Arizona sun., 1950-01-06


have not been cashing in on
the going tougher with each day.
You can find these cars stockpiled
on the plant roof and in the yards,
whenever the plant tries to put
them out to near-capacity.
"Back in AS and '46 there was
plenty of talk of Willys-Overland
getting into the small 6-cylinder
car class-there was working capi-
tai available; they tell me much
of it has gone now. With the whole
automobile industry facing more
difficult times, the automobile
manufacturers of Toledo will have
tested their ability to survive with
a product which is generally re-
garded as fancily-priced.
Big Business Ethics
"On the books, Willys-Overland
is not paying nearly the salaries or
bonuses of General Motors, for
example. But the profits that the
Canaday-Ritter controlled Empire
Securities have taken out of WHY'S
Overland properties since their re-
organization in 1896 plus the bene-
fits which have been paid to one
Charles E. Sorenson, the same
'cast-iron Charlie of the Ford
foundry - are something for the
books.
"In the hectic 1930's when WHY'S
Overland went into receivership,
Ward M. Canaday, who once
handled the company's advertising,
and George w. Ritter, a Toledo
attorney, created Empire Securi-
ties, first with the aid of the origi-
nal Mrs. WHY'S and several others
whom they later bought out. In a
reorganization, Empire Securities
took over Overland. 1t was decided
to separate motor car production
from other lys-Overland facili-
ties, then put the company's Pom
tiac foundry, huge white elephant
office building called John WHY'S
folly surplus factory space and
equipment into a WHY'S Overland
Real Estate Realization Corpora
ton.
mot putting much more than
$5OO,0O0 of their own money into
this Real Estate Realization COM
pany, Canaday and Ritter put to-
gether about $2,500,000, half Of it
from bank loans. They picked up
million dollars of the company's old
cash impounded in the banks. And
at a most propitious time, they
had the Willys-Overland Motor
Company buy back the foundry
for $3,5O0,00O on which they adj
mitted a profit to them of $780,
O0O-and then the office building,
plant space, and equipment for
$2,3O0,OO0 on which they admitted
a profit of about ST, 100000. On
their original about 211 million dol
lar investment these fellows clean
ed a nice tidy Az million dollars
they had the small stockholders
yelling they'd been taken but
everything was legal and legiti-
mate according to the ethics of
business.
"Even Fortune Magazine raised
an eyebrow, however, in writing
about Mr.. Ritter's and Canaday's
sad duty as representatives of the
real estate company having to tell
the same Ritter and Canaday of
the Board of Directors of the au-
tomobile company that if they did
not pay out of the automobile
company's treasury over to them,
these tidy sums, they'd have to
sell those properties to other bid
ders. Ritter and Canaday couldn't
lose but some of the holders of
Motor Corporation stock are sure
they did. This is a brilliant example
of the high cost of some modern
management.
Postwar Development
"In 1914 came time when the
directors of Willys-Overland Mo-
tors were looking to postwar de-
velopment. They were anxious to
get real big automobile name
that would do things to their re-
putation. Lo and behold Cast
Iron Charlie of Ford fame, whom
Fortune describes as a cold, lonely,
introspective Dane, who for 40
years had helped to rule the Ford
roost, had been fired by Henry
Ford.
What a contract then 56-year-old
Sorenson Of the Rouge signed in
June 1944$1 900 a week for ten