South Bend news-times., July 18, 1913, Afternoon Edition, South Bend in 1913 Edition, Image 24

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THE SOUTH BEND NEWS-TIMES.
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South bend-in-1913 edition.
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H - Av iK f rH Un
Joeing a ozory oj a i rue captain of indus
try Who, Willi His 'Four Brothers Built
Up a Business of 'World Wide Reputation
By THOMAS DREIER
A CCQRDING to the evi-tker, Jr., two brawny men !of the Red Gods. To him came
h dence submitted bv a '.who joyously, as good work- the wanderlust. The West was
natural history person; men must, served their com- calling and he couldn't hear
with a bulging forehead, the
lowly coral modesy oners it
self as a model after which
business men may build insti
tutions of the stern and rock
bound variety, against which
the waves of Failure may bat
ter and break in vain.
Obeying the same law that
governs folks, one coral deep
down in the sea gives birth to
another and dies. The second,
being but an outgrowth of the
parent and inseparable from
it, gives birth to a third. The
third follows the example of
its progenitors. After count
less millions have riven birth
and died, the coral reef juts its
head above the surface of the
sea to become the foundation
of some rich, palm-blessed is
land upon which human folks
will serve their time as toys in
the hands of Destiny.
Like a palm-blessed coral is
land in the sea of commerce is
that great institution of human
service which we shall here'
call The House of Studebaker.
Our task, it is true, is to
dwell at length upon the
achievements of these Stude
bakers who have made person
al impress upon our own times.
More particularly do we wish
to record here the lvstory of
the Grand Old Man of the dy
nasty, John Mohler Studebak
er not forgetting to give
glimpses here and there of the
monster vehicle manufactory
at South Bend, Indiana, whose
products, as was boasted of the
English Hag, follow thif morn-
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ing, drumbeats over the world.
But before sitting down to
chat in the sunshine of the
present, we must skitter in the
aeronef of our imagination
into the past, to discover and
study somewhat hurriedly the
nature of that original coral
upon which this 'rich, palm
blessed, commercial island ot
today has its foundation.
And we find, if we but pen
etrate as far back as 1736,
that the good ship Marie, after
showimr its stern at Rotter
dam, Holland, brought to
Philadelphia three hundred
and eighty-eight passengers,
among whom we m;i; find
five whose names appeared as
"Studebecker."
Our desire bein-- to come
back into the present bv the
most direct rout
e, we. content
a glance at
ourselves with
X those live Mudelvcker names
'in 1736 and shoot forward to1
. . .
1798 to peep for a moment at!
the tax list of York Count v, in
Pennsylvania. We find there
on the names of Peter Stude
baker, Sr., and Peter Stude-
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John Studebaker
the father of the five boys
munity by making wagons.
With these steady and stur:
dy men we must not linger.
Moving along just a wee bit
we find John Studebaker, the
son of Peter Studebaker, Jr.,
plying his father's trade just a
few miles east of Gettysburg.
Here we stop our mad flight
because we have discovered
what may be called The Master
Coral the real founder of the
world-known business that has
proven itself one of the great
est civilizing influences of all
times.
For this John Studebaker
was a man. Well might he
have served as a model for an
other Longfellow bent on
touching into English another
"Village Blacksmith." Order
ing his life by the golden rule
laid down by Paul "Owe no
man anything, but love one an-
I other" he pursued the even
: tenor of his way. To him there
! was nothing greater than the
command of common sense:
I t4This above all, be a good
j neighbor." He was a wagon-
I maker and a blacksmith. But
; he was the best' wagon-maker
:md blacksmith in his commun -
ity. Havmir mastered the art
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or serving n leuow men m ajijfe rr0Verning the uprearing
masterly manner, his business !a commercial coral island des-
grew until he became one of
i the wealthiest ot them.
