Business: Heinz

On the 57th day of the current year (Feb. 26) the H. J. Heinz Co. of Pittsburgh, famed makers of 57 varieties of pickles, celebrated the 57th anniversary of the founding of the business.

Years ago, when national advertising was toddling and stumbling over itself and when Henry John Heinz (founder) was still alive, the company had decided on a quiet, pervasive, yet persuasive, type of propaganda. Heinz’ 57 Varieties became its slogan and was so skillfully broadcast that the mere numerals 57 on a billboard told a story, sold the goods. This policy of effectiveness without flamboyancy grew from the very character of Henry John Heinz, continues in that of his son Howard, now company president.

In 1840 an energetic young German, Henry Heinz, emigrated to the U. S. His ancestors, Bavarian winegrowers, had acquired high esteem from as early as 1709. In Pennsylvania he met and married in 1843 Anna Margaretta Schmitt, also an immigrant. Her father had been a burgomeister, an elder in the church. A year later their baby, Henry John, was born. In 1850 they moved to Sharpsburg, Pa., where the young father established a brick yard. Frugal Anna wanted her own kitchen garden, had one laid out much larger than her own family needs, sold produce to neighbors. Here among the cabbage tops, the bean vines and the other garden truck Henry John used to play. In the house basement he used to watch his mother pickling and canning. The grating of horseradish was an eye-smarting task. But Mrs. Heinz’ preparation of this root was so appetizing that it found a ready sale. Henry John was its eager boy salesman.

When he was 15, his father, realizing his nascent business ability, let him come into the brickyard as bookkeeper. The boy reorganized the yard, developed year-round work instead of seasonal.

In 1869, 57 years ago, he went partners with one L. C. Noble, into the firm of Heinz & Noble, to bottle vegetables for the market. This firm grew, changed names, moved to Pittsburgh, expanded. In 1888, at 44 Henry John retired for a season. He had done some traveling, wanted to do more, eventually had seen the continents. From Rome he brought and erected in his Pittsburgh administration building a fountain. Ivory collecting was a pleasant avocation. His gathering contained 1,300 carved pieces, one of the few of its kind in the U. S. In 1919 he died, 25 years after the death of the Irish girl, Sallie Sloan Young, whom he married the year he set up in business for himself, 1869.

Henry John was religious. For more than 20 years he was superintendent of a Methodist Sunday School, although he had been brought up a strict Lutheran. His parents wanted him to become a minister and this religious attitude he kept throughout his life. How sore his heart when word was brought to him that smart-Alex Pittsburgh saloonkeepers had wanged out a ribald ditty at his expense. Nigger-prancers,* bum-mers, street sheiks, tenderloin riff-raff were chanting all over Pittsburgh, all over the U. S.:

Heinz! HEINZ! WHAT’S the matter with Heinz?

Heinz come wobbling down the street!

What’s the matter with Heinz’ FEET?

Heinz! Heinz!

What’s the matter with HEINZ?

He’s been in 57 stews,

And HEINZ IS PICKLED AGAIN!!

Jailbirds kept lockstep time to the scurrilous words. Watery-nosed hoboes would strike a pose, chant the libel, and cadge thereby a drink of beer, mayhap, if the grinning barkeep reckoned up a large group at the rail, a finger of low-proof whisky.

The purpose of this dastardly chanty was, of course, to counteract Henry John Heinz’s moral influence in Pittsburgh. Eventually he got the song suppressed.

Howard Heinz, one of his four sons (they have one sister), assumed the presidency of the H. J. Heinz Co. in 1919. Strong, able, upright, like all his family, he graduated from Yale in 1900, at 23, went into the family business. There no nepotism existed. He had to progress by his own ability. In five years he was Advertising Manager; in 1907 Sales Manager; in 1915 Chairman of the Board. He also goes in for non-commercial activities; is a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, of the Union National Bank, of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. During the War he was a member of the National Council of Defense of Pennsylvania; was Food Commissioner for Pennsylvania, Chairman of the Food Supply Committee of the National Council of Defense; Zone Chairman of the U. S. Food Administration for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, member of the War Industries Board of Philadelphia; and member of the Executive Committee of the American Relief Administration (European Children’s relief). After the War he became Director General of the American Relief Administration for Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. He is President of Heinz House, Pittsburgh; on the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh, of Carnegie Institute, of Shady Side Academy ‘(where he prepared for Yale), West Pennsylvania Hospital, of the West Pennsylvania Institution for the Blind; a trustee for the Commission for Relief in Belgium of the Educational Foundation, Manhattan. He is a Republican and a Presbyterian. His ancestors had been Methodists, and further back Lutherans.

His concern, the H. J. Heinz Co., veritably makes 57 Varieties.** It has grown from a basement factory getting supplies from neighborhood truck gardens to a corporation with 20 factories in 4 countries, with 306 salting houses and receiving stations and 71 sales branches and warehouses in the U, S., England and Canada. It employs more than 1,400 traveling salesmen. One employe has worked for it for 52 years. The continuous service record of a veteran group totals 6,044 years. Three generations of one family have worked in the plants. All directors rose from the ranks. Of them ten tote up their service years to 349.

*Cloggers who were wont to throw themselves into the grotesque, exaggerated contortions of tom-tom exalted African blackamoors.

His father, Henry John, likewise varied his extra-commercial activities; attended Methodist annual conferences; was a world influence in Methodism; helped the. Y. M. C. A. He was a founder of the Western Pennsylvania Exposition Society; a member of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce.

**Oven-Baked Beans with Pork and Tomato Sauce, Oven-Baked Beans without Tomato Sauce, with Pork (Boston Style), OvenBaked Beans in Tomato Sause without Meat (Vegetarian), Oven-Baked Red Kidney Beans, Cream of Tomato Soup, Cream of Green Pea Soup, Cream of Celery Soup, Mince Meat, Plum Pudding, Fig Pudding, Peanut Butter, Cooked Spaghetti, Cherry Preserves, Red Raspberry Preserves, Peach Preserves, Damson Plum Preserves, Strawberry Preserves, Pineapple Preserves, Black Raspberry Preserves, Blackberry Preserves, Crab Apple Jelly, Currant Jelly, Grape Jelly, Quince Jelly, Apple Butter, Preserved Sweet Gherkins, Preserved Sweet Midget Gherkins, Preserved Sweet Mixd Pickles, Sour Spiced Gherkins, Sour Midget Gherkins, Sour Mixed Pickles, Chow Chow Pickle, Sweet Mustard Pickle, Dill Pickles, Sour Pickled Onions, Preserved Sweet Onions, Sandwich Relish, Spanish Queen Olives, Spanish Manzanilla Olives, Stuffed Spanish Olives, Ripe Olives, Pure Spanish Olive Oil, Tomato Ketchup, Chili Sauce, Beeksteak Sauce, Red Pepper Sauce, Green Pepper Sauce, Worcestershire Sauce, Prepared Mustard, Prepared Mustard Sauce, India Relish, Evaporated Horseradish, Mayonnaise Salad Dressing, Pure Malt Vinegar, Pure Cider Vinegar, Distilled White Vinegar, Tarragon Vinegar.