Spring Cleaning

Like an oriental potentate who has beheaded all of his viziers, iron-fisted Sewell Lee Avery sat last week in lonely splendor in his paneled throne room at Chicago's Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc. For one day along the hushed executive corridors he could knock on any door and find no one at home. In Ward's top command, everyone else had quit. There was nobody left but old Sewell, who had once said: "I'll be here until I'm six feet under."

Avery, now 75 years old, had not planned his loneliness. When he goaded President Wilbur Norton and four vice presidents into leaving last year (TIME, May 31 et seq.), he persuaded three other vice presidents, who had also threatened to resign, to stay on. But he neither forgot nor forgave their participation in "the Norton conspiracy" to curb some of Avery's dictatorial power. Last month he decided how he would take his reprisal.

Squeeze. "Ward's had just rung up its biggest profit (equal to $10.28 a share) and the vice presidents were awaiting the customary (up to 50%) bonus on their $35,000 to $45,000 salaries. No, said Avery, there would be no bonus. Instead, the same amount would be given as a salary increase. Said Vice President Charles M. Odorizzi: "We'd have to stay a whole year to collect; it was a dodge to make sure he had us where he wanted us."

To 40-year-old Odorizzi, this was the last straw. Last week he quit and went off to his Wisconsin mink farm. A day later, Vice President Arthur Romer, after 32 years at Ward's, also quit. Then Avery got the resignation of Vice President Albert O. Steffey, retail store boss who had been with Ward's for 21 years. Steffey went home and opened up the bottle of 1811 brandy he had been saving for the occasion. With their departure, Sewell Avery snapped: good riddance; all three had been part of the "very real conspiracy."

But next day, Avery got a shock. Vice President Willard Sahloff, Avery's right-hand man and the only vice president left, also handed in his resignation. Avery could not call Sahloff a "conspirator"; he had made Sahloff a vice president after Norton left, and praised him highly. Last week, Avery revised his estimate. Said he: "Sahloff was not an important man ... I am very glad his weakness made itself apparent now." Sahloff promptly got a job as president of Milwaukee's National Enameling & Stamping Co.

For all of one day, Avery mulled things over in lonely grandeur. He knew it would be hard to get new officers from outside (Marshall Field's Executive Vice President James L. Palmer had recently turned down Avery's offer of Ward's presidency). So Avery appointed eight new vice presidents by upping No. 2 men. Presumably, Avery thought this would put him in a better position to fight his critics at this week's stockholders' meeting.

Showdown. Some stockholders were worried about more things than Avery's high-handed tactics. They felt that Avery had missed the postwar boat by refusing to spend much on expansion. Pessimistic Mr. Avery, convinced that the U.S. was in for a slump any day, had kept Ward's canvas tightly reefed for the big blow. While he did so. Sears, Roebuck & Co.'s Chairman Robert E. Wood blithely sailed ahead. He grabbed a bigger share of the U.S. mail-order market by spending $184 million on expansion. Last year Ward's grossed $1.2 billion and boosted its net profit to $68 million (up $9 million). Sears grossed $2.3 billion, while its net soared to $137 million (up $29.5 million*Now, with mail-order business slipping, it was too late to expand, though still too early to tell whether Avery or Wood had been wisest in the long run.

Sewell Avery faced a stiff fight with some stockholders. But Avery had prepared for the blast. He had whittled down the board of directors from 15 to 9 members, all old friends. Only four board members were up for reelection, and the only candidates were three longtime Avery friends--and Avery himself. It looked as if old Sewell would keep his tight control. But with no trained top brass, stockholders could not help wondering what would happen to Monkey Ward when Avery finally had to give up the helm.

*In ten years, Sears's sales had risen 358% to Ward's 193%, its net 487% to Ward's 247%, and the market value of its stock had risen 121% to Ward's 13%.

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