The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, May 9, 1924, Page 9

| meng —. SECTION TWO ESTABLISHED 1873 John N. Willys, Business Genius, Makes Great Comeback 4h , 1924 BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA, FRIDAY, MAY HE BISMARCK TRIBUNE OVERLAND SPECIAL PRICE FIVE CENTS Pioneer in Automotive Industry-Rises to Zenith of Field by Sheer Dominancé of Will Power-Receives Tremend- ous: Setback After War-Through Experience and Resourcefulness Reaches Top Again--Says 1923 BY W. A. P. JOHN (printed, by Courtesy of MoToR) They had been telling me of his genius in the fields of megchandis- ing and financing and manufactur- ing—those bankers and business men of Toledo to whom I talked, They had regaled me with vivid reminiscences—high lights of those nine glorious years in which he had accomplished his astounding feat of turning $7500 into $80,000,000. From the top of the finest and largest individual office building in the world, I had surveyed the largest single automobile plant in the world; acre upon acre of buildings stretch- ing as far as the eye could see through the dirty West Toledo haze. My pockets were bulging with clip- pings obtained from his calm-eyed secretary, who had beén carefully collecting them for years out of that spirit of affection he seems to engen- der in all who have contact with him. I had heard discourses on _ his vision, his enthusiasm, his unfailing ‘optimism, his ability to endure gruel ling hours of work, his blind. stub- eae not to accept nor even re-- ofpnize defeat. Valuable information, that, to one who would write a “success story.” But this isn’t that kind of a story. This is the story of John N. Wiltys, the man; with his business success dragged in bv the heels, as it were as proof of his manifold qualities of commercial genius. ‘For two mornings I talked with ‘hledoans who had known him 15 or 16 yi men who had seen him come to the sleepy, overgrown town in 1909 and who had stood on the sidelines to cheer while he played his brilliant game of marshalling mil- lions. All spoke their praise and ad- miration—even those who had se- cretly suspected him of insanity when he was conjuring factory build- ings out of thin air against the t.me when America would be buying mo- tor cars in yearly millions. WILLYS JOSHES ATTENDANT A godsend to the’ biographer— “hose affable, admiring Toledoans vho_bad met him after he had made ver a million dollars in a single ear. But the man I was overjoyed io meet was a quiet, retiring ldWyer vho had known him back in Indiana- olis when he was trying to borrow 7500 and who had been at his side ver since—through success and ad- ersity and back to success again. We were in the lavatory of the hand- ome new Toledo club, which Willys ad fathered and financed, and been resident of since its rejuvenation. here was a genial, spontaneous hgffing match between the multi- iMionaire and the grinning colored oy attendant. Both had jabbered loughboy’ French. “Eh, bien, Melvin, Comment allez ous ce soir ” “Tres bien, Monseer Willys, rien.” “Melvin, you know” (to me), “is Tres he only French-speaking club at- dant in captivity. . . Aren’t you, elvin” “Yessuh, Mistah Willys, gotta talk ny language what th’ membahs wishes to speak, Good thing ah wus n th’ ahmy.” “Don't suppose you learned German, did you?” “German?” Melvin rolled. his eyes. “{n-deed not, Mistah Willys. In-deed not. So furs me an’ Germans wuz concerned. 2 The lawyer whispered in my ear, “He hasn't changed a bit from the very first day I knew him. Same old wonderful, democratic John that he ever was.” Then, later, over the dinner table came another illuminating flash— this time from Willys himself, As a result of a question I had put, we had been’ discussing salaries and bonuses, “Do you believe,” I had asked, “that big salaries to executives are am essential to building up an organization ?” “Absolutely!” was the prompt ai wer. “L believe in it—but I haven't begn able to make it work! One of the biggest and most costly mistakes Lever made has been to pay salaries that were too big. It not only cost me millions, but it ruined a lot of any men, Made them lose their perspec- tive, Gave them a big head, it you will.” . QUTSHINING ARABIAN SECTION fie leaned over the table and puint- ed at me-the gold pencil with which he had been toying. “Mr. John, al- most any normal man can stand ad- versity, He can endure poverty and trouble and disappointment and the rigors of self-denial, But, it takes a damned good man to stand pros- perity! A damned good, strong, finely balanced man! That's the big test!“ “Take the average, man who is making a good income, more than enough for his needs, Put him in a ‘pig job, then give him a salary of $100,000 a year, and hand him a bon- us check of $40,000 or $650,000 at Christmas, not because he feels that he has it coming, but because you want him to share in the progits he has helped you create. What. hap- pens? Unless he is just about 100, pergcent, and has that god-given al y'to take cold, impersonal stock in himself, he gets a. swelled head and—bang, he’s ruined, It. cost me $20,000,000 to learn that.” ‘. 