The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., July 23, 1918, Page PAGE TWO, Image 2

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PAGE TWO
THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. . TUESDAY, JULY 23, 1915.
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Amazing Story of the Life of an American Citizen Who Placed German Institutions and Kultur Above the Traditions of His Native Land
J1UII
flSUM EL Y
Frank Parker Stockbridge Reveals Character of Man Who
Owing All to America, Gave His TalenU to Use of
the Kaiser Intimate View of the Promoter.
By, Frank Parker Stkbrtdft, Late
Copyrlht. 101B T! Nn York.
0 (topjrlcbl. Canada, by
jtrbt instalment.
This is tbt amazing story of an Ameri
can who became a German.
It la the atorj of a man who owed
everything to the United States, but who
when the clash of opposing civilizations
culminated in the summer of 1014 with
tie opening guns of the world war, elected
to throw his sympathy. Lis interest, bis in
fluence, his efforts on the side of Ger
many.
America had given this man's grand
father a refuge and a homo when he fled
from German oppression. America had
given his father wealth and happiness.
America had given him, Edward Aloyshis
Rumely, the opportunity to acquire mill
ions millions that slipped through bis
fingers in his eagerness to multiply them.
It ia the purpose of this article to throw
light on the devious ways and specious
methods by which Imperial Germany
sought to impose its kultur on a free
people. It is the intention to illuminate,
in some degree, the plan and purpose of
the German propaganda that sought to
corrupt the minds of the American pcoplo
through their newspapers and that found
n willing agent in this American born
German.
la Rumely a Relncaraatloat
- IIow was it possible for an American
to lead himself to Germany's ends in this:
fashion? Is Edward A. Rumcljr a "throw-!
back" to some bygone era? Is he an ata
vistic reincarnation of some long dead
llun ancestor? I form no conclusion and
rttempt to render no verdict on this bio
ngi"al question. The life story of Edward
A. Itumely himself may furnish the an
swer. I have known Edward A. Rumely for
more than six years. For nearly two
years my association with him was tbat
of intimate daily contact Up to tbo sum
mer of 1UH I saw Dr. Rume!y only as
others saw himan impetuous, cothuiins-
L'rc, brilliant, boyish young man with
gigantic ideas and limitless confidence in
himself and his abilities. Nothing could
have been more amazing than his revela
tion of himself as the ardent adherent,
supporter and advocate of every German
istic ideal and conception of civilization
that wss diametrically opposed to all that
America and American civilization stand
for. .'''"-.' '
For nearly three years after the begin
ning of the European wur I was in a
rotation to observe and to noto mani
festations of theso beliefs and this poiut
of view: What I nm setting down here is
written without malice, entirely without
Litterness and i:i no heat or anger.
Only One Law Violation Charged.
It has not been charged that any of the
acts, save one, which Kdward A. Itumely
performed was iu violation of any law,
and us to that particular charge upon
which lis has been indicted I have no
knowledge and shall make no comment.
Men arc not legally punishable in America
for their beliefs so long as their acts in
expression of their beliefs do not violate
the law of the land.
The purpose of this article, therefore,
is not to assail Edward A. Itumely but
rather to explain him, and in explaining
, Mm to explain tho thin; that America is
fishtirg. Gorman kultur, its principles, its
conceptions, its purposes, its programme
nnd its plans Dr. Itumely whatever the
explanation, biological or otherwise, for
his completo acceptance of kultur as op
posed to Americanism, was, and is, I am
convinced, entirely sincere in tho belief
(hat in working in the interest of the
German ideal be was working in the in
terest of humanity.
This 1.4 story, thru, cf a symbol
nil a manifestation rather lh.no of an
- Individual. It la nkt Dr. Itumely
lnaV for and ll potters nnd pur
poses of wlilcti he was merely an In
strument taut are the matters of real
moment.
Seventy years ago, in 1S4S, a group of
young Cc:-mans organised a revolution
tgainst the Prussian King. They be
lieved the time was ripe for tho estab
lishment of a democracy in Germany.
The revolution was crushed, its leaders
fled from tho country and, with thou
sands of their followers, came to
America in search of the liberty which
they had failed to win in the fatherland.
Thce revolutionists of 184S men like
Carl Scburs, Franz Sigei and hundreds
of others whose names hold honored
places in the pages of American history
were the vanguard of the German immi
gration that wn to bring to America in
the course of haif a centory several
million new citizens.
One of theso young revolutionists of
MS was Meinrad Rumely, blacksmith.
With a group of others he started West.
Most of theso forty-eighters went into
what was then the West Some of them
went into the cities Cincinnati, Milwau
kee. St. Louis in such numbers that tbey
and their descendants succeeded in dom
inating, eventually, the politics and pol
icies of tbooe communities. Others went
into smaller communities of tuo country
districts and Mcinrad Rumely, with a few
others, settled upon the little village of
l.n Porte, in the rich farming country of
Northern Indiana, as their stopping place.
Hero Mciurad Ruuu-l.v. the blacksmith,
let up his forge in 1SC3. The farmers
' ' " 1
i - ' -' ' ' ' ' .... ' ' t
Managing Editor of the Eveninf MaiL
Herald Co. All KlrbU ReMrved.)
sw York Herald Ctapai;.)
brought their tools to him to be repaired
and sharpened, their ploughs and har
rows, their wagons to be re-tired, their
horses to be shod. Under the tickling of
the immigrants' ploughs the prairie soil
laughed into bountiful harvests.
The farmers prospered ; soon the young
German blacksmith had to hire a helper;
before long he tad several. lie under
stood the farmers and spoke their lan
guage; they brorifht their troubles to him.
Agricultural implements in that day were
crude and trifling affairs compared with
the tools with which the modern farmer
works.
It was easy for farmers to grow their
Brain, but hard for them to thresh and
winnow the huge crops, by the slow, old
fashioned, processes in use. It they only
had an efficient machine for this purpose !
Winter nights as he smoked his long
stemmed, china bowled pipe Meinrsd
Rumely was plarning ways to solve this
vexing problem of his farming neighbors.
Finally he built a crude machine. Next
harvest he tried it, and it worked. The
farmers, saw it and liked it and asked
him to build more of them. In another
two or three years the village blacksmith
shop bad developed into a manufacturing
plant where tho Rumely grain separators
were being turned out.
Business Grows and Prospers.
The business grew and prospered. So
did Meinrsd Rumely's family, for he had
taken unto himrelf a wifo of the blood
and the soil of hfs native land. By and
by the sign rending "M. Rumly" came
down and a new one went up. It read,
"M. Rumely & Sons." The village of
Laporte grew, too, and with its growth
tho family fortune of M. Rumely & Sons
increased, for he had bought land in the
early days, and his sons had bought, and
now that land was in demand fur factories
and for homes for people who worked in
the factories. And M. Rumely & Sons
added other agricultural implements to
their hue and wero the biggest factory of
all in Laporte. In 1S87 the business was
incorporated as the M. Rumely Company.
Tho names of Rumely and of Laporte
almost meant the same thing; they almost
mean the same thing to-day. The visitor
to Laporte steps off the Lake Shore train
into the railroad station that lies in the
midst of a great group of manufacturing
plants, every one of them bearing the
Rumely name. He drives up to Main
street, which has lately changed its name
to Lincoln Highway, past more factory
buildings carrying the Itumely name, and
he registers at tho Rumely Hotel.
That is the background, the setting an l
the tradition into which Edward Aloysius
Itumely was born at Laporte, on Febru
ary S, 1882. His father woa Joseph J
Rumely, oldest son of Melnrad Rumely;
bis mother, the daughter of another pio
neer German settler, wtis Margaret Zim
merman. From his earliest infancy the
child was regarded by his admiriug family
as a prodigy.
Learned to Talk German Early.
Ue learned to talk both in German unj
in English much earlier thun children
usually learn even one language; in Ger
man, for even after thirty-five years in
America German was Ktill the language
of tho home circle in Mriurail Rumcly'd
family. The sentimental attachment to
the Fatherland, which was shared until
lately by the majority of the German
born citizens of tho United States, and
which tho Kaiser fatuously believed he
could capitalize and manipulate to serve
his own ends in America, was nowhere
found more deeply rooted than here in
Laporte.
