USA > Illinois > The makers of Illinois; a memorial history of the state's honored dead > Part 4
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Michael Cudahy
when school books had to be put aside that they might enter the more difficult school of experience, she ever stood by them, their friend, their confidante, and their inspiration.
The industry which had ever been one of Michael Cudahy's marked characteristics was manifest at the outset of his business career and won him promotion from time to time. He was nineteen years of age when he accepted a position with Edward Roddis, also a Milwaukee packer, with whom he continued until the business was closed out in 1866. He afterward became private meat inspector for the firm of Layton & Company, and at the same time secured the position of meat inspector on the Milwaukee Board of Trade. He went to the packing house of Plankington & Armour, of Milwaukee, in 1869, at the time when the total investment of the company in their plant, including machinery, would not exceed thirty-five thou- sand dollars. In the meantime, P. D. Armour was watching the young man who had been made manager of the Milwaukee business, and in 1875 called him to Chicago, saying that he had a place for him in this city. Mr. Cudahy accordingly removed to Chicago and for seventeen years remained with Mr. Armour, having complete con- trol of the manufacturing end of the business. Most of the modern machinery and methods for utilizing the by-products, without which the packing business of today could not exist, were invented by Mr. Cudahy. When asked by a friend why he never had secured patents for any of his inventions, Mr. Cudahy replied that one year's start on any competitor was all the patent he desired. It is said that no man before or since has had a more thorough practical knowledge of the packing industry. Eventually he became a partner in the firm of Armour & Co. The friendship between Mr. Armour and Mr. Cudahy continued until the former's death. When the latter left him to en- gage in business for himself, Mr. Armour offered him a loan if at any time he desired it, but Mr. Cudahy never needed the proffered help. He had in the meantime acquired a thorough knowledge of the busi- ness in all of its different phases. He had a strong hold on the cattle men who in dealing with him always considered that they were doing business with an individual and not a firm. It was a current saying among business men that the word of Michael Cudahy was as good as any bond solemnized by signature or seal. On severing his con- nection with Mr. Armour, Mr. Cudahy took over the Omaha plant, but always continued a resident of Chicago. In 1887, the firm of The Armour-Cudahy Packing Company was formed, and subse- quently the business was reorganized under the name of the Cudahy Packing Company. The firm soon established packing houses in
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Michael Cudahy
Omaha and Kansas City, and later in Sioux City, Iowa; Wiehita, Kansas, and Los Angeles, California; and the seope of the business was further increased by the organization of branches in every im- portant city of the United States and many eities abroad.
Mr. Cudahy did not devote all of his attention to the paeking busi- ness. During the last fifteen years of his life he was actively engaged in the oil business,-both in the produeing of crude oil and in the re- fining. He and his brother, John, were the pioneers in the develop- ment of the oil fields of the Indian Territory and Oklahoma; and in 1910, he organized the Cudahy Refining Company, which has a large refinery at Coffeyville, Kansas.
Mr. Cudahy was also a great trader, although he never approved of nor participated in "cornering" the market. He had a very unusual faculty of anticipating the future, and his trading operations were not confined to artieles associated with his own business.
In 1866, Mr. Cudahy was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Sullivan, a daughter of John Sullivan, a prosperous farmer resid- ing near Milwaukee, Wiseonsin. They became the parents of four daughters and three sons: Mrs. William P. Nelson; Mary; Clara; Mrs. John B. Casserly ; John P .; Joseph M .; and Edward I.
Mr. Cudahy gave his politieal support to the democratie party, yet did not hesitate to vote independently if he thought that the best interests of eity or country would be promoted thereby.
Mr. Cudahy was a great lover of musie, paintings, and books, and devoted a great deal of his spare time to reading. He was a great student of Carlyle, Bacon and Shakespeare, and knew by heart a great portion of Shakespeare's works.
