[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 31, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1832-H1834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THE IMPORTANCE OF SMALL BUSINESSES IN AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Ewing) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EWING. Mr. Speaker, I would like to speak today about a success 
story that is close to home. It is about an independent business 
located in my hometown in Illinois where I grew up, which is a farming 
community in central Illinois. The business is the farm implement 
business which has served many beautiful and profitable farms that are 
located in this part of Illinois for many years.
  In fact, on July 25, 1998 this business will celebrate its 100th 
anniversary. The business I am referring to is the Smith-Marcotte, Inc. 
I am pleased, therefore, to come to the floor today to recognize this 
business, but in a larger sense to recognize the importance of small 
businesses throughout America.
  Whether we are celebrating their 100th anniversary, their 50th 
anniversary or their 1st anniversary, it is a known fact that small 
businesses in America create more jobs for working men and women than 
all the industrial giants of our country together. Therefore, small 
business is truly the engine that keeps the great American economic 
machine running.
  Another point that I think is extremely important about small 
business is the opportunity it gives to men and women who want to have 
the independence, and, yes, take the responsibility of being on their 
own so that they can have the opportunity to be entrepreneurs. There 
are those in our society who may be happier working for a giant 
corporation. There are many who feel the need and the stirring in their 
souls to be entrepreneurs, to own their own business, to have the 
opportunity in this way to seek success for themselves and their 
families.

                              {time}  1815

  Small businesses, like the Schmidt-Marcotte, are truly important to 
rural America. I am pleased to recognize this business and all the 
others like them across America for what they do for the rural economy.
  I may not have mentioned, but at the beginning I intended to say that 
not only does this business deserve to be honored for the number of 
years, but that I have a personal involvement with Schmidt-Marcotte, 
Inc.; it has been a part of my life when I was growing up for many 
years. I have known the principals for my entire life, which is over 
half the time that they have been in business.

[[Page H1833]]

  When I was growing up, the then Schmidt Blacksmith Shop and Implement 
Business was located just on the back of the block where my parents' 
home was located. I would, as a young child playing in the 
neighborhood, often pass the blacksmith shop and look in the door. 
Maybe I would venture inside to see and talk to the men that were 
working at their jobs.
  At that time, the blacksmith shop was still outfitted with the 
billows and fires burning in the keels, which were part of the trade of 
a blacksmith. You would see the owner making horseshoes or other 
apparatus for use for horses and farm machinