(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Roy Dikeman Chapin was an American automobile manufacturer and cabinet officer. He was a cofounder of Hudson Motor Company, the predecessor of American Motors.
Background
Roy Dikeman Chapin was born on February 23, 1880 in Lansing, Michigan, United States. He was the second son and second of three children of Edward Cornelius and Ella (King) Chapin. His father was a well-to-do lawyer, a descendant of Deacon Samuel Chapin of Paignton, England, who settled in Massachusetts in the 1630's and was a prominent figure in the founding of Springfield. Young Chapin's boyhood was noteworthy chiefly for the development of an interest in photography which he retained throughout his life.
Education
In 1899 he entered the University of Michigan as a student in liberal arts. Having acquired an enthusiasm for the fledgling automobile industry, he left in 1901 without a degree to join the Olds Motor Works. He retained, however, an active interest in Michigan affairs and was given an honorary M. A. in 1922.
Career
Chapin's first job at Olds, which paid him $35 a month, was to take pictures of test cars and make himself generally useful around the factory. Within a few months he sprang into the limelight by driving an Oldsmobile from Detroit to New York for the 1901 automobile show--the first time this trip had been made by automobile. By 1904 he had become the company's sales manager. Chapin's fundamental ambition, however, was to become head of his own company. In 1906, as a first step, he and Howard E. Coffin, a fellow Olds employee whom he had first met at the University of Michigan, left the Olds organization, along with Frederick O. Bezner and James J. Brady, and went looking for financial support to produce a car of Coffin's design. Their first backer was Edwin R. Thomas, an automobile manufacturer of Buffalo. With his aid they established the E. R. Thomas Detroit Company, with Chapin as general manager. The venture, though successful, was still unsatisfactory because the concern was essentially a subsidiary of Thomas's Buffalo company and was dependent on Thomas's good will. In 1908, therefore, Chapin and his partners brought in Hugh R. Chalmers, who bought half of Thomas's interest in the company, now renamed the Chalmers-Detroit Motor Company, and became its president. This step was still short of Chapin's goal. His next opportunity came with the arrival at Chalmers-Detroit of Roscoe B. Jackson, another college classmate and Olds alumnus. Coffin had worked out a new idea for a car, and Jackson was put in charge of its development. A new backer was found in Joseph L. Hudson, the Detroit department-store magnate, whose niece Jackson had married. Thus in 1909 the Hudson Motor Car Company was organized, at first as an offshoot of Chalmers-Detroit; but in 1910 the two separated, with Chalmers buying out the interest of Chapin, Coffin, and Bezner in his company for $700, 000. Chapin now became president of the Hudson Motor Car Company, working in association with Jackson, who became general manager, and Coffin, whom Chapin regarded as America's foremost automobile designer. The success of the Hudson enterprise at a time when the mortality rate among automobile companies was substantial has to be attributed to the ability of this trio to pool their talents and function harmoniously as a team. With Coffin in particular Chapin maintained a close personal as well as business relationship. When the first World War came, Chapin was called to Washington as chairman of the highway transport committee of the Council of National Defense. In this post he worked vigorously to develop the use of motor vehicles in order to relieve the congestion on the railroads. After the war he carried out three major steps at the Hudson Motor Car Company. First, in 1919 he introduced the Essex, a popular-priced car which was an immediate success. Second, in 1922 he offered closed cars at virtually the same price as the touring car. This move was so well received that most other automobile companies promptly conformed, and the touring car rapidly disappeared from the American scene. Third, he reorganized the company's finances in 1922 with the aid of the brokerage firm of Hornblower and Weeks, both to make its securities more readily marketable and to give it access to new capital. In this process the original stockholders, whose paid-in subscriptions in 1910 had come to about $100, 000, received $16, 000, 000 in new stock and $7, 000, 000 in cash. Early in 1923 Chapin turned over the presidency of Hudson to Jackson and became chairman of the board. He remained in close contact with Hudson affairs, but the change enabled him to devote more effort to other interests. He was an ardent proponent of good roads and served as vice-president of the Lincoln Highway Association, chairman of the good roads committee of the Automobile Board of Trade, and chairman of the highway transport committee of the International Chamber of Commerce. When the Sixth International Road Congress met in Washington in 1930, Chapin was its president, and for his work at the Congress he was made an officer of the Legion of Honor by the French government. On his return to private life, in March 1933, he had to resume the presidency of Hudson, which was rapidly drifting toward receivership. Jackson had died in 1929, Coffin had retired a year later, and the subsequent leadership of the company had been unable to meet the crisis of the depression. After two years of arduous effort, Chapin managed to get the company clear of debt and restored to reasonable financial health. At the same time he was involved in trying to salvage the Guardian Trust Company of Detroit and in applying the code and labor provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act, a piece of legislation of which he heartily disapproved. On the other hand, he was much in favor of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act, and he engaged in lengthy correspondence with his friend Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg in the attempt to win his support for this policy. The combined strain of these problems undoubtedly undermined Chapin's health. An attack of pneumonia in February 1936 sent him to the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where he died after only a week's illness. His outstanding quality was his individualism. From the outset he worked to become head of his own company, and despite his interest in the automobile industry as a whole, he kept the Hudson company strictly independent. He refused at least two proposals for merger, one in 1918 and the other in 1928, and he was one of the leaders in modifying the industry's cross-licensing of patents in 1925 because he felt that the original agreement had discriminated against fundamental inventions made by his company.
Achievements
He also served as the United States Secretary of Commerce from August 8, 1932, to March 3, 1933, in the last months of the administration of President Herbert Hoover.
In personality Chapin was quiet and reserved; as one description puts it, "rather serious, a trifle remote. "
Connections
He met Inez Tiedeman of Savannah, whom he married on Nov. 4, 1914. They had six children: Roy Dikeman, Joan King, John Carsten, Sara Ann, Daniel, and Marian.
