The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 73

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Colonization Activities of Charles William Post

and he was a master advertiser-he made Postum a household
word throughout the land.
Meanwhile, his carriage house expanded into a factory, and an
erstwhile meager income into a fortune. He experimented with
other cereal foods. He began the manufacture of Elijah's Manna,
Grape Nuts, Post Toasties, and other cereal products, and to
ship them out in trainload orders. His estate became an immense
cereal-manufacturing district with huge buildings and large-scale
equipment.
Post revealed a strong paternalistic interest in his employees.
He maintained strict supervision over his subordinates, as well
as over every process involved in the manufacture of his products.
At Battle Creek, he clashed frequently with labor unions, with
Socialists, and with a class he called "rainbow chasers." A rugged
individualist himself, he sought to inoculate his workers against
anything approaching radicalism by paying them good wages and
by building model homes which he sold to them on exceedingly
liberal terms. While he experimented with foods and the processes
of their manufacture, fondly did he love to experiment with men.
If only he might encourage his men along the lines of individual
thrift, if only he might enable them to feel the thrill and taste
of the satisfaction that flows from the ownership of property, the
finest type of citizenship could be developed and radicalism banished
to the realm of oblivion. He declared in 1909:
"I am enlisted to demonstrate that a city and country made
up of individual owners can, so far as practical results, wealth,
comfort, peace, and contentment are concerned, rope and hog-
tie any outfit of rainbow chasers that ever existed, or ever will
in our day and generation. This is individualism contrasted
with Socialism."4
With his food products selling in every part of the civilized
world, by 1906, Post was many times a millionaire. After investing
in numerous enterprises, he thought of the western plains of Texas
as an opportunity, not only for the investment of surplus cash,
but to prove a theory, to demonstrate the merits of his cherished
4Post's words quoted by Zach Moore, in "Making Dreams Come True,"
Pearson's Magazine, October, 1909. Vol. XXII, p. 254. For Post's
career as a manufacturer and experimentor, see article: "Charles William
Post," in Dictionary of American Biography.

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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940, periodical, 1940; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101111/m1/81/ocr/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.

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