Document NE96O2BR2KG5eb141ezebEJNg

FILE NAME: Crane Company (CRC) DATE: 1939 DOC#: CRC038 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Corporate Statement of American Newcomen r ,, 1: fen ` h I A New and Dy Concept for G H. K . Porter Compa THOMAS MELLON' r "W ere American Newcomen to do naught alsaf our work is well done if we succeed in sharing w itJi^ f 'i America a strengthened inspiration to continuf^i^ the struggle towards a nobler Civilization--- : $31;" 1 through wider knowledge and understanding'of the hopes, ambitions, and deeds of leaders in the past who have upheld Civilization's material progress. As we look backward, let ns look forward S/ntu-r--V-tCitH-PAteRttLdeEnSi fPorENNoRrtOhSAEtntrica Ti.e N tw ie u u tt SatU ty of E ngland 8 This siaiement, crystallizing a broadpurposeofthesociety, wasfust read til the Newcomen Meetingat New York World's Patron Augusts, 1939, when American Newcomen were guesn of The British Government A NEW AND DYNAMIC CONC H . K . Porter Com An Address at Ne A m e r ic a n N e w c o m e n , thiotigh numerous industrial organization have been notabiliy both m the Ui and in Canada, Such a N avocom dealing with a corporate enterpri. graphical and economic diversity the designation: C(A Nett Concept fo r Croi Copyright, p$$ T homas Mlllon Evans }lenn'tinon to ttbilrnct is granted firoviiUd proper credit is allowed The Nreuconusn Soc/t!iyl as a body, is not responsible for opinions expressed in the following pages I Pmit First Printing: April eggy Second Printing: April /$;$ This Newcomen Address, dealing with the Ids* tory and coturibsnions of If. K. Porter Cowfinny, fine., was delivered at a Nutioiml NcwiOffuji Dinner of The Newcomen Society in Notih America, held in Ballroom of The I'iesiOt at Now York, N,Y., U.SM., when Mr. Evans war the suest of honor, ots Afir'd } /, 1955 ilT Vf. Iti'M tb SS`>UlC.VW I'- f tU UK1KD >Ta u s or AMirici >(* tu*. Nt.woiMiv H*moni<Nb in Nui-m An>nn jiv i*nt>k\,iiv I'.MvuiMTv ua>>< INTRODUCTION OF MR. EVANS, AT NEW ] BY GEORGES. MOORE, EXECUTIVE VICE-I { TIONAL CITY SANK OF NEW YORK.} ME1 J COMMITTEE, IN THE NEWCOMEN SOCI) 1 ' M y fello w members of Newcomen: T his evening we shell hear an told by nn unusual individual. , Inc., the concent he speaks for, age, yet, in a sense, is merely sixteen y I Evan s w ill tell of the various divisions i . organization, which range in age from ir , dred years, is extraordinary. I t will be j in his early forties. ; U , j T h e story of the rebirth and growth of j achievement rarely matched in these U i in recent years. Y et, while the vision w E van s, the organization he has built an any sense a one-man effort. Behind him is burgh, and at each of the respective divis their fields and who complement Tom E versification that makes his organization c business. I 5 3 Tom E van s is a Pittsburgher by birth and his business head quarters are there; although his various enterprises spread through out the Nation. H is friends say that w hile attending Shadyside Academy he preferred to read financial and industrial manuals, while they read fiction. A t Y a le , lie majored in economics and was graduated into a world sorely dislocated by econqjnj&jjiijliculties in that eventful year, 1 9 3 1 . 71 71 Tom Evan s get his first job as a clerk with, the G y lf'O il Com pany in Pittsburgh that same year. I t was not lo n g before'he de cided to forsake the possibility of a lifetim e career with G u lf to go into business for himself. ' ` 'j ' I t was in 19 39 , while still in his twenties, that he was able to do this. But the story of how he acquired the then-bankrupt Porter company and changed it from a concern manufacturing steam locomotives to one of the most high ly diversified in our land, is for him to tell. %' 71 I have been able to watch the literal unfolding of this story-- a unique part of our American scene. I t is my belief that Porter-- and Tom Evans-- really are only at the beginning of what is certain to be an even more interesting tale to be told at some future date. 7! 71 Gentleman, I am pleased to present to you the President of H . K , Porter Company, Inc., my friend: T homas M . E vans. rr>1l CTtJiJ { 63 M y fello w members of Newcomen Our Company was founded cigl Kirkc Porter with twenty the his father. M r, T o iler had cu istry before receiving Ins I'allirr's g il ij our Company started. Today it has ve concern formed in tS66', except that business is serving industry. a T he span of M r . Porter's life-- c study for die ministry, service with the in the C ivil W ar, 11 two-year term in tives in Washington, and fifty-five yea H e left behind him not only an ours! and financial success hut a fine repu charitable, civic, and religious nctiviiics XU D uring his entire business career I name of P o rter & B el], manufnctuicd tives used in factories, mills arid mine [ 7i to haul the old " e l " trains here in New York. T h e original plant capacity was fifteen to twenty-five locomotives a year. 