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166 THE CHAMELEON vcntion room on the 6th floor. Our President, Mr. Walter H. Cottinghain, called the meeting to order, and it was some time before the applause died down sufficiently for Mr; F. E. Davis, to read the roll call. The list was a long one and was interesting because of the fact that it included men ol over 25 and 30 years in the service as well as the recruits of later years. > The opening address of Mr. Cottingham follows: Gentlemen: It is three years ago exactly, this very week, since we held our last united Convention of our entire selling organization, and I ant sure it is not neces sary to remind you this morning of the very distressing and depressing business conditions which existed through* out the country at that time. I am sure you must all remember as well as I do that it was that very week that the terrible panic of 1907 swept across the country^ leav ing behind it a trail of financial disaster and industrial wreckage that has never been equaled before. Those were the conditions under which we met, and we went through that week, held our meetings, carried out the program day after day with as much interest and as much enthusiasm as I have ever seen displayed in our organiza tion, and I have often thought that it was a splendid illus(ration of the spirit of our concern that we could go 111 rough conditions of that kind with such enthusiasm and with such interest and with the splendid results which followed later. After the meeting, which wound tip as usual with a banquet on Friday night, on Saturday morning the Managers met in my room at the Chicago Beach Hotel and we discussed the general condititin that existed throughout the country, and we felt that it would be unwise to. ask you gentlemen to^take up the work on the territories under the.eonditi.wt*Jl--xM'^'TM* *"* So, instead, we asked you to retire to your homes, and there, you wiH.reinernber, vou rested untulliiiRlv and re llrs*l>, no dnubt, Cor two montM Alter that time was over we sent you instructions to take up your work again, and perhaps some of von mav renirmt er st that time I sent out a bulletin entitled, "Marching Orders" and l want to tell you this morning that nothing has ever happened in mybusiness career that gave me so much pleasure, and- tncourage-'ci me so rnmh as the splendid responses we received from that: bulletin Every letter I received, and I think I heard from a majorily^oMhe* men. although the bulletin did not call for an answer, was full of the fighting spirit, full ol determination to do the very best, and I want, the first thing this morning, on behalf ol the Company, to thank you tor the loyal, faithful and successful service which you rendered atvfhat time,. . . , I certainly shall never forget the receipt of all those letters which did me and the officers of the Company o much good tn increasing out confidence in our ability to go llnough that time Those letters were not put away in the ordinary files of the Company, but they are secure in a private drawer in my THE CHAMELEON safe and I will always keep them as a record of the fine spiri of this fighting organization of ours. 1 do not think anything ever happened that did this Comp good as did that panic of 1907, because there were lots ol people say, and I think we all used to heir it, that The Sherwin-Willia "**,.*. gr**` or**"uat,an in days ol prosperity, that we could d conditions were right, but it would be different when conditions w able and when trouble came with a load such as we were carrying Well, many of lit felt that when conditions were against mettle of our organization would be shown and we would itand we went through that panic and came out with high credit and gr than ever we enjoyed in days of prosperity. , I believe we not only helped our own concern, but I believe tha asm and optimism which was ahown by our organization and th we made helped to better the general conditions throughout because we are a national concern and that is one of the gratify connection with the good results which we accomplished at that t This morning we meet under very different conditions. Prosp out the country is general and the outlook for our business an general, is excellent. I would not say it was never bc\ter, but cer good now as ever I have sten it, so 1 think we can congratulate ou change that has taken place within the. last three years. I thought it would interest you this morning to know somet we have accomplished since our last united meeting of three year The year immediately following the panic was a difficult year ness, and yet we went out in that year and in the Trade Sales De only department we could influence by special effort and ability, we three-tenths ol 1 per cent of the biggest turn-over we had ever ha year, and that was an accomplishment I think we can all be prou We did not make any great advance in any of the departm business the year of the panic, as it would not have been wise so under the conditions during that rear, so that in the past tw of the additions and improvements that we have made to ou facilities have taken place, and 1 want to refer to the things t done during the last two years. Now, most concerns, it seems of them at least--were so scared by the panic of 1907 that they obtained a sufficient amount of courage and enterprise to go ahea Arriving at Kensington. 0007-SWP 168 THE CHAMELEON before; but, as is usual with us, we went ahead with a full head of steam and in the last two years we have added to our facilities as follows; . We have opened new branch houses at Houston, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Spokane, Washington; New Orleans, Louisiana; Victoria, British Columbia, and Svdney, Australia. The latter is a full-fledged branch house in far away Australia, connected with our British organization. We have organized a new district known as the Mississippi Valley District, with headquarters at St. Louis, dividing the large Western District in two. . We have taken a very important step, and one that is quite radical for our organization, by entering the white lead business, and we now have a fully equipped corroding plant at Pullman which we hope to have the pleasure of showing you tomorrow We have invaded the enemy's camp and we have changed the slogan, "Good-bye, Lead and Oil," to "Good Day, Lead and Oil." We feel we have dignified the white lead business hy thil recognition of that industry. But we have no idea of makmg.it the