It was well known that Mr. Cudahy was a most generous donor to charities, yet the extent of his benefactions will never be known. He rarely spoke of them even to his family, yet various Catholie in- stitutions have received sums of from fifty to one hundred thousand dollars and to Protestant work he also gave liberally. During the last three years of his life, feeling that he had aequired enough of this world's goods for his individual needs and desires, he gave his entire ineome above that needed for the support of his family to benevolent institutions. One, writing of him said: "Home, religion and busi- ness-his devotion to this trinity was the key to the sueeess in life of the late Michael Cudahy. So far as could be learned he had no rule nor set of rules which he followed. His was too broad a mind to be restricted to a formula from which he could not deviate." There were those who saw him at home who felt that his most active interest in life was his devotion to wife and family; those who knew him as
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Michael Cudahy
a business man felt that the packing business was ever his first con- sideration; but his religion and his family were paramount in his mind. He ever held membership in the Catholic church, being for over thirty years connected with St. James' church, and later he attended St. Mary's. He made provision in his will for the further support of many charities and benevolent institutions.
The secret of his successful life-and we use the term in its broadest sense-was his ability to concentrate his entire mind on the subject at hand, whether it pertained to religion, home or business. He was always a most approachable man, and in the many years in which it was his daily custom to walk from the packing house to the stock yards, there were many men who made it their habit to meet him along the way "in order to extend a 'Good morning' with the 'old man,'" a title which was spoken with reverence when applied to him. Many of his employes could come to him and discuss a situation arising from their connection with the business. He made them feel that they had a right to be heard and that the hearing was his first consideration.
Public opinion was not divided concerning the life of Michael Cudahy. His business integrity was recognized by all with whom he had dealings and it was well known that he was loyal to every pro- fession and to every ideal which he advocated. The sixty-nine years of his life were indeed well spent and the world is better for his having lived.
Rolowane
Richard Teller Crane
O MORE potent lesson exists for the young man or N even for men of mature minds, than that afforded in the reeital of the career of a successful business man, together with the moral and business principles responsible for its attainment. The life and deeds of great men of the remote past inspire within the youth worthy impulses and high aims, but the lessons thus presented are merely theoretical, while the sueeessful battles of modern men, with the same environments, conditions and problems which surround us today are practical examples. One of the most foreeful of these exam- ples is afforded in the career of Richard Teller Crane, late president of the Crane Company, whose name is to the iron trade what that of Marshall Field is to the dry-goods trade or those of Swift and Armour to the paeking industry. Coming to Chieago fifty-six years ago, with- out education, business experience, money or friends, he established a business which by his own indomitable energy and foree of eharae- ter has become one of the largest in the world.
Mr. Crane was born at Passaie Falls, Paterson, New Jersey, May 15, 1832, a son of Timothy B. and Maria (Ryerson) Crane. His paternal aneestors are traeed to the original Mayflower eolony, which settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. His father, Timothy B. Crane, learned the earpenter's trade in Litehfield, Connecticut, and became a contractor and builder in New York city, where he erected a mansion for Governor Dewitt Clinton, with whom he was intimate. He later removed to Passaic Falls, New Jersey, to engage in the milling business and ereeted many saw and flour mills in that state.
He first married Miss Teller, a descendant of the original Knieker- boeker eolony, from Amsterdam, and later married Miss Maria Ryer- son, a sister of the late Martin Ryerson, of Chicago. He died in 1845, and his wife seven years later.
From his father Mr. Crane inherited mechanical aptitude and ingenuity and his mother's one desire was that her boys should all learn trades. The family were too poor to send the ehildren long to school, consequently at the age of eleven he was obliged to seek self-support. He learned various branches of mechanical work, and in 1847, an unele proeured for him a situation in Brooklyn, New York, where he re-
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Richard Teller Crane
mained until 1851, by which time he had acquired the trade of a brass and iron worker. He then went to New York city, where he found employment with several prominent firms, among them that of R. Hoe & Company. The business depression of 1854-5 threw him out of employment, and after some time spent in futile search for work, he came to Chicago in the latter year. Here he had an uncle, Martin Ryerson, engaged in the lumber business. Shortly after his arrival he decided to start in business for himself, and Mr. Ryerson granting him the privilege and furnishing the means, he erected a small brass shop in a corner of the latter's lumberyard. Here he began the manu- facture of finished brass goods, in a small way, and lived in the loft overhead. He had neither capital, business experience nor acquaint- ance with which to start his enterprise, and but little ability as a salesman, but possessed a fairly good knowledge of brass foundry work and finishing and was a good machinist. And what is more, he was endowed with foresight, ingenuity, energy and determination. He avoided all deception and trickery, soon won the confidence of all with whom he had dealings, and established a reputation for fair- ness and reliability, which has been his chief pride throughout his entire business career.
