While Shanghai has much to congratulate itself upon the enter prise which built up. those firms which have done so much in the ast to promote its trade, it has Tone the lees avery great debt of titude to their rivals of modern ys. The saying. that competition the soul of trade has never been Better exemplified than in Shangha', and. with the" success" of com paratively new firms there Goubt "that the older firms with, alder connections have also gone fahead.. Thus itis that the whole Business community has read with ftuch interest. the particularly" incresting book edited by! Mr. Charles J. Ferguson, giving the history. from March" 31, 1906, to March 31, 1931, of Andersen, Meyer, Ca, Ld.
To the new-comer to Shanghai it is rather difficult to picture the head of Andersen, Me Ca, as having dominating per ality, grasp of financial subjects, and conspicuous business ability ark him out as having had sentially from the beginning the attributes which now place him at the head of one of the most energetic business firms and a Wirector of several of the most important local concerns in Shang-hal, Nevertheless one has. to recall that Mr. Vilhelm Meyer arrived from Denmark in 1902 to take up a subordinate post in the East Asiatic Ca., and thereafter he! fined "the Ritsso-Asiatic. Bank yen with two associates the firm of "Andersen, Meyer & Con, was Snaugurated—first of all "in one room in Siking Road, a thoroughfare. which has now' disappeared irom Shanghai,-and then in Yuen-ming yuen "Road" where they. had rooms instead' of the original best known manufacturers in the world of medicines and medical supplies. The list of customers runs into thousands and stretches the uttermost frontiers of the Chinese Republic, When the execatives of the firm resolved to eliminate everything from its activities but engineering and everything connected with engineering, they at the same time decided to keep this special department, for the reason that through its ramifications it reached every missionary doctor and hospital all through the country.
Missionary doctors and missionary hospitals, Mr. Meyer points out, are the natural scouts for progress in China, and through the foreign {firm's connection with them in the medical trade Messrs. Andersen, yer & Ca. could.at the same time place at their "disposal the engineering facilities of the firm and help them to develop modern engineering practice—throughout, China.
From what has been written above thi can be no possible lack of apprecia ion of the rare business one, There was no limit to the activity of the company, and it may Be mentioned that Mr. Meyer, with Ris "strong personality, very' soon Decame "the. firm," the other Partners retiring. While the usual Yrade of Import. firme—piece goods fand so forth—called for attention, was not very long before Mr. Moyer "decided that machinery Mould occupy the first, place ie" attention, and this" was Primary. consideration during the arly years of the war and. subfaturaily with the growth of a arent organization such as Messrs, Andersen, Meyer & Ca. were already fnprocess of building' up, there Reve certain. subsidiary prplems to be considered. A. suitable trademark Was one of these, and. Mr. Meyer in an interview' with a representative of the "North-China Daily News" yostei told the story of how the "A.M, & Co's! triangular mark came to be adopted and #0 ig to-day recognized all over ina, Mr. in his con-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.