Tissue Issue

The Scott Paper Co., founded in 1879 by two Yankee brothers named E. I. and Clarence Scott, has never felt a depression, is now the largest company of its kind in the world. To explain this record, Scott officials talk lovingly of the quality of their tissue. Last week Scott talk turned from tissue to issue as the company registered with SEC plans for a $3,000,000 flotation of stock for plant expansion. Simultaneously, genial President Thomas Bayard McCabe reported a half-year net profit of $743,627.72, best six months in Scott's history.

In 1879, when the Brothers Scott were delivering scratch pads, paper bags and wrapping paper in their own pushcart, toilet paper was distinctly in the Chic Sale tradition; in their privies most U. S. citizens used old newspapers and catalogues or unmarked pads of rough yellow paper clamped together with staples. The Scotts began specializing in this line, got the jump on their competitors when E. I. Scott's father-in-law designed the first enclosed toilet paper container. In 1890 Scott also placed the first toilet paper advertising--a chaste piece in the Atlantic Monthly. For the next decade the sales theory of toilet paper was as many brands as possible: Scott had 2,800 with such choice names as Foldum, Daisy, Twilldu, Krect, Lillies of the Valley, Astanby, Kowntit (this last referred to a standard toilet paper racket--short-sheeting the rolls).

The 2,800 brands are now reduced to two--ScotTissue and Waldorf. This change was wrought by E. I.'s son, Arthur Hoyt Scott, who got into the business in 1905. He persuaded his father and uncle to start a "sanitary line" of six standardized brands to be promoted as quality, trademarked products. Young Arthur Scott also devised the company's first effective slogan, "Soft as old linen." By 1910 it was apparent that his idea of specialization was correct; his six brands provided 80% of the total sales of $726,264.09. About that time Scott paper towels came into being as the result of a carload of paper too crunchy for toilet use. Together, the two products in 1937 gave Scott a sales volume of $13,843,542. In the first half of 1938 sales reached $8,282,805.

Scott paper is made at a slick modern plant at Chester, Pa., where scientific improvement is the guiding passion and a minimum wage of 60-c- an hour has obviated labor troubles. Chief reason for the company's success is its product, specially created for softness and absorptive qualities. Two other factors help explain why Scott's big Fourdrinier machines now work a 24-hour day seven days a week (one of them has done so since 1924). As pointed out in the latest Brookings Institution tome, Industrial Price Policies and Economic Progress (TIME, July 18), Scott has led the industry in price-cutting, now sells ScotTissue at 10-c- a roll compared to 45-c- during the War. Secondly, Scott's advertising has been persistent and effective, if somewhat outspoken. In 1932 this advertising reached a pinnacle, which Scott officials recall with obvious pain, in the "acid campaign," whose headlines took the slant of "I'VE GOT TO HAVE *** A MINOR OPERATION!'' Current campaigns still stress "harsh tissue dangers" but somewhat less crassly. A sample comic-strip ad today shows little Jeanie prattling, "It scratches awful, mummy."

Arthur Scott died in 1927 and his place was taken by his Swarthmore fraternity-mate, Thomas Bayard McCabe, who went to work for Scott in 1915 at $10 a week, became its star salesman. Son of a Delaware banker, President McCabe joined with First Vice President Edward S. Wagner in buying out the Scott interest. They now hold about one-sixth of the stock. President McCabe handles sales; Vice President Wagner, operations and finance. They limit themselves to salaries of $16,000.

Last week, back from his annual trip to Scandinavia where Scott buys much of its wood pulp, President McCabe told of his amazement when a Finnish pulp man in a small northern town asked him : "Do you believe Jimmy Roosevelt is making as much money out of his insurance business as the Saturday Evening Post says he is?"

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