Out at his farm the other day Mr. Cooper got to telling the boys some of his recollections of the Knitting business. It ran something like this:

I started in the Hosiery business at the age of nineteen — that was thirty-nine years ago. My father and my brother, Willis W. Cooper, and myself were roped into the business; that is, we did not really go into it voluntarily. My father was a superannuated Methodist preacher. They used to call ministers preachers in those days. He had never been in business. An oily, smooth talker came along and got him to think there was money in the Hosiery business.

He consented to buy six old-fashioned, hand operated knitting machines — each requiring the entire attention of one girl; she had to turn the crank all day long. A room over a store was rented and our knitting career started in that way. We were gradually led from one thing to another, before, in our inexperience, we realized our where-at-ness. We were easily persuaded to buy more machines, and then were shown how nice it would be to manufacture our own yarns, and also that it would be better to have our own mill in which to operate the machinery. This would involve a power plant with boilers, engine, a dye house, etc. We were so green, however, that these different things did not mean anything to us except that it would seem nice to have them. That spring we started with light hearts to annex to ourselves these different properties. By fall the bills began to come in rather fast, and we found we had maturing obligations amounting to some thirty thousand dollars, with only a fraction of that amount in quick assets.

We were not so green but that we realized we had assumed a heavy financial load; in fact, we were almost terrorized with the weight of the responsibility we had assumed.

I remember we were so alarmed with the greatness of the task we had undertaken that my father, my brother and myself agreed that we would economize

My father once told me that because he made it a rule to pay his bills promptly, he had won the reputation of being a man of property, whereas, in fact, his financial strength was greatly over-rated.

We managed to get sufficient time so that we were able to pay our liabilities dollar for dollar.

I found out afterwards that it was due to my father's reputation for integrity that we were able to get extensions on our debts, enabling us to pay them off after a time.

My father one day suggested that the jobbers to whom we were selling our goods must get a big profit for them when they sold them to the retailers. He took a line of samples to the retail trade in Michigan to see whether he could not sell some part of our product direct to the dealer. He was successful in placing goods with the retail trade as the retailer was quick to appreciate the fact that buying from the mill direct, he knew where he was getting his goods and who was responsible for the quality he received. My father at this time was the first representative going to the retail trade with mill line of hosiery direct. Following up his success, we added other salesmen and soon sold our entire output direct to the retail trade. Within a few years other mills had followed our lead, and today mills in many lines are marketing their goods direct.

About this time we felt the need of additional capital and took into our firm Mr. W. Wells, who was an old friend. The business which had been conducted under the style of S.T. Cooper & Sons was thereafter conducted by Cooper-Wells & Company, and you will now guess that the location was St. Joseph, Michigan.

Our new partner, Mr. Wells, was avery keen and able business man. I can remember that he often told me, what I did not appreciate at the time, being a mere boy, but a truth which I came to recognize in future years, namely, "It is easier to do a thing right than to do it wrong." He used to explain that if you did it wrong it would have to be done over again or would cause trouble, continuously, until it was right. I remember his advice so well because he repeated it so many times that I finally became firmly convinced that he was right. This advice of his has been a great influence in my life. I've based my ideas of quality, responsibility and service on it.

Mr. Wells went up to Morris, Minnesota, every winter to visit his brother, who had a retail store in that town. Mr. Wells used to sit by the stove in the back of the store and notice the farmers' wives bringing in the home-made socks to trade for supplies. They were made from yarns spun at home by the women and knit by themselves so that the socks were heavy, all wool, thoroughly reliable goods. They were not of the nicest shape and appearance, but they were of the best quality. Mr. Wells noticed that men came into the store and asked for these all-wool socks and he bought a pair and brought them home with him to St. Joseph.

This was at the time when every manufacturer thought that the smartest man was the one who could produce goods cheapest; consequently the one who could put the most shoddy in his yarns and get away with it. Mr. Wells said that he believed if we bought wool and made strictly honest all-wool socks, that we could sell them at a price which would warrant our making them, leaving the shoddy out. We tried it with the result that our capacity was over sold, and within two years we had gained with the trade the reputation of making honest, reliable goods. This reputation has stayed with Copper-Wells & Company, of St. Joseph, Michigan, to this day. For about two years we had a monopoly of this trade, but other mills awoke to the fact that we were getting a valuable trade by putting out an honest line of goods direct to the retail trade. Competition quickly grew to large proportions. Since that time there has always been a place in the market for honest all-wool sock.

We used to close the toe of the seamless socks by hand, the girl using a needle. About that time we made an attempt to use a machine for that purpose and for use on the machine we bought about a thousand pounds of soft but strong thread. The machine we had was not successful for that purpose and the thread we had bought was useless. It laid in our warehouse for some three years. I used to take the inventories personally and after weighing up this same yarn year after year for three years, I determined to make use of it and get our money out of it. I had it brought to the Knitting Room and knit into boys' long-legged stockings, and dyed them black. The stockings were very heavy, very hard, very tough and strong — so much so that when I was labeling the samples for sale I marked the cards "Boys' Iron-Clad." This name seemed to make a hit and was the origin of the trade-mark "Iron-Clad" of Cooper-Wells & Company. This stocking, which you might say made a hit by mistake, or, at least, was marketed without a great deal of premeditation, soon came to be the standard stocking for boys with short pants, and the trade on this class of garments grew to great size.

