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Small City Industrialists in the Age of Organization: Case Study of the Manufacturers' Association of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1908–1958

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

James H. Soltow
James H. Soltow
Affiliation:
Business History Fellow atHarvard Graduate School of Business Administration
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Abstract

The movement for nation-wide association among businessmen was echoed at the local level as well. This study of why and how a “grass roots” association developed suggests that the causative forces included not only material benefits but also a desire for status.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , Summer 1959 , pp. 178 - 189
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1959

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References

1 Quoted in Williams, Robin W., Jr., American Society: A Sociological Interpretation (New York, 1951), p. 466.Google Scholar

* This article is the revision of a chapter in a doctoral dissertation, “Manufacturing in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in the Twentieth Century,” completed in 1954 at the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Professor Thomas C. Gochran. The author wishes to express his appreciation to Mr. Walter A. Knerr, Executive Secretary of the Manufacturers' Association of Montgomery County, and Mr. Robert S. Scott, Director of Industrial Relations, for their cooperation in making available information about the association's history, but he assumes full responsibility for the accuracy of the data and for interpretations.

2 This is the concept developed by Boulding, Kenneth E., The Organizational Revolution (New York, 1953).Google Scholar

3 Hays, Samuel P., The Response to Industrialism (Chicago, 1957), p. 48.Google Scholar

4 Quoted in Hofstadter, Richard, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R. (New York, 1955), p. 214.Google Scholar

5 Trade associations on a regional basis had their origins as early as the second decade of the nineteenth century. Hunter, Louis C., Studies in the Economic History of the Ohio Valley (Northampton, 1934).Google Scholar However, the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth marked the “formative stage” of the development of national trade associations. National Industrial Board, Conference, Trade Associations: Their Economic Significance and Legal Status (New York, 1925), pp. 11–16.Google Scholar

6 Brady, Robert A., Business as a System of Power (New York, 1943), pp. 189–198.Google Scholar

7 Kelly, Alfred H., A History of the Illinois Manufacturers' Association (Chicago, 1940), pp. 3–6.Google ScholarBrumbaugh, R.Bruce, “The Grundy Movement In Pennsylvania” (Senior thesis, Princeton University, 1953), pp. 14–26.Google ScholarOwlett, Edward H., “The Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association: A Study of Business in Government” (Senior thesis, Princeton University, 1949), pp. 43–48.Google Scholar

8 U. S. Bureau of the Census, Twelfth Census of the United States, Vol. VIII, Manufactures, Part II (Washington: United States Census Office, 1902), pp. 760–761.Google ScholarU. S. Bureau of the Census, Census of Manufactures: 1947 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1950), Vol. III, p. 543.Google ScholarU. S. Bureau of the Census, U. S. Census of Manufactures: 1954 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1957), Vol. III, p. 137–5.Google Scholar 1956 Industrial Directory of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (14th ed.; Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1956), p. 739. Norristown Times Herald, July 26, 1957.

9 W. W. Finn to L. E. Taubel, March 8, 1909. Unless otherwise indicated, all correspondence cited here is in the files of the Manufacturers' Association of Montgomery County.

10 C. F. Williams to W. W. Finn, Nov. 6, 1908.

11 W. W. Finn to Woodstock Woolen Company, June 15, 1917.

12 Boulding, Organizational Revolution, pp. 19–21.

13 W. W. Finn to C. F. Williams, Feb. 7, 1913.

14 W. W. Finn in letters to various members of the association, May 17, 1912.

15 W. W. Finn to various members of the association, July 26, 1909.

16 W. W. Finn to various members of the association, July 5, 1917. The Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915 was patterned after a bill drawn up by the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association in 1913, although the Progressive Republican administration of Governor Brumbaugh claimed credit for its authorship. Brumbaugh, “The Grundy Movement in Pennsylvania,” pp. 22–24, 28–29.

17 W. W. Finn to Harrison Safety Boiler Works, Feb. 9, 1909. Report of secretary to members, 1910.

18 W. W. Finn to R. E. Gephart, Sept. 13, 1916.

19 Quaker City Shirt Manufacturing Company to W. W. Finn, April 12, 1912. Adam Scheidt Brewing Company to W. W. Finn, May 16, 1912.

20 Norristown Herald, Nov. 2, 1915; Dec. 22, 1915. Feature story on the association's history, Norristown Times Herald, Sept. 14, 1935.

21 Miscellaneous records of the association.

22 W. W. Finn to Harrison Safety Boiler Works, Oct. 27, 1917.

23 Walter Lynn, Associate Secretary, Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association, to W. W Finn, May 16, 1917. Finn to Lynn, May 28, 1917.

24 Norristown Times Herald, Sept. 14, 1935.

25 Annual reports of the Executive Secretary, 1928–1958. The ensuing discussion o the work of the Manufacturers' Association is based in large part upon the annual report submitted by Mr. Walter A. Knerr, Executive Secretary since 1927, upon reports prepared by the Executive Committee of the association, and upon information supplied orally b; Mr. Knerr and Mr. Bobert S. Scott, Director of Industrial Relations at the association.

26 Edward H. Owlett, “The Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association: A Study of Business in Government,” pp. 18–25.

27 Safety News (Manufacturers' Association of Montgomery County), May, 1958.

28 Brochure issued by Manufacturers' Association of Montgomery County, 1958.

29 About 90 per cent of annual dues income has been used for the work of the local organization, with the remainder going to the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association to support its activities.

30 Quoted in Brady, Business as a System of Power, p. 193.