Edward A. Rumely grew up in Laporte
nmid nn ever widening circle of friends
and acquaintances, who marvelled at his
ready mastery of books and proclaimed
him a genius. Few boys in this or any-
other country ever displayed the precocity
and facility for absorbing information and
knowledge on every conceivable subject
that young Rumely showed.
Everything interested him everything
interests him still. Ho read every book
he could lay his hands on, from Agricul
tural Department Reports to the latest
exposition of the canons of l'Art Xouveau.
Such brilliancy nnd versatility in tha
eyes of his family destined him for a pro
fessional career. Devout Catholics, they
determined that he should become a
priest; doubtless, they had mental visions
of their son in the red hat of a Cardinal
of Rome who knows?
They sent him to the great Catholic
College, the University of Notre Dame, at
Notre Dame, Ind.
The more young Rumely contemplated
the idea of becoming a priest the less it
appealed to him. He did not complete his
course at Notre Darne. but persuaded his
parents to let him go abroad; he wanted
a taste of Europe, he wanted to see what
great universities of foreign lands could
offer him. Si in ISO!) ho started for
Europe.
He was still a boy in bis teens, when
he matriculated nt Oxford. Somewhere
in America, perhaps, he had picked uf
the germ of socialism; perhaps it was
through the associations he formed at
Oxford that he became inoculated with
the socialistic virus, for he lived while
at Oxford in Ituakin House, the centre
Aim 0 F
w
OR. t0WAR0,
of Fabian socialism founded by another
American, Frank B. Vrooman.
He remained at Oxford a year. "I got
all that Oxford University had to offer
me in one year," he told afterward.
From Oxford he went to Heidelberg. He
took with him a pronounced socialistic-
viewpoint and a dislike for England, the
English people, their government and
their customs that he has not hesitated
freely and frequently to express.
It was at this time that he first hogan
to affect the long hair, the starchless
collar and general unkemptness which the
juvenile socialist finds so satisfying to his
yearnings for equality.
At Heidelberg, essentially the university
of tho aristocratic junkers, young Rumely
found but little sympathy for his social
istic viewpoint at first. His German was
perfect, his manners were perfectly Ger
man, as they still are. As a German
socialist he was quickly made to feel that
his presence in the university was un
welcome to his fellow students.
"When I took my seat on one of the
benches in the lecture hall the student
sitting next to me moved away," he said
in describing his life at Heidelberg to
me. "The next day the same thing hap
pened, and the next The third time the
other members of the class began shuf
fling their feet upon the floor, which is a
German atudeut way of expressing dis
approval. Asked If He Is n Jew.
"After the lecture I was waited on by
a committee of the class who demanded
to know if I were a Jew. I told them no,
I was an American, whereupon they
apologized. They had assumed from my
dress that I must be a socialist and,
therefore, a Jew, but. of course, as an
American, I was privileged to dress as I
pleased."
Young Rumely's etay at Heidelberg
was not much longer than had been his
residence at Oxford. It was at about
this time that he came to the definite
determination not to become a priest A
break with his family followed, remit
tances from home ceased and he was
thrown upon his own resources. He ap
plied for and obtained a position as a
school teacher.
It is or was the custom in many of the
German schools for the boys to make
frequent long pilgrimages to different
parts of the empire. These tramping
trips sometimes lasted-Jor weeks. Thej
young American teacher took parties of
boys on many of these pilgrimages.
thereby coming into the closest touch
with the life and customs and point of
view of the German people.
Decides to Become Physician.
It was during his teaching days that
be decided to btcome a physician. At
Freiburg, in the Black Forest, is the most
progressive medical college ri Germany.
It was here that the celebrated "twilight
sleep" was originated and for many years
exclusively practised. So lo Freiburg
went Rumely.
In the study of medicine, as in other
lines, he showed the same brlliancy of
intellect and quick and easy mastery of
the subject in band that had won him the
appellation of . "genius" .in his boyhood
home. He was only twenty-four years old
when the University of Freiburg conferred
upon him the degree of Doctor of Medicine.
The degree of M. D. was granted at
Freiburg on tho presentation of a thesis,.
much in the same way that the degree of
h. D. and other academic degrees are
conferred by American universities. Dr.
