Radio Script #346
Little Talks On Common Things
September 15, 1957
I have long been i ni”erested in the little acorns from wh i ch grow the great oaks of modern industry, and that interest is not confined to the industries of Centra I Mai ne. It is good for us to know that a II over the country today there are great corporations which had very sma I I beginnings indeed.
Everybody who has been to school during this past half century has heard of Rand and McNa II y, because that company’s name stared at us from the maps on the walls of almost every American school room. Mapmakers, printers and publishers, Rand & McNally are known around the world. But that great business had a very humble start.
In 1856, just ove r a hundred years ago, Wi I Ii am Rand went we st from Boston and set up a sma I I print shop in Chicago. Two years later he took into partnership a young Irish printer, who had learned the trade in Dublin, Andrew McNally.
Now there were many printers, even in the sma I I city of Chicago in 1856. What a printing firm needed to assure prosperity and expansion was to gain a reputation for some specialty. So these young printers, Rand and McNally, decided they would put all their eggs in one basket — they would become specialized printers for America’s growing rai I roads. The rai I roads went to some places before peop Ie got there. There were rai I s before there were cities in many parts of the land. Because one had to buy a ticket to ride the trains, Rand and McNally started to print rai I road tickets.
In 1871 they produced the first edition of the Western Rai Iway Guide~ and continued to publish it monthly, giving the latest timetables of railroads and steamboat lines throughout the “lest. In 1872 they put a sma” noti ce in the Rai Iway Guide, saying that they would now make map engraving a specialty.
Andrew McNa II y III, the p resent head of the cOtll’any, ins i sts that, wi thout the rai I roads, Rand & McNally would never have made maps. Ha says that in the early 1870’s the huge growth of rai I road travel had created an unusual demand for maps. There were plenty of map makers scattered over the country, but on Iy Rand & McNally used the method of making the engravings in wax, to faci Ii tate correcti ons. That process made it poss; b Ie for the company to produce correct maps faster and cheaper than any competitor.
That, in substance, is the story of how, by quick foresight, venturous daring, and ready ingenuity, the young Yankee, Wi I liam Rand, and the young Irish~ man, Andrew McNally, started on the road to predominance in the world of maps.
Last week I said I would tonight tel I you how I deduce that the fictitious hand-written paper cal led the Chatham Bee, back in 1848, was the work of some young men of Ha I lowe II. I n one of the issues now p reserved at Co I by Co liege i s an article called the “Water Excursion n • Here is the way it reads:
uThe 0 I d south clock had just struck six when some dozen youths mi ght be seen wending their way from various quarters of the town to the long wharf. The passing breeze was so slight as scarce to raise a ripple upon the surface of the bo I d Kennebec, as its rap i d current swept onward in the fu I I strength of ebb tide. The sun was just peering above the lofty oaks which stretch back from the opposite shore. No damp, misty fogs, such as are so common upon the Penobscot, shrouded the glory of the morning.
“Under the di recti on of Father Thomas, our pilot, we soon had our baggage stowed away and cast off. Where towns are situated on the Kennebec, sai I ing is a very pleasant recreati on. Often on a summer afternoon you wi II see the ri ver opposite Bath literally fi lied with sai Iboats.
HLeaving behind Potters Mi lis, Parkers Island, Phippsburg Vi I Jage, we reached the Fort, so ca lied, at the mouth of the ri ver in less than th ree hours from the Time we started from the wharf. This is the ruin of some fortifications bui It to defend the passage of the river, bUT they are poorly situated and could be of Ii tT Ie use incase of war. From the Fort there is a prospect seaward. Just before you, but a few mi les distant, are The islands of Seguin and Quebincook, on both of which are lighthouses, whi Ie farTher on may be seen vessels from the Penob sCOT and the Kennebec p utti ng oUT to sea. 83low the Fort a sma I I sandy beach extends about a mi Ie to the souTh.”
The writer of that article indicated That he would continue it in the next issue of The Bee, but if he did, thaT parTicular issue has disappeared. So all we have to guide us to the long wharf from which the excursion departed is the account I have just read to you. Now leT us see what it does tell us.
iT I n The fu I I sTrength of the ebb ti de n • The p I ace cou I dn ‘t have been above Augusta, because by 1848 the dam had been bui It There and the tide went no farther up The ri ver. We have reason to be I i eve that the ti de ran higher aT Ha 11- owe J I a cenTury ago than it does today, but even in our own time there i s a visible tide at that ciTY. HThe lofty oaks on the opposite shore”. On the Randolph and Chelsea shores, opposite Hallowell, there are sti II a few remains of the oak foreST That once spread along ThaT side of the river. Finally “we reached The Fort in less than Three hours from the ti me we started”. Three hours would have been much too long for the sai I on an ebb tide from Bath to ForT Popham.
I Twas just about right from Ha II owe I I to the Fort. Of course I may be completely wrong in this deduction, but my best guess is that this curious newspaper, The Chatham Bee, was produced at Ha I lowe I I. The deducTi on is furthe r strengthened by re fe rence to the 0 I d south clock, though both Ha I lowe I I an d Gardiner had an Old South Church; and the references to the Academy in other articles of The paper may well refer to the famous Hallowell Academy.
A hundred and twenty years ago people had good reason to be wary of banks. They were frequen~ly closing and wiping out their depositors. Every bank issued paper currency, which is the reason why paper money is sti I I sometimes referred to as bank notes.
