Cyrus Hall McCormick:
A Distinguished Virginian who has Contributed to World Progress

A speech made by the Honorable E. Lee Trinkle, Former Governor of Virginia

July 29, 1931

The celebration of the anniversary of a great man, or of a great achievement, is the fulfillment of a duty and a pleasing one, due by posterity to the leaders and thinkers of the past.

My assignment on this program is fraught with insurmountable difficulties in even approximately attributing to the character of this sketch Cyrus Hall McCormick's true place in the affairs of men, in so short a space of time.

Many of you know in a concise way the service of the man; others of you probably only in a general way. Therefore you must appreciate the fact that I can only hope to recall and re-emphasize a few outstanding contributions of the individual who has been properly dubbed the "Father of Modern Agriculture."

It is but a trite saying to mention that Virginia is rich in history. Her records are replete in their roster of outstanding notables. It is sometimes known as the "Mother of Presidents."

But in all the long list of men preeminent in statesmanship or in arms in Virginia, I doubt if the name and fame of any will live longer with the people than that of Cyrus Hall McCormick, youthful inventor of the harvesting machine.

Down through the centuries, reaching from the fabled days of Troy, the world has been accustomed to regard as its greatest men, those successful in battle. This was true during the long era of emperors and kings, and in a lesser degree this is still true even among men of our present day.

May I be so bold as to say that we have entered into a time of revolution - of revolution in thought - a revolution in which old standards are passing, into one in which a different, more just, I might say, more logical evaluation is being placed upon what constitutes real greatness.

What is this new difference in the evaluation of greatness? It is an evaluation which is based more definitely upon service. It is an evaluation which ranks Thomas Edison by the side of Ferdinand Foch. Foch, with his millions of patriotic heroes, fought for the threatened freedom and liberty of the world. He with his hosts met the combined military might of the Central Empires. He and they crushed this might, and we hope have kept the world safe for democracy, although, at times, our hopes seem clouded into disbelief.

Thomas Edison met the primal forces of nature in single conflict. From out the vast void of space, he alone, practically speaking, grappled with and drew the untamed elements until he had chained electricity and subdued it to the uses of modern life.

Today, we are met in memory of a man whose name can rightfully rank by that of the proudest. At this happy hour we are assembled that we may pay homage to a great Virginian; to one whose fame has been achieved, not amid the blare of bugle and the roar of drum, but in sweet peace and distinct service to mankind; not one whose achievements have been gained on the bloody fields of hate, but one whose memory will live forever amid the golden harvests in fields of waving grain and whose influence and whose great service to mankind are felt around the world.

The story of the epoch-making invention of young Cyrus Hall McCormick has been told through many years and many lands. It is the romance of the emancipation of farm labor. It is the epoch of the conquest of the soil. From the days of Boaz, men had cut and women had gleaned in the harvest fields. The song of the scythe had been heard through the centuries. The toil of the binders had followed close upon the song of the scythe when the whole land's population went forth to the harvest; and today, during every month of the year, somewhere in the world, the music of the American-made reaper, the binder, and the combine may be heard in the fields of golden grain.

In the bygone days, the planting of the grain was predicated largely upon the ability of the reapers to gather it into the barns, which meant that the extent of the planting was often circumscribed. Thus the failure of a small crop necessarily meant famine.

In 1831 the birth year of McCormick's first reaper, eighty per cent of all the persons employed in the United States were engaged in farming. Apply that ratio to the 41,614,000 people now [in July 1931] working for a livelihood in the United States, and it shows that 33,291,000 employees would be required to raise sufficient food to keep the nation alive.

But with the advent of the mechanical reaper it has become possible to garner illimitable harvests; and under improved conditions of mechanical agriculture, which had its beginning in the McCormick invention of the reaper, only 10,819,000 actual workers are required to till the soil. The difference is 22,472,000, representing the number of workers actually released by the reaper and other mechanical improvements from farming for other pursuits.

A study of the occupations of the United States shows that 12,828,000 are engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, and this would be little more than half enough to meet the shortage of farm labor if the old conditions prevailed at the present time.

With the invention of the McCormick reaper there followed logically the development of the vast grain regions of the Central West; and with the development of these great agricultural resources, moved on rapidly to their present magnitude the agriculture and other development of our country.

I see before me the form of a boy. He stands in the shop of his father at Walnut Grove, the ancestral home of the McCormicks. The boy watches his father, Robert McCormick, at his work, not knowing that he is destined to catch the dream of the older man and through his greater gift of genius to translate that vision into a reality which will remove forever the fear of famine from the world. Carefully the boy observes the older man at his labors. At night he hears him speak of the reaping machine of his dreams. But these dreams are only dreams and the harvester of the older McCormick never materializes into actuality.

The next picture is the picture of Cyrus, now become a youth of twenty-two years. The ambition of his father has taken hold upon him. He not only becomes a dreamer but is determined to be a doer. He believes that a mechanical reaping device for practical service is not beyond the power of man to assemble. He determines to make an accomplished fact of his father's failure. His efforts are rewarded. He invents a reaper and invites his neighbors to witness its first successful operation.

