University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1914-05-05

side the door of his private Office. Sc
I'm to tell you all about my business
Perhaps | will and perhaps | won t
Well. anyway | should be able to tel
you something interesting \ mans
business always seems interesting Il
himself. you know
The speaker was }. p. FIetzler of the
Hetzler Brothers Packing Company
He was sitting upon his desk with his
hands clasped over his knee
The visitor sat down. lie waited
But the man seemed unable To go any
farther
Well. talk. Say something" said
the visitor.
What do you want me to say? How
do | know what YOU want to know -
said the man to be Interviewed
Say something about your business
Anything out Of the ordinary" said the
visitor. 1t seemed a poor way To get a
man To talk but it started him of -
and that was all that was needed.
Hams, sausage, bacon, lard those
are the things that 90 to make up my
life work. Is there anything out of the
ordinary in that he began. Il want
to make all OF my products better than
anybOdy's. When | have done that |
feel that | have done more than the
men yon read about in the books.
Il started in business in 1899. O. T.
RAIDER and |. Two years later my
brother, W. J. fietzler. came here and
bought cut Mr. RAIDER. This was the
1t was a small beginning. We had
1.S00 feet of floor space. refrigerator,
some knives and couple of meat
blocks. We made our deliveries with
an old sway-backed mare and a knock
kneed pony.
Soon after my brother came here |
We bought a 60-acre farm a couple of |
miles west of here Oh which to build |
our slaughter house. My brother and |
| did all the work then and it sure |
was work We tended To the business
of the market during the day and did |
our slaughtering at night. 1t always
took us until IL or II O'Clock to get
through. We took turn about getting
mp and in that way We averaged five
hours sleep one night and seven the
next W. continued this about two
years Then We hired men To help us.
1t was along in 1904 when We put
m our cold STORAGE plant and began
4 small ice machine and put il in the
neat market Then We added another
ce box. That gave us about 100
.ubic feet of cold storage space. The
experiment. with the hams proved Il
success and it was not many years
lntil we had to build new storage
liant This led us into the ice bust
less.
Every new venture We made meant
allure. according To those on the out
ide of the business. We We're busted
nd were getting reckless, Were max
ng the business a sort OF gamble. |
ften thought the same thing myself
4 the early days of the business.
here were times when the trace We're
tretched so tight that they sounded
Ike fiddle strings. But eighteen hours
ork daily and lots of determination
rought us through the difficulties.
We started work on our present ice
15-ton ice tank at first. Two years
ter a 30-tOn tank. OF course We had
enlarge the building and engine ca
icity as We added the ice machines.
q now have a boiler capacity of 450
lrse power Everything We have in
ir plant is in duplicate or tripliCate.
e have two ice machines. two water
orks systems city and private, two
pctric lighting systems, several en-
neS and the like.
The water for our ice comes from
% S-inch wells about 500 feet deep.
e are having IA 12-inch well drilled Y
w of the same depth. These wells -
III produce half a million gallons -
enough to supply the whole
y When the plant is running full
pacity We use about 20u,oOo gallons |
lily. Last summer we were unable
use one of our wells for a couple
weeks so We got part of our water
I'M the city Our water bill for that
,nth was $500.
The engine at the ice plant is start
in the spring and runs all summer.
en- without a stop. The machines
Mt stop long when we are making
and by the way We make lots OF -
;. We have a plant that can supply =
'ity of $4,000 inhabitants. Last sum n
r when all the other towns We're
Drt of ice. We Were supplying CO.
nbia and shipping out a carload
ly We sold some ice near Kansas