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Portrait of Charles R. Flint, 1907. (Bain News Service/Library of Congress)

Trusts, Combinations, and Charles R. Flint

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In my post on the International Time Recording Company, I mentioned two people – Frederick Winslow Taylor and Charles R. Flint – and I wanted to know more about these gentleman. I have already written a post about Frederick Winslow Taylor. Now, it is Charles R. Flint’s turn.

Charles Ranlett Flint was born in Maine in 1850. His mother died when he was young and his father, Benjamin Flint, who owned and managed ships through the firm Chapman & Flint, moved the firm and family to New York City. Charles graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and eventually worked for a shipping company, which would become W. R. Grace and Company.

Flint became a highly successful businessman in a diverse array of industries and earned the moniker “father of trusts”. In his autobiography, Memories of an Active Life; Men, and Ships, and Sealing Wax, he recounted how he earned the moniker after newspapers reported on his speech to members of the Illinois Manufacturers Association. I am not sure if this is the exact article he has in mind, but I found an October 10, 1900 Chicago Tribune article with a headline that reads “‘Trusts Father’ Defends Them.”

Given Flint’s profile as a successful businessman, this speech garnered attention. Articles covering it, such as the New York Tribune’s America Economic Master of World: Charles R. Flint Addresses Illinois Manufacturers,” ran in influential papers of the day. In the speech, Flint talked about the benefits of consolidation, including the potential development of specialized machinery and processes enabled by centralized manufacturing; the reduction of overhead and other wasteful costs; direct sales as a means to reduce distribution costs; a reduction of inventory costs; and savings on insurance and interest. If you are interested in what Flint had to say about consolidations, he wrote a piece on the topic in the June 1921 issue of North American Review (Vol. 213).

this is a side profile drawing of Charles Flint
Image ran with the article “Great are the Trusts:” Flint is their Prophet from the New York Journal and Advertiser, May 26, 1899 (Chronicling America/Library of Congress)

Over the course of his career, Flint served as president of United States Electric Company and was involved in consolidating companies in several other industries. He provided a bit of detail on a few of them in his autobiography, but these are just a few:

United States Rubber. In 1892, several companies in the rubber shoe and boot industry consolidated. Preferred stock entry #1333, in the Listing Statements of the New York Stock Exchange, lists nine of the companies that were part of the combination, including Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe Co., American Rubber Co., L. Candee & Co., Boston Rubber Shoe Co., Meyer Rubber Co., National India Rubber Co., Lycoming Rubber Co., New Brunswick Rubber Co., and New Jersey Rubber Shoe Co. This is the company that became Uniroyal in 1961.

American Woolen Company. This company was formed in 1899 through the merger of several individual mills and was the company at the heart of the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike.

American Chicle Company. The company was formed in 1899 out of the merger of half a dozen companies and in 1910 it acquired Sen-Sen Chiclet Company the company Flint was affiliated with. The company’s best-known product was Chiclets.

United States Bobbin and Shuttle Company. This company was founded in 1899 from the consolidation of the James Baldwin Company, Fall River Bobbin & Shuttle Company, William H. Parker & Sons, Sprague Company, and Woonsocket Bobbin Company.

Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). This was a combination of several companies, including the Bundy Manufacturing Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Tabulating Machine Company, and the Computing Scale Company of America. We know it now as IBM.

Beyond those companies, Flint had wide-ranging interests and activities. He, along with others, backed the Wright Brothers and his wide network of international connections led to some diplomatic work, a topic he detailed in his autobiography. Flint retired in 1931 and died just a few years later, in 1934.

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