'V %' Towards the end of the Nineteenth Century the name was changed' to H . K . Pot ter Company and it had g ro w iltp be one of the largest in tire world in its highly specialized j i | ^ f { ^ v u i g one hundred employees and a net worth of nearly't^tplil^n dpl- lars. A t the time of M r. Porter's death; in 1 9 2 1 , s h o p capacity had reached six hundred locomotives a year, and the' concern's net worth was in excess o f two million dollars. Bu^the founder's death, the changing economy, and an era of inventive progress, which saw steam locomotives give way to electric antj then diesel, combined to effect a long decline which in ten year? reduced the 939 Porter staff by h alf and finally required a complete reorganization in J - fi' g 'Si " 1 A t that time the only product Porter manufactured was the small locomotives. T h e long-term outlook was not bright consid ering the competition of off-the-highway trucks, lift trucks, and conveyor belts. W e tried manufacturing other products in the old locomotive plant in Pittsburgh, but, as you can imagine, it is very difficult to adapt such a plant to the efficient production of other types of equipment. I can recall the time we tried to develop a new type o f hydraulic Incomotive. It would run backwards but not forward. Another time, when wc were manufacturing specinl orders of process equipment, wc took an order for a specially de signed large pressure vessel for an oil refinery. When it was built, wc found it was too big to get out of the door of our plant. %' U ntil 19 4 5 , we continued to manufacture the small switching engines, in both stcain and diesel. H ow ever, after a few years it became more than ever apparent that competition was too difficult if a company remained small, particularly in a " feast or famine" business like locomotives. [ 8 ] In searching fo r new products to rr of the dying locomotive business, we one o f the quickest, and probably the to add new products by the acquisitio B y combining this method of acquit' with research and development iron the character o f our business from r facturcr of switching locomotives and the war in 194.5, doing an annual busin a year, to a business now doing more divided approximately twenty pci cent ucts, twenty percent in refractory m electrical equipment, thirty percent in copper and copper alloys, and ten pei products. W hen we made this decision we fe family-owned or closely-held concerns they were not popular investments wit! national investors. W e have found that often than not, fam ily-held corporati in their development and growth prog to accept the status quo. And, as all of tax problems involved with inheritance vestments. T h e period from 19 4 5 to J949 wa for H . K . Porter Company, Inc. We fields. W e had moderate success in s< W hen we acquired the Jarecki M anuf: fifteen oil field stores, all of which win to try to correct this situation, we bou from another concern- which wanted to ness, Instead of fifteen stores losing mi oil field stores losing money, and fina from this business entirely since we c 9 A t present D elta-Star is doing considerable work in the field of atomic energy. Its most recent effort in that field, completed in late January, involved equipment used in supplying power to the Atomic Energy Commission's new Portsmouth, Ohio, project. There, Delta-Star' s 330,000-volt switches and 6000-ampere metal-enclosed bus went into operation. - -:- * "-W t. Our next acquisition was Connors Steel in Birm ingham , A la bama. W hen the opportunity was presented for us to purchase Connors Steel, w e felt that the rapid growth of the South and the relative shortage of steel-making capacity in that arpa made it an extremely attractive one. ,j ; ?? >' Connors was founded by George W . Connors, Sr. in H elen a, Alabama. Previously, in 1 9 0 1, M r. Connors had been one o f the founders of the Atlantic Steel Company in Atlanta, Georgia. But he wished to have his own company and so m'oved over to A la bama in 1908 to form Connors Steel. T h e original products of Connors were cotton tics, barrel hoops and light mine rails. Con nors later expanded into hot rolled strips, then into concrete re inforcing and merchant bars, and light structural shapes. A fter considerable experimenting, M r. Connors discovered that rail steel products could be rolled successfully on a continuous m ill; the process was patented by him. Later, Connors Steel expansion increased rolling capacity and added electric furnaces. '8? *S? Within eight weeks after our purchase o f Connors, we received a Certificate of