MORE THAN YOU PROMISE

A dull, uninspired matter-of-fact account of the Studebaker industry. Not a book for general reading, but might find a specialized market among business men, though for that market, too, the subject deserved more vital handling. It is the story of a family, and particularly of five brothers bent on making a go of business. Two of them start a wagon business in South Bend, at an early age; the others became part of the picture later, as the company developed from wagons, to carriages and buggies, and then to ""horseless carriages"". Today the plants are building planes. The tight-knit organization brought them through panics and depressions; a policy of square dealing with labor and with their customers gave them the reputation of delivering ""more than they promised"". But with the passing of family ownership, and radical innovations, disaster came in 1930; and reorganization was necessary. A substantial stolid piece of reporting.