Document text
Approximately 3,200 words
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TITLE:
SOUTH CAROLINA. VIRITME1 PROJECT
LIFE HISTORY
A MERCHANT WIZARD
Date of First Writing
Name of Person Interviewed
Fictitious Name
Street Address
Place
Occupation
March 6, 1939
William M. Ferry
John Randall
2200 Divine Street
Columbia, S. C.
Merchant
Name of Writer Stiles M. Scruggs
Name of Reviser State Office
"Pretty fair scene to have started from an accidental shoe string,
and John Randall's eyes roved contentedly over the fifty-six men and
women busily working in his air-conditioned, well -lighted office. "Yep,
it all started back in 1899, when I was a volunteer fireman. One night
the court house was destroyed by fire, and I didn't know about it until
the next morning. You see, the fire station was about a mile from where
I lived.
"I was disappointed by missing the fire, so I got busy looking for a
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remedy. I began to collect old wire and a bell, andiwith my awn hands,
I strung that wire from the fire station to my house. Whenever an alarm
was sounded at the station, my bell rang, and I never missed another fire.
"That home-made wire alarm attracted so much attention that I decided
to quit my job and go into the electrical business. You see, back in those
days, salaries weren't at all high. Then I was thirty-one years old and was
making only $40 a month.
"But to start at the beginning. I was born in 1872, on a farm near
Cottageville, Colleton County, South Carolina. My parents were Newman
Randall and Margaret (Heyward) Randall. They moved to Columbia in 1874,
when I was two years old. Father came here as marshal at the University of
South Carolina. During his seven years in that role, he won a law degree.
In later years, he practiced law in Columbia.
"NV first big thrill came when, at the age of four, I saw Hampton's
Red Shirts fall into line and march to the State House in 1876. We lived
close to the Wallace House, at that time. Fast stepping, smartly dressed
soldiers have always given me a thrill, and I guess that is why I have
taken interest in good shooting and other out-of-ddor sports.
ItNV schooling was cut short during my youth, because of political
discord and confused social
in those days to get by. I
school at 1118 Lady Street,
in the public school. That
I was in Ohio, some friends asked
I told them the truth, they were amazed. What education I have above the
eighth grade has been acquired in the school of experience.
conditions, and it took pretty hard scratching
first became a pupil of the Clarkson Private
and later, in 1883, I finished the eighth grade
's the sum total of my schooling. One year when
me what college I had finished in. When
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"In 1885, I got my first job as a clerk in Re C. Davis' Racket Store.
The racket store, you know, was the predecessor of the modern five -and
ten -cent store. One could buy anything from a tin cup to a paper of pins,
and get it cheap. The pay there was low. I started at five dollars a week.
I worked there two years and was drawing only seven dollars and fifty cents
when I left there to start work at the McCrory store at ten dollars a week.
"That law scale of pay caused me to devote my leisure hours in search
of a better job. One day I was lucky, and soon was working for Uncle Sam,
as a special delivery messenger in the Columbia Post Office. I went to work
there in 1888, and by 1890 I was superintendent of carriers. Although I was
earning more than I had ever earned, I was not content, because I realized
there was not a very bright future in post office jobs.
"The fact that I had blazed an alluring opening, through my home-made
electric alarm, for a new sort of work, with a future to it, was not lost
sight of by me. The very people who had poked fun at me during the con-
struction of the alarm now came around to pat ma on the shoulder and offer
to pay me to perform similar services for them. While holding on to my
post office job, I put in my spare time in electrical experiments and tested
the possibilities of the potential electrical game.
"In 1903, when the paid fire department was established, I declined
membership. I also quit my post office service late that year and estab-
lished headquarters in electrical fixtures in a tiny room in a building
where the Arcade building now stands. The rental for that room was three
dollars a week, but I was clearing approximately as much money as I had
earned when I was at the post office.
"The electrical business boomed throughout 1903 and the first quarter
of 1904. By the end of 1904, I had established an electrical company.
The company rented quarters in the Berkley building. There I was paying
wages to thirty-two men and women employees. You know prosperity and panic
are so close together that a business man may start out with prosperity and,
like as not, walk a mile with panic before he discovers a change of companions.
"In 1906, an economic dip came along, and it had set in good before I
noticed it. As it was, it gave me some sleepless nights and many prayerful
days. The wall faced me, if my creditors should draw on me. I appealed to
an old frien1who could afford to aid me. And he told me to sit tight and
hold on and he would come to my aid if they forced my hand. You know they
didn't press me at all after I told them they could have the money, though
it would be a sacrifice on my part. It reminds me of the old song, 'When
You Get What You Want, You Don't Want It.' I thus met the economic dip and
rode up the road until the bottom fell out of the financial barrel again in
1914. That year, the war in Europe shut off American exports. Business all
over the South slumped fearfully. Cotton didn't move. And since that product
is the money crop of the South, collections were practically nil. My business
again hovered between life and death for months.
