The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-26
Romance of Business
 Highlights Swift Co.
w. H. McGinn, Local Manager, Lions Clubs Guest
 Speaker, Traces Development of Great Industry

to its present position in the in- dustrial world reveals how great was the need and opportunity and how effectively the young man from Cape Cod met 1t.
 The company was incorporated in Illinois in 1885 with six sharehold- CTS and capital of s30O,OOO. Its only packing plant was at Chicago but it had several eastern alliances with distributing firms.
 Today, just Q half century later, it has 50 packing plants, in every section of America and Canada, 10 produce plants, 18 oil mills, nine re- flneries, 10 fertilizer plants, and some 400 branch selling houses. Tn addition, thousands of refrigerator cars operate over more than i,000 car routes, serving smaller cities and helping to bridge the 9OO-inile aver- age gap between live stock produc- CTS in the west and consumers in the east.
 The six original shareholders are now nearly 66,0O0, of whom more than 10000 are women, and the capitalization is e150,000,000. More than 55,00O men and women are erl- pIoyed in plants and offices. Total sales last year were S610,00O, 900, on which the net profit from all sources was only Q small fraction of Q cent per pound of product sold.
 300 Competitors
 Economies of the meat packing industry, under which Swift & Com pany operates, differ from most other industries in that the perish- ability of the product and the daily competition with more than 900 other packing companies in all parts of the United States force each company to buy at the market and sell Its finished product at the mar- ket. No packing company can f1g- ure it's costs and then add 8 certain arnount for profit. Profits are de- rived by reducing expenses to Q point where the market prices paid and received will leave Q profit. Over a long period of years this has aver- aged less than two cents per dollar of sales-one of the lowest profit margins in all industry.
 In this group of figures lies the real tribute to c. F. Swift, the founder. He died in 1903 ct the age of GA, a champion performer in Q hard working pioneer era. He had, before his death, the infinite satis- faction of achieving through his company his ideal of service.
 He had established a business with all the advantages of national or. ganization, yet primarily local in character. Wherever the company has established @ branch plant or selling agency 1t has brought to the farmers of the district world wide market for quality products at prices determined by the broadest possible demand.
 Because of the broad character of it's distrihutive system the coI11- pany has been able to pay better prices, employ more persons, con- tribute more in taxes and sell at lower prices than would otherwise have been possible.
 American Ideals
 Swift & Company, in summation, was founded on American ideals, developed an efficiency known only to American business, and stands to- day as Q typical example of Amer ican industry at it's best
 The business continues to be op. erated by members of the inmedi- ate Swift family. Seven sons of the founder all entered the company. Of these, one has retired, two have died. The four remaining include Charles H., chairman of the board; Gustavus F., president and director; George IT., director, and Harold H., director and vice-president. Two sons of l.. F. Swift, retired president and board chairman, are Alden B., di- rector and vice-president, and Louis F., Jr., of the Chicago office.