18 DEMOCRATIC ‘ There, in the first five hundre words, you have John N. Willys, the Proved His Greatest Year-Life’s Fascinating Story Reads Like Ana man: “The same old wonderful, democratic John that he always was.” And “It takes a damned strong man to stand prosperity.” Nevertheless, his is a story that in its brilliance outshines the most imaginative of the Arabian Nights. This is being written a few weeks after his fiftieth birthday. I saw a magnificent silver cup in his office, inscribed: May you enjoy fifty more. A token of remembrance and affec- tion from your boys. And those 50 years have crammed with as much hard wérk and. achievement and sheer business enjoyment as any 50 years that it has been my pleasure to chronicle. In Canandaigua, New York, his father owned a small brick and tile works and a paper box factory; quiet, frugal man from whom the got the great lesson in life: That even a boy has a right to expect un honest wage for his labor, and that some of it should be saved. BORN WITH SALES IN: been NCT That he wag born with an acute merchandising instinct is apparent to even the most cas student of his Wfe. Even as a boy of nine or 10 he could sense what the public wanted, sell what he had, buy what the other fellow had to sell at the right price. His first business deal came at the tender age bf 10, when he noticed that driving reins an exasperating habit of falling down horses’ feet. So out of his meager savings he bought a dozen little clamps to hold the reins in place. These he sold promptly. Andon the proceeds he bought an additional two dozen, and quickly disposed of them at a profit, Before he was 12, he was working in his father’s tile yard at 25 cents a day for after-school labor, Later he tried to sell books, the “Life of Garfield” being his ware. And made the only flat failure of his career. Perhaps he was too young for the grandiloquent oration that is the standard stock in trade of those who sell books across the door sill. BUYS LAUNDRY AT FIFTEEN » Through grade school and into high school he saved money, When he was 16, a-chum 18 years old came to him the idea that they go into the laundry business. The chum had worked in a local laundry and would supply the practical exper- ience; Johnnie Willys.was to furnish the capital and selling ability. In Seneca Falls, 30 miles away, there was a laundry for sale. It was a great chance to make money. Willys wheedled his parents for permission to become one of its owners. His parents acquiesced, hoping that the disastrous circumstances that would surely follow would teach him that fifteen-year-olds should remain away from the stern realities of business and be content to acquire the print- ed learning of books. No sooner had the two youths handed over their money than they discovered that they had purchased a lemon—a business which had never paid any profits and which enjoyed no local patronage to speak of. So it became a case of tearing into the job and putting it over or losing their investment and opening them- selves to the parental “We told-you- 50,” & It ‘took a year of work, boyish but none the less savage, to rehabilitate the laundry and build up a profitable clientele, Whereupon the business was sold at a price that gave each of the partners a hundred dollars pro- fit. TURNS TO LAW The long, arduous hours of, the laundry business and their meager compensation forced’on Willys the realization that he had made a mis- take by ngt getting an education when it was easily obtainable. So back to Canandaigua he went, rescly- ed to become a lawyer. He studied at home, and worked in a law office, and laid plans for putting himself through college. Then his father died, and at the same time passed his dreams of beéoming a legal light. His capital disgipated in an unlucky, venture, "Willys became a traveling salesman, repersent- ing the Boston Woven Hose and Rub- ber Company, in that section of eastern New York in which Elmira was located. In that particular town he called on the Elmira Arms Com- pany, a sporting goods store, which either by fate, jinx, or mismanage- ment had sent four owners to the wall. BUYS ELMIRA- ARMS CO. One day he dropped into the store and found the owner badly smitten with gold fever. The Klondike rush was on. So strong was the spell of the Yukon on the proprietor that he offered to sell out “dirt cheap—offer me $600 for this $2800 stock,” he said, “and the place is yours. Good will and everything.” Willys bought, ' Working fast, he organized the business”on sound principles, rear- rangedthe store with his unerring sales instinct, hired a manager to whom he laid down the principle that the windows had to look nice, the store had to be clean, and that the job was his only as long:as he stuck to it right. That-done, he