"I knew if I failed in 1914, all my struggle from the start would be in
vain. I sought out an old friend, who was then in the banking business and
was known as a financial wizard. He listened to me carefully and asked me
to bring him my audit reports. I did so, and he authorized me to draw on
him to the extent of *25,000, if need be. Again that aid saved me, without
the actual passing of much money.
"An economic panic is like an earthquake. It hits all alike. A business
firm, particularly without a reserve fund, is bound to suffer at every whim of
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econimic dips. Up to 1915, my store had no reserve. In 1916, through the
aid of friends, I bought out the interest of M. 1. Mann and began at the sane
time to put by a reserve fund for future -everripmsrlit-tee-estst emergencies. The
reserve aided me wonderfully when periods of business slackness came along.
And, I'm telling you, upsets in economic affairs are about as certain to
happen over the years as death and taxes.
ttHowever, our reserve fund was soon exhaustedolhen the so-called de-
pression of 1929 hit the whole world such a calamitous blow that it has not yet
fully recovered from the shock. When money takes a nose dive, people get scared,
and panic jumps into the saddle. Our store was on a limb again in 1932, and
for some years following. People who needed our products, and could have paid
for themOvere afraid to buy, while the great rank and file of our customers
were not financially able to buy what they actually needed.
"It took nany strong pulls to play even for some years, because my
overhead expense was about the same, and trade was cut down fully fifty
percent. My anxiety was increased because I was loath to reduce the number
of my employees. I had to let out a few. The other business houses also
faced the same predicament, and that turned loose the millions of unemployed
in the United States. As 1935 dawned, however, my store was stabilized and
I was able to reemploy those I had dropped, by taking a pay cut in profits all
around.
"Since 1935, with the Government earnestly striving to aid, our custom-
ers gradually got their feet on the ground, and we pressed on. In 1938, this
store, which began in a cubbyhole approximately forty years ago, and with a
three -dollar rental, is occupying it's awn $12,000 building. It is paying
fifty-six men and women good salaries, five of them $6,000 a year. My income
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for 1938 was approximately $32,000, and I paid slightly more than $4,000
in Federal income taxes. I believe South Carolina has seen the worst of
the depression. And our outlook for 1939, so far, gives us reason to hope
that we may do even better this year than we did in 1938.
"At a mass meeting in Columbia, I was unanimously chosen president of
the Richland County Federal Relief organization. The man who put me in
nomination paid me this tribute: 'Mr. Randall has done more public welfare
work, without pay, than any other man in the city.' Whether that statement
is so or not, I have never neglected a chance to serve the people; nor have
I forgotten that a citizen should serve his community when he sees a chance
to aid in making it a better place in which to live.
"It was love for my fellow man that motivated me to teach the Columbia
police and State patrolmen haw to use firearms efficiently. I mastered the
shooting game myself, and it is a pleasure to me to instruct others. When,
at first practice; put four out of five shots in the bull's-eyet,the police
showed interest. And when I did about as well with a revolver as I did with
a rifle, they cheered.
"The War Department pays the expenses of sharpshooters for two weeks
at Camp Perry, Ohio, and I take a number of good marksmen there during the
National Rifle xwatches. I try out the applicants who wish to go to the
matches, and if one fails to put three out of every five shots in the bull's-
eye, he doesn't make the grade. A great number of excellent shooters gather
at Camp Perry every year. I think it was due to my ability and interest in
these events there that caused the trustees to bestow on me the rank of cap-
tain. It was due to similar interest in the Boy Scout movement that caused
the National organization to honor me with the Silver Beaver trophy.
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"I am a member of Masonic bodies and the Shrine Club, the Knights of
Pythias, the Odd Fellows, and the Elks. I give these orders a great deal
of my time in coaching applicants, and contribute to them when they need
funds. I also serve my church faithfully, having served as Senior Warden
at the Church of the Good Shepherd, which is the highest title bestowed on
a layman.
"Itr domestic and social life has been full and, for the most part,
very happy. I was married to Miss Juanita Frost in 1890, at Wilmington,
North Carolina. We had five daughters and one son, John L. Randall, who
is now the vice president of the store. The daughters are married. To-
day I have nine grandchildren. Mrs. Randall died in 1930. In 1934, I
was married a second time, to Mrs. Guy Mason, of Columbia. We reside at
2200 Divine Street, Columbia. That is the first and only hone I have lived
in since 1890, when I married the first time.
"Some one has said that life is a dream, and we know not when we
sleep or when we wake, which is equal to saying that no oasis has been
reached by me without a struggle, meat, and anxiety. To have won a little
success in a work -a -day world, which has been topsy-turvy a great deal of
the time, is a great pleasure to me."
AGG