important factor in our concern. Our primary object in entering the white lead business was to continue our policy to manufacture all our own raw materials, and. in making the lead for ourselves we decided to make a little surplus, because we know that you Imys would not be satisfied if you did not have a little surplus to offer the trad*. We have established and erected a lead and zinc concentrating plant at our mines out in New Mexico. We now not only take the ore from the ground, bm also separate it in our own concentrat.ng plant We mine the ore, we put it through our own concentrating works, then it is sent to ot>" smelters at Coffeyville, where we produce the zinc oxide. Then it is sent to our paint factories and made into paint, and then to our dealers, to ..be sold to the consumer, and by the consumer it is put on his bouse, so that we have the chain low complete, from the ground to the finished product on the house We have also, during the last two years, established what we call an Insecticide and Dry Color Department, which promises to be one of the important departments of the business. I know our aggressive Manager, Mr. H. M. Ashby, has dreams of its becoming the most important part of the Company's business and that the paint business will be a side issue afjer awhile. We are death on bugs and all other things that destroy the prosperity of the country. ... _ , ,, v , .. , We have established an Automobile anil Carnage Sales Department, wptch used to lie the old Manufacturers' Sales Department, and we hay* come into our own again, I believe, in the carriage trade and the automobile:trade, and are making good headway there. *\ THE CHAMELEON We have alto established an Insulating Varnish S which we are making good progress. We have also established another very important exerting a wide influence on the growth of our busines great believer in--the Decorative Department, which you anlJ w* bope 1 Rive you more particulars of it w We have also established a Dry Color Works and I at Newark. All our paint and varnish plants have been enlarge years. We have also acquired new land in Newark, Montre Oil Works at Cleveland and many of onr old establish enlarged. . The London Plant has been practically rebuilt d years, and I am pleased to tell you that we have with u W. Garson, Managing Director of our London business, w in building up that one-hundred-aud-fifty-year-old conce progressive branches of our widespread organization. We have made substantial headway in the Expor sorry it has not been possible to have our export men the first export man that we sent out in the foreign field here, iiut he cannot arrive in time, having been delayed on We have taken another very important step within the the Detroit White Lead Works. We are now the ow and we expect to develop a second Sherwiri-Williants conc These have been two very busy years, and yet they ha years, for I know of nothing that is so satisfying and s sound progress Such as we are doing in our Company tod I want to tell you this morning something of our t do. We are now doing a total turn-over in all of auxiliaries of over fourteen millions of dollars. That business for a paint business. , The other evening I was at dinner with some of ou agers and I asked them to list six of the largest conce the paint and varnish business and estimate what they of these six concerns would lie. When they had done th did not amount to fourteen millions of dollars, so whe largest paint and 'varnish manufacturers in the world, or Marching to the Chicago Plant. Escorted by Little Paint Men 0007 170 THE CHAMELEON ' (wo or three or four or five, we are still stating it, and we want to do so conservatively, and we are not through with the. turnover yet. The gain for the last two years has been over four millions of dollars for all of our departments. The gain for I he last year has been over two millions. We are now operating thirty-two branch houses, six paint factories-- one at Cleveland, one at Chicago, one at Newark, one at Montreal, one at London, Eng., and one at Detroit--six varnish works, four dry color works, two linseed oil plants, one white lead works and one lead and zinc concentrating plant, four tin can plants and twenty or more mining claims, and with it all we are no trust. We have developed these industries and built up these different concerns with Sherwin-Wiiliams people and we take great pleasure in the work. 1 wiint now to congratulate you gentlemen on these results, because you have done a very large share of the work in producing them. The sales department has been very much of a factor in this development, for unless you gentlemen had done your work well and frown with the organization we could not have produced such an.array of facilities as I have just mentioned to you. .... . . _ . ' I presume it is expected of me this morning to say something about the present conditions that exist in the paint trade, but I really cannot say anything especially new to you, and I do not believe it is very, necessary. You all know my views as they have hern expressed recrntly in the bulletin, "The Fight is On," and I have not changed them since. I must tell you a little.incident in connection with that bulletin, "The Fight is On." One of our Manager's stenographers, in acknowledging the bulletin, overworked the word "Fight" and put in an "x," making it read "The Fright is On." There may have been a-fright on somewhere else, but there is no fright on in this concern. The conditions of the country are a|l right, and while some people seem to be very cautious in the trade, in view of the shock we had three years ago, there is nothing similar in the conditions today as compared with what they were then. At that time business had practically stopped, there was no money, no building, no active operations going on throughout the country; but when you let your mind dwell on the present conditions, you will note that we;never have had any greater activity in business and in building.and in trade generally, and the fact that paints and varnishes are a little higher in price need not disturb anybody. The man who is going to build a house would not think, I am sure, of slopping that building on account of the small extra cost ,of the paint and varnish he would have to buy. There are many other things on which prices have gone up far more than paint and varnish. For instance, hardware and other building materials. And, when you stop to think, the paint trade has been very slow in putting up prices. We are about the .last people to come up: Under the conditions as they exist today, prices of paints and varnishes are not high enough and will have o go higher if present puces of raw materials are maintained. ............ \.................... It is mi opinion that prnrs for paints and varnishes are likelv to lie on * higher plane permanently for some time. We are, of course, hopeful that raw material markets tnav decline sufficiently to bring down price* somewhat but I do not think wr ran lo ik for very much decline and we will Cirtainle not get back to the low pure* that prevailed a year or two ago, for a long time to (nine We must reniemler that the consumption of linseed nil and other materials is increasing constantly, and. the production ofi ffaxseed; from which linseed oil is made, is not increasing. The important thing for us to do and get our agents to do is to settle down and accept present, conditions and go to work to increase the business to the greatest extent possible The "put off" or "wailing" policy will lose us and our agents business, as I do not think we or they can buy to any greater advantage.iaterjon.: . :^ We greatly regret the present prices, as we think it unfortunate for the paint industry, as very likely the consumption of paint will he curtailed. How ever, we feel ven rcmlident that bv putting forth special efforts in the sales and advertising departments of our business we cannot only keep up our turn-over. THE CHAMELEON but increase it. We are going right ahead ourselves i materials and are getting ready to do a larger busines you will^he successful in getting your agents to do the s If the present price of flaxseed holds and the pres holds, we have got to get more for paint. That is a that we are here this morning. I want to refer to our Convention plans how for a different from any Convention we have ever held b anxious to hold one of these big Conventions again, thought that they were getting too big and that we cou plish very much on that account, and yet we felt that w all together again, I was very much interested not lo of our old Representatives--in fact, more than one--sta a little bit lonely for one of these united Conventions o organization. I was interested because that sentime chord in my own heart We |iave wanted to see you ail proposition with you freely and learn from you of the a road as you meet them. There is nothing that increases my confidence so mu hearing your discussions and seeing the fighting blqod in every one of your faces. ^'s Then we decided that it might be possible to ho and at the same time hold our district meetings. T impossible for us to discuss in a big meeting, and it w you are not all interested in the same things, and then th which you have to contend with in the different dist The Ortrm Corps and Escort 0007-S '. . 172 THE CHAMELEON , interest Ilie enure organization. So we decided to try, as an experiment, to hold this large meeting ami then divide up later into district meetings, and I hope the plan will work out well, because nothing would please me more than to have one of these big conventions every year, and if this plan works out well f am sure that will be decided upon. We have made very careful preparations for this Convention, as we alwajs do, and the men in the Advertising and Decorative Departments have prepared what I think are the finest exhibits that I ever have seen of our products, which you will find upstairs, and we want you gentlemen to visit those exhibits frequently. We intend to have the heads of the departments there to explajn those exhibits to you You can get an immense amount of knowledge in tracing through the methods of producing the raw materials such as lead, zinc and linseed oil, as well as the finished products there, and you will be over looking a very important part of this Convention, one of the things that will help you with your work, it you don't make the most of these exhibits. We want you to go through them frequently and see the Managers in charge and get them to explain exactly how the work is done. Now, 1 am down on the program to give you an address of welcome, and I have been talking all this time without saying a word of welcome, but to tell you the truth it always seems to me it is a very formal matter to say vou are welcome, because vou are more than welcome, you are ten thousand times welcome. We are mighty glad to see you all again and are encouraged with the news you bring from all the territories. I am particularly pleased to see so many of the older men here whom I have met in the past and know well--men who have continued, to be^herr. year after vear, which is always a good sign. Among those are David Fisher, Charley Wheeler, Judge Ballard, Bob Johnson and others I could name, and I am sure it will be a matter of inspiration to you to meet those men and see the continued interest they take in their work. They look to me younger and fresher than ever We are glad to see the younger men, too, and I want to welcome them especially and hope we will see them here year after year. Nothing pleases me more than to see the same men continue in the organ ization. We are alw-.ivs looking for good men and anxious to retain them and have them grow in prosperity and happiness as the business grows. THE CHAMELEON v Address of Mr. H. A. Sherw Mr. Cottingham next introduced the Chairman Directors as follows: Mr. Waller H. Cottingham--I am very glad, ge with us this morning Mr. H. A. Sherwin' who is ever and as much interested and just as keen in watc ment of the business as he ever was. Mr. Sherwin, Mr. H. A. Sherwin--I am very glad to today and give you the "glad hand". Re stockholders, rather than the managing off behalf I wish to congratulate all of you wh way assisted in the growth ahd success of since we met here in Chicago three years ag Speaking of stockholders, I am pleased very large majority of the stock of the Com sented right here by those of us who are in i I would not limit my congratulations larger business alone, but quite as much f you Managers, Superintendents and Repres taken in strengthening our organization a more invincible, so that as time goes on we our stock is an excellent permanent investm The quality of our organization, as well, as its size connected with it, so as from time to time some drop management of the Company as a whole is not changed. T recognize as a valuable asset of the Company. They hav Thraa Attractive Displays. 0007-SWP