Cincinnati Knighthood

When came the turn of Cincinnati's Chamber of Commerce President James M. Hutton to express his plaudits at the Crabbs dinner last week (see above), he suddenly switched talk from railroad terminals to hospitals. The name of another hero then came up--that of Colonel William Cooper Procter.

Mr. Procter, announced Chamber President Hutton, had been made an honorary member of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce for life, which some compared to a sort of municipal knighthood./- Mr. Procter had given $2,500,000 for medical research at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital (TIME, Jan. 16).

Thus each generation of Ivory Soap Procters has been ''knighted" by the Chamber. Candlemaker William Procter was so honored in 1880 because he (with Soapmaker James Gamble) had founded a thriving soap industry at Cincinnati in 1837, also because he had battled for full weight in each package of merchandise. In 1899, his son William A. Procter received his life membership because he was first president of the incorporated Procter & Gamble Co. Knighthood of a Procter in 1928 concerned science and philanthropy more, soap less.