08/27/2026
Time Capsule Spotlight
This Day in History
“Canton Daily Ledger August 27, 1925”
“Businessmen Hear Address By McCormick”
International Harvester Company Official Tells P&O Expansion Plans. Want streets closed. New and connected buildings needed, he says, at joint club meeting.
Cyrus McCormick, Jr., vice president of the International Harvester company, in charge of the manufacturing plans of that great organization, in an address here last night at the Elks club to a group of representative businessmen and women, stressed to the point of cooperation. Frankly, the scion of the family made famous by the invention and production of harvesting machines told his audience that it was essential that the P & O works expand in order to compete with rival plow factories and in doing so it was necessary to vacate certain streets and alleys in Canton, which now blocked the building plan.
Petition Circulated.
At the conclusion of his masterful address, petitions were circulated to be presented to the city council, requesting the desire of the company, which owns all the land on either side of the streets desired closed, be granted. City attorney, C.H. Hippler presided at the meeting and introduced the principal speaker to the audience, which numbered over 100. B.M. Chiperfield responded on behalf of Canton, expressing the sentiment of the community, as favorable to any reasonable request that might come from officials of the company.
Presented With Medal.
In conclusion a gold Canton Centennial medal was presented Mr. McCormick on behalf of Canton. Mr. McCormick responded to the presentation speech. It was Mr. McCormick’s second visit to Canton since the International Harvester Company acquired the local plow works in 1919. In his address he told of the company’s first endeavor to enter the field of plow manufacturing, and how after a careful survey of all plows on the market, experts of the company became convinced the Canton P & O plows were the best and negotiations were begun for acquiring the local factory. The speaker said it was a coincidence that his great grandfather, the inventor of the first reaper, and William Parlin, the founder of the P & O Works, produced their first crude inventions in the same year – 1847.
Competition is Keen.
Mr. McCormick said keen competition in the plow industry had made it essential to build better plows at a lower cost, and that modern methods of manufacturing had to be adopted in order to accomplish this. Ground floor buildings eliminate lost motion in the process of manufacturing, he said, and the old system of multiple stories is out of date and manufacturing. The speaker said that P&O works should expand in the community where it was founded: where skilled workmen already know the business of building plows, rather than be taken away and placed in another community, where the plow industry is unknown. This, he said, has proven in the past to be unsatisfactory.
Help Is Pledged.
“Will you help us?“ That was the closing sentence of Mr. McCormick. The answer was instantly and cordially forthcoming. It was given on behalf of Canton by Mr. Hippler and Mr. Chiperfield. It was in two ringing words: “We will!”
This was ushered in on the eve of the city's Centennial celebration, the second hundred years of Canton’s proud history, with a clear promise of a still better mutual understanding and closer cooperation between the people of this place in the worldwide company which now owns its principle industry. On the company side, there was the vision and promise of a vital and basic industry, expanding slowly but steadily, and surely as the business grows. On the city side, there was the pledge of earnest and energetic cooperation to the end that the P & O plow works may expand and prosper – cooperation of spirit, and of fact.
Speeches were Frank.
All the speeches were extemporaneous. They were marked by an obviousness and manifestly inspired by sincerity and mutual goodwill. The applause was frequent and spontaneous. Again and again the speakers were interrupted as they unfolded new and colorful visions of the Canton that is to be, and of the part the great plow factory and the Harvester Company hopes and plans to play in making the city's future live up to a promise of its first splendid century. Mr. McCormick was accompanied by several members of his staff, including Messrs. C. B. Reed, superintendent of the P&O Works; F. W. Jones, works manager; A.W. Seacord, assistant works manager and E. S. Simpson, executive department. Mr. McCormick spoke in part as follows: “Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: I assure you that it is a pleasure for me to be able to represent our company in this great celebration of yours.”
Have grown together.
“All through these generations of development, the P & O factory, and the city have grown together. Of course, there have been many lesser ties to bind the works and the city in an intimate and inseparable relation. There has been for instance, this famous P & O band that for 50 or 70 years has played itself into fame and the works into good repute in the city and community into musical supremacy in the surrounding territory. It would be interesting to learn how much the P&O works payroll has meant in the building up of the city. I would like to know just what the money earned by citizens of the city working in the city’s chief factory has in the building of homes in schools, and the paving of streets, and the upbringing of the children of the community and in the gathering together of generation after generation of homes. I have learned with a great deal of pleasure that you gentlemen in Canton have yourselves signified your interest in our problems. In this matter of vacating some of the streets. We do not want to impede in any way the growth of your city. We do not want to make it more difficult to go to any place or to go from one place to another. We do not want to step on anybody’s toes, but what we do want is to be permitted to manufacture in the best and cheapest way that the world knows.”
“Quilting is Progressing”
Quilting one extra day last week, the Ladies’ Aid Society of the Church of the Brethren, met last Friday at the church to complete a quilt for Mrs. Omer Vittum. Yesterday, at an all day meeting at the church, they began a new coverlid [coverlet] for Mrs. Vittum and worked on one for Mrs. Clara Horr. Twelve members were there to assist with the work and to participate in a potluck dinner at noon. Devotions conducted in the afternoon opened with a song, “Peace to Thy Soul”. Mrs. Pearl Rohrer read from the Scriptures and all repeated the Lord’s prayer.
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