Necessity for facilities costing more than two m il lion dollars. I t was applied to a four-fold objective: increased capacity, enlarging the product range, improved quality, and mod ernization of existing facilities. Today, Connors is a shining exam ple of Southern business progress with a fine plant, a fine future in a fast growing industrial area. A current phase of Connors' expansion program is the manufacture o f cold-drawn electric furnace steel which w ill be the first such material to be produced in the South. ' f 12 J Towards the end of 19 5 0 wo had thro separated divisions in Philadelphia, Chica. three different fields: industrial rubber, sti ment. Our next decision to be made was: ' here?" And that question brings us to < sion in point o f years, founded in 1 848, a in 1952. T h e W atson-Stillmai* Company was fou alet L yo n , Who built a small factory 1 Street, on the lower East Side, to make st jacks, lever punches and shears. M r. Lyor of his employees, M essrs. Watson and St nership which pioneered in the design and n equipment. ?? % O ld advertisements tell us that back i hydraulic presses gave purchasers "an eas; pressing oil from fish, cider from apples, a T heir rapacity rating was in terms of fish: vertised one machine which was capable o to T hree H undred T housand Pish in tc On a Sunday afternoon in late M arch 19 Madison Square Garden, Messrs. Watson their first national fame-- or is it notoriety cooperation of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, of millions of people riveted to their new II Sdllman Company's hydraulic weighing c; mine the " relative pulling strength of men in the experiment were horses, camels, ele newspapers reported that one hundred men registered a combined pull o f 6700 pound; two camels pulled about half that, and one t ' '[ 13 1 F o r more than half a century T he Watson-StilJman Company continued to manufacture in N ew Y o rk City, but in 1904 it was decided by Francis H . Stillman, die surviving partner, to move to the present site in neatby Roselle, New Jersey . Once there, the scope o f product activities was vastly enlarged. ,, . . . w i'jlir l Watson-StiJIman justifiably is proud of its contnkjSji!Mto Science and Engineering. T ile diving bell used by rcnoifn^&TPro- fessor W illiam Beebe in his record-breaking ocean des$ei}t;ii}.i930 was engineered and manufactured by the Company;!.jjyjieh:engi neers were building N ew Y o rk 's Queens-Midtov^ii,Tunnel through the bed o f the E ast R iv er, Watson-Stillman hydraulic jacks forced and guided the tunnel shield, while a W atson-Still- man hydraulic erector arm positioned the tunnel lining. dustriesj T he M cLain Fire Buck Com theLadede-Christy Company of St. Loui iished firms in the refractories field; I Pittsburg, previously mentioned; and Tli pany, a N ew Jersey concern which proc rt**>' Leschen W ire Rope is umv nincty-ci Adolph Leschen, the founder, did most u selling of its only products, hemp lope an provided his first impetus as he began mak the A rm y; the increased traffic on the M i his second spurt. H is sons joined him in with production and sales. 72 71 Other design and construction achievements by W atson-Stillmau engineers arc the largest plastic injection molding machine ever luiiIt: the most powerful stretcher of its kind ever manu factured for aluminum plate, will) ;i pulling power of four nitlUon pounds; and tiie largest direct-drive hrass extrusion press. . 71 71 T h e W atson-Stillman Fittings Division is an offshoot of its parent. There vve manufacture forged steel fittings in carbon, stain less and alloy steels for use in the chemical, petroleum, power, and other industries, particularly where high temperatures, high pressures or corrosive conditions exist. A fter Porter purchased the parent company it was decided to expand the Fittings plant and make it a separate division. . Leschcn's best known product, Hcrcu! troducedin 1886. In those days it was di entiy good wire since torsion and tension v a long stride forward in the science of win producing greater strength and greater n out sacrificing oilier essential properties bility, and toughness. Ti! Leschen rope played an important role Panama Canal, the N ew York State Bar New York all the steel work on Manhattai place with Leschen rope. Among other whose builders utilized Leschen products St. Joh n the D ivine and the Municipal Bt 71 71 71 `S? T h e eighteen months from m id-1953 through 19 54 saw the period of Porter's greatest expansion to date. D uring that time we purchased the St. L ou is firm, A . Leschen & Sons Rope Compan/, manufacturers of wire rope; A lio / Metal Wire, a Phtladejpiiia concern serving the chemical, electrical and electronic in- Today, the modernized Leschen plant t construction work, dredging, coal and met oil wcj] drilling, marine, elevators, atrpla and even ski-lifts, , A llo y M etal W ire, founded in. 1 9 1 9 in Yonkers, N ew York, moved to its present location m Prospect Park, a suburb o f Ph ila delphia, in 1924. It produces stainless, nickel, Inconel and Monel wire, rod, and strip in a wide variety of sizes. 