The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-07-23

longer the chief product Of the oil re-
finer. but now an incidental by-prod"ce
to the manufacture Of sasolene, WIS
cheap and getting cheaper. He con-
vinced the other members OF his fam
ling owners of the Rumely Company. tnat
fortune lay within their grasp It to
could develop kerosene engine and;
tractor operated by 1t.
Kerosene Engine Developed.
The first kerosene tractor built In tie
Rumely plant was IN object Of tho
greatest interest and curiosity to every
one connected with the concern. 1t was
affectionately nicknamcd kerosene An
ME-" and great was the speculation in
the shops and the offices as to whether
Kerosene Annie would really work. At
last the tractor was finished-and il
worked. Under DR.. Rumely's manage
ment for he had now been made general
manager Of the II. Rumely Company.
the organization at once entered upon a
career Of tremendous expansion. When
the development work on kerosene An
ME was completed in 1910 the busineks
represented perhaps $1,000 900 of inySR
ment
In . statement signed By DR.. Z. A.
Rumely, general manager, issued in Janu-
AIRY, 1912. he pointed out that in fifteen
months a million dollar plant had been
CONSTRUCTED for the manufacture Of tho
new OiI-Pul Tractor, which was tho
name By which kerosene Annie" had
been officially christened; that the conf
pany's stock had been increased to ten
million dollars Of common stock and
twelve million preferred; that the agri-
cultural implement businesses of Gaar,
Scott & Co., Of Richmond, Ind, and the
Advance Thresher Company, of Battle
Greek, Mich, had been acquired and alb
sorbed. and that nothing but prosperity
lay ahead. There was. apparently, ample
ground to justify this optimism.
The Oil-Pul Tractor had made q big
hit from The start. Dr. Rumely had
spent huge sums in advertising it to the
farmers and it was proving its superior
efficiency wherever tractor trials and
ploughing contests were held. The new
plant was . model factory in every sense
Of the word. went through 1t soon after
it was in full operation. ! had seen many
big manufacturing plants, but never be-
fore one In which every process seemed to
be 20 nearly automatic.
"What did you think Of the new plant?'
DR.. Rumely asked me after I had In
spected it.
Nobody Worked Hard At Plant.
1T is the first plant ever saw where
the men sat in rocking chairs and let the
machines do the work." replied. '"Ths
only men I saw doing any work were
some fellows out in the shed chipping
castinys" 4 s
We're putting in pneumatic machine
to do that ALSO" replied DR.. Rumely.
Other manufacturers came to see the
new plant and to study the methods by
which the business of the NJ. Rumely
Company had multiplied so rapidly. On,
Of these visitors was Henry Ford, the
manufacturer whose gigantic
success has been built on the application
Of the soundest methods Of quantity pro-
duction. Mr.. Ford took a liking to tho
enthusiastic young general manager Of tho
Rumeiy Company, but he shook his head
after he had looked into the general
scheme Of the business.
"You are making too many different
things" he told DR.. Rumely. Besides,
your tractor is too expensive. There arc
not enough farmers who can use or az
ford to pay for tractors that cost from
81 500 to 5000 each. What you want
TO do is to make one design Of cheap
tractor and reach the broader market"
MIR. Ford's Foreeast Fulfilled.
"He wanted me to lend him $lO,O0o.-
OOO," Mr.. Ford told me recently. but
] didn't believe his methods were sound.
and did not let him have it. He sid
that if I did not lend it to him hs.coulc
set it in Wall street told him il be
did that it would not be long before
Wall street owned his business, and that
is exactly what happened"
The first time I ever met Edward A.
Rumely was the day he got back from his
successful visit to Wall street in search
of additional working capital had
stopped off at Laporte on my way Vest
with a letter Of introduction to him. In
June 1912. He got in on the next train
and we had hardly shaken hands before :.
he began to tell me about the wonderful
piece of financing ho had just put through
for the Rumely Company.
II have just placed two billion dollars
back of the Rumely Company he ex.
claimed. II have got the backing OF the
United States Steel Corporation and the
Standard Oil"'
He showed me documents in which
New York private bankers agreed to dis
count ten million dollars Of the Rumcly
Company notes, secured by the deposit Of
farmers notes to the RumeIy Company.
He was as Say and ebullient rs q school.
boy. His troubles were over! There
were unlimited millions yet svailabls
where these had come from ard the
Rumtay Company, with the Oil-Pull Trae-
tor was going to show the International
Harvester Company just where to head
in!
In the next instalment Mr.
Stockbricge will tell the story Of
the Rumeiy Company's financial