Personal Observations and Comments Concerning the History and Development of IBM-Part 1

Personal Observations and Comments Concerning the History and Development of IBM

The Perspective of Walter D. Jones - an IBM customer, salesman and executive.

Toronto, August 1944

We knew in our family that my mother's father, Walter Dickson Jones, had been an IBM employee since before the First World War and that he had " … run the European operation for Thomas Watson." My mother had many stories of their privileged lifestyle in Paris in the early 1930s. Beyond that, what "WD" actually did for IBM was a matter of some speculation. Various biographies and anecdotes filled in a few of the details. In 2001 Edwin Black (no relation) published "IBM and the Holocaust - the Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation." I bought the book and sure enough, Walter Dickson Jones popped up in several places. I learned that WD had been on the board of Dehomag, the German subsidiary, that he had been the IBM emissary at the January 8, 1934 Lichterfelde plant opening ("Repeatedly using Nazi buzzwords for economic recovery, Jones made clear that Mr. Watson agreed to the new construction …") and that he had been Watson's point man for the battle between Heidinger and Watson over control of Dehomag. I emailed the IBM Archives in New York with a request for other information that might help me round out the story of my grandfather's career. They sent the article, written by WD in 1944, that is transcribed here as well as representative correspondence. I rewrote the story into the first person and took out some of the more tortuous circumlocutions.

Don Black - Regina, August , 2001

Early Days In Cleveland

My first contacts with the Company were in 1909. I was Chief Clerk, Journal and Statistical Division, American Steel and Wire Company in Cleveland. American Steel and Wire was a constituent company of the United States Steel Corporation. I made a trip to Pittsburgh to study the application of the Hollerith machines at the Carnegie Steel Company. I decided that the machines could be useful at the American Steel and Wire Company.

I ordered the machines through Phillip P. Merrill, who was a combination salesman and repairman at the Tabulating Machine Company. Merrill was in charge of the lakeshore installation of the New York Central Railroad.

As I recall, ours was the only installation in Cleveland at this time. After considerable delay, the machines arrived in the summer of 1910. When the crates arrived, Mr. Merrill was notified. He connected the machines up to an electrical current, came over to my desk and shook hands. Before he could get out of the office I asked him what help might be given in regard to starting the work. He replied that he was only required to connect the machine to a suitable source of electrical energy. He assumed no further responsibility, except to repair the machine, if it got out of order. That was the established policy of the company at that time. This, by way of contrast to the Company's current policy of assistance and help to customers. However, the machines were successfully installed and proved to be a more efficient way of handling the statistical and accounting work.

Two years later, at the solicitation of Mr. Merrill, I entered the employment of the Tabulating Machine Company as a salesman. Shortly thereafter, I offered a suggestion regarding a back-stop on the punching machine. Information received from head office in Washington however, was to the effect that this young man "should confine himself to selling, not inventing, with the customary sarcastic reference that the idea was as "useful as a button on a shirt-tail."

At about the time I joined the Company in 1912, a decision had been made to divide the United States into districts. District Managers were appointed in Philadelphia (T.J. Wilson), New York (Hyde), Boston (Sayles), Cleveland (Merrill), Chicago (Hayes) and Denver (Stoddart). The District Managers attended the annual meetings, either in Washington or New York. Information regarding the activities at the conferences was not divulged to salesmen. At that time it was a small, but close Corporation!

The first convention of the Tabulating Machine Company Division was held at the Vanderbilt Hotel in New York in December of 1915. Much to the surprise of the District Managers, and even more so to the salesmen, a telegram was received from Mr. Watson notifying District Managers that they were to bring the salesmen to New York to the annual convention. This was the first mark of progress in the Company's affairs, since my connection with it. This action brought the salesmen together as a team for the first time. Mr. Watson will never realize the uplift and inspiration that he imparted to the salesmen of that day as a result of his conduct at the meetings. (Some District Managers, however, were a little confused!)