DEAD CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 13 May 1925, Page 13

DEAD CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY.

LATE LORD LEVERI^ULME ‘‘About fifty-five years ago a fi'e.slifacod, stocky Lancashire boy stood hernia trie counter of a small grocer s shop in Bolton," wrote Lord Lir&eiiheud, in the ‘(Sunday Tunes' last year. ‘‘There"was nothing about him to attract special notice' except hit oyesKo artist could have caugut all their various lights. That boy wus one day to' be the' Viscount Levorhulmp. I had this des'criptibii twenty years >go from a' very' old Bolton man who' knew William Lever and'his father well. The boy is now a merchant prince, and oiie of the richest arid most ' aijyenirirous men in the British Empire. “Enterprise has always been the peculiar quality which lias mode England,'''and enterprise must, iii everchanging forms, remain the hope of the Empire. In Lord Leverhuline, long known to the commercial 'world as William Hesketh Lever, we make the acquaintance of’ a merchant prince ivho is true to a fundamental type. He has created a vast brisiness out of very' simplh material. This fact blight range him, at' first sight, with many who'have gone before him. But he'has doiie the most' original 1 things'.'He ha? done most startling'"'things. So inu’cli has he'enlarged the principles of business, $o much use has lie made" of opportunity, that we see in him one of the' riiost unconventional beings who has ever imposed his character upon trade dr his ihfluenco upon an age. In Venice he" would have been a great Prince arid Dogei " ‘“'And I 'then'came soap. “I piiuse reyereritly oh the subject of soap, for it is undoubtedly a very great subject. I know that Lord Leverhulhie hris 'dabbled"iri other comrriodities.' But,' is 'h'&'sdys, ’fresh from' adventures in Hampstead of the Outer ’ Hebrides —if may be ahiongst recalcitrant fisliernian •‘—everything comes back to soap. There is something' almost' awe-irisplring in the‘'continuous progress of those' undertakings ' which have made the 'name 'of Levbri familiar to the' Whole' world.'The triumph of soap which bears the Lever brand is ii theme'which' Bright be; extended to. 'epical' dimensions.' ‘I have not fbrgbtteri the absorption’"of Hudson, n6i ! ‘' many' a Homeric struggle ' over other'' combinatioris arid* interests. Tjiese struggles ’ are' still ' thrilling to think of as' thley emerge : frorii the heydhy bf the past. There have BOen'times when Lord : Lgverh'ulme has had ‘to fight with his Back to 'the wall for his saponaceous life. ‘I have not evolved ahy schemes With consciousness beforehand,’ he says. ‘I have always dohe'tho day’s work, ' not regretting yesterday arid notbe’ing afraid of 'w-morroW.’ “But all’this eriterpriso’ arid all this confidence have always coirie' back in the end to soap. The'tables by'which Lord Leverhulme is surrounded iri his l London office are crowded with samples j of this fluctuating commodity, which is always being evolved afresh and i anew in countless variegated forms/ It is' a simple material, like the musical ! scald, which out of seven notes to nine will bring an infinity of music. But hero the musical note which strikes, or can be struck;' most melodiously' is ' that I eSoteric 'harmony which sets its aspirations 'toward- the future. For I do not doubt that'round the Leverhulme name'in the course of time will grow those fine traditions which will, continue to increase the importance of a family and of a horire. 1 “And 'so' tlie honors which already accrue .to a name, which in itself consecrates' what is happily in England an’ evriryday romance, will always help to , maintain those ideas’of' Stability which England still cherishes and needs.”