In 1838 many Maine banks were in trouble. In February of that year the Waldo Patriot publ ished what it cal led a HBank Note Table!~, which it divided under three heads. The first was rYBroken BanksH, and inc I uded the Kennebec Bank at Augusta, the Passamaquoddy at Eastport, and the banks at Castine and Wiscasset. The second head i ng was HCharters Exp ired);, and that app lied to the 01 d Cumberland Bank aT Portland, and the banks at Bath, Bangor, Kennebunk, Saco, Winthrop and ~Iaterville. The third list was of banks whose bills were not received at par. They were the Oxford Bank at Fryeburg, and banks at Norway and Brunswick.
Later in thaT same month of February, 1838 the Waldo Patriot commented on the banking situa~jon as of the close of the year 1837. After showing that the immediate liabi liTies of ten of Maine’s principal banks exceeded their immediate assets by substanT i a I amounts, the newspaper sa i d: HOur banks differ wi de I yin the relation of their immediate means to immediate liabi lities. Not one of them has dollar for dollar, but some are in much better condition than others. The T,i con i c at Watery i I I e has a do I I ar of ready means for every four do I I ars of I i abi lities, whi Ie the Bank of Bangor has only one in Ten. The Canal Bank in Portland has one in three, whi Ie its neighbor, the Casco Bank, has only one in six. The lowest is the Neguemkeag Bank with only one dollar of ready means for every 33 do I I ars of I i ab iii ty .
The paper does not say where the Neguemkeag Bank was located. nor have I been able to locaTe it in early editions of the Maine Register. Does any listener know its location? Where was the Neguemkeag Bank? Before the Civi I War the present nickels were unknown. Five cent pieces were then half-dimes, made of si Iver with half the weight content of the dime.
I remember that in my own boyhood, in the first decade of this century, some of those half-dimes were sti I I in circulation. Time and again, in the years between 1800 and the Civi I War, there was a scarcity of currency. Complaint wasmade in 1840, the year of the famous log cabin presidential campaign of iiTippecanoe and Tyler too”, that although 14 million half-dimes had been minted between 1829 and 1839, very few seemed to be in circulation. In fact there was a scarcity of al I si Iver money. Of quarters, dimes and half-dimes the production had exceeded 25 mi I I ion. tlWhere H, asked one Ma i ne newspaper, “are those 25 mi I lion coins? They are suppressed by a combination of politicians and bankers, for the purpose of f~rcing their slim-plasters upon the people, thus afflicting the people unti I they subscribe to a new National Bank owned by Van Buren politicians and political British capitalists, to rule and plunder the country.f!
You wi I I recognize quite a difference today in the stabi lity of our Maine banks. Most of them weathered the crisis of 1933 without serious loss to depositors, and today in al I of the leading banks the deposits are protected by federal insurance. But one thing you have observed is just the same as it was 120 years ago. We are sti I I inclined to blame al lour financial troubles on the political party we happen not to favor. People did it in 1840, and they’ve done i t eve r since.
As I have often p~inted out, the ads in our old Maine newspapers are often more revealing of the life and ways of the people than are the news articles. A few ads gleaned from that old Belfast paper of 1838 are real curiosities:
“Wanted, to serve at the bank i ng bus i ness, a boy 14 to 16, to be app renticed to me unti I he is of age. None wi I I be received unless he can be wei I recommended. H. R. Sargent.”
“A handsome assortment of I arge and sma II looki nq-g I asses for sa Ie very cheap for cash at the Be I fast Bookstore. n
IlReceived this week at Johnson & Sleeper’s, a variety of straw bonnets, consisting of Florence, Dunstable, Open-Work, Fancy, and Eleven Braids. Some are very superior; others can be sold at very low prices.”
“Just received at Johnson & Sleeper’s, black, blue-black, brown & green si Ik fringe, which wi I I be sold low.”
‘Three hundred pounds of Live Geese Feathers wi II be sold lower than ever at Johnson & Sleeper’s.”
“Johnson & Sleeper have just received a prime lot of palm leaf. Come qu i ck I Y to get it wh i lei t lasts. Mai Is were slow and uncertain in the old days, and not always because of slow transportation. Human interference sometimes occurred. So we should not be surprised at the fol lowing items which appeared in the Waldo Patriot in 1838.
The editor wrote: “We have received comp laints from Lincolnvi lie that some of our subscribers who should receive their papers through the post office at Lincolnvi I Ie Corner do not get them, owing to the unwarrantable interference of the postmaster, who persuades some from taking them and gives away those belonging to others. We respectfully inform the postmaster that, if such a course is persisted in, we shal I report his conduct to the department at Washington. If a paper comes to his office and the person to whom it is adrressed cal Is or sends for it and pays the postage, it is his duty promptly to deliver it and not obtrude hi s advi ce or make ins i di ous remarks upon the character of the paper. n
The fol lowing week saw another editorial statement on the same subject:
HThe paragraph in our last issue relative to the post office at Lincolnvi lie Corner has brought us the solemn assurance of the Postmaster, Mr. Clark, that our report was founded on error. Mr. Clark appears very candid and honest about it, and we therefore must acquit him of any unjustifiable conduct unti I further proof is added to aff i rm it. n
On another occas i on the ed i tor issued a mi I d rep roof to a postmaster: nWe would ask Henry Jones, Postmaster at Southwest Harbor, whether he has not neglected his duty in al lowing Thomas Ring’s paper to be dead in his office upwards of three months !:sfore noti fyi ng the printer.”
A hundred years ago a Jot of wheat was raised in Maine, and much of it was mi lied into f lour right ins i de the state. In 1837, for instance, over 100,000 bushels were reaped in Waldo County alone, 11,000 of them in the single town of Unity. And with that cereal reference we say good night for old times’ sake.
Year: 1957