hastened out on the road to bis own job again, ‘This did not last long. One day a dispatch in the newspapers informed him, along with the rest of the world, thatthe house for which he was working had failed. His jo traveling salegman, gone he hurried among the. back to Elmira to take personal charge of his sporting goods store. Shrewdly, he began to specia bicycles, In eight months, his sale in the specialty amounted to $2800, of which $1000 was profit, From,being the biggest retailer of bieyclies in the district, it was only a logical step toward wholesaling. For wholesaling he displayed even a greater adeptness, And soon he had contracted to take the entire output of a factory. AT 27 KEADS $500,000 BUSINESS To absorb it he cultivated the ter- ritory encircling Elmira, establish- ing agencies for the bicycles, and to the hardware and sporting goods stores where he had thus gained con- tact, he sold the, standard sporting goods line which he continned to handle out of Elmira—U. M. C, car- tridges, Remington guns and pistols, Victor phonographs and the like At the age of 27 he was heading a business whose volume totaled $500,000 a year. That was no mean record of achievement. Neverthe- less, he had bigger dreams and am- But analysis showed him that he could not progress a gr t was For after 100 miles en- , deal further in the business @ then constituted. in I directions, his salesmen alesmen traveling out of e and other points. r words, his 100-mile radius | Pitts i In oth territory was hemmed in. He could not pand without changing the business. Then and there, he decided on two fundamenta The first was that he would some day have a trademarked article bearing his own name, and the second that he would select the article so as to enjoy a world mar- ket. What that article as to he was not long in develoning. In Cleveland he had the previous vear seen A horseless carriage in the street. Tt was one of the nroductions of Alex- ander Winton, He did not get an on- portunity to talk to Winton, nor even to examine the product. But | the idea of self-nropelling transpor- tation found fertile ground in the imagination of John N, Willys. “Its got all the bieveles in the conutry. beat hollow.” he told. him- self. “I am going to sell them the very first chance I get.” BUYS FIRST PIERCE ARROW The chance came that following year, 1900. An Elmira doctor pur- chased one of the famous Pierce Mo- torettes—that tiny car with its tiny De Dion motor on .the rear axle. Willys‘studied it and went up to Buffalo to see George N. Pierce, then building the finest line of bicycles in the world, and which the Elmira Arms Co. was handling, For three hours, Pierce, the veteran, outlined the glowing future of the automo- bile, thereby convincing young Wii that his original judgment was cor- rect. Having obtained a promise that one of the first of the next lot of Pierce-Arrows produced would be shipped to him, Willys’ returned to Elmira. Soon thereafter, the car arrived, price $900—and demonstrations be- | gan. Everybody was willing to ride, but few were willing to invest their hard-earned money in such shaky- looking, uncertain, noisy contragtiops as were being built in 1901, That year he sold two cars. The next year he added the Rambler (remember. it? It became, first the Jeffery and then the Nash) and managed to sell a total of four cars. The follewing year by dint of unceasing effort and the growing public appreciation of the worth of the automobile, sales leaped to 20 cars. By 1905 the public had seized on the automobile with avidity. Every body wanted to buy. And the supply of cars was so small that the manu- facturers became independent and not infrequently dictatorial—“Pretty cocky” as Mr, Willys explained with a smile. DECIDES 'TO BUILD CARS With an eager demand that he could not begin to satisfy, Willys decided that he ought to be building ears himself. But he had neither the money, the manufacturing ¢x- perience, nor the mechanical ability. So he did the next best thing. He formed a selling company with the idea of contracting for the output of one or more factories, relieving the manufacturers of the sales onus, and wholesaling the cars untit he coutd make the logical step to manu- facturing himself. i Jn 1906 he organized the American Motor Car Sales Company, with head- quarters at Elmira. The first car * handled by the new company was the ! American—a rakish, nderslung crea- tion that sold for quite a high pri It was a much admired car. But the high price prevented the development of business on more than a small | scale, so Willys in 1907 arranged to handle the, product of the Overland Company, then ‘like the American, built in Indianapolis. In 1907, the Overland was a four- cylinder car, when most of the popu- lar cars of that day boasted only two cylinder motors. It was moderately priced, good looking according to ex- isting standards, and seemed to have a fundamentally sound appeal. The