25 Years of Progress
This month SURPLUS RECORD presents the first of a series of biographical sketches of pioneers in the used equipment industry.
The series is entitled, “The 25 Year Club,” and begins in this issue with the story of a man who has devoted more than half a century to serving industry by supplying manufacturing plants with tools and ideas for practical as well as economical operations.
He has led an unusually active and interesting business life in this field and you will enjoy the episodes related in his story.
The men about whom we are publishing these stories have been selected on the basis of the number of years they have actually been engaged in this industry. Many of them pioneered the thought that the marketing of reconditioned and rebuilt industrial plant machinery was based upon sound economic principles. The tremendous strides made during the last quarter century clearly demonstrate their foresight.
All of these men are outstanding examples of the type of men who have maintained the free enterprise system as the best system of government ever devised. They have carved a definite niche for themselves in our economy—a niche whose importance was dramatically demonstrated during both World Wars, and to a less spectacular extent, during the intervening depression of the early thirties.
When SURPLUS RECORD was started nearly 25 years ago, many of these same men were the ones to whom we looked for advice in bringing out the first magazine devoted to the surplus equipment problem. No one at that time looked upon this field of endeavor as an industry in itself . . . it was considered a by-product of the field in which the particular type of equipment was identified.
Through the years we have witnessed many changes in the merchandising of used equipment: A big increase in the numbers of highly-trained men, constantly improved quality of equipment offered, and improved plant and warehouse facilities, all of which have proved advantageous to the industry in its continual growth and progress.
It has been a pleasure to be at the helm of the publication which has grown old with the industry as one of its vital components. In keeping with our long-time editorial policy of instigating and publishing information which will be of definite interest and help to our readers, we are launching this series with the thought that the buyers of industrial plant equipment will become better acquainted with the men who make up this important branch of our business world.