It was about this time I left the office and went out in the mill to learn all the different departments and processes of the business. I started in with the carding and spinning, running a hand jack myself; going through the dye house; the repair department; having charge of the knitting clear on through to the shipping room — finally having had charge of every department in the mill. It was here that I gained my knowledge of process of manufacturing knit goods. I can say, in fact, I was developed with the seamless hosiery business.

After the death of our father, my two brothers and myself sold out our interests in St. Joseph and came, one at a time, to Kenosha, Wisconsin. My brother Willis W. Cooper was manager and my brother Charles F. Cooper was superintendent of the "Black Cat" hosiery business and built it up from a small, money losing venture into the leading hosiery factory of their day. In the year 1900 my brothers asked me to join them in starting an underwear business to be operated in Kenosha in parallel with their hosiery business.

At the time, I might say that I hardly knew an undershirt from an overcoat, but my brothers urged upon me that my thorough knowledge of the hosiery business would enable me to successfully carry out and underwear venture, so we undertook it together. After a trial of two years we decided to build a large new mill. We built a mill, equipped it and moved in, having assumed a heavy debt for borrowed money in starting business. We had just moved to the new factory and got well started when both my brothers, Willis and Charles, were killed in the Iroquois Theatre fire. I was obliged to close up the estates of my brothers, who were interested in several different ventures. This, together with building up the new underwear business, gave me all the work that I could possibly take care of for several years. I applied to the manufacture of underwear the lesson that Mr. Wells had taught me years before — "It is easier to do a thing right than to do it wrong" and "there is always a consumer demand for honest goods."

We insisted that our union suits must be positively right and honest, many times at a real loss in money to ourselves.

Being guided by this priinciple, it is needless to say that the business grew by leaps and bounds. It was a common thing for our business to increase from 35 per cent to 60 per cent in volume each year.

In 1910 we brought out the Kenosha-Klosed-Krotch, which was such an improvement in union suits that it has, in fact, revolutionized the union suit business. Before we brought out the patented closed crotch the quality we were putting into our goods was rapidly earning for them the name of "three-sea-sons'-wear" underwear. We have retained the quality to which we added the closed crotch, and cooper's goods we think are recognized today, without exception, as the best on the market. The quality and convenience of our union suits have made it easy for us to do business. We have been enabled almost to pick out our own costumers. We believe that the standing of our thousands of retail customers is very much above the average. I am very proud, indeed, of the class of merchants to whom our good are sold.

In 1913 I sold my stock in the hosiery business, giving my entire time to the manufacture of underwear and introducing and adding to our business of knit underwear what has developed to a very large and successful business in the manufacture of woven fabric or nainsook Knit-Klosed Krotch Athletic Union Suits.

My motto has been to please the wearer at any cost, and this sentiment I have tried to impress upon my boys.

In the meantime my boys have grown into business men, and now I have with me in the business my brother's son and three of my own boys, of whose ability to manufacturer the best underwear on the market I am very proud. I have found that having grown up in the underwear business as I did in the hosiery business, they have learned it from A to Z and I am able to turn over to them the management largely of the underwear business.

There is one thing that I want to impress upon my sons right now, and that is that they are the third generation of Coopers who have followed the knitting business. Each has, I believe, made an impression and left a mark upon, not only his own business, but upon the industry in which he was engaged. I want my boys to make such honest goods that Kenosha will be known a hundred years from now for its Klosed-Krotch Union Suits.

My sons have built up an organization that is favorably known throughout the craft from the know fact that we turn out only one-half of one per cent of seconds instead of the usual mill run of 5 per cent to 10 per cent of seconds. (Being the father of these boys I may perhaps be pardoned here); I am proud of their work of more than 99 per cent perfection.

My mind runs back to the advice of Mr. Wells, "Make them right and make them honest," then to the fact that our first business success was built up on our manufacturing of honest all-wool socks, and then again to the wonderful "Iron Clad" stocking which was an honest, serviceable stocking if there ever was one. I believe people are just as anxious now as they ever were to buy goods made upon honor and that are in every way dependable and worth ane hundred cents on the dollar.

Many of the best manufacturers in the United States have come to us to get the privilege of making our patented closed crotch union suit. Just this week an underwear manufacturer came to our office and wanted to pay us a large sum of money for the use of our name on his own goods. We, of course, could not allow anyone to put our name on goods not manufactured in our own factory. This, however, leads me to believe that the years I have spent in trying to make honest, comfortable "three-seasons'-wear" underwear have built up the Cooper name until it is an envy to some others and for the use of which they are willing to pay a good, round sum in cash. Here is a motto that I have had upon my desk for many years — i.e., "The firm insists that a sale is not complete until the goods are worn out and the customer still satisfied is building a business for itself, its children and its children's children." <<