HIS LIFE AND WORK 



For these numerous lawsuits McCormick 

 paid a terrible price, both in money and friend- 

 ship. He acquired a reputation as " a man who 

 would law you to death." He brought down 

 upon himself to a remarkable degree the hostility 

 of his competitors, and prevented himself from 

 receiving the full credit and prestige that he 

 deserved. Instead of being revered as the father 

 of the Reaper business, he was feared as an 

 industrial Bismarck a man of unyielding 

 will and indomitable purpose, who regarded 

 his competitors as a pack of trespassers in an 

 empire that belonged by right to him. 



The truth is that this situation did not arise 

 because of the natural perversity of either Mc- 

 Cormick or his competitors. In his later life, 

 McCormick proved that he could co-operate 

 with his equals in the most harmonious way, in a 

 new business enterprise. His competitors, too, 

 were for the most part men of ability and up- 

 rightness. Neither in their public nor private 

 lives, was there any stain upon the honor of such 

 men as Wood, Osborne, Adriance, Manny, 

 Emerson, Huntley, Warder, Bushnell, Glessner, 



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