'J? "J? T h e M cLain Fire Brick Company is an outgrowth of. a concern founded in the early part of this Century. Its six mines aridfpjpnts arc located in Pennsylvania and Ohio, with headquartersltt Pitts burgh. M cLain is the largest producer of " pouring pit11 refractory brick in the United States of America. I t has pioneered in the de velopment of hot tops used on ingot molds in the production of quality steel. W hile most of our divisions have been established for many years, the one-hundred-and-eleven-ycar-old Ladede-Christy Company is our oldest. Its greatest period o f growth was in the late years of the Nineteenth Century when it developed a radically new process in the manufacture of fire brick-- the dry press method. Consid ered impractical by the industry at the time o f discovery, it now is one of tiie most economical means of fire brick manufacture. Ladede-C hristy pioneered in research among refractory manu facturers. In combination with M cLain, we have the third largest refractory business in a fieid o f forty-three. S? %' And that brings us almost up to date. L ast N ovem ber we pur chased T h e Riverside M etal Company, also more than a century old. Actually, this is an instance of the child becoming more promi nent than the parent, for the original concern o f which Riverside is an outgrowth was the Keystone Watch Case Company, now its subsidiary. ' 'Si TJ In 18 5 3, Keystone's James Boss filed patents on his process for making gold-filled watch cases'. Boss felt that watch cases could be both less expensive and more durable. H e combined sheets of metal-- gold and brass-- and stamped watch case parts from them. f r6 J In this way he laid the foundation Riverside-- supplying high-quality, nor ety of uses. An interesting sidelight in t manufacture of pennies and nickels, foi T he rounded pieces of bronze and cup Philadelphia mint where the final im; During the Second W orld W ar, R ive for our military. Riverside is the woi Id phosphor bronze Wire and is a major si alloys. . T $ T h at is the picture of H . K . Porter ( ment. But, before telling you somethi future, it would be amiss for me to let tl a few words about the men who make a l an organization is no better than those most important elements. Tim e docs not the names of a ll key personnel; suffice pointed out earlier this evening, eacli M anagers is an expert in his field and 1 sponsibility for his divisional activities duction and sales. Sim ilarly, wc have a offices in Pittsburgh. I do want to sing officers here tonight: C. R . Dobson, our 1 Frank A. Rehorst, our Secretary; and J.u urcr. These are the men who coonliiuic divisions, and who arc invaluable to out *8? TS , A t this time, I want to say a few words agement. W e are firm believers in de-c head-office staff consists o f less than fort counting and secretarial personnel, even all of our divisions now totals more than N aturally, there arc ceitaiu instances w! various divisions, and in those cases we h [n 1 give you a specific example, certain sales personnel with Leschen also sell the Quaker products in their territory; our export de partments at Q uaker and Watson-Stillman are now operating as a single unit. But, b y and large, we have found that in a diversi fied business de-centralization is the answer. * w* . . ' > ' T h e question frequently is asked c f me: "W hat is your goal?" , otperhaps: " D o you have a definite spot at which you are aim in g ? " T he answer isn' t sim ple. Today, in order to survive, we feel that a company must be relatively big to compete with the giant corporations. In this economic era if you stand still you are actually fallin g back. I f you go ahead slowly you are doing little more than standing still. W ith the tremendous resources in selling, re search, planning, and manufacture o f the very large organizations, smaller companies are faced with only two alternatives: growing, or remaining as they are, which wc feel'cventually means falling behind, if not finally going out o f business. %' T So far, Wc have found that it is easier and less expensive to buy a company and to develop its potential than to start some thing brand new. A s long as this condition continues tu exist we expect to euntimie our acquisitions from time to time. T h e very obviousness of this evidently blinds people to its practicality. T hink uf the tremendous expense and efi'urt, if, fur example, any uf us today wished to Mult a now steel manufacturing