Edward Thompson Company

“ He walked seventy-five miles across country to a trading post of the rival company, and from there was sent to headquarters at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, where he was welcomed and set to work and soon after received into active partnership.
Life now became to David Thompson a continual joy in the sense of freedom to do the kind of work he loved to do well. His was the task of locating scientifically the various trading posts of the North West Company, and the energy with which he entered into the hardships and toil of such a task is an inspiration to contemplate. ”

“ In 1879 Thompson became chairman of the Midland railway company, which concern immediately began to reap benefit from his prudent and energetic management. He was also chairman of the Glasgow and South-Western railway, and a director and some time chairman of the Forth Bridge railway company. The sanction of parliament for the erection of the Forth Bridge had been obtained in 1873, but the work was not begun till 1882, when the direction of the policy of the Midland railway company was greatly influenced by Thompson. The shareholders of the Forth Bridge company were guaranteed 4 per cent. ”

“ Thompson was gifted with great tact and had a way which pleased him, he would give him a house and garden rent free, with coal and wood, and a salary of eighty pounds for the first year, if he would in return give all his time and best services to him as steward, adding, "I know you will quickly learn what is necessary, and will suit me far better than a man who has been brought up to the business." ”

“ David Thompson had an abhorrence for liquor in every form and also was a devout man in his daily life and ambitious to do his work thoroughly, and when it happened that the chief factor at York, who was a surly man and gen- erally disliked, sent orders to do no more surveying, he decided to make a change, 11 and so we find in his journal on May 23rd, 1797, this entry : "This day left the service of the Hudsons' Bay Company, and entered that of the Company of Merchants from Canada. May God Almighty prosper me." ”

“ Operatives had to be drawn from the farms and needed to be trained not only to work in the mills but also to habits of regularity and punctuality. The New England overseers who were imported for this purpose sometimes failed in dealing with these new recruits to industrialism because of inability to make due allowance for their limitations. Accustomed to the truck system in agriculture, the managers often paid wages in scrip always good for supplies at the company store but redeemable in cash only at infrequent intervals. ”

“ But to go and fight against logs of wood that a ball cannot pierce, and with people we cannot see and with whom we are at peace, is what I am averse to. I go no further!" So saying, he slowly fitted the pipe to the stem and handed it to Kootenae Appee. Led by Kootenae Appee, they all smoked; and, having accepted Thompson's present, were unable to go further against him. Thus by his own resource and by the support of an old friend won in the days of his service for the Hudson's Bay Company, David Thompson prevented the destruction of the first trading post on the Columbia. ”

“ By the year 1772, the Montreal traders had crossed from the Saskatchewan to the still more northerly Churchill river, and cut the line of communication ordinarily used by the Indians of Lake Athabaska in their long journey to Hudson Bay. The consolidation of the rival interests into one great firm—the North West Company—was accomplished in 1784 at the very time of Thompson's arrival in the West. This achievement brought vastly increased strength to the Montreal traders by mitigating the evils of their fierce competition. ”

“ The factor seemed well pleased with the undertaking. He checked up the goods and opined that the deal would show a rare profit for the Company.
"Ye have a hundred an' twenty-six dollars due, over an' above a charge or two against ye," he said to Thompson when they went over the accounts. "How will ye have it? In cash? If ye purpose to winter at Lone Moose a credit maybe'll serve as well. Or, if ye go out, ye can have a cheque on the Company at Edmonton."
"Give me the hundred in cash," Thompson decided. "I'll take the twenty odd in grub. ”

“ At first she possessed only one commercial asset, the reputation of Thompson's. For so many years Thompson's had been known as a good shop that here was a legend which [Pg 15] might counterbalance debts, exhausted credit, antiquated stock, and incompetent staff.
The town and the country during generations had come to Thompson's for good things—not cheap things, but the things that last: dress fabrics that stand up by themselves, chairs and tables that you can leave intact to your grandchildren, carpets that unborn men will be beating when you yourself are dust. ”

“ The fathers of the Scottish settlement were gathered about the stove in Store Thompson's shop. This emporium was a respectable rival of Pete Nash's tavern across the way. Anyone, weary of the noise and wrangling which characterised that lively establishment, might step across to Store Thompson's haven and find rest and quiet, a never-failing hospitality and a much better social atmosphere. To-night the company represented the best the settlement could produce, several of the MacDonalds and a few of the inhabitants of the Glen. ”

“ The manufacturer of inferior goods is not looking very far into the future. He is not trying to build permanently on the basis of reputation, but to squeeze out Right Now every cent of possible profit. ”

“ And here might well end the story of Jees Uck but for the crown she put upon her renunciation. When she returned to the North to dwell in her grand log-house, John Thompson found that the P. C. Company could make a shift somehow to carry on its business without his aid. Also, the new agent and the succeeding agents received instructions that the woman Jees Uck should be given whatsoever goods and grub she desired, in whatsoever quantities she ordered, and that no charge should be placed upon the books. Further, the Company paid yearly to the woman Jees Uck a pension of five thousand dollars. ”

“ He held out his hand and he shook Tommy's so congratulatorily that Tommy realized in part what had happened. He felt that he was progressing.
“Keep on the job, D. O. Remember that miracles are worked with men by men, and not by machinery nor by wages alone.” And Thompson walked off, smiling.
Tommy walked into Bill's new quarters. Bill was happy beyond words, having no financial cares. His contract called for the sale of his patents to the Tecumseh at a price and on a basis to be determined by three men, one chosen by Byrnes, one by the company, and the third by both the others. ”

