Around the World in 227 Days (Reminiscence)

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As I was growing up, it was well known in our household that my dad - many years before, when he was a very young man - had made an educational world tour on board ship.

Not that he talked about it a lot.  He didn't.  Mother reminded us about it from time to time.  Once in great while a man named Largent Parks, who apparently lived in Dallas 200 miles away, would show up at the front door and chat with Dad alone in the living room for a half-hour or so.  We knew that Mr. Parks flew in from Dallas, in his own plane.  Mr. Parks had been on the cruise with my father.

We had a model Viking ship on our mantelpiece carved and put together by an Austrian man whom Dad had met (somewhere, somehow) during his tour.  When I was 12 or so, Dad showed me a box of coins - from France, Siam, and many other countries - which he said were coins he'd ended up with as he had left each of the countries visited by the tour.  Each country's coins were in a different old pill box.

In our family scrapbook, Mother had posted two or three photos of Dad on a camel or in an exotic-looking port.  We knew too that, as Dad went from country to country - years ago - he sometimes sent news reports back to be published in American newspapers.  He had interviewed Mussolini back before anyone in the US had heard of him, for example... and King Chulalongkorn of Siam, son of the king (of The King and I), and others.

But we only heard little snippets like this, from time to time...

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After Dad had been gone (that is, dead) for ten years or so, I began to wonder if the University of Texas archives had anything interesting among his papers.  Dad had taught there for almost 50 years.

My wife S----- and I made a visit and found much to be interested in, including a whole box of materials relating to the 1926-27 world tour.  We've had the coins since before Dad's death,

but lots of other things that we'd never seen were there in the UT archives.

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At the end of our visit, we asked the archives to make us copies of quite a few of the materials related to the World University tour, including a small number (relative to the sum total of all there) of photos, the unfinished, or at least unedited manuscript on a book-length narrative of the whole 9 months, and materials related to the articles Dad had written that were published in a total of 23 newspapers back in 1926 and '27.  (The family legend was that Dad had borrowed the money to pay for the tour and that he was able to pay back the loan immediately upon his return to Austin with the money these newspapers had paid him.)

There was also a copy of the passenger list.

When I retired in 2008, I reviewed all these materials fairly carefully.  It was great, of course, and especially interesting to compare what had been published by a newspaper to what he had written for the longer narrative.  I could see why he had abandoned the book-length project, since it would have required a lot of work to re-organize it before it was ready for the public.  As I remember it, Dad had tried two or three different modes of organization.  I made quite a few notes, but finally felt it wasn't worth my time now to cobble it together.

The pictures might hold some independent interest, but I haven't dug them out from all the papers we moved with us from New York to Missouri a couple of years ago.

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A few days ago, now, I was examining a photo of Dad at about age 4, which I had posted on my family tree some years back.

Next to this family photo on the same page was an old published photo of a cruise ship that I only vaguely recalled having posted, having found it on the Internet back then, when I was putting up visual material.  Sure enough, it was the S. S. Rijndam, ca. 1925.

With some time to kill that day last week, I suppose, I happened to look up the ship again on the Internet.  W[onder]O[f]Wonders], a whole bunch of stuff appeared for the first time, which included information specifically on the world tour on the Rijndam taken by my father in 1926-27.

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It turns out that the Rijndam's 1926-27 educational world tour ("The World University") was the very first college credit-bearing shipboard cruise.  500 students from all over the U. S. were involved.  I had thought it was maybe 50 or 60.

The whole experience was organized and sponsored by New York University.  It turns out that at least two books were published relating to the tour, one diary published in 1928 which has been recently republished as a historical facsimile and the other - apparently 200 photos - more recently published by the Holland-America Line, which ran the Rijndam.  The photo book is available by interlibrary loan and the diary can be bought via Amazon.

I have ordered the republished diary and have requested the photo book on interlibrary loan.

In the online notice of the photobook, two samples appear.  One is inconsequential.  The other shows a group of the Rijndam students posing behind Mussolini.

Despite the blur, the young man indicated below on El Duce's left is unmistakably ... my dad!

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Corporate Comparative

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Consider Corporation X in City A.  It is a publicly-traded, local aviation business, established to serve the sporting and recreational trade.