A few months after starting, Mr. Crane was joined by his brother Charles S., with whom he formed a partnership under the name of R. T. Crane & Brother. The business grew rapidly from the start, the variety of their products were gradually increased, and from time to time new quarters were secured to accommodate the growing enter- prise. Owing to the small demand, it was necessary for some time to take up any article which was found profitable and they were obliged to manufacture an enormous variety of goods in order to build up their business. In 1858 they began the manufacture of steam heating apparatus (which they discontinued in 1877). In 1860 they estab- lished an iron factory, and in 1864 a wrought-iron pipe mill, at the corner of Fulton and Desplaines streets. In 1865, they built their present works, and added three new branches to their business-a malleable iron foundry, the manufacture of malleable and cast-iron fittings, and a general machine shop, in which, later, steam engines were made. Their business soon doubled, and a charter was obtained from the legislature, incorporating the concern, under the name of the North-Western Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of one million dollars, of which only fifteen thousand dollars was issued. R. T. Crane was the first president and Charles S. Crane the first vice president. At this time, the amount of business annually transacted was five hundred thousand dollars, and the number of employes about two hundred. The higher classes of employes were given an interest in
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Richard Celler Crane
the company's business. In August, 1872, the corporate name was changed to Crane Brothers Manufacturing Company, owing to the adoption by other parties of the word "North-Western" and the eon- sequent danger of confusion. In 1870, more room was required, and a four-story building was erected on Desplaines street, adjoining that on Jefferson street; and during 1871, a four-story wing was added. Charles S. Crane retired from the company at this time, and the busi- ness was thereafter conducted by its founder to the time of his death. Previous to this time, the company had eommeneed building steam freight and passenger elevators, of which but few were then in use in Chieago, none having been, up to that time, eonstrueted in the west. The company's first passenger elevator was placed in a hotel on the corner of Michigan avenue and Congress street. In 1874 the manu- facture of hydraulie elevators was undertaken, and has sinee grown steadily, this branch of the business being eondueted under the name of the Crane Elevator Company. It, too, has grown to the propor- tions of leadership in its line and there is today no eivilized country on the face of the globe where the Crane elevator has not been intro- dueed. Shortly after the building of steam elevators had been com- meneed, an aeeidental discovery showed that the machine was adapted to the hoisting of material for blast furnaces. The company at onee set to work to design an apparatus still better suited for this elass of work; the result was a great improvement over anything theretofore built. In 1880, the pipe manufacture had entirely outgrown the eapae- ity of the mill ereeted in 1864, and a new mill was ereeted, on the eor- ner of Canal and Judd streets. Eventually, however, it developed that the fitting business was growing so rapidly that it would be a good line in which to specialize, and Mr. Crane decided to give especial attention to that line; then, as their capacity for manufacturing be- eame crowded, he gradually dropped one after another of their vari- ous outside lines, inchiding steam warming and elevators, feeling that the rapid growth of the pipe and fitting business would afford an enterprise sufficiently large for himself and family to look after. It then became his aim to place his plant in advance of all others in the country in the variety and quality of goods, and with this end in view he endeavored not only to carry everything that was ealled for in this line, but to anticipate the wants of the trade; that is to bring out, in advance, artieles that he could see would be needed, which his experi- enee in the steam-fitting line had for many years enabled him to do. As a result Mr. Crane had a vast number of inventions to his eredit eovering a wide and varied range of artieles.
From time to time, sinee 1886, branch offices have been established in other eities throughout the United States where satisfactory ar-
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rangements could be made with jobbers, thus insuring a steady, relia- ble outlet for their products. In doing this, however, Mr. Crane at no time pursued an avaricious course, as he believed in the policy "live and let live," but made it a rule not to establish a branch at a point where he was receiving fair treatment from the trade. Today they have sixteen factories and thirty-eight branches, and employ over nine thousand hands.
