.MTM5.MzI3ODg

stationery CHILTON COMPANY C.A. MUSSELMAN, Pres. & Gen'l Mgr. A.H. VAUX, Sec'y & Asst. Treas. A.B. SWETLAND, Vice-Pres H.J. REDFIELD, Treas. several names and titles crossed out PUBLISHERS AUTOMOBILE TRADE JOURNAL COMMERCIAL CAR JOURNAL CHILTON AUTOMOBILE DIRECTORY CHILTON TRACTOR AND IMPLEMENT INDEX CHILTON TRACTOR AND IMPLEMENT JOURNAL Chestnut and 56th Streets Philadelphia, Pa., CHILTON TRACTOR & EQUIPMENT JOURNAL FOR FORDSON DEALERS /stationery

  May 10, 1924.

Dear Folks:

  I know it has been some time since I have written you, but it just seems as though I haven't had time the last three months to turn around. Since the recent merger, a number of changes have been made, one of which has affected my activities considerably. Since we started our publication six years ago, the tractor industry has undergone a number of changes, changes which for the most part have been occasioned by agricultural depression. The production of the old manufacturers has been decreasing for four years, while the production of the Ford Motor Co. has increased until it is about 80 per cent of the total. The old manufacturers have resented Ford's invasion of the tractor field, which made it impossible to cover the entire field. The old manufacturers would not support a publication devoted to the industry unless we kept the Ford out of it, and in view of the fact that Ford is producing such a majority of all tractors, and is increasing his production about 50 per cent every year, we finally decided to make it a Fordson publication.

 Naturally a change so radical has made it necessary to do a lot of hard work. The Ford Motor Co. is making its tractor quite a factor in industries other than agriculture, and since this change was made, I have had to dig up a lot of industrial articles on the use of the Fordson. Since the first of March for instance, I have watched tractors pull submarine cables from the bottom of the Delaware River; pulls cables through underground conduits; raise material in constructing buildings; load White Star lines in New York City; do excavating work in Brooklyn; build and maintain roads in Virginia; do logging work in the Dismal Swap in North Carolina; haul materials in the Studebaker factory in South Bend; hauling lumber in Chicago, and several other things. In the next few weeks I expect to be in Bradford, Pa., Louisville, Ky. and Greensboro, N.C. In addition I get to New York about twice a month at least. It means about two weeks traveling every month, and two weeks work in the office.

 Three weeks ago tomorrow I left for Detroit by way of New York, having a short visit with Margaret while in New York. I spent three days in Detroit, the next three in Chicago, Sunday in Waukegan with some friends, driving to Zion City 6 miles away in the afternoon, and hearing Voliva and his choir of 500 voices; Monday in Joliet and Ottawa, Ill.; Tuesday in Michigan City and South Bend; Wednesday in Cleveland, Youngstown and Akron, and Thursday in Canton and North Canton, getting home Friday morning. Traveling is strenuous work, but I don't seem able to get below 180 lb.