Dealer-Directors

On a platform in Detroit last January sat a quiet, alert, well-dressed man. Close to him sat Robert C. Graham, Vice President and General Sales Manager of Dodge Brothers, Inc. Before him in the amphitheatre sat some 3,000 retail sellers of Dodge motor cars and Graham trucks. The quiet, alert one had bought out their company for $146,000,000 some time before (TIME, April 13). He was Clarence Dillon of Dillon, Read & Co., the Manhattan banking house.

Banker Dillon studied the men before him, noted their eager intelligence regarding retail selling. An idea came to him and with characteristic quickness he expressed it: Let these dealers be represented on the Board of Directors of this concern. Let two of them be chosen at once. Next year let two others replace them.

The 3,000 cheered. This would doubtless be an innovation in U. S. business practice.

Subsequently the first two such dealers were recommended for the Board and their own acceptance was this week announced by E. G. Wilmer, Chairman. They were C. M. Bishop, General Manager of Bishop, McCormick & Bishop of Brooklyn, and F. S. Albertson, President of the Albertson Motor Co. of Los Angeles. Both are "original" Dodge dealers, hard workers, good salesmen, thoughtful businessmen.