While no special effort has been made to create a demand for Crane goods outside the United States and their possessions, for the reason that the capacity of the company has been fully taxed in taking care of domestic demands, nevertheless they are sold in considerable quan- tities in Canada, Great Britain, Denmark, Mexico, South America, South Africa, Australia, Japan, China and Russia, and in smaller quantities in all countries of the world. The company was awarded the only gold medal given at the Paris Exposition, 1900, for exhibits of valves and fittings.
As the business of the Crane Company grew, Mr. Crane grew. Gradually he acquired a valuable business acquaintance, and a thor- ough understanding of business methods was added to his thorough mechanical knowledge. His policy from the first was to put his earn- ings back into the business, and he had sufficient courage to extend the business as rapidly as his means permitted. The panics of 1857 and 1865 both found the company in a greatly expanded condition, and an exceedingly severe struggle was necessary in each case to weather the storm. By 1873 the company had gained such financial strength that the panic of that year, as well as the later panic of 1893, was passed without the business being seriously threatened. Although the company started without resources, and the business has been rap- idly extended and many financial difficulties encountered, never, dur- ing the fifty years, has the company's paper gone to protest. Very early in his business career, Mr. Crane recognized the value of thor- ough system, and worked out for himself a system of policies, rules, and regulations, covering every feature of the business. This, in addi- tion to supervising the details of work, not only in the manufacturing departments, but the sales, cost, finances and general office work as well, was a tremendous task, but he finally succeeded and today the firm is one of the most thoroughly systematized and best organized concerns in the world.
One of the greatest factors in his success was the attitude which Mr. Crane always maintained toward his employes. "Justice," he said, "is the first thing to be considered in dealing with your men, and justice, in its broadest sense, includes kindness, courtesy, sympa-
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Richard Celler Crane
thy and genuine interest in the welfare of your employes." Absolute fairness to the employe as the inspiration of fidelity and service, has been the Crane keynote. Always aceessible to the lowest of his force, keeping constantly in touch with them all, in their work and their amusements as well, he established and maintained a feeling of regard and loyalty among his employes such as probably no other man has ever enjoyed from so large a force. At its fiftieth anniversary, a few years ago, the home shops and offices mustered forty-two employes who had been continuously with the concern from twenty-five to forty years.
Mr. Crane always believed in a fair distribution of profits, as a practical remuneration of his employes' loyalty. He investigated numerous profit-sharing systems in use in this and other countries, some of which he gave a trial without satisfactory results. However, twelve years ago he devised and adopted what is undoubtedly the fair- est and most liberal praetice ever instituted by any large coneern. Every year each employe is presented with a eash Christmas gift from the company. From 1899 to 1902 the amount was five per eent of each employe's annual income from the company. Sinee that time the basis of distribution has been ten per cent. In this way the Crane Company has given its employes in the past twelve years over three million dol- lars, the 1911 distribution alone amounting to over half a million dol- lars. Mr. Crane believed in giving his employes golden dollars in return for the golden dollars they harvested for the company, and was bitterly opposed to the so-called profit-sharing practices in vogue with many corporations by which the employer gratifies a selfish ambition under the guise of charity. Prior to the establishment of a pension system by the Crane Company, Mr. Crane personally pensioned em- ployes whom siekness or old age had overtaken without their having been able to lay by enough to support themselves and their families. Some of the axioms that made Mr. Crane a millionaire are: "Money comes to the man who knows. If you want to lead you must first learn. Learn your business thoroughly and you ean get to the head today, as well as men could fifty years ago. The only place to learn a business is in the business. To make a success today a man must know a great deal more than in the old days-therefore begin to learn early. The big men in business today were poor boys of yesterday. The big men of tomorrow are to be found among the poor boys of today. There is always room for eapable men-big employers ean never find enough of them. To be poor is no bar-a poor boy ean enter the trades and at twenty-six have acquired the knowledge on which to base a for- tune. Laek of college training is no handieap. Get right into the
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Richard Teller Crane
business and learn from the bottom up. I don't know of any man who has made a success in any other way. To develop a perfect organiza- tion a man must have a thorough knowledge of the line he is to manu- facture, of the best machinery, processes, factory locations and con- struction, raw material, men, wages, merchandising, manufacturing costs, improvements, business growth, panics and other trade condi- tions."