concern in B ir mingham, or elsewhere, sim ilar to our Connors StfccI Division. A ctually, our Connors plant in Birmingham docs not occupy a great deal o f space, less than 15 acres. Its research laboratory is Jess than the size of this room. It has some 500 employees. T o start such a cumpany would take considerable time and money m erely to staff its upper echelons. It would take, no doubt, close to two years to build and put into operation such a plant, and then, o f course, customers would have to be developed. [ r8 1 H ow much quicker and usually more chase a concern in a given field and thus neering staff, technical knowledge, plant, X X T h e pattern that our business lias folic A ll of our products are sold to industry garden hose and plastic pipe, which are r industrial rubber business. B y a rough rule of thumb, we have pi equipment, industrial rubber, refractory count for about eighty percent of our sale cent being in the miscellaneous metal fab IB W c feel that Porter is contributing xm when wc inject new life and very nflrn m" established concern, Because of the diflicul tal for improvement or expansion in a su corn, combining with a stronger concei 11 about the only available solution for the c of the company. X W e do not think it is unusual that we n variety of products. W e feel it actually nd< pany. When one division or line of proi price wars, overproduction, or lessened d< and consequently has no earnings, other i very well. In an economy based on high o division is presently more than 50 percent eral T ax laws. The banding together of 0 ' i 19 I U!lrd3 t o n J ? F 1 d' S 3,lfefi for employees, but also for our cus tomers as well as our stockholders. you lor ;lttc,'tion, M r. Moore for 0 $ l x Pl''nr<,sc, 'vKu matlu!tposti%foi 'T n r . E nd Acton,,,, M e,,,ores si,,,,,/. affectanms A xe,,,a!" [ 2C j T his N ewcomen A ddress, dealing i contributions of H . K . P or ter C c delivered at a National Newcomen D comen Society in North America, h N .Y ., U.S.A., on A pril o r, j 9 5 5 . M i of honor, was introduced by G eoroe th e Vice-President, The First Nation,, York; M em ber of the Ncio York Cot can Newcomen, The dinner uias pre Senior Vic e -P resident for N oi in this international Sac ' 1? g I 21 1 " D uring H en ry Kirke Porter's entire business career the Company, under the name of Porter & IJell, manufac tured steam switching locumoiives used in factories, mills and mines, anil, incidentally, even to haul the old `e l' trains here in New Y o rk . The original plant capac ity was fifteen to twenty-live locomotives a year." -- T homas M ellon E vans $? % I 21 ] economy when we inject new life ; capital into an old and established the difliculties in nosing new capital expansion in a smaller, closely licit! with a sponger concern is often the I only available solution for the contii of the company." -- T uom 1? E 23 I A merican N ewcomen, mteresied always in industrial and economic history and in the contributions made by leaders in fields promoting America's material progress, takes 'satisfaction in this highly informative, consistently human, and altogether satisfying Newcomen manuscript. American Industry and American leadership, from early days, have gone forward as a result of brilliant initiative', tare courage, and mallowed judgment-- whatever the enterprise. Such is the corporate life-stoty you have read! OJ a i =4 J TH E NEWCOMEN in Nosth Auu MoYnorrkt,htahnen30deaynearosf aAgmo,ersihceanhureu.tlIr uow kuovm as "American Newcastle tory, as distinguished front political history'. I growth, dtodopmeni, contributions, and wfh Communication, the Utilities, Mining, Agricut, Insurance, Education, invention, and the La\ fields. In short, the background of those fecit contributing to the progress of Mankind, The Newcomen Society in Norsk Avteric, headquarters in Utachlan Township, Chester countryside of Eastern Pennsylvania and 32 miU Here also ls located The Thornes Ncivcotuas i tfeonrsiroens.earch and dealing with the subjects t Meetings are held throughout the United Hie eTthewsheicmhaNneuwsccroipmtsenreApdredsreenssteas abrreoapdremsienctoevdetbay involved, both American and Cninuiidn. inteTrhpereatepdprtoharcohugihn vthsoeiiamcabseitsiohuass, lt>h<e,ensnaeelrifien-' taiccshsileavreemnetnetrsproisfe.those pioneers whose cfjotti h The Society's frame perpetuates the life an, (1663-1729), the British pioneer, whose valt/abt to the newly invented Steam Engine brought is ttohe1M7e7c5h,apnaicveAdrtsa, Twhaye Nfoerwctohme eInndEunsgtriniaels,Rwehv genius preceded by mare than SO years the brillsa famous lamer Watt. `S? ^ MbyemthbeerDsaorftmAovuttehricNastwt NceeswuceonmAenss,ociuiabteionn lTahnodm, awshNertewothsi$icnfesatitvaDl arotfmo''uNtehwcinastSlea, each year <su the anniversary, Aagnii