Rumely's thesis was probably tha briefest
on record. One of the professors nt Frei
burg, a surgeou, had the habit, whenever,
,A. a'UMEtX-
he performed an abdominal operation of
any kind, of cutting out the patient'i
appendix at the same time and preserving
jit. He had several hundred of these
canned appendices in his laboratory. ,
Young Rumely subjected them all to
microscopic examination and found cer
tain pathological conditions common to ali
of them, tbe diseased and healthy alike
His deductions and conclusions based on
this research occupied in written form
less than three pages of typewriting, bu
cn this thesis he was awarded his coveted
degree. , , T . .
It was during his residence in Freiburg
that young Rumely took an active part in
German politics. Without going through
the formality of renouncing his American
citizenship he became an active member
of the socialist party. The socialists of
Freiburg, although in the minority, held
the balance of power. In Freiburg lived
Dr. von Schulze-Gaevernitz, one of the
foremost scholars and students of state'
craft in the German Empire.
Active In German Politics.
To a very considerable extent German
opinion of England, the English people
and their relative importance in the
scheme of things is based upon the writ
lugs of von Schulze-Gaevernitz, who spent
several years in England and wrote
voluminously of his observations there. In
von hchulze-Uaevernitz s belief tbat the
English were a decadent race and the
British empire dying of dry rot, Dr.
Rumely, as he has more than once assured
me, thoroughly coincided as a result of his
own observations while at Oxford.
Dr. von Schulze-Gaevernitz had also
travelled extensively in Russia and helped
by his writings to form German opinion of
Russia and the Russians. Of von Schulze-
Gaevernitz in his role of defender of and
apologist for Germany's world ambitions
you shall hear more later, for the friend'
ship that sprung up between the German
scholar and the young American medical
student proved an enduring one, at least
up to a very short time before America
drew the sword against Germany.
I do not know that young Rumely was
the- one who suggested to the socialists
of Freiburg that they were throwing away
their votes by nominating a third party
ticket find thereby always insuring the
election of a member of the Catholic
party to the Reichstag from that district
he tells with great gusto, however, of the
adoption by the socialist party, of whicn
he was a member, of the proposal to com
bine with tho liberal party in nominating
Dr. von Schulze-Gaevernitz, a plan which
proved so successful that the eminent
apostle of Kultur became the member oi
the Reichstag from that particular sec
tion of the Black Forest.
It was not long after this excursion into
German politics that a reconciliation with
his family in America came about and
young Rumely returned to Laporte, in
September, 1000, bringing with him his.
German degree of M. I. and unshakable
belief in the ultimr.te destiuy of the Ger
man nation to world domination.
Young Rumely had not been back in
America more than a few months before
he set on foot his first venture in the in
troduction of German Kultur into bls
native land. This was t'.ie establishment
of a school for boys which had for its
principle and avowed purpose the train
ing of rich men's sons to become masters
of men and lords of tbe land.
In Germany he had seen and studied
at first hand the most highly socialized
nation on the face of tbe globe. He had
seen a country with every acre of tillable
land under intensive cultivation a nation
ruled by a governing class of landed pro
prietors, whose vast estates were tilled
for them by patient peasants and toiling
tenant farmers. ! America ' had no such
class of Junkers. There were schools in
plenty to teach the trades and train boys
into artisans, but there were no schools
designed to take the boy destined to in
herit the control of big business and man-
facturing enterprises and teach him how
to become a ruler of workmen.
Dr. Rumely conceived a school that
would take these boys from eight years
old Upward and by a combination of
scholastic and manual education' fit them
to understand the fundamentals of indus
try and agriculture while at the same time
preparing for entrance to te university,
"These are the boys who will be the
rulers of America in the next genera
tion," he said to me the first time I vis
ited his school. "The future welfare ot
America depends upon their fitness to
rule and direct the destinies of the na
don."
The school was started in 1007 at La
porte. An able young educator, Fatrick
H. Riordan, waa employed as Dr.
Rumely's chief assistant and the institu
tion grew and flourished. Many wealthy
men enrolled their sons as students and
the boys liked the school and its methods.
It was not long before it became neces
sary for the institution to move into
larger quarters and the doctor purchased
a tract of several hundred acres of farm
and wood land surrounding a beautiful
little lake near the village of Rolling
Prairie, a few miles east ot Laporte.
Here the construction of school buildings
on a huge scale by the boys themselves
was undertaken. Trees were cut down
in the forests surrounding the lake and
great school buildings, dormitories and
other structures built in rustic fashion
out of the rough logs.