company had been in business six years. Yet the biggest year, 1907, “had seen the production of only 47 cars. CONTRACTS FOR 500 OVERLANDS Nothing. daunted, Willys agreed to accept"600 Overland cars in 1908 and as an evidence of good-faith, made John } Willys, President Willys-Overland Co. His remarkable achievements with Willys-Overland the last year was one of the outstanding features of the entire automobile industry “Leave this to me,” said Willys hortly, and swung out the door, a deposit of $10,000 which was one- fifth of the capital he had put into the American Motor Sales Company,! ‘That night John N. Willys sat in and practically all the cash he ¢ the Grand Hotel and had vision of scrape together. But he had f ceing everything that his labor faith in himself and in the industry] had created go trickling away. It in which he had so long peen,#}%as a dismal, forchoding picture. dominant and brilliant figure. Then he leaped to his feet and ac- BUSINESS BOOMED rs ore eae In the carly months of 1907 the] .c¢k*book, “I want business of the American Motor]’ phe clerk laughed. Sales Company boomed — merrily] jy along. Its youthful head felt the] “What?” ever-constant urge of expansion, He} “{ said —I wish you luck.” went to Indianapolis and contracted] “What's the matter? This check to distribute the Marion car alons| i; good. with his other lines, At peace with} “Gertainly. But don’t you know the world and satisfied with the] this town is on scrip? That cash stroke of good work the day had seen executed, Willys boarded a train to return east, He opened the news- paper and with a sinking sensation money is us hard to get as—mush- rooms in the poorhouse ?” “But I have got to have it.” ‘i In the first place, | haven't read that the Knickbocker Trust Co.| that much cash in the till, And in had closed its doors and that New] the second, I douht if the receipts York financial circles were in aj here and at the will give us that furore, The panic of 1907 had begun.| much bef Monday morning.” Did Willys swallow hard and slink back to his chair, er He did not. t can I do?” he thought. “If d goes to the wall with my Im $10,000 and no car delivered, through.” Rais He decided to sit tight. And the} He called the proprictor over and tighter he sat, the blacker things} to both he explained why he wanted became. With sample long |$350- why ‘he needed $350—-why , he overdue, he) hurried out to Indian-|<imply had to have § He pic- apolis, the day after Thanksgiving | tured his own prospective loss, He (the irony of it!). He started Sat-|deseribed what the failure of Over- urday afternoon at the Overland }jand would mean to Indianapolis. factory. The he encountered | He touched on the feelings of the what may charitably be described | workmen when confronted by worth- as a mess—the force gone home | less checks that. they had hed. and the patts for less than three} With ‘all the carnestness he could cars in the plant. And he with $10, }comn he sold those two hard- 000 deposited as an evidence of good ) boiled Hotel men oa the urgency of faith to accept 500 cars, all of which | his request, and he refused to stop had long since been sold! selling until they had been won over. On that day ars were sched-| “Get the money for ina uled for delivery to Elmira. aid the proprietor. “Don demanded Willys, “are; any more chec and tell the same 3s replied the — man. went up to hed—not ager, Ww ly; ‘but We can't get ° them out. the next night the k “Can't get them out? Why not?” | counted cash a hug k of greasy “We're going into the hands -of {tattered one dollars bills, a few dog- er Monday morning.’ eared fives and tens, and a hatful “You are snapped Willys }of currency; but it was Early promptl Monday. morning Willys strode over “Oh, 3 * was the dogged | to bank and deposited the money to the company’s eredit- after an argu- ment as tg his right to make such a deposit. And the checks were met. the trouble?” arry (the angel of the an't supply any more. His traction ts arge not pay- ling profits, with nobody riding We paid off the Aken Capital Crying Need With that hurdle out of the way,! Willys had othe id more gricvous ind were to and workmen with checks, and] preblems to meet if Over there won't be any money in the| remain solvent, He rushed up to bank when they come through Mon, | Chicago und frantically cashed day morning.” checks. For five or six weeks his ‘ceded $350. in Cash daity existence was a hunt for cash, Wil looked at’ the manager | Combined’ wit cajoling purveyors in- to supplying a few more parls to finish a few more cars and keep the sheriff from hammering his wotice on the door. The crying need was capital; money to satisfy impatient creditors for their long overdue $80,000, to provide additional materials, anc to meet the meager puyroll: Willys set out, to raise it. Shrewdly, he stayed away from the bankers. No sane sharply with those keen eyes of h There was a short silence. - “That,” he said, “was « damned cowardly thing to do. Here your workmen are, going to the grocery, getting food for next week, and asking the grocer to cash these checks. The balance they spend. And Monday your checks come back to these workmen, marked ‘no funds.’ It is a nasty mess. . . How much ‘are He had no more money of his own, | save a few hundred dollars remain- ing after he had-been cashing checks ull over the middle West. So he bor- vowed $7500 from one of the cirec- tors of his Elmira company and call- ed a creditors’ meeting. “Gentlemen,” he said, “if this j company is afforded temporary re- j lief we can, wit, the little money on hand, weather the — storm. Here is our proposition. Take | preferred stock in the — com- pany for your claims at 100 cents on the dollar, or take 10 cents on a dollar in cash, with 20 per cent of the balance in one-year notes, and an additional 20 per cent in 18 months’ note SINCERITY WINS THE DAY In short, he was boldly offering those who did not care for preferred stock, 10 cents cash and 40 cents in notes of the American Motor Car Sales Company. There was an up- roar. Again John Willys called into play his genius for selling. Al his eloquence, his sincerity, his unshaken faith in the future of the motor car, he poured out into telling arguments, Again he won the day. A majority of the claims were settled for pre- ferred stock and the balance Willys was glad to liquidate for 10 cents sh and 40 cents notes on the dol- nization was Jarly in 1908, the ori j completed, with John N. Willys pres- ident, treas les manager general purchasing ything. He moved, with to Indianapolis If into his job manager, agent— is fam- nd flung bim- ith joyous aban- don, Here was his long-dreamed-of chance—a product which he could trademark with his own name and sell to the wide, wide world. Nine months later, on Sept. 28, 1908, the Overland Company made a statement to R. G, Dun & Co. which showed 465 cars built and sold, and a net worth of $58,000. In 1909, the company built and sold 4000 cars, did a gross business of over 0,000, showed a net profit of over $1,000,000 and had over $600,- 000 cash in the bank, “And that,” said Willys, with a reminiscent smile, “was the greatest ar I ever had in, my life!” CANNOT REST ON OARS Many a man—many a_ straight- thinking man, too!—would have rest- ed on his oars, content to make a million ‘or so a year out of $7500 borrowed money and a_ sheet-iron shed full of shopworn machinery. But not dne with the vision of John N. Willys. The Pope-Toledo plant, up in Toledo, was vacant, It was a big plant—-a very big plant according to the standard of the day, But not so big but what Willys could not see it teeming with workmen build- ing Willys-Overland cars. With $285,- 000 of the $600,000 cash, he purchas- ed the plant in May, 1909, and “made a million dollars the day he bought it,” according to his own belief. Of course, they all told him he wag crazy—how could he ever find enough customers to keep so big a factory busy? He smiled. | And Willys-Overland moved to Tofedo— for which the city of Toledo should rise up of ifs hind feet and give eternal thanks, Yes, Willys was crazy—crazy like a fox. So much so, that before the snow flew, he was putting up an assembly building 600 feet long, 90 feet wide, and three stories high, and in such a hurry to get it finished that the contract was let on the bonus-forfeit plan. OFFERED $80,000,000 FOR COM- PANY Through the next seven or eight years John N, Willys was as busy as. any man has a right to be—from 7 in the morning until midnight: and after was the daily stint he extract- ed from himself, Building after building leaped into the air, Fro- duction soared. Into the far corners of the earth the Willys-Overland sales organization penetrated, ‘he instinctive salesman, he authori the investment of millions for adver- and saw that investment come ion several-fold. Every morn- he woke to find himself $25,000 er than he had been the night before—for in 1916 he was offered $80,000,000 for his company. Bankers, manufacturers and inventors came to him by scores with propositions to invest and to obtain with his eapital his uncanny genius in promoting business success. Under his banner came @ score of companies, such as Auto-Life, Fisk Rubber, Curtiss Aeroplane Company, Federal Rubber, New Process Gear, U. S. L. Battery, and othe More than 75,000 men were finding om- ploymént directly and indirectly in Willys’s enterprises. In 1914 came a master stroke of Willys’s genius, Charles Y. Knight, an American,’ had invented the Knight type motor with its simple sleeve valves. Having been rebuffed by every American manufacturer to whom he had offered it, he was fore- ed to go to Europe, where the flow- er “of European motordom made haste to accept his invention—Daim- ler, Panhafd, Peugeot, Voisin, Mer- cedes, Minerva and others. But Europe products motor cars on about the same scale as she produced cath- edrals—one every so often, And Knight knew that he could not en- joy the fullest. financial reward’ un- less his engine were adopted by an American manufacturer and one of banker would have advanced a dime ‘ou short?” d fifty dol- [ ‘to the company in. its precarious con- “Three hundred and lars.” dition, , . 