But even this stolid, appar
ntlv unimaginative citizen
was" riven ears to hear the call
1r
.V
any thing else. Why he left a
certainty for an uncertainty he
could not tell. All he knew was
that the command had come to'
him and he had to obey.
So we find him, in 1835,
leaving his old home with his
wife and six children, anion?
which we find three, sons,
named Clement, Henry and
John Mohler, the first of
which was destined to win in
ternational fame. He purchas
ed a tract of one hundred and
sixty acres five miles east of
Ashland, Ohio. Here another
shop was erected, and here, as
in Gettysburg, the village
blacksmith won his way for
ward by the excellence of his
service. His name became a
synonym for honest, conscien
tious work. Here also appear
ed two other sons, Peter E.
and Jacob F. thus giving us
the five sons whose names to
day are immortalized in The
House of Studebaker.
Here we shall abandon our
ciimWnir js slmv luit steadv.
all in keeping with the law
Of
tined to withstand the storms
of time. We are to deal with
business men servants who
are just coming into their
own. A time there Was, and
that not so manv years ago,
when those engaged in trade
were crucified on the cross by
a toonsn society in wnose
lace- bedecked hands rested
the mace of social ostracism.
Todav we know that business
men are the priests and minis
ters of a civilization that is
speeding its way toward per
fection. They are the world
movers and world-shakers.
Back of every enterprise
from the discovery of Amer-
ica by that pioneering sates -
C7U71 f u.uJ
man, Christopher Columbus,
down to the development of
China stand keen-eyed,
alert, imaginative, broad-vis-ioned,
courageous business
men.
The inventors of the tele
graph, the telephone, the sub
marine cable, the various ma
chines that minister to the
needs of men, are missionaries
as brave as those that live in
history for their share in car
rying a brighter gospel to na
tions filled with people with
minds darkened by ignorance.
The inventors, the manufac
turers, the distributors of the
commodities of the world are
instruments directed by some
divinity to bring mankind
closer together. In the
old days, when Alexander
slipped from his teacher, Aris
totle, and, like the scourge of
Satan, conquered the world,
when Caesar swept through
Gaul and England, when Na
poleon, like a scarlet flower,
raised his head above the
blood of Europe in those old
days men went forth to con
quer by carrying death in their
hands. Today men are learn
ing that the greatest con
quests are those made in ser
vice that the business man is
greater than the soldier.
Away back in 1843, Rich
ard Cobden wrote: "When
government giyes to the arts
of peace the same thought and
attention that it gives to the
arts of war, we shall have
peace on earth and good will
among men But so long as
the soldier takes precedence of
the business man in the polit
ical courts of the world, fam
ine, death, disease 'and want
will crouch at our doors. Com
merce is production, war is de
struction. The laws of pro
duction and distribution must
and will be made a science;
and then and not until then
will happiness come to man-
y t.
v.. te
v .'.
re
1 tl !KMft-
kind and this earth serve as a
pattern for the paradise of an
other life, instead of being
made a pandemonium."
But why, you may ask,
all this introduced here bef
is
before
entering into the details of the
life story of The House of Stu
debaker? Because, if an answer you
must have, the training given
his children by that good old
Gettysburg blacksmith fitted
them to take their place in the
world as builders of wagons,
trucks, buggies, vehicles of all
kinds, as well as automobiles
aiLiluxness that havi exercised
a civilizing influence upon all
the nations of the earth, even
those to whom the glories of
the Stars and Stripes are
less than sounding brass and
tinkling cymbals.
"The temptations in busi
ness," said Richard Cobden,
"are so great that it demands
the highest type of con-
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science, the clearest brain, and
the, most generous manhood
that can be enlisted."
And that is what John Stu
debaker gave to his sons a
high conscience, clear minds
and generous manhood.
Because he endorsed a note
for a neighbor which the lat
ter was unable to pay during
the panic of 1837, John Stu
debaker lost all his posses
sions. Once .again he had to
do battle with poverty. Brave
ly he set himself to the task.
