The Revolt of Enoch Peters

There was a time when Enoch Peters, President of Bankfire Steel, satisfied himself with the business of making a profit at the expense of the consumer—which was wonderfully fair, because that way he could give Dave McKee most everything Dave McKee wanted, thus maintaining what was known as a progressive business attitude. Those were the days when the ADA liked Enoch Peters almost as much as “Rocky,” and when Dave McKee stated publicly that the only difference between Enoch Peters and himself was that Enoch Peters ran the largest steel company in America, whereas Dave McKee contented himself with running America.

Few people discerned the faults in Enoch Peters’ character that eventually emerged under pressure. I refer, of course, to Enoch Peters’ extraordinary view of his responsibility as President of Bankfire Steel. The directors who elected Peters to this high post had every reason to suspect the grossness of their error, but they were of the opinion that Peters’ former connection with the union movement would please McKee—and until quite recently, everybody wished to please Dave McKee. It was considered at the time a most progressive appointment, although some critics pointed out that: a) Peters’ highly profitable record as manager of the plant in Akron was to be suspected; b) Enoch Peters was a graduate of neither Yale College nor Harvard Business School nor Columbia’s adult education program, and was therefore sadly ignorant of the true meaning of management statesmanship; and c) Enoch Peters thus remained under the untutored impression that the first business of a president of Bankfire Steel was to run a profitable business.

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F. Reid Buckley

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There was a time when Enoch Peters, President of Bankfire Steel, satisfied himself with the business of making a profit at the expense of the consumer—which was wonderfully fair, because that way he could give Dave McKee most everything Dave McKee wanted, thus maintaining what was known as a progressive business attitude. Those were the days when the ADA liked Enoch Peters almost as much as “Rocky,” and when Dave McKee stated publicly that the only difference between Enoch Peters and himself was that Enoch Peters ran the largest steel company in America, whereas Dave McKee contented himself with running America.

Few people discerned the faults in Enoch Peters’ character that eventually emerged under pressure. I refer, of course, to Enoch Peters’ extraordinary view of his responsibility as President of Bankfire Steel. The directors who elected Peters to this high post had every reason to suspect the grossness of their error, but they were of the opinion that Peters’ former connection with the union movement would please McKee—and until quite recently, everybody wished to please Dave McKee. It was considered at the time a most progressive appointment, although some critics pointed out that: a) Peters’ highly profitable record as manager of the plant in Akron was to be suspected; b) Enoch Peters was a graduate of neither Yale College nor Harvard Business School nor Columbia’s adult education program, and was therefore sadly ignorant of the true meaning of management statesmanship; and c) Enoch Peters thus remained under the untutored impression that the first business of a president of Bankfire Steel was to run a profitable business.