4 ' the leaders at that. On a Mediterranean vesse] he en- countered: Willys, who, at the imper- Fiction ative orders of His physician, had! slipped away for his first real vaca- tion. He interested Willys to the extent that the latter altered his itinerary and went to England, where he put Knight-motored cars through a gruelling test. So impressed was Willys that he returned to America } ready to build a car powered by a Knight motor. It was a brilliant stroke. There are today more Willys-Knight motor- ed cars in existence than all other Knight types combined. — Willys- Knight sales have doubled each year, despite the natural competition of 90 per cent of all automobile sales- men and dealers. And the rush the Knight-type motor builders in Europe where the patents have recently expired, indicates that its inherent value is conceded. A brilliant stroke, yes, but not nearly so brilliant as the later one whereby he acquired the Krfight pa- tents, thereby insuring to himself dominance in’ Knight-motored cars for years to come and doubtless forever. H In 1915 Willys-Overland had a ba ner year. en greater strides were made in 1916, 141,000 cars being built and sold, thus making it the biggest year in the company’s entire history until the present one of 1923. Then came war. MISTAKE TO LEAVE TOLEDO vi , as one of s leading business men and principal owner of the biggest single automobile plant in the world, ound that his presence was required in the national capital with a frequency that made him almost a weekly com- muter between Washington and Tol- edo, It was a difficult problem to solve! Should he stay at Toledo and remain in personal charge? Or should be delegate authority and remain in the East? He chose to remain in the East, keeping in contact with Toledo by private wire. So, late in 1918, he moved his family to New York so as to be nearer Washington. It was a great mistake—onc that he freely admits now. Confronted by the manifold pro- blems of his far flung interests, Willys could have worked 28 hours a day, He did, almost. k in Tol- edo things seemed to be running along smoothly. With the post-war inflation, year, Then*the crashing blow fell. Out of the blue sky almost came a strike at Willys-Overland, one that I re- member well, inasmuch as I was in Detroit at the time. Its causes nee not be discussed here, To be frank, they were trivial. Adroit manage- ment would have seen it settled in a week. And to Willys in New York was sent the word that it would be settled in a week. From a silly start, but fanned by radical hatreds, it grew into a bitter industrial struggle that lasted six months. While other manufacturers were building cars, Willys-Overland were producing next to nothing. Dealers, unable to get Overlands, regretfully took on other lines, Stagnation. That strike cost the company many millions of dollars. Who was to blame that here? Suffice to say that after a deadlock had been reached, certain influences from the East made them- selves felt and a tardy settlement was arrived at. Willys was still in the East. Hard on the heels of that—that well, call it a mistake in judgment, came another unfortunate decision, this having to do with enginecring and production, That, too, was cost- 1919 looked like the banner | ly. Back Eust, Willys began der, no doubt, whether it was the { better part of wisdom to remain where he was and watch executives } who had received plenty of rope hang ‘themselves and the mpany, or whether he should cut loose from en- tangling alliances of extraneous bus- iness and get back on the job him- self. Then came post-war depression swift and terrible. Willys came back on the job in person, faced a desperate situation, one that call- ed for all his vaunted skill, daring and energy, Huge bank loans had been accumulated, and some of the bankers were unwilling to renew. A ! tremendous inventory was under roof at wartime prices, Vast commitments for material, some $60,000,000 worth, had been made for long periods. These hung over the company like the deadly sword of Damocles. * WILLYS BACK TO STAY Willys came back to Toledo, spit on his hands, as it were, and pitched in—that is, to as great an extent as possible. For there were still some interests back East that simply could hot be allowed to drift without a pilot at that precarious time. It was necessary to institute a ruthless pro- cess of liquidation, Ruthless is the exact word. It had to be ruthless. For all through the industry men who were watching weré shaking their heads and saying: “Well, they got Durant. And now they're afler Willys. Tough luck for poor John.” t “But “they” didn’t know “poor old John.” They didn’t know