Avery Enters the Ring

Montgomery Ward Chairman Sewell L. Avery, 81, bounced into the ring last week and swung his first punch in the fight to keep control of his company. From his Chicago office, Avery summoned reporters to the first press conference in years, and lost no time setting to work on his opponent, Financier Louis E. Wolfson, who has had the ring all to himself, shadow-boxing with lawsuits and charges of poor management (TIME, Sept. 6, 1954).

Flanked by busts of Washington and Lincoln, Avery announced that he had hired an outside public-relations firm to present his case to stockholders and would use "every legitimate means to resist the raiding parties being organized to grab the large liquid assets of the company." As far as Wolfson was concerned, snapped Avery: "I don't know what is in his mind . . . This is all a very savage and vicious thing and a menace to the United States. Management is hired to run a profitable business and protect the interests of stockholders. We intend to continue."

Avery said that Montgomery Ward's records show nothing like the 500,000 shares of stock that Wolfson claims to own. Then he went on to explain just how profitable his management was. He was so conservative, he said, dragging out charts, because history has shown that a serious depression has followed every major war except World War II. "Somebody's holding this thing up," he said. Besides, construction costs have zoomed, making it uneconomical to expand. When the depression comes, said he, Ward's will expand. Meanwhile, Ward's has no debts, and assets of $614 million. Smiled Avery: "Do you know anyone who has $600 million all wrapped up in a bundle?"

Having disposed of Wolfson, Sewell Avery gave the back of his other hand to another challenger for control of his company who popped up last week. The challenger: St. Louis' Fred M. Saigh, former owner of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club, who was released a year ago after serving part of a 15-month jail sentence for income-tax evasion. Said Avery: "I don't know who he is. I see he is supposed to be a baseball man. I hear he slipped somewhere."

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