Private State Department

As he left Rome with his band of 522 Holy Year pilgrims early this month, Cardinal Spellman was heard to exclaim: "Long live the Pope, long live Rome, and long live the American Express Com pany!" The cheer was gratefully received by American Express, which has already enjoyed a long life: it celebrated its 100th anniversary last week.

In its anniversary week President Ralph T. Reed, who started in as chief accountant in 1919, had some happy news for American Express' 5,500 employees in 1 60 offices scattered through 25 different countries. He reported that American Ex press netted $2.5 million on a $14.2 million gross last year, a new alltime record gross and profits 32% more than 1948.

Good as Gold. American Express was founded the year after the California Gold Rush, when several companies, including the famed express companies of Wells and Fargo, merged into the Amer ican Express Co. to ship gold, silver and paper currency through the Wild West.

But it was not until 1891 that American Express went abroad -- the result of a trip to Europe by President James C. Fargo.

He became infuriated at the red tape which entangled him when he wanted to draw on his letter of credit. To cut the tape, he designed the now familiar American Express travelers' cheques. They now comprise the bulk of the company's billion-dollar business, and have become standard exchange in every corner of the world. (So valued are they, in fact, that last year a ring started to counterfeit $1,000,000 of them--and was nabbed.) As the demand for travelers' cheques grew, American. Express had to expand its services abroad (it sold its domestic freight business to Railway Express Co. in 1918).

In World War II, the company added some unusual new services. From the Argentine it supplied the State Department with the travel plans of every pro-Hitler German in Buenos Aires. Before the U.S. entered the war, the company's Berlin office ran an underground escape service to Switzerland for aliens trapped in the country. The company promptly started expanding again near war's end. When the U.S. Army marched into Rome in 1944, an American Express official marched in with it, opened the old Rome office for business the next day.

Missing Persons. Next to its cheques, American Express is best known for its globe-circling guided tours, which provide transportation, hotel rooms and food (but no liquor) at fixed rates. The company makes its profit not by charging travelers a fee but by getting "wholesale" rates on hotels, etc., and taking a "retail" markup. This year thousands of Americans will take 167 different tours, ranging in price from $10.95 for a two-day trip through New York City to $2,338 for a 68-day jaunt through ten European countries. The most popular: two-week "Banner Tours" through the West ($297 and up), and six-week European trips ($1,123 and up).

American Express offers so many free services that many travelers consider it their private State Department. For no charge, its offices hold or forward mail and telegrams for travelers (it has the largest private mail service in the world), give travel information, recommend hotels and pensions, arrange for babysitters, find lost friends or relatives, and perform dozens of other services. Not long ago an American officer wrote the Paris office that he was hunting for "the most beautiful girl in the world." He didn't know her name, he said, but he had seen her for three days in Rheims during the war. He described her graphically, and added that her mother played the piano. American Express found the girl for him.

This week, as President Reed set sail for a European inspection tour himself, he was brightly optimistic about his company's next 100 years. Having opened up eleven new branches in 1949, he is now planning new offices in Cannes, Tel Aviv, Tripoli, Okinawa and Oberammergau. "The quickest way for other nations to earn U.S. dollars," says Reed, "is to attract U.S. tourists. Because most countries understand that now, I think 1950 will be our best year ever."

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