"Business is Business"

In a Cleveland law office, that of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, there sat last week among the lawyers two men, Frank A. Seiberling, 69, and his old friend, Edgar B. Davis, 55.

Mr. Seiberling was once the president and life of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. ; he was one of Akron's rubber barons.

In those days, Mr. Davis was a director of the U. S. Rubber Co. The intention of the men who had incorporated the U. S. Rubber Co. in 1892 had been to merge the many rubber manufacturers of the U. S. They did gather together into an efficient union scattered makers of diverse rubber products in the East, but they could not persuade the individualistic Akron barons to merge.

Mr. Davis made a trip to the Orient & South Sea Islands. Among the Sunda Islands he recognized ideal climate for rubber tree cultivation. In Sumatra he developed rubber plantations. Others, notably Firestone Tire & Rubber, have followed since.*

In the Orient, Edgar B. Davis, U. S. businessman, became Edgar B. Davis, mystic. Eastern religion had touched his imagination; mysticism satisfied his soul./-

Mr. Davis became a rich man--although not so rich as Mr. Seiberling. He sold his interests in U. S. Rubber, and with his money prospected for oil in Texas. He lest all except faith in Texas oil. He called on his friend for a loan, and promptly got $57,000. Then he struck oil, made $12,000,000.

In 1920 the business depression which jostled William Crapo Durant out of General Motors jolted Frank A. Seiberling out of Goodyear. He retained his stock in the corporation, but had no money. As many men did, Edgar B. Davis knew of the wreckage; as few men did, he went to Mr. Seiberling's help. Together they formed the Prudential Securities Co. Mr. Davis put in $500,000 and guaranteed $5,000,000 of company pledges. To the Prudential Securities Co. Mr. Seiberling pledged his Goodyear stock and other personal assets, and thereby secured cash. Friend Davis in a corporate way had loaned the money.

That cash helped finance the Seiberling Rubber Co. six years ago. President Frank A. Seiberling of Seiberling Rubber (his second great rubber company) has made it successful, prosperous. For 1927 its net profits were $1,356,707.

With the "comeback" of the rubber industry, Prudential Securities has made money on the Goodyear and Seiberling rubber company stocks, which it held. But Prudential Securities was created to help Mr. Seiberling, not to profit. Therefore, slight Mr. Seiberling and bulky Mr. Davis met in the Cleveland lawyers' office last week and dissolved the company. This relieved Mr. Davis of his $5,000,000 guarantee and it repaid him his $500,000 cash. Mr. Seiberling and lawyers tried to persuade him to accept interest on his money. He refused. Said he: "Business is business, but friendship is also friendship." Mystic and baron clasped hands. And an "obligation is an obligation" to Reuben H. Donnelley, 63, president of Reuben H. Donnelley Corp. (Chicago publishers of directories) and vice president of R. R. Donnelley & Sons (Chicago printers).** Last week, sick abed in St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, he told a story all but forgotten.

In 1905 he was partner in the Chicago stock brokerage firm of Knight, Donnelley & Co. He had just finished a term as president of the Chicago Stock Exchange. Then came bankruptcy. The partnership paid 27-c- on the dollar and was declared legally free of debt.

During the 22 years that Mr. Donnelley has spent becoming rich again he has carried the weight of what he felt was a moral obligation. Last week he threw it off, paying all old creditors he could locate, with interest for 22 years. The sum was more than $650,000. In San Francisco, executors opened the will of the late California lawyer Gavin McNab (TIME, Jan. 9). It read in part: "I give to Mrs. A. M. Elkins, of Palo Alto, the sum of $35,000. This is to cover the results of certain investments I made for her and certain advice I gave her which did not turn out well. ... I leave the sum of $5,000 to J. P. Fennell. He once made an investment on information I gave him. The investment did not turn out as well as expected. This will compensate him."

*Last week the Federal Radio Commission gave Firestone permission to experiment with short wave radio between Akron and its African plantations.

/-An old friend of Mr. Davis has written a play, The Ladder, whose motif is reincarnation. Friendly Mr. Davis has produced the play and kept it on the stage in spite of a loss that now totals some three quarters of a million dollars. At present he is showing it without charge to incredulous Manhattan. **His brother Thomas E. Donnelley is president of the printing company. Another brother, the late Ben Donnelley, was a famed member of the Princeton football eleven of 1889.