"Sour Grapes"

One day last week Chicago newspapers received two publicity releases from Pressagent G. R. Schaeffer of Marshall Field & Co. One announced the promotion of Luther H. Hodges, an employe for 19 years, to the post of general manager of the manufacturing division. Said the other:

Mr. J.P. Margeson, Jr. announced his resignation as vice president of Marshall Field & Co. and general manager of the manufacturing division, effective Jan. 31. He came with Marshall Field & Co. in November, 1935 at the request of Mr. James O. McKinsey when Mr. McKinsey became chairman of the board of directors. Plans of the present Corporate Management call for material changes from the program and organization conceived by Mr. McKinsey.

The managerial innards of Marshall Field & Co. have recently been revolving like a seasick stomach. An efficiency expert called in after Field had lost $13,200,000 in four years. Chairman McKinsey fired many an entrenched executive, hired many an outsider, lopped off Field's wholesale 'business and put the company-back into the black. Last November he suddenly died. Last week, having waited for official confirmation of many rumors that Field's was purging the McKinsey policies and people, the Chicago Journal of Commerce headlined the Margeson resignation announcement FIELD'S TO MAKE SWEEPING CHANGES IN MCKINSEY POLICIES, put it on the front page. Pressagent Schaeffer, horribly embarrassed, hurriedly denied that Chicago's biggest department store would make any such changes. He said that Mr. Margeson, bitter about being forced out of Field's, had written and released his own resignation statement. Explained Pressagent Schaeffer: "Sour grapes."

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