“ It was carried on after his death by two of his nephews and then by his son, until 1888, when it was sold to the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven.
Here then, in these early New England gunshops, was born the American system of interchangeable manufacture. Its growth depended upon the machine tool, that is, the machine for making machines. Machine tools, of course, did not originate in America. English mechanics were making machines for cutting metal at least a generation before Whitney. ”

“ Being appointed captain's coxswain and valet suited Thompson to a nicety, and it was amusing to see how he adapted himself to his new position, as from a merry wag he suddenly quieted down into a solemn-looking fellow. We hardly need say this was all assumption on his part, but "quiet dignity tinged with a slight shade of melancholy" he considered the correct sort of thing for the role, and no one who saw him recognized the gay and festive youth of old times.
"Promotion's ruined Thompson," said the boatswain to Price. "He ain't hisself. I shouldn't wonder if he goes into a consumption." ”

“ To recognize the applicant's right to a trade-mark in that feature of [42] the machine, would enable the applicant to prevent the manufacture of its machines as constructed to-day, after all the patents covering it had expired, since no salable machine could be produced without infringing the trade-mark."
Trade-Marks Are Not Registrable if against Public Policy
The common good takes precedence of the rights of individuals. This is a principle of equity which has run through the fabric of Anglo-Saxon law for a thousand years. We find it developed into diverse and widely separated forms. ”

“ Money invested in advertising is as much a part of a business as if invested in buildings or machinery, and when the goods of a manufacturer have become popular, not only because of their intrinsic worth, but also by reason of the ingenious, attractive and persistent manner in which they have become advertised, the good-will thus created is entitled to protection against unfair competition. ”

“ There is nobody who can think it unkind if his name dies, too."
[Pg 362]
XXXIII
The pleasant years were slipping away, and Mrs. Thompson was just as busy as she had ever been. She had long ago ceased to speak of retiring, and now she did not even think of it. The success of Bence's had continued to swell larger and larger; its trade grew steadily and surely; its financial position was so strong that nothing could shake it.
Prentice and Archibald Bence often advised the proprietress to turn herself into a company, and she was more or less disposed to adopt their suggestion. ”

“ Just now we're running short o' flour,—wouldn't sell a fifty-pound sack to a white man for less than twenty-five dollars. There hain't been trade enough with whites up to this year to make it worth while to carry a big stock, for, as you probably know by this time, it's a hard job to get supplies over the summit."
"Have you heard about the big party behind us?" asked Roly.
"Yes, Al King told me about them the other day, when he passed here."
"Will you sell provisions to them?" asked David. "They've been on short rations right along."
"Not in large amounts. They must look out for themselves. ”

“ Thompson subsequently participated in Cumberland-Ely, El Reyo, Inspiration, La Rose, Utah Copper, Mason Valley, and other mining promotions, and is now rated at $10,000,000 to $12,000,000. He is generally prominent at the nutritious or selling end when a good market exists and is now head of a New York Stock Exchange brokerage and mining promotion firm which publishes its own newspaper. ”

“ And, consequently, the expanding circle of a manufacturer's trade rippled out with exceeding slowness. A national sale of any product was the result of perhaps several generations of slowly expanding effort—and when once established, it was generally entrenched far beyond the reach of competitors or substitutes. People lived simply, and manufactured articles were few. ”

“ The story of the enterprise thus begun forms one of the brightest pages in the industrial history of America; for these partners had the wisdom and foresight to make provision at the outset for the comfort and well-being of their operatives. Their mill hands were to be chiefly girls drawn from the rural population of New England, strong and intelligent young women, of whom there were at that time great numbers seeking employment, since household manufactures had come to be largely superseded by factory goods. ”

“ This young couple can get cash anywhere on "A. B. A." Travelers' Cheques.
But before the final explanatory advertisements appeared, another concern selling "Cook's Flaked Rice", a similar product, caused advertisements to be printed in the same newspapers, in which they announced that "K. T. C." meant "Keep to Cook's".
"La Belle Chocolatière," the trade-mark of Walter Baker's Chocolate.
The Kellogg firm obtained an injunction against this advertising on the ground of unfair competition, in that the defendant was misappropriating the good-will created by the Kellogg Company's advertising. ”

“ Thompson is personally sensitive, kind-hearted, self-sacrificing; he never speaks ill of any one, delights in doing good, and enjoys hearing and telling a good story; he is quiet, yet full of fun; generous to a fault. His company has become much attached to him.
In the village of Swansey is Mr. Thompson's summer home; a beautiful mansion, surrounded by grounds where art and nature combine to please. The hospitality of the house is proverbial, but its chief attraction is its well-stocked library.
[14]
NATIONAL BANKS. THE SURPLUS FUND AND NET PROFITS. By George H. Wood. ”

“ It is but human nature that this sort of monopoly should be odious to any community."* Miller appears to have calculated that the planters could afford to pay for the use of the new invention about one-half of all the profits they derived from its use. An equal division, between the owners of the invention on the one hand and the cotton growers on the other, of all the super-added wealth arising from the invention, seemed to him fair. ”

“ Having made friends with the natives and taken the observations necessary to determine the position of their villages, Thompson prepared to depart. As the Mandans dwelt in the territory of the United States, and it was contrary to the treaty of 1794 for a British company to plant trading posts among them, commerce was possible only if they were willing to make the journey to McDonnell's house to trade. Accordingly a chief in the prime of life, together with four young warriors, was selected to accompany Thompson on the trip home. ”