W. C. COLEMAN.In sketching the career and achievements of W. C. Coleman, president of the Coleman Lamp Company of Wichita, who has impressed himself by his personal gifts upon the passing generation, one is pleased to find the unusual union of high philanthropic acts with such practical qualities as have made him a successful man of business. However rare may be such a combination of qualities, that they are not altogether incompatible is evidenced in Mr. Coleman’s career.
One who should meet him in his business office in one of the busiest hives of the seething city would conclude that he was a leading one of a class of astute businessmen who have come to the forefront through their grasp of opportunity, and he would judge correctly, for in a long course of business activities he has reaped legitimate profits which come from prudence and good investment.
Turning from the business side of the career, we shall find a life consecrated in early manhood to the teacher’s vocation, but, freed by unforeseen circumstances from the narrow limits of the school room, moving in a wider channel, impressing itself upon the institutions of a rising community with beneficial results, and bringing to him a place among the real benefactors of the city and region of his habitation.
W. C. Coleman was born in the state of New York, in 1870, and at the age of nine months accompanied his parents to Labette County, Kansas, where the family settled on an unimproved homestead on the prairie. His success has not been one of inheritance, for the family was in modest circumstances, and the success that came to him was purely the result of his own efforts. During his boyhood and early youth he worked on the homestead with his father and in the winter terms attended public schools, and when eighteen years of age passed the teachers’ examination and was given his license as an educator.
His first charge was a small country school in Labette County, and in order to reach his class he had to ride back and forth several miles each day, his mode of conveyance being a mule. Later he graduated from the State Normal School at Emporia, Kansas, class of 1893, later attending Ottawa University and the Kansas University Law School. He was for two years principal of the Blue Rapids schools in the interim.
He began his industrial career by working as a salesman during summer vacations to pay his way through law school, but when he had finished school was not only out of cash but considerably in debt. He decided therefore to work as a salesman for a time to get on his feet and to save a little to keep him going until he could get established in the practice of law. Accordingly, he secured the agency for a gasoline lamp made by an eastern concern and started forth, but found that sales were very slow.
These lamps were anything but similar to the famous Coleman product of today, being crudely made and difficult to keep in operation. For this reason the average user soon discarded them and further sales in that community were very difficult. This was somewhat discouraging, but did not prove an unsurmountable obstacle, for at no time in his career has Mr. Coleman given up anything merely because it was difficult of attainment.
He felt that gasoline, when properly used, would give the best artificial light known, and he also knew that the lamps that he was trying to sell really did give good service when operated by persons who understood them. Thus he came to the determination to sell “lighting service” instead of lamps, and in 1900 began to rent lamps and keep them in working order, first at Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and extending to various other cities and small towns.
The main office was moved to Wichita during the first year, when the Hydro-Carbon Light Company came into existence in a little room at 128 East Second Street, which served as headquarters for several years. While operating this rental service Mr. Coleman kept experimenting with various improvements. and in 1903, having designed a better lamp of his own, and not having a factory, arranged for its manufacture by a New England concern. By this time Mr. Coleman had become so absorbed in the light business that he abandoned all thought of practicing law.
He determined to produce the best light that could be made and to keep the cost within the reach of every home. In order to do this he recognized the fact that his cost of manufacture would have to be less, and eventually he decided that he would have to have a factory of his own at Wichita. He began to look about for some one to assist in the difficult details of the problem. Eventually in a machine shop at Wichita he found a young man, Hiram Strong, who, like himself, had to secure a little more than a common school education and who, by working part time during school periods and outside of school hours, had succeeded in taking a course in mechanical engineering at the Kansas State Agricultural College at Manhattan, Kansas.
This young man gave promise of having the makings of the man that Mr. Coleman wanted, and eventually Mr. Strong decided to cast his lot with Mr. Coleman. After much planning and hard work, actual production of “Made in Wichita” lamps was begun in 1905, at 313 North Main Street.
Mr. Strong has since admitted that at the start he was somewhat pessimistic of the venture’s success, but he has had a large part in building up the success of the concern, and at present is general manager of production. John H. Graham, vice president of the company and manager of the Los Angeles branch, was prominent in the business and civic life of Wichita for many years, serving as mayor of Wichita in 1907, 1908 and 1911. He was elected on a law enforcement platform, and his administrations were ones of vigorous effort in law enforcement and to drive out all forms of vice which had been particularly bold in the city prior to his election.
He joined the Coleman organization in 1912, serving as general sales manager until 1919, and under his direction the sales program was greatly enlarged. Because of the ill health of Mrs. Graham he moved to California in 1919, and since then has been manager of the concern on the Pacific Coast. Charles E. Parr, secretary-treasurer of the company, also has had much to do with the development and growth of the business. As president of the Incandescent Light and Supply Company he had built up a successful business in the sale of gasoline lighting goods, and his company had the sales agency for several eastern manufacturers of such goods, in addition to being engaged in the manufacture of mantles at Wichita.
A consolidation of the Hydro-Carbon Light Company and the Incandescent Light and Supply Company was effected in 1914, and the larger organization thus formed became known as the Coleman Lamp Company, as today, the largest company of its kind in the world. For a time after the consolidation Mr. Parr was the manager of the sales branch at Dallas, Texas, later returning to Wichita to become general sales manager of the company. The very efficient sales organization which has been perfected under his administration is distributing Coleman products in every state in the Union and in fourteen foreign countries. Like many industrial leaders Mr. Parr started in his business life with nothing but high ambition, strong personality and passion for hard work.
