The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-04-26
BUICK, RICHES GONE, Tolls ON

BY BRUCE CATION
NEA Service Writer


IDETROIT, April 26.-David Buick,
- the man who founded the
Buick Motor Company, is living in
Detroit in obscurity and COMPARE
tive poverty.
His signature appears on the
highways of every country on earth,
cleaning on the radiators of more
than 100000 automobiles-but he
cannot afford to own an auto HIM
self
Nearly IA years old, he is earning
a meager living as an instructor i'll
the Detroit Schools of Trades. He
teaches men the mysteries Of in
ternal combustion engines; some Of
the men he has trained are, perhaps,
working as mechanics in the mighty
Buick factories.
He gets down to the shop early
and stays late; and he says, I've
got to keep on working-or starve."
n n
IN all the collection of strange
L tales that are told in Detroit,
the automobile capital, there is no
tale so strange as the tale of David
Buick.
Finding him is a hard job He
can't afford a telephone, so his name
isn't in the directory.
Yet this man, whose name is
world famous, but whose purse is
thin, is neither discouraged MOI IN
happy. His hair is gray, his body is
slight, his face is deeply lined; but
his eyes, that have seen the COM
pany he founded go on to greatness
without him, are bright and cheer
full He does not seem defeated.
Defeated? Sitting in the dingy
anteroom of the trade school talk
ing to this man, listening to HIM tell
the story of his rise and his fall,
hearing his own admission that the
stock he once held would, if he
owned it today, make him worth
many, many, many millions Of
dollars"-I soon lost the feeling of
pity with which entered.
The giants Of the automobile
world are true giants, that cannot
be crushed; and David Buick, if
you please, is one Of them.
dorm in Scotland and brought to
- this country when a baby,
David Buick grew up in Detroit,
learned his trade, and as he entered
middle life became a moderately
prosperous maker of bathroom and
plumbers supplies and fittings.
He had a small factory outside
the town, and it was in 1895 that he
first turned his mind to the automo-
bile.
Buick applied himself, and pres
emily developed a valve-in-head mo-
tor. There followed several years
of experimentation. BY 1900. Buick
was convinced that there would be
more money in making automobiles
than in keeping on with his old
business.
So he sold out, drove his car to
Flint and aroused the interest of w
c. Durant. Between them, the two
organized the Buick Motor Com
pany, in 1903.
Those were busy days that fol-
lowed" said Buick. For seven
years I didn't have a Sunday or a
holiday off-not even Christmases or
Fourth of July"
90 FAR his story is like the other
- stories Detroit tells. But IN
1910 came disaster. David Bucks
health gave way and he was COM
PEELED to give up work and go to
California.
Il had a good block of STOCK" he
said. THE directors held a meeting
the day 1 left. 1 was told that
they'd voted to pay me my salary
the rest of my life. But they only
paid it for three years. After that 1
never got a cent"
Then, faced by hard times, David
Buick sold his stock. He never did
find out the exact truth about his
salary. Durant was forced out by
financial troubles shortly after
Buick quit.
He doesn't feel that he has been
cheated or dealt with unjustly
"Just the breaks of the game" he
said calmly. But that stock l had
well, today it's worth many, many,
many millions of dollars.
Its all right, though, y said David
Buick softly. Its all right. Get
that. I'm not feeling sorry for my
self. Why should I? I've got to keep
working, of course. I haven't got a
thing but this job; but I'm not
worrying I can take care Of my