Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-10-16
SKoWAECAN
aRnquet to President w. M.
y Wood of the American
Wooden Co., a Most
Pleasing Occasion
STRANGE AUTO ACCT
ESCAPES

5eTilliam NJ. Wood, president of the
,ierican Wooden Co., was rendered
reception and banquet here Thurs
ny evening by the Skowhegan Board
rHTrade. He delivered an address fol-
aiing the banquet that will be of in
ptest to the whole country. 1t was
tcctly on the wooden business. He
IKE a good word concerning Show
ran and thanked the people in their
aPperation in exempting the COM
my from taxation on the new acqui-
8cions Of the company. He said the
ills of the American Wooden Co. in
pkowhegan have always been success
Al. He started his address with this
emark: You all know the hard time
which the industries of the country
dave had to battle with since the death
bf William Mckinley, whose admins
tration stands out prominently as
showing what can be done when a
business man is at the helm. His ad-
fninistration was enthusiastically a
business administration. During that
fperiod the industrial strength of the
tcountry Increased as 1t never had
Idone before and never has done since
when the administration had been in
1.-THE hands of other than business men
tthe industrial strength of America has
ALWAYS suffered He continued:
Standpatism' has been made a term
of derision, but to me it means let
well enough alone. believe that we
certainly were doing we'll enough be-
fore we changed to the new and un-
tried policies. If standpatism' is old
fashioned then according to my hum
BILE views the sooner we get back to
lold-fashioned ideas the better"
In speaking of big business he said
The United States is a big country
and its affairs have got to be carried
on in way commensurate with that
size. We have big men in this country
and they need to work in a big way
and with big tools. Wherever they
have had chance to show what they
can do 1t has been reflected in the
great advancement that has been
made. When these men are thwarted,
and when their great plans are thrown
down we get a setback and that is
partially what we have been suffering
from. Big business is the natural ev-
olution from no business and small
business.
The question has often been raised
success of the individual and of the
ommunity-whether the opportunities
of the individual have been lessened,
and whether young man now enter
ing business life has less opportunity
for advancement than he had in the
days when the mills We're private
plants. I can speak with confidence
from my own experience. and I am
firmly of the opinion that the large
corporation offers more opportunities
to the young man than he ever had be-
fore. Big business is a great thing
for the people at large. 1t means pro-
duetien on more economical basis
price to the consumer. Never was oil
50 cheap as when chiefly produced by
that great corporation, the Standard
Oil. Never was cloth SO cheap as when
produced by the American Wooden Co
Never were rubber goods so cheap as
when produced by the United States
Rubber Co, and so on ad infinitum-
We forget all this when we criticise
big corporations. All of the big cor
porations are paying more wages to-
day than they We're paying Is or IS
years ago when they came into exist
ence. The American Wooden Co. has
paid and is paying the highest wages
ever known in the wooden industry of
the world.
THE American Wooden Co. is not
monopoly declares Mr.. Wood. "Of the