The Coleman Lamp Company, among the first in the lamp-making industry, has been experimenting for many years toward solving the problems which constantly arise. Gasoline burning devices are difficult to make and the slightest imperfection or deviation from exact standards may render them entirely worthless. This fact has given the Coleman Lamp Company its greatest opportunity. Many other manufacturers have been unable or unwilling to secure the necessary high quality and accuracy.
Determining that Coleman goods can and will meet the required standard, the leaders have gathered about them a group of co-workers who can be depended upon to do their part in maintaining this high standard. One of the latest products of this company is a successful match-lighting lantern and lamp, known as the Quicklite lamp.
Other prominent products, such as camp stoves, radiant heaters and pressure cook stoves, have been developed from time to time. Long hours, hard work and very strict economy have been necessary upon the part of all who have had a hand in the building of the industry. For many years Mr. Coleman and other stockholders were content to draw out only a bare-living wage for the work performed; in fact the average worker in the ranks today receives a larger wage than was paid to the president, or to any other officer of the company, during many of the early years of the organization’s history. The small profits, when there were any, were allowed to remain in the business to permit of necessary expansion and to carry over rough periods. By thrifty habits, regular savings of little personal earnings, however small, and by following the same principles in the conduct of the company’s business a measure of success has come to all. Mr. Coleman has seen the number of company employees grow from ten to over 1,000, and there has never been any labor trouble in the plant.
Mr. Coleman is a humanitarian of practice views, and believes in cooperation with his employees and not simply for them. He has stated: “The various privileges which belong to us as members of this organization are the fruits of team-work, the rewards of collective and cooperative effort. It is not the policy of the company to do things for its employees except in extreme emergencies. It is its policy to secure as many as possible of the benefits of united effort, and to distribute them fairly. As our industry grows and prospers we should be able not only to increase the individual earning power of each worker, but should also be able to secure a still larger number of benefits of group enterprise.” The company allows full-time pay for all holidays, sick benefits of one-half pay under certain circumstances and within certain limitations, and free medical service. It is an adage and slogan of the company that “the company makes men and the men make the business.” Other features of the company’s employment system include life insurance, cash reward for new ideas, physical, social, intellectual and spiritual activities, general education and specific training.
By 1927, the Wichita factory had over five acres of floor space and was equipped to make 2,500 lamps and lanterns, 100,000 mantles, 600 camp stoves, 300 Radiant Heaters, and 200 gasoline stoves per day. Hot water heaters, gasoline irons, tanks for lighting and heating systems and burners for special uses are also manufactured in quantities. Running at normal capacity this factory used in a month: 150 tons of steel, seventy tons of brass, fortytwo tons of glass shades, fifty-five tons of solder, 1,630 pounds of asbestos, 15,040 gallons of gasoline, five tons of chemicals and six tons of miscellaneous articles.
In the departments where raw material is made into individual units, over 214,000 parts were formed every day. Over 2,000 miles of cotton thread is used in one day in making Coleman mantles. Over thirty miles of 3-16 brass tubing made a month’s supply for “Q99” generators, which are used on Coleman lamps and lanterns. The factory at Toronto, Canada, is a modern plant equipped to supply the Canadian trade and also produces a large quantity of the goods that go to the other countries of the British Empire. Branches located at Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles act as distributing centers and help to keep more than 30,000 jobbers and dealers supplied with Coleman products. At present a stove plant for the exclusive manufacture of Coleman Air-o-Gas cook stoves, covering three acres, is being constructed at Chicago, Illinois. The home office of the company is on St. Francis Avenue, near the gymnasium, four stories in height, of brick and reinforced concrete. The third and fourth floors are used as offices, the second floor as club rooms for the employees and the ground floor as a part of the plant. An additional building will soon be erected on the site of an old church, which is to be razed. The third and fourth buildings were constructed along the railroad tracks and form an “H” on the block owned by the company.
At the present time there are never less than 3,000,000 Coleman Quicklite lamps and lanterns in use in various parts of the world and thousands of camp stoves, cookers, burners and self-heating flatirons are in use. The entire plant is thoroughly up-to-date in every way, with the latest type of machinery installed and an automatic sprinkler system of the overhead type. There are rest rooms for the women employees and the workmen are furnished with lockers and shower baths. The progressive spirit of this company was evidenced on a certain occasion in May, 1925, when in order to complete a rush order on time an airplane was impressed into service to carry a shipment of supplies from Kansas City.
The Coleman Lamp Company is a firm believer in the value of advertising, and its continuous publicity campaigns reach millions of readers monthly. Primarily Mr. Coleman is a business man, with little time for politics or public life. However, he has accepted the responsibilities of good citizenship and in 1923 was elected mayor of Wichita. He is an enthusiastic Rotarian, having served as president of the Wichita Club in 1926. Enough has been said to show that the life under consideration has been animated by high motives of philanthropy, and that they have been expended not in aimless thrusts at evils and abuses in society, but in tangible and practical efforts to raise the standard of employment conditions, which is the real bulwark of our Republican institutions.
At the age of fifty-seven years Mr. Coleman is still an active man of affairs. In conversation he rises above the commonplaces which occupy so much of the intercourse of life. He is interested in a high range of topics, being a scholar as well as an acute observer. He has traveled extensively over the country, which has given him a rich store of incidents. His high business standing, his genial and cordial manners, and above all the noble aims of his life have attached to him many friends and secured the confidence and respect of the community. In June, 1927, Mr. Coleman was greatly honored by his church, the Northern Baptist, by being elected to the presidency of the National Organization.
