HIS LIFE AND WORK 



More than this, it meant that Chicago was no 

 lorger a city of the Far West. It was central. 

 It was the link between the banks and factories 

 of the East and the gold mines and prairies of 

 the West. So McCormick quickly prepared an 

 elaborate advertisement, warning the farmers 

 that labor would now become scarce and ex- 

 pensive, that the coming grain crop promised 

 to be a large one, and giving the names and 

 addresses of ninety-two farmers who were now 

 using his machines. 



The fourth factor in the McCormick System 

 was the appointment of a Responsible Agent and 

 the building of a storage warehouse at every 

 competitive point. He did not wait for the 

 business to grow. He pushed it. He thrust 

 it forward by sending an agent to every danger- 

 spot on the firing-line. As one of his compet- 

 itors complained, in an 1848 lawsuit, McCor- 

 mick "flooded the country with his machines." 

 He knew that many farmers would be unde- 

 cided until the very hour of harvest, when there 

 would be no time to get a Reaper from Chicago ; 



[83] 