The American business man whose personality dominates every department of his concern, who himself supplies the brains, initiative, will and supervision for the conduct of a large enterprise and who, moreover, refuses to relinquish his business cares even after his indus- trial nursling has grown into a massive giant-is becoming rare in these days of hired managers and high-salaried experts. Such a man was Mr. Crane. Although he accomplished such thorough organiza- tion in his business as would readily dispense with his personal atten- tion and had reached a ripe old age he was yet unwilling to retire from active service and up to the time of his demise was to be found almost daily at his desk the greater part of the year.
The development of this vast enterprise would alone entitle him to recognition as one of the most prominent factors in the life of Chicago, but Mr. Crane also became widely known by reason of his activity in philanthropic, benevolent and humanitarian movements. He always took an active interest in social, economic, political and educational affairs and was prominently identified with many important works. He was a student of and writer upon educational problems. In his articles and pamphlets he placed great emphasis upon the distinction between an educational system adapted to meet the wants of the masses and a system suitable for training a favored few. He laid great stress upon the importance and practical value of manual training in the grade schools and was associated with John W. Doane, Marshall Field, John Crerar, N. K. Fairbanks, E. W. Blatchford and O. W. Potter on the pledge of one thousand dollars for the building of the Chicago Manual Training School. In September, 1892, Mr. Crane equipped a manual training room in one of the Chicago grade schools and employed a special teacher to give instruction in woodwork in the higher grades of several of the schools. In 1900, recognizing the suc- cess of his first experiment, he provided the necessary means for mak- ing possible manual training in the lower grades. In 1905 he pro- vided twenty-four scholarships, of three hundred dollars each per year, to enable young men to prepare themselves as teachers of manual training and provided funds for opening manual training departments
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Richard Teller Crane
in five more grade schools. In recognition of his interest in the public school system the Chicago board of education a few years ago named a new school the R. T. Crane Manual Training High School. Many of his praetical ideas have been embodied in the conduct of the manual training schools of this eity, which found in him a stalwart champion and firm friend. In reply to the question, "Why he favored manual training?" he gave this answer. It is the answer of an in- tensely practical man and of one earnestly striving to better the ele- mentary schools after many years' study of the problem: "I am strongly of the opinion that at present all the money a eity or a eom- munity can afford to spend on manual training should be devoted to the carrying of this work in the grammar schools; for while manual training may be of some value to high-sehool pupils I maintain that it is not from such that we will get our supply of mechanics but that the foundation of the making of mechanics and inventors is in teaching praetieal meehanies to the boys in the grammar grades; for they, natu- rally, are the ones who will get into mechanical lines after leaving school. What is needed with us is training in the lower sehool grades that will tend to have more practical than theoretical knowledge. The country is very well supplied with the latter class of labor. There is a wide field for the all-around mechanie. Industrial supervision eon- stantly invites him. And the boy who goes from the grammar sehool to the industrial field with a good general knowledge of the elements of practical mechanics, gained through intelligently direeted manual training, is the best equipped for advancement to the higher positions. As to the cost of manual training: Should the public be taxed for this feature of public educational work? Why not? If it is proper to furnish free instruction above the grammar grades in art, in music, in a dozen other lines commonly called 'fads' (exeept in the training of school teachers), surely there ean be no question as to the wisdom and justiee of free and general instruction in manual training in the grammar grades; for such training must be in the line of publie ceon- omy as well as highly beneficial to the children; it tends to inereasc the prosperity of the whole country and to add to the sum of human happi- ness. What I have said about manual training for boys applies equally to girls. It is just as essential to train girls that they may be good homemakers and homekeepers as it is to train boys that they may support both themselves and their homes. To sum up: Manual train- ing should be a feature of every publie grammar school. A generous part of cvery sehool day should be devoted to praetieal instruetion in this line. Boys as well as girls should share in it. It should be sup- ported liberally by public taxation. Common sense should be the chief element in its direction. Manual training makes skillful hands.
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