And now a remarkable thing happens to show the persistency, courage, and determination of his youth. In July, 1831, the first demonstration of the reaper was held, but it was only after a period of three years of further experimentation that the inventor was sufficiently satisfied with his machine to even apply for a patent in 1834.

History says that for the space of nine years from the date of the first demonstration of his marvelous accomplishment, McCormick found himself utterly unable to induce the purchase of the machine.

The force of prejudice and ignorance is very strong. The older the habit of thought, the more binding are the bonds of custom. Farmers had been cradling wheat for generations and even those who saw the first reaper in the field were skeptical and doubtful if they could employ it to advantage.

It was not until 1841, ten years after the first demonstration, that McCormick himself was for the first time fully satisfied with the operation of his machine. During all this period he had struggled, sacrificed, and suffered to make perfect the article he wished to dispose of to the public as a practical accomplishment; and in 1841 he advertised that from that time on Òpurchasers would run no risk since, if the reapers of l842 were not strong and durable and would not cut fifteen acres a day and save one bushel of wheat per acre, ordinarily lost by shelling when the cradle was used, they could be returned." Even with this guarantee only seven reapers were sold for the harvest of 1842.

In his willingness to guarantee that which he sold, McCormick furnished an example of integrity of character and an abiding faith in the goodness of his wares. How splendid it would be if many of the inventors of today, in dealing with the public, would catch this spirit exemplified by Cyrus Hall McCormick. And this spirit constitutes another contribution to the world on the part of this great Virginian.

So the invention of the reaper had but half accomplished the work of the inventor; and thus another one of the appealing contributions of this remarkable man lies in the fact that he, almost alone and single handed, set out to educate a world to the thought that the horse, which had been the loyal and faithful friend to man, as well as the flesh and blood of the laborer, must inevitably give way, in the march of time, to the harnessing of iron and steel in a mechanical way to the use of mankind.

This was a difficult task indeed, but yet one that was overcome by indomitable perseverance, determination, and courage. The work of education began in an humble manner on his farm. He later employed agents to visit various sections of Virginia. Later he invaded other states with his educational program, and it was at the late period of l851 before the first of his machines found its way across the seas to England.

When the queer-looking device was first placed on exhibition within the Crystal Palace, the London Times referred to it as a "contraption seemingly a cross between a wheelbarrow, a chariot, and a flying machine." But later when the Harvester was put through its paces in the field, the great English daily came forth with a very handsome retraction of its first estimate, and expressed its belief that the American reaper was destined alone to be worth to the farmers of Britain more than the cost of the entire London Exposition.

The McCormick reaper was given first award in the London Exposition, the Hamburg Exposition, the Vienna Exposition, the Paris Exposition, and the inventor himself was elected an officer of the French Legion of Honor and was made a member of the French Academy of Science and proclaimed "as having done more for agriculture than any other living man."

It was Cyrus Hall McCormick who announced in the days of yore, following out his education and sales program that "you must advertise to sell." Perhaps one of the most interesting examples of his foresight was his beginning of a series of newspaper advertisements that set the world "a-talking" about the merits of his machine. Certainly to the world he brought, to a very large extent, the beginning of the advertising period that appeals, appalls, and interests. His success led in making the American of today an advertiser of his wares.

In America, the boy inventor rapidly took his place among the captains of world industry. First he established headquarters at Cincinnati; later he went to Chicago. Like others, he had seen that the agricultural future of this country lay in the tractless fields stretching endlessly beyond the sunset, and his imagination was tired when he contemplated the development of this great area of the world.

The population of the United States in 1831, the year of the invention of the reaping machine, was placed in the federal government census at 13,247,000, scarcely twice the number of inhabitants today residing in the city of New York alone. The West still belonged to the buffaloes and cowboys but this intrepid man knew no fears. His operations were limited to no particular territory, and for him the western plains offered a fascinating urge. So McCormick, with his reaper, was soon to blaze a trail of industrial development which would stimulate the construction of railroads and the up-building of cities with their shops, their grain elevators, their banks, and their skyscrapers.

Nine years were required for the sale of the first single reaper, and after thirteen years of endeavor the great invention rolled up a sales total of just eighty-nine machines. But, in the next two years, the fruition period was being reached in the business of this business giant and the enterprise passed out of the one-man stage.

McCormick early realized that the agricultural future of the nation would lie upon and beyond the great plains of the Mississippi valley, and again his wisdom was exemplified when, in 1846, he decided to follow the path of the empire and moved his business to Chicago. Here the enterprise grew by leaps and bounds. But the path that led to success was still beset with difficulties. Others seeing the fortune which lay ahead, organized competition, and for many years the life of McCormick was passed largely in litigation in courts, defending his patent rights and protecting his business. In 1871 came the Chicago fire which literally wiped out the city and destroyed at one blow all that the inventor had made.