Names School "Intorlakon."
To the school thus built Dr. Rumely
gave the German name of "Interlaken."
Very early in the history of the Inter
laken School marked differences of opin
ion and point of view developed between
Dr. Rumely and Mr. Riordan, resulting
eventually in the latter's withdrawal and
the establishment of a school of his own
in New York State. With Mr. Riordan's
departure Dr. Rumely found no further
opposition to the execution of the educa
tional ideas and methods he had brought
from Germany and those which he had de
veloped.
Great attention was paid to the phys
ical development of the boys. The lake
furnished an ideal swimming pool, and
the boys were taught and encouraged to
swim, to row and fish, and in winter to
skate. I sat on the bank of the lake one
summer afternoon with Dr. Rumely
watching a group of his pupils swim
ming and diving and running along the
shore, while the doctor commented on the
grace and beauty of their naked bodies
glistening in the sunshine.
Extolled German Fayaleal Ideals.
"One of the most hopeful things about
Germany," he said, "is the way the
young men of wealth and family are
going in for physical development They
are not doing this as the English do,
merely for the sake of sport or to make
themselves pleasing and attractive to
women, but in the spirit of the aucient
Greeks, realising that tbe rulers of the
perfect state must be themselves per
fectly developed."
Tbe boys at Interlaken did all of the
work of the school. Tbey not only built
their own houses and school buildings,
but took care of them. Each boy was
required to make his own bed, clean his
own room or his part of the dormitory,
even wash his own clothes. The gen
eral policing and cleaning up of build
ings and grounds was assigned to the
boys, each boy being in turn placed in
command of other boys to perform spec
ified parts of this work.
Except for the Chinese cooks and one
fireman in the central heating plant
nud power house, all tho labor of the
school proper was performed by the
boys. They also did the bulk of the
agricultural labor on the two hundred
acre farm under the direction of a farm
manager.
One of the educational ideas which
Dr. Rumely brought from Germany and
put into effect nt Interlaken was that
of taking groups of boys out on long
tramps over the countryside. Some
times these pilgrimages would cover only
a couple of days, sometimes longer peri
ods. With Dr. Rumely and about forty
boys from Interlaken aehool I went on
one of these walking trips.
Took n Fifteen W1I Tramp.
We tramped from Interlaken one Satur
day afternoon to a point on the eastern
hore of Lake Michigan, about fifteen
miles distant, where we camped for the
night amid the sand dunes, and the next
day, after a plunge in the lake, tramped
back to the school. As we marched
along the dusty roadside Dr. Rumely
talked enthusiastically about his tramps
round Germany with parties of German
school boys. On this, and other occasions
too, ho told me of his dream of the de
velopment in America of a class of great
landed proprietors who would bo the
leaders and rulers of America.
"These boys, or most of them," he said
will inherit fortunes and the control of
great enterprises. If they are early given
training in the fundamentals of agricult
ure and the habit of outdoor life, are
taught to work with their hands and so be
able later to direct intelligently the work
of others who labor with their hands,
many , of them will buy large tracts of
land and put it under cultivation with
modern methods of scientific agriculture.
American men of wealth are already be
ginning to turn their eye back to the
land. It is to these men that we must
look for leadership and I hope to see the
fathers of many of my boys here buying!
great farms for them and starting them
on a solid foundation.
Day of Small Farmer Over.
"The day of the small farmer is about
over. Modern agriculture is a big buai
ness operation and must be financed by
men or wealth."
If this sounds like strange doctrine
for a socialist, remember tht Dr. Rume
ly's socialism is the German State so
cialism, the scheme of things under
which a ruling class founded upon its
landed estates and controllinc the wealth
and capital of the nation provides,
through its servants, the scholars and
intellectuals, an exactly measured modi
cum of comfort and happinoss for the
individuals of the lower Classes, whom
(t trains from childhood to the occupa
tions of the artisan and tbe peasant
This sort of socialism docs not ques
tion tho right of the rich to rule the
poor, of the strong to dictate to the weak.
It is tbe socialism that cornea with Its
hat in Its hand begging the rich and all
powerful rolers of the State to grant as
a privilege the things that are every
human being's right.
