in surance policy (for people up to age 80) so that you can help take dare of final expenses with out burdening your family. transac-AMERI CAN of KANSAS CITY. No obli. gatian. No on will call on you! Tear out thit ad and mail it today with your name, oddress and year of birth to Old Ameri can Insurance Co., 4900 Oak, Dept. L1336B, Kansos City, Missouri. You handle the entire tion by mail with OLD MATERNITY SALE formerly to 7.91 ONE-HOUR CLEANING AT NO EXTRA COST! flvp 41 Jmmqw J Um Our Convenltnf . Drlve-ln Window DRIVE-IN CLEANERS 2041 Radcliffe South 6th Acroit From Fortune Statlpn lllll a GoU Star Ever1 r-v--iijHB. m I (Gw s , gl'MN " Foi Youx Coding. on a cleaner, cooler VwV GOLD STAR AWARD VISIT OUR DISPLAY FLOOR OR CALL ON YOUR GAS APPLIANCE DEALER CALIFORNIA-PACIFIC UTILITIES COMPANY CITY GAS 1011 Main St. Phont TU 4-5175 TANK GAS Pillsbury Orange ANGEL FOOD CAKE MIX Other Pillsbury Products At TERRIFIC SAYINGS! U.S.D.A. Good and Choice Boneless Round Steak (51 9& PURE Ground Beef Ground Frih , Doily a C lb. Klamath Gems U.S. No. 1 POTATOES 10-lb. Bag &9 BLEACH Oregon Food Vi Gallon Jug 29 MATCHES 2 B" 25' Ohio Blue Tip Book Matches Boxes of 50 CINCH 17-oi. Sixe LARGE "AA" DOX; PLUS Green Stamps floREENjf OREGON FOOD mm Softies PUREX 35 c Gal Snow's CUM CHOWDER 15-oz. tins 85 Scot PAPER TOWELS 2ST65e Elastic LIQUID STARCH 57 c Gal Snow's MINCED CLAMS 7'2-ox. 91C Tin 31 Soflin FACIAL TISSUES c Box of 400 ' 19 Snowdrift SHORTENING 79 e 3-lb. Tin WESSON OIL Quart. Bottle 49e Shur-Lac 12 Qt. Sixe DRY MILK 85c Whit Star CHUNK TUNA l No.W I Tins 95 Rtynold'i ALUMINUM FOIL 240 4QC Cut Rite . WAX PAPER 29c 125 Ft. Roll Skinfold SAUERKRAUT 7 No. 303 Tins 1 00 ' Schilling CLACK PEPPER 4-ox. Sixe 39 SCOTKINS In Color 2pkgs.35 StokcVs SUCCOTASH 303 ins 27' Swiff. Chopped BEEF STEAKS 59 c 12-ox. Sixe Underwood DEVILED HAH 39e No. Vi Tins Wriiley BAG SOAP Bag of 6 bars 39 e Wyandotte Select PITTED OLIVES I SVj-ox. Tins 99c If You're Not Shopping Here . . . You're Spending Too Much mm M I PJ H M PRICES EFFECTIVE MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY Winter Store Hours 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Dally