how he lov- ef to’ fight and what a hard hitter he could be when anyone tried ky any methods, fair or foul, to take away what was rightfully his. I wish you could see the mute but moving story that is told by the chart of Willys-Overland sal When Willys was on the job, sales are high, When he was away, they drop. When he to won- 2 to| i ' What matters old) comes back, they leap up again, not 60 or 90 days later; but the ver same month, It is uneanny, bu figures do not lie SALES BEGAN TO LEAP There never was u more brilliant —and I believe [ can say truthfully a more heartily cheered “comeback” in the automobile busines: When Willys came on the job in February, 1922, the books “were in red.” He spent 60 days traveling about country, calling on distributo dealers, marshaling them for the big fight and telling them that he was on the job,and would stay on the job and make a go of it! Sales began to leap, In March, they doubled. In April and May there were big in- creases. In June 13,000 cars were built and sold, July was bigger by almost a thousand cars. About that time Willys left for Europe for a short respite and to visit the British company. While he was en route, a price war arose. He wirelessed his decision back to Toledo. But those who were in cl there, having figures on sales and orders, before them, felt that his decision couid, with profit, be deferred for a few weeks. Then it was too late. When Willys returned in September, all the marvelous progress of the earlier months had been lost. Then Willys made his final deci- sion: “Here in Toledo J stay, and on the job I, myself, in person stick. This can be put across und it Will be put across!” SALES FULL SPEED AHEAD That fall some progress was made But not enough to be written in black ink. In January, 1923, the cor- ner was definitely turned. The sales organization was inflamed with fer- vor. Pressure began to be felt all along the line, from the top down. Cars began to roll out to the ship- ping docks in rapidly increasing numbers. And Willys-Overland was off to a flying start on the biggest year in Willys-Ovedland h building in the peak months over 1100 cars in an gight-hour day, ship ping in the year a total of more than 200,000 cars, consisting of 18 body types, mounted on four chassis, and covering a range of prices from $495 to $1995! HIS PERSONALITY Anent this, let me quote from one of the leading automobile publica- tions of a recent date, ‘John N. Willys has taken the ba- con back to Toledo again. He and his associates in his home city will remain in complete control of the Willys-Overland Co., which he put on the map and which the force of his own personality saved. . . . . It was characteristic of the man that he took his losses, running well into eight figures, with a grin. The whol industry is glad he is firmly seate in the saddle.” What is he like, personally, tt master salesman, this leader it. nate? Well, to begin with—he ‘small, not over five feet seve should guess. And on his body t a magnificent leonine head, alt Napoleonic in cast. His hair thick, unruly and iron gray; his no is aquiline af@ powerful. His ci s square and clean shaven, H eyes are gray and normally th: twinkle. But they can darken t- crackle on occasions. He weurs pince-nez, with which he gestures a times. His facial expression is on of geniality—he seems to like peo- ple and people seem to like him. HIS HOBBY As to hobbies—well, his collection of pictures is one of the finest in the middle West. He used to ride horsebiick and play golf and go yachting, But no more. For his long working hours, he keeps in condition by walking half the long way be- tween his home and his office daily and by exercising on arising. E cept in business, he reads practical- ly nothing--partly because of lack of time, and partly because his eyes refuse to bear the strain of too much i s He lives wholly in the future. They say he never took a backwatd step or gave a backward glance in his life. And living in the future; he sees to- day for Willys-Overlund in 1924 a magniféeent year. One that will ac: tually shame the enviable record of 1928. And as for that, I think I accurate- ly express the general opinion of the automobile industry when I si ‘More power to him—and watch hit lee it!” 'Salesman Drives Overland Roadster Over 100,000 Miles E. A. Douglas, traveling represen lative for the International Harves tery Company, with headquarters @ Chester, Illinois, has driven hi Overland -107,462 miles, according t a letter “received from him hy th Willys-Overland factory. “The driv ing has been done over all kinds ¢° roads, good and bad,” according t Mr, Douglas, “aud the caf is sti?! in splendid condition. I get 25 miles to the gallon # gasoline and my maintenance cost is practical nothing.” Approximately 14,000 ‘fall cafloads of materials are received annuall; at the Overland. Meal made from. white oak acorn: was one ofthe principal foods of the North American. Indians.