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
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