The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-04-03

lively good friend Of 4aD0Ts
 He is no enthusiastic sslinioga advocate, but he Is tolerant, sfas generous to .laid-of workers dllrs ing the depression, and pays satiss factory wages IS cents an hour for men, 65 cents for women. x x
 In a cu6-tiTrpat industry Waeres labor is battling with motor mo- guls, and motor lnogtals 3Fe- quently battle. among themselves Chrysler has been held up l6y labor leaders us a;relatively Shill- ing light. Tn fact they have used him for all he was worth. ea ssfsssS
 During the rubber x strike in Akron, later in tie automobile glass strike, Chrysier was con- suited privately by the mediators, used his infIuence to bring about a settlement. Since he was a big customer of both industries, his influence counted. Whether he was working for his own btasi. ness or for labor is debatable, but anyway labor gave him credit.
 Again, during the General Mo- tors strike, the CIO played Chrys- Ter off against GMC, publicly em- phasized his labor attitude in. the hope of throwing business his way, thereby hurting General Motors. Fluke Strike
 Truth, of the matter is: that tie Chrysler sit-down was a pure fluke. It was the last thing John l.. Lewis and the CIO master minds wanted.
 The day before the General
 Motors strike settlement, Chrys-
 Ter announced a 10 per cent in-
 crease i'm wages and began ne-
 gotiaitions for recognition of the
 union. These negotiations, were
 handled by the shop committees
 rather than by the leaders,
 more democratic procedure but
 contrary to usual custom. ..
 When the committees hit an early snag, they reported back to the men, got excited, and rashly voted to strike, despite the wishes of CIO strategists.
 Chrysler was furious. Other motor magnateS, who had seen their competitor hailed as the friend of labor, burst into loud laughter.
 Small Town Boy
 The story of Walter Chrysler is the typical success yarn of the small town boy who makes good. Only in this case our hero climbed the ladder to fame and fortune further even than tine heroes of the story-books.
 Chrysler was born 62 years ago in Wamego, Kansas, town of 1,647 on the Union Pacific, ever which his enginee rfather trundled freight locomotives between Kan- sas City and Denver. :.
 Later the family moved fur ther west on the Union Pacific to the equally small town of Ellis, where Chrysler went school with the Kansas girl who now wears ermines on Long Island.
 Mrs. ChrySler didn't always get the breaks she does now. When Walter, who had fololwed in his fathers trade as engine oiler and round house mechanic, saw long, sleek, 5000 Locomobile at the Chicago automobile show, he paid S700 down, borrowed $4,300, brought the car home, and instead of talk ing his wife for a ride, proceeded to take the engine apart. Auto Passion
 Chrysler became a crack rail- road mechanic, was superinten- dent of motive power for the Chi cago Great Western at B, then manager of the American Loco motive works in Pittsburgh, where his hobby was buying old automo- piles and >taking thdn apart.
 His passion for automobiles was such that he accepted ,an offer to. become plant manager for Buick at half the salary he was get- ting in Pittsburgh. In 1919 he became vice president of General Motors, the company whose strongest competitor he was later to become.
 Chrysler got his big financial
 break when he put every cent
 he had into General Motors
 stock during the war boom. The
 nest-egg thus accumulated, plus
 astute deals with the bankers,
 put him in control of WilIys-
 Overland, Maxwell, and later
 Dodge. He was the bankers I chief motor trouble-man, the ' organizer who could take over
 bankrupt company and put it on
 its feet. It was the old Maxwell
 car. rapidly losing public favor, 7 which he renamed and rebuilt
 into 8 successful low priced
 Chrysler, giving him the spring i;
 -l II lsF E a .