Invaders Repelled

In western New York State's Triple Cities of Endicott, Binghamton and Johnson City last week, residents poured into a temporary office with their pledges of help to repel an invader. A 13-year-old schoolboy offered $142 saved from his newspaper route. A local dairy put up $100,000. A Boy Scout troop signed up for $150. A Greek Orthodox church proffered $3,000. A medical group pledged $25,000. Endicott's Post 82 of the American Legion pledged $50,000, offering to take "the plaster off the walls and sell the post home" if more was needed.

The pledges were to buy shares of the Endicott-Johnson Corp., the Triple Cities' biggest employer and the nation's second largest shoe manufacturer (first: International Shoe Co.). The aggressor--at least in the eyes of the company's 13,000 local employees and the overwhelming majority of the Triple Cities' population of 200,000--was the multi-industry Glen Alden Corp., headed by Albert A. List.

The Offer. Three weeks ago Glen Alden sent a letter to Endicott-Johnson stockholders offering to buy--at $30.50 a share--all of the company's 810,000 shares of common stock, then selling at $27.50. A week later Endicott-Johnson Director Jacob M. Kaplan, onetime Welch Grape Juice president, was revealed to have sold 60,000 shares of his stock to Glen Alden, explained that he thought the shoe concern was "a dying company." Word quickly spread through the Triple Cities that Glen Alden, if it got control, would move the plants--a rumor Glen Alden denied.

The Three Cities' Chambers of Commerce formed a committee to obtain pledges from local residents to buy $5,000,000 worth of shares, pushed the stock to $34. Some Endicott-Johnson employees circulated a petition requesting that $10 million of their pension fund be invested in E-J stock if necessary to block Glen Alden's bid, got 65% of the workers to sign. One reason: many E-J workers migrated from nearby coal fields where Glen Alden mining operations declined in recent years, caused layoffs.

The Reaction. Behind the employee support of Endicott-Johnson are nearly 50 years of one of the most remarkable and benevolent managements in U.S. business, the work of three generations of Johnson-family management. The first Johnson, George F. Johnson, stepped in in 1895, a year after the company was formed. He started complete and free medical care for all employees in 1919--a policy that continues today. In 1916 E-J was one of the first U.S. companies to go on an eight-hour day. The company has built or provided mortgages for about 3,500 homes sold to employees at cost. During the Depression, the company saw to it that at least one member of every family worked two days a week, during World War II sent servicemen-employees their annual bonus and vacation pay. Not surprisingly, the firm's labor force has consistently rejected unionization. The Triple Cities have also benefited from a number of parks and playgrounds donated by the company, as well as an 18-hole golf course with greens fees of only 50-c-. Although the company's sales and profits have been slipping in the last decade, with a loss in fiscal 1960, few in the Triple Cities believe that E-J is dying. "Young Frank" Johnson, 52, who became president four years ago, launched an ambitious program to put new life in the company. By last week it was evident that Young Frank would have his chance; at week's end the citizens' committee reported that from 45% to 48% of EJ's total stock was in friendly hands. Glen Alden's known count: only 7% of the stock.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.