Selling his big farm, he rented
four acres, calling the place
with applause-compelling op
timism "Pleasant Ridge."
Here, with the help of his
sons, he worked until every
dollar of his indebtedness was
liquidated. This poverty
brought the members of the
family closer together as
poverty, and sorrow always do
fit
and together they began
blacksmithing and wagon
making, the. boys here gaining
their first real knowledge of
the business. Following the
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dictates of the father who
worshiped before the shrine
of Truth, the sons learned in
dustry, economy, persever
ence, patience, and, above all,
conscientiousness and hon
esty. I here submit that just as a
man's work is but an expres
sion of the character of the
man, so is a man made in the
image of the work he does.
I Our manual training schools
are as great moulders o: char
acter as our Sunday schools.
The man who uses "tools that
make for truth and accuracy
speedily forgets that which
was lauded bv Oscar Wilde in
his "Essay on Lying."
Studebaker, pere, although
he may have been unconscious
of it, worked in harmony with
that first great law of business
success which is expressed in
"Confidence is the basis of
trade." He was a man of ster
ling character and rugged
health. His word flung into
the air in a fleeting moment
was worth more than many
another's written on parch
ment and sworn to before a
man of the law. In this way
did he form the charac
ters of his sons, not
knowing that upon this very
foundation would they build a
business that would conquer
the world.
His Assets Were Character
and Health.
Maeterlinck somewhere
points out the independence of
all things by telling us of the
old man sitting quietly in his
study whose winking eyelids
affect the movements of a dis
tant star. The sons of Stude
baker early learned this lesson.
They first learned the joy of
service in their own home, and
then they practiced the lesson
in the greater world. In their
boyhood days they once drove
fifty miles to an adjoining
county to work as farm hands.
The eldest received eighty
cents per day, the next oldest
fifty cents, while the young
est received twenty-five ccnis.
With savings reaching sixty
dollars they returned home
and turned their sweat-earned
wealth over to 'their father.
With this impressionistic
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picture of the early life of the
Studebakers we pass on to the
next period which discovers to
us the commercial coral reef
just about to jut above the
surface of the commercial sea.
With an independence that
characterized these rugged
workers, as soon as they were
old enough to sustain their
own weight in flight from the
parental nest if 1 may be per
mitted recklessly to mix meta
phors and allow feathered
creatures to jostle coral the
two eldest left home and trav-
eled overland to South. Bend,
in Northern Indiana, within a
stone's throw of the Michigan
line.
South Bend was then a
straggling village perched on
the sand dunes. Little had it
to offer to Clement and Henry
Studebaker. Even they did
not know that here Fate
would mate them with Oppor
tunity and that the child of the
marriage would people the
village with thousands of hon
est workers. They came
seeking work, and, in accord
ance with the scriptural prom
ise, they found it. Clem
taught school for a time, ex
changing the birch on Satur
days and holidays for a place
at an anvil in a local shop for
which service he was reward
ed with fifty cents a day.
Denying themselves the
imitation pleasures offered by
the 'straggling village loafing
places, the boys saved their
money and, in 1852, the firm
of H. & C. Studebaker, wag-on-makersnndblacksmiths,
be
gan business in a little frame
building, with a capital of
sixty-eight dollars. Two wag
ons were sent out bearing the
Studebaker name that first
year, one of which remained
in daily service for thirtv-three
years. In those days their iron
was purchased a bar at a time,
and one horse could haul what
iv
lumber they needed. Like one
Benjamin Franklin, Printer,
they could carry their posses
sions in a wheelbarrow. Fol
lowing in the footsteps of the
immortal Ben, they won the
confidence of their neighbors
by their industry, their sobri
ety, and the quality of their
work. With prophetic vision
they saw that the time would
coiiie when the wagon-mak-ing
would leap into the lead,
but, like wise business men
bent on placing a solid found
ation under their institution,
they were patient with slow
growth, earning reaxly money
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