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Colgatiana. Not the strongest, Colgate and Co. is the oldest soap company in the U. S. In 1795, Robert Colgate, staunch British Whig, fled from menacing Tories, arrived in America with his 12-year-old son William. An unfortunate dispute over land titles, from which Robert Colgate emerged penniless, has led the House of Colgate to muse, semi-officially:
"The wind whined a requiem, a crimson ring circled the descending sun and in the offing the buzzards circled low. Robert Colgate was at bay. He had tossed the world a nosegay and it had tossed him back a burr."
Son William spurned nosegays, burrs, turned instead to soap and candles. Apprenticed to soap makers and tallow chandlers, he prepared for the year 1806, when he resolved to strike out for himself. He was almost immediately successful. By 1845, he felt justified in building a boiling pan holding 45,000 Ibs. of soap, a marvel which drew curious visitors to Manhattan. Two years later, he moved to Jersey City (N. J.), where the present Colgate plant is built on seven city squares. He died in 1857.
All his sons were able. Son James organized a banking house, helped build up Colgate university (named for William). Son Robert pioneered in white lead. It was through Son Samuel that the Colgate soap dynasty continued. Sons and grandsons filled all executive offices with such unvaried regularity that the business world was astonished, last winter, when W. E. McCaw, no Colgate, became vice president in charge of sales and advertising. But Colgates still filled eight of the nine major executive posts.
Sidney M. Colgate, vice president and treasurer of Colgate and Co., is slated for the chairmanship of the board of Col-gate-Palmolive-Peet. Charles S. Pearce, president and general manager of Palmolive-Peet, will fill the same position for the merged companies. A. W. Peet, chairman of Palmolive-Peet, is to be chairman of the new executive committee.
The U. S., wedded to superlatives, likes to think of its magnates as the world's RICHEST, its industries as the world's BIGGEST. But last week, in England, William Hulme Lever, second Viscount Leverhulme, reflected that Lever Brothers, Ltd., together with hundred-odd associated companies, make more soap (Rinso, Life Buoy, Lux, Pears) than Colgate-Palmolive-Peet, more even than the mighty Procter & Gamble.
*Founder Woodbury chopped off his own neck. It was in the early days of display advertising when a young Albany (N. Y.) salesman approached him to urge him to insert an engraving of himself in the local newspaper. Flattered, Founder Woodbury consented, approved the draught of the advertisement. But the price shocked him. He took a shears from his desk, massacred his likeness inch by inch, while the agonized salesman quoted prices. At length the neck (with collar and cravat) disappeared. With a cry, the salesman snatched his copy, rushed from the room with Founder Woodbury's neckless head.