Transcription
Irene, Just see how J.P.S. boils over when the fire is burning
Dad
COPY
January 4, 1928
ALL LAMBERT SALESMEN:
I am enclosing an article that appeared on the front page of the Akron Times Press on New Year’s Day which is self explanatory [sic].
I do not send it to you merely because it is about my Father, because I am not given to shouting family praises, but because the situation which gave rise to the article is one from which you and I and everyone, can draw a lesson well worth thinking about.
Starting in 1898 – broke, thirteen thousand dollars in debt, but with health, courage, faith and an ideal, my Father organized the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and in the twenty-five years he was connected with it, largely through his abilities and energies, built the largest Tire Company in the world.
Lacking the caution of a conservative, he failed to see soon enough, the disaster of 1920 coming and through the business itself was in a sound and healthy state, due to the failure of obtaining credit from the Banks until they had placed him in a hopeless hole, he was forced to retire from the direction and control of his brain-child as an alternative to receivership, which would have meant untold suffering for thousands of investors, creditors and Banks.
In the year 1919, it is calculated that his net personal fortune amounted close on to fifteen million dollars and in the short period of twelve months, due to the fact that his debts remained constant and his assets depreciated daily by thousands of dollars, he saw his entire fortune swept away – the work of a life time – and found himself insolvent by two to three million dollars at sixty-one years of age.
Those of us who had intimate knowledge of his activities in those days, marveled how any human being could stand up under the strain and it is an actual fact that in one month he spent every night on the sleeping car with the exception of two nights. His days were filled with fighting, bitterness, struggle, pain, -- from early in the morning until frequently long after midnight and yet he took all the bruising and came through without a whisper.
Normally, under the same or similar circumstances, the average man would have shot himself, jumped out of a hotel window or come to some spectacular end by taking his life. But my Father was made of sterner stuff. All that he asked for was that he might keep his health and be allowed by his creditors to go to work again to pay off his debt.
All during the seven years that have passed since 1921, although he has worked very hard, through the tremendous power of his enemies it seemed as if ultimately they would crush him and take from him his entire personal fortune, yet through it all, he never relinquished his faith in the ultimate outcome of his work; never lost his courage in adversity, never ceased his working actively to bring about the positive action both on the part of the Sales Force and the Management.
We have come through that period. We have assured ourselves in regard to the fundamental merits of our product, policy and future. Now let us go forth to battle in the world of competition full of faith, full of courage, full of persevering action and by the time that 1929 rolls around we will be able to look back upon the past with that gratifying sense that we have progressed toward the goal of achievement which we have set out to attain.
Let us remember that the joy of life is in overcoming, conquering and mastering the difficulties and that as the Good Book says: “To Him that oversometh [sic], the crown of life shall be.”
With best regards to all of you, I remain,
Very sincerely,
LAMBERT TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY
JPS-EP Secretary-TreasurerTranscriber
Cindi RokeLanguage
English
