(See front cover)
Favorite book of James Alvan Macauley, president of Packard Motor Car Co. since 1916 and of the Automobile Manufacturers Association since 1928, is Lorna Doone. Last week Alvan Macauley (the "James" disappeared long ago) might have quoted another British author to the effect that "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Some items contributing to Mr. Macauley's happiness:
¶ For the first nine months of 1935, Packard built 31,987 cars—seven times the number turned out during the same period in 1934.
&3182; During these same nine months Packard made $776,000. In the 1934 twelve-month it lost $7,290,000.
¶ Packard's 15,000,000 shares touched a last week's high of 7½. Last year's low was 2¾. President Macaulay, holding 339,245 shares, increased his net worth by $1,500,000.
¶ Successful was the new Packard One Twenty, named for its 120-inch wheelbase, selling around $1,000. Priced at less than half the standard Packard models, the One Twenty was delivered in February 1935. Since then more than 25,000 One Twenties have been produced, with the Packard baby outselling older models 5-to-1.
¶ Packard's 1936 schedule calls for 9,000 standard Packards, 70,000 One Twenties. Best previous production occurred in fiscal 1929 when some 50,000 cars were turned out.
The company which Mr. Macauley, the One Twenty and Recovery have done so much for outgrew its founders when still an infant. It was formed in 1899 in Warren, Ohio, by Brothers James and Warren
D. Packard. In 1903 it moved to Detroit, leaving the Packards behind. By that time two of its principal owners were young Yalemen who had served together in the Spanish War on the U. S. S. Yosemite— Henry Bourne Joy and Truman Handy Newberry, both born in November 1864. Mr. Joy, whose father formed the "Joy System" of railroads, part of which became the nucleus of the present Chicago, Burlington & Quincy served as Packard's president (1905-16). Mr. Newberry made a pleasant little splash as T.R.'s Secretary of the Navy (1908-09) and a large unpleasant splash a decade later when he defeated Henry Ford for the U. S. Senate, was accused of buying his seat with excessive campaign expenditures, resigned after he had been exonerated. When Mr. Macauley arrived as Packard's General Manager in 1910, the company was largely owned by the Joys, the Newberrys, the Algers, the McMillans and other First Families of Detroit.