Here McCormick, the great Virginian, yields another lesson to the stalwart, daring and courageous youth of today, in that he never faltered in front of opposition, never fell back in the face of difficulty, never let up in his desire to serve. He proved himself not only to be an inventor and a dreamer, for, under the difficulties he faced, he would have been crushed and forgotten; but he proved himself to be a doer and an organizer, a man of business, a captain of industry, and an indomitable leader. Such characteristics are worthy of emulation for all who may follow after him.

Rather jocularly speaking, he was possessed of a combination of qualities which have at all times proved invincible. He was a Virginian, he was a Democrat, and he was a Presbyterian; and so God blessed him with success because he deserved it.

McCormick may well be termed a pioneer in what today is known as installment selling. He had faith in his product. He was willing to sell on a small cash payment. He felt absolutely confident that the product sold would, as a result of its merits, yield a return that would provide for the future payments. He made easy, in each locality, the acquisition of any and all new parts that might become necessary for the continued usefulness of his machine, as a result of the ordinary wear and tear which comes in the use of machinery. He thus established a business principle, used by agencies, which today has grown to be a popular and appealing sales argument for the modern machine of all kinds that is offered and sold for the use of the public, thus again exemplifying the wisdom with which he went about doing good, although engaged in a commercial and profit-making enterprise.

It seems almost beyond the realm of imagination when we think that in the fullness of time, the McCormick reaper, as invented at Walnut Grove, has grown through wise management and over many difficulties into what today is known as the International Harvester Company. The original reaper, constructed along rough lines, evolved into the twine and the wire binders, and into motor driven machines which, when operated in fleets across the wheat fields of Kansas, have been known to harvest six hundred and forty acres in a single day.

McCormick passed on in 1884 and in the year of his death he sold 54,841 machines. Today the world is his market and today the world testifies in appreciative gratitude to the greatness of its debt to the Virginia inventor because he was the father of the mechanical beginning in agricultural development.

The business of the International Harvester Company extends through Europe into Asia and into Africa. It is the largest concern of its kind in the world and one of the most creditable to America. It is a corporation operated not solely for money-making, but one which unites philanthropy with industry. During its life, it has paid out $7,000,000 in pensions, and has established a pension trust of $23,000,000 for the protection of its employees in their old age.

I ask, is not the life and accomplishment of this man a real illustration of how much good can be accomplished by even a single individual if his efforts and his talents are directed along the line of unselfishness and persistent service to the world.

Under the present administration of Governor Pollard is being established in the legislative lobby at Richmond a Virginia Hall of Fame, in which will be clustered about the Houdon marble of Washington, busts of the Virginia-born Presidents. Bordering the lobby, upon which it enters, lies the old House of Delegates, where Marshall presided over the trial of Aaron Burr and where Lee received his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Northern Virginia. In the hall of the House of Delegates is embedded a tablet it the memory of Nathaniel Bacon, while in the new Senate Chamber, just back of the president's seat, has been erected a handsome marble memorial in which is cut the names of the seventy Virginia signers of the Declaration of Independence.

It will thus be seen why Virginia's state house is looked upon as a Mecca of Memories. For, since the early days of our colonial government, it has constituted the hub and center of the state's most stirring activities.

And yet, not all the glory of the commonwealth is centered at Richmond. Not every memorial to Virginia's greatness is housed in the capitol. And I would at this time direct your attention to a stone marker erected May 1, 1928, to Cyrus Hall McCormick on the old McCormick farm near Raphine.

It was the distinguished privilege of Dr. Julian A. Burruss, President of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, to be present and to deliver an address upon the occasion of the dedication of the marker to which I refer, and it is to the everlasting honor of this institution that the stone marking the place of birth of Cyrus McCormick, and the spot where he constructed the first practical reaping machine, was erected by the V. P. I. Student Branch of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers.

In the basement of the State Library Building at Richmond, which is one of the group of structures surrounding the capitol, is located what is known as the state museum. Here is to be seen a replica of a very famous statue of Thomas Jefferson. And here, encased in glass, are preserved and guarded the regimental colors and other battle flags carried by Virginia troops in France during the World War. Here is also kept the Gold Star Flag, sacred as honoring Virginia's dead in that mighty struggle.

And here, my friends, is to be found one of the first McCormick reapers. It is an ancient and crude machine, but it is a piece of history. It stands a mile-post on the road of progress. It was a forerunner of that great army of reapers which have for a hundred years gone forth each summer to conquer fields of growing grain.

And somehow, as I have noticed that machine, resting in silence beside the battle flags in the state museum, I have seemed to realize that the glory of service in peace is not always less than the glory of valor in battle; that the hum of the reaper is sweeter than the roar of artillery; that he who feeds the nations is greater than he who rules an empire; that he who conquers famine is greater than he who taketh a city.

I have looked upon battle flags and though of that agony and death which men call war. And I have turned to the reaper by their side and dreamed of wide fields of golden grain. And I have lifted up my in prayer that God my yet see fit to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, in which we are told:

      "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

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