It wis on one of these hikes with Dr.
Rumely nnd tbe boys of the Interlaken
school that Dr. Rumely expressed him
self to me on the subject of German mi
itary effieiency.
Savr Valoe tn Boys Waks.
"There is wonderful educational value,"
he said, "for boys in tramps about
the country like this. My friend, Har
rington Emerson, the efficiency engineer,
told me that his whole career was shaped
by ft trip, when a boy, with his father
in the wake of von Moltke's army. What
impressed him was tho thoroughness snd
completeness with which the German
plans for the advance on Paris bad been
developed and carried out"
At one time tbe Interlaken school had
nearly one hundred and fifty students.
The list of Its patrons who sent their
boy 8 there to be educated reads like a
section of the Directory of Directors
Through these boys Dr. R timely came
in contact with many of their parents,
men of large affairs, many of whom were
greatly impressed with the brilliancy of
the young pedagogue's mind, his enthu
siasm and his energy.
It was through the Interlaken school
that Dr. Rumely met and gained the
friendship of Mr. S. S. McClure, with
whom he was later to be associated in
the New York Evening MaiL Mr. Mc
Clure was one of the first to respond to
the doctor's announcement of tbe open
ing of the school and enrolled his adopt
ed son, Enrico, now serving with the Col
ors in France, as one of the very first
pupils. Enrico developed a special apti
tnde for agriculture and for some time
before his enlistment managed success
fully the McClure farm in Connecticut
School Not Propaganda Inspired.
I want to make myself perfectly clear
in pointing out that there is not the
slightest ground for suspicion that the
Interlaken school,, either as to its incep
tion or its conduct, was any part of a
conscious German propaganda in Amer
ica. The German language and history
were and are taught there, but so, too.
are Jfrencn and fengusn. a Dumper
of the teachers, at various times, espe
cially those employed as instructors in
tbe arts and crafts have been German
born. I have told in some detail of the
plan and programme of the school he
cause it plays an important part in any
attempt to analyze snd understand the
man who founded it
School teaching alone, however, pro
vided no adequate outlet for the un
bounded energies and unquenchable en
thusiasm for new ideas which are Ed
ward A. Rumely's dominont character
istics.
The development of American agri
culture on big lines had taken possession
of his fancy. It is characteristic of the
man to think in bin terms. To whatever
line of activity he directs his interest his
confidence in himself and his ability to
carry the project through ia not dimmed
by the mere size of the enterprise.
Here at hand l. y the nucleus of an en
terprise that was not only directly con
nectcd with agriculture, but which seemed
to offer the opportunity to develop
gigantic industrial enterprise as well the
agricultural implement business that his
grandfather had founded and his father
and uncles had continued.
"When I took over the management of
the Rumely Company it was earning
about thirty thousand dollars a year," Dr.
Rumely once told me. "I made it earn
one hundred thousand dollars in my first
year, around half a million dollars the
second year and above a million the third
year.
The Rumely Company business hod
been growing rapidly while Edward A
Rumely was abroad. When he came back
he found the family enterprise was build
ing a much larger line of agricultural
implements than ever before. Among the
other products of the company was a
steam tractor for hauling ploughs, oper
a ting threshing machiues and taking-the
placo of horses generally in farm work.
Among his other talents Dr. Rumely
has a distinct bent for mechanics. In the
course of his life in Germany he had wit
nessed the astounding development in
that country of the internal combustion
engine. Ibe steam engine was to ms
mind antiquated and crude.
What the American fnrmer needed.
he decided, was a tractor operated by an
internal combustion engine. To compete
with tbe steam engine it must bo simple
and rugged in its construction and i:sc
fuel readily obtainable anywhere nt rea
sonable cost Gasolene was expensive
and growing more so, but kerosene, ne,
i
longer the chief product of the oil re
finer, but now an incidental by-product
to the manufacture of gasolene, was
cheap and getting cheaper. He con
vinced the other members of his fam- '
lly, who were, with himself, the control
ling owners of the Rumely Company.
a fortune lay within their graspif""f2ey
could develop a kerosene engine and a
tractor operated by it
Kerosene Encrlne Developed, " '
The first kerosene tractor built In tLs
Rumely . plant was an object of tho
greatest interest and curiosity to every
one connected with the concern. It was
affectionately nicknamed "Kerosene An
nie," and great was the speculation in
the shops and the offices as to whether
Kerosene Annie would really work. At
last the tractor was finished and it
worked. Under Dr. Rumely's manage
ment for he had now been made general
manager cf tho M. Rumely Company,
the organization at once entered upon a
career of tremendous expansion. When
the development work on Kerosene Ai
nie was completed in 1910 the buiB4at
represented perhaps $2,000,000 of iarZQh.
ment "
In a statement signed by Dr. IS. Al
Rumely, general manager, issued in Janu
ary, 1912, he pointed out that in fifteen
months a million dollar plant had been
constructed for the manufacture of tho
new Oil-Pull Tractor, which was tho
name by which "Kerosene Annie" had
been officially christened; that the com
pany's stock had been increased to ten
million dollar of common stock and
twelve million preferred; that the agri
cultural implement businesses of Gear,
Scott & Co of Richmond, Ind., and the
Advance Thresher Company, of Battle
Creek, Mich., had been acquired snd sb-
sorbed, and tbat nothing but prosperity
lay ahead. There was, apparently, ample
ground to justify this optimism.
Tho Oil-Pull Tractor had mads a big
hit from the start Dr. Rumely had
spent huge sums in advertising it to the
farmers snd it was proving its superior
efficiency wherever tractor trials snd
ploughing contests were held. The new
plant was a model factory in every sense
of the word. I went through it soon after
it was in fan operation. I had seen many
big manufacturing plants, but never be
fore one in which every process seemed to
be so nearly automatic.
"What did you think of the new plant?"
Dr. Rumely asked me after I had in
spected it
Nobody Worfcod Hard at Plant.
"It is the first plant I ever saw where -the
men sat in rocking chairs and let the
machines do the work." I replied. "The
only men I saw doing any work were
some fellows out in the shed chipping
castings. :
"We're putting in a pneumatic machine
to do that also," replied Dr. Rumely.
Other manufacturers came to see the
new plant and to study the methods by
which the business of the M. Rumely
Company had multiplied so rapidly. On a
of these visitors was Henry Ford, the
automobile manufacturer whose gigantic
Success has been built on the application
of the soundest methods of qusntity pro
duction. Mr. Ford took a liking to tha
enthusiastic young general manager of tho
Rumely Company, but he shook his head
after ha had looked into the general
scheme of the business.
"You are making too many different
things," he told Dr. Rumely. "Besides,
your tractor is too expensive. There are
not enough farmers who can use or af
ford to pay for tractors that cost from
$1,000 to $3,000 each. What you want
to do is to make one design of cheap
tractor and reach the broader market"
Mr. Ford's Forecast Fulfilled.
"He wanted me to lend him $10,000..
000," Mr. Ford told me recently, "but
I didn't believe his methods were sound.
snd I did not let him have it He said
that if I did not lend it to him he -could
get it in Wall street I told him if he
did that it would not be long before
Wall street owned his business, and that
is exactly what happened."
The first time I ever met Edward A.
Rumely was the day he got back from bis
successful visit to Wall street in search
of additional working capital. X had
stopped off at Laporte on my way West
with a letter of introduction to him, in
.une l'Ji-. tie got iu on ue next cram
and we had hardly shaken hands before
be began to tell me about the wonderful
piece of financing ho had just put through
for the Rumely Company.
"I have just placed two billion dollars
back of the Rumely Company!" he ex
claimed. "I have got the backing of the
United States Steel Corporation and tha
Standard Oil!"
He showed me documents in which
New York private bankers agreed to dis
count ten million dollars of tbe Rumely
Company notes, secured by the deposit of
farmers' notes to tho Rumely Company.
He was as gay and ebullient as a school
boy. His .troubles were over! There
were unlimited millions yet available
where these had . come from ard the
Rumely Company, with the Oil-Pull Trac
tor was going to show the International
Harvester Company just where to head
in!
In the next instalment XXr.
Stockbridge will tell the story of
the Rumely Company's financial
crash. 'He will also tell how Dr.
Rumely disclosed to him tha
whole German plan and purpose
in the war as it has since been
developed and proposed to educats
tha American people to tie Ger
man viewpoint.
fi ryT re
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