government official manager manufacturer
Alexander Legge was born in Dane County, Wisconsin, the fourth child and second son, in a family of five, of Alexander and Christina Lumsden (Fraser) Legge, both of Scottish birth, who emigrated to Wisconsin in 1857. His grandfather, Alexander Legge, was a miller in Aberdeenshire. In 1876 the father, a farmer, moved from Wisconsin to a ranch in Colfax County, Nebraska.
Young Alexander attended the public schools in Nebraska. His formal education ended in 1883.
After his studies Legge went to Wyoming and there found employment as a cowboy. The turning point of his career came in 1891, when the Omaha collection office of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company of Chicago appointed him collector of accounts with a salary of fifty dollars a month. His success in this work led in 1894 to his being made collection manager at the company's office in Council Bluffs, Iowa. On the arrival of a new general agent, Harold J. McCormick, son of Cyrus Hall McCormick, and his bride, a daughter of John D. Rockefeller, he established friendly relations with them and instructed the young agent in his duties.
In 1898 he became branch manager, and in the following year department manager, at the company's headquarters in Chicago. When in 1902 the company was acquired by the International Harvester Company he was made manager of domestic sales of the new organization. He was promoted assistant general manager, 1906; general manager and vice-president, 1913; and senior vice-president in charge of the entire company under the president, 1918.
In 1908 he made the first of a series of visits to the sales office of his company in Europe. From these he acquired a vast fund of information about agricultural, financial, and economic affairs abroad that greatly widened his outlook. Legge's war services began in the latter part of 1917 when he was drafted as chief of staff to Bernard M. Baruch, head of the raw materials division of the War Industries Board. Later he became vice-chairman of the board, head of its requirements division, and manager of the Allied Purchasing Commission. He had charge of all raw materials except steel. One of his first tasks was to make an inventory of the material and human resources of the United States. Among his duties were the allocation of commodities, increasing of production, effecting an orderly flow by means of priority and price-fixing, and coordinating the demands of the Allies and the public. His self-confidence, willingness to accept responsibility, mastery of details, and ready solution of problems made him a great administrator.
In November 1918 he joined the foreign mission of the War Industries Board and was assigned the job of making a survey of the industrial status and requirements of the devastated territory. In the following year he was one of a group of experts who helped to formulate the economic section of the peace treaty.
In 1919 he returned to Chicago and the management of the International Harvester Company, of which in 1922 he was elected president. In the following year, when the government reopened its antitrust suit against the company, the exacting task of assembling the evidence for its defense fell to the president. He won the suit, but his exertions brought on a serious illness from which he finally recovered. After his wife's death he abandoned his plans for a fine residence on his estate near Hinsdale, Illinois, and there in 1925 the Katherine Legge Memorial was dedicated to the care and comfort of working women. The buildings and endowment were largely contributed by Legge.
The ending of the war by no means stopped his services to the government in Washington. He advised Secretary Hoover on the reorganization of the Department of Commerce and he participated in President Harding's Unemployment Conference. He declined President Hoover's invitation to become secretary of commerce. In 1929 he accepted, reluctantly, the chairmanship of the Federal Farm Board, which he held for twenty months, engaged chiefly in expanding the farmers' cooperative movement. In 1932 he served as a member of the National Transportation Committee. In the following year he established the Farm Foundation, the object of which was the improvement of farm life and the encouragement of cooperation among farmers, matters which he had much at heart. To this he made an initial gift of $400, 000, and a subsequent gift in his will of $500, 000.
The tragedy of his life was the loss of his wife, from which he never fully recovered. His death came suddenly at Hinsdale from a blood clot near the heart. His ashes were interred beside those of his wife at the Katherine Legge Memorial.
Legge was a prominent American business executive. He performed public service during World War I on the War Industries Board and at the Versailles Peace Conference, and again during the Great Depression on the Federal Farm Board. He was especially commended for his leadership in settling a dispute between Luxembourg and Germany over an exchange of ore and coal. In recognition of his war work he was decorated by France, Italy, and Belgium, and the United States awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal.
Quotations: "If you want exercise, dig a post hole! That's useful. "
Legge's likeness to Abraham Lincoln was often remarked--in body build, limited schooling, humorous stories, indifference to rank and dress, simplicity and steadfastness, capacity for growth, and sympathy for the humble toilers. He had prodigious industry, a phenomenal memory, and a brutally frank manner. His pet annoyance was the buying of radios on credit by those who could not afford them. He abhorred debt, private, public, or corporate.
In 1908, at the age of forty-two, Legge was married to Mrs. Katherine (McMahon) Hall. In 1924 his wife died of typhoid fever. There were no children.