At first, it was a small, family business with fewer than 20 employees, all from the local area.  When a war in the Middle East began to seem likely, Corporation X re-adapted itself to produce military aircraft, and as war broke out, it grew rapidly, adding several hundred workers and relocating to a new, much larger building it constructed on the outskirts of City A. Some of Corporation X's leading engineers who were needed to make the needed adaptation were hired from larger cities in the region, but most of the workforce remained local, coming from families who had lived in the area for as long as the family who started the business.

To help make these necessary changes, Corporation X sold stock publicly.  A local chapter of a national union was formed, which was apparently considered a normal development.  The leaders of the local chapter were typical of the workers generally.  Contract negotiations usually went smoothly as the business prospered.

When the war ended, military contracts continued, but corporate executives (members of the family of original owners) considered them uncertain enough that they resumed some of the firm's original sporting and recreational manufacturing.  This kind of adaptability allowed the firm to continue to be profitable, though at a lower level.

At this time, just as the family members who had founded Corporation X were reaching retirement age, the world economy took a sudden, dramatic down-turn.  Some stockholders argued that the firm should move away from City A, seeking tax breaks and lower, non-union wages in a different region.  But the local stockholders, led by the remaining family members, decided to stay in City A.  The size of corporate earnings was reduced, thus lowering stock values. Hourly wages and professional salaries were curtailed from the highest to the lowest levels, in order for Corporation X to survive through the hard times.  Corporation X continues to do business, still in City A.

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Now, consider Corporation Y in City B. 

Corporation Y was the answer to a prayer widely held in City B.  The small but prosperous city had suffered from continuing hard times for decades.  Small manufacturers had begun to go out of business in times of high inflation and rising labor costs.  The larger corporations had pulled up stakes to move to regions where workers were perhaps less skilled but also less organized and less expensive.

Led by an aggressive young County Executive, City B set out to recruit up-and-coming corporations from other states, even from other countries.  A pleasant lifestyle in an attractive region, welcoming churches and reasonably good schools, and - especially - alluring prospective tax breaks were City B's selling points.

And it worked!  After years of redeveloping a sparsely settled, flat area on the outskirts of town into an industrial park, city and county leaders were able to make a win-win deal with Corporation Y who was looking to expand and whose future business prospects looked good, both in the U. S. and abroad.  A favorable deal was brokered with the relevant union leaders, who considered dependable, lower-paying jobs as better than endemic unemployment.  So Corporation Y built a state-of-the-art, highly computerized new plant in City B's new industrial park.

Within a few months, Corporation Y's management team for City B had arrived and settled in new upper-middle class homes.  A team of accountants, corporate lawyers, personnel officers, and so on, was transferred in, and hourly workers were hired from the local community.  Unemployment went down, retail sales went up, population stabilized somewhat, just as planned.  Tax revenues increased, not dramatically but somewhat.

And then came a sudden economic downturn worldwide.  Things were not looking so good for Corporation B.  Anticipating that its global stockholders would start feeling antsy soon, corporate executives decided immediate action was necessary.  Had they over-expanded when the financial picture looked so rosy?  Well, don't look back; move on!

At 4:20 p.m. the Friday after Thanksgiving, a notice appeared in all the mail-slots of all Corporation Y employees in City B, and a notice from the Public Relations Office also appeared on all local media's emails.

The notice to employees said: "Due to the plunging economy and unrest abroad, Corporation Y has had to decide to close down all operations in City B.  Individuals will receive personal instructions as to when they should stop coming in to work, but by December 31, all will be laid off."

The release to the media said: "From Corporation B headquarters in XXXXX has come word that by December 31, 20XX, the plant in City B will cease to operate.  Unstable economic conditions globally have forced the company to make this unfortunate decision.  Individual employees may expect the formal lay-off notices by the end of next week.  Corporation B's operations in all other locations, please rest assured, are proceeding normally."

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Which story seems the more realistic?

Curtailing executive salaries in order to keep the plant running and the workers employed?

Risking a temporary decline of stock prices?

These seem idealistic fantasies, don't they?  Putting at risk the short-term profits of stock-holders and top executives, in order to prolong the life of the company and in order to serve the long-term good of the community?  You're dreaming!

Are Corporations expected to make rational decisions for the long-term, for the good of the many instead of the few?  Do we have the means of holding Corporations responsible for the social effects of their actions?  Don't be crazy! 

Note:
If you found this article interesting, you might also be interested in this other one
http://byronderrick.blogspot.com/2010/12/corporations-are-not-people-are-they.html

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