Matthew Scott Sloan

Background

He was born on September 5, 1881 in Mobile, Alabama, United States, the son of Matthew Scott Sloan, chief of the Mobile fire department, and Mary Elizabeth (Scott) Sloan.

Education

He entered Alabama Polytechnic Institute in Auburn at fourteen and took a B. S. degree in electrical engineering in 1901 and an M. S. in 1902.

Career

After brief stints with a small-town light plant in Alabama and a street railway in Memphis, he worked for the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, where he advanced to supervisor of turbine installations.

In 1906 he began an eleven-year career with G. E. 's subsidiary, the Electric Bond and Share Company, which operated utilities in various parts of the nation. Eight of those years were spent in Birmingham, three in New Orleans; in the latter city he was vice-president and general manager of the local electric railway and light company.

In 1917 Sloan was transferred to New York City, where the most interesting part of his career unfolded. Consolidated Gas Company, which controlled electric power distribution in the city through four subsidiaries, was notoriously inefficient, in part because it was ridden with politics. In his first two years with the system Sloan was assistant to the president of the New York Edison Company (one of the Consolidated Gas subsidiaries) and hence powerless to effect reform. But in 1919 he became president of Brooklyn Edison and launched a modernization program.

In 1928 the several companies in and around New York were combined (they were later reorganized as Consolidated Edison), and Sloan became president and operating head of the various constituent organizations. For four years he made a valiant effort to do for the entire system what he had done in Brooklyn, but the obstacles were enormous. For one thing, the system was a technological mess.

Sloan was able to make considerable headway against the technical problems; but then other problems arose. Most important, at first, was the Great Depression. Labor problems compounded the economic problems, but the final blow was political. Sloan had made many political enemies by insisting upon rationality and efficiency instead of the "spoils system" that had earlier characterized the utilities' management, and late in 1931 his political enemies overcame him. His relations with Tammany Hall was very strained. That made his situation hopeless, and early in 1932 the directors demanded his resignation.

The rest of Sloan's career was anticlimactic, though distinguished: from 1934 until 1945 he served as president and chairman of the board of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and about a dozen related lines. Sloan was active in many civic and business groups, such as the Brooklyn Academy of Music (vice-president), Long Island University (trustee and treasurer), the National Electric Light Association (president, 1930), and the United States Chamber of Commerce (a director).

He died in New York City in 1945 and was buried in Auburn, Alabama.

Achievements

• Serving as president of Brooklyn Edison, Matthew Scott Sloan launched a modernization program in New York City, based upon the pattern being set by such utility pioneers as Samuel Insull in Chicago and Alex Dow in Detroit. He installed huge generating plants, adopted uniform 60-cycle alternating current, simplified and rationalized its operations, repeatedly cut its rates and expanded its service.

Personality

Despite his education he lacked technical skill, but he had a keen eye for talent and was an excellent administrator.

Connections

He married Lottie Everard Lane on February 23, 1911, and had a daughter, Liddie Lane (Mrs. Andrew M. McBurney, Jr. ).

Father:

Matthew Scott Sloan

Mother:

Mary Elizabeth (Scott) Sloan

Spouse:

Lottie Everard Lane

Daughter:

Liddie Lane (Sloan)