The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1918-07-29


trials were particularly popular just
Governors OF the Stock Exchange Of
was satisfactory as to the former and I
The new common stock particularly
was actively traded in from the beginning
with an opening quotation of 1O1. That
vas in November. 1911. The company S
report for 1911 showed net earnings of
more than eight per cent on the OUT
standing common stock for the year after
taking care Of the preferred, and sur
plus of close to threc-1uar:ers OF mil
lion dollars. The private banking houses
of William Solomon & Co and Hallgarten
4 Co., who underworld the ten million
dollar note issue Of 1912. had every rea.
son for confidence in these securities.
Business Steadily Expands.
In the meantime the company's husi-
ness expanded and expanded. To facili-
tate the handling of added lines of asri-
cultural implements and to separate the
distributing end from the manufacturing
there was formed during 1912 the Rumely
Products Company, with Leo NJ. Rumely.
u
dent. During the year also the NJ. Rumely
Company acquired the Northwest Thresher
Company.
Before the end Of 1912, however, ru-
mors began to circulate in financial cir
Clcs that all was not well with the NJ.
Rumely Company. Perhaps some one il
tcrested had seen those rows of red
threshing machines and tractors along
side the railroad tracks at La Porte and
wondered why they were not being
moved. Perhaps-well, it is hardly inn
portant to run down ancient rumor, but
whatever the cause, investors in Rumely
stock began to get nervous and toward
the end of the year selling wave began
that carried the common stock down fit
ty-eight points in less than five months.
On April 3. 1913, however, the COM
panys annual report for 1912 was issued
md the common stock jumped from 3SE
on the Stock Exchange to 44H. The re-
port showed net profits Of the three al
lied companies for 1912 of Sl,So4 800, or
Mt the rate of better than ten per cent on
the outstanding common stock. Inc
gross sales for the year, of SIT 40 l.
were more than forty per cent greater
than in the previous year, while the com
pany's figures showed a surplus of al
most 100000. Still the reports that all
was not well with the NJ. Rumely Com
pany persisted and stockholders contin'
ned to sell Certain of them went so far
as TO complain to the Governors OF the
Stock Exchange that the facts about the
company had been misrepresented to
them by the bankers who had floated the
original issue.
The bankers had not been idle in the
face of the unsatisfactory rumors, and on
Nav 9, 1913, they were able to report
that the board Of doctors of the Nj
Rumely Company had been completely re-
organized, that Clarence S. Funk, pre-
viously general manager OF the Inter
national Harvester Corporation, had been
elected president: that John II. Guy had
been elected vice president in charge OF
finances and that all Of the former ex'
ecutives of the company. including Cen
cra Manager Edward A. Rumely end
his uncle, A. J. Rumely. president had
rendered their designations, which had
been accepted.
REORGANIZATION Does Not Save It,
The reorganization did not save the
NJ Rumcly Company from bankruptcy
even though production was cut down
and the selling force increased under the
new mana gement. On January 10. 1918
Finley =. Mount was appointed receiver
and later, with the sanction of the Court
sold the remaining assets to the Ad
vance-Rumely Company, of which he is
president and which is doing large and
profitable business. The rcceivershiI
still continues. With Or. Rumely out OF
the management and the Rumely inter
est in the company that bears the fam
ily name entirely wiped out, the affair:
of the agricultural implement bushes:
have no further bearing on the present
narrative. 1t is of interest. however, t.
inquire into the nature of the mistakes
TO which the bankers attributed thu
crash.
have referred to Or. Rumely as al
enthusiast. He is all of that. When h
becomes possessed of new idea nothin;
will suit him but to see it put into exc
cution at once ! have referred to tn
nctivity and scope of his mental proc
esses. He fairly bubbles with new ideas
The kindest and at the same time tn
fairest explanation, I believe, of the de
mise of the NJ. Rumely Company is tina
DR.. Rumely choked it to death by tryin
TO force too many new ideas down it
throat at one time. They may all hav
been good ideas and if they had bee
administered in homeopathic doses per
haps the NJ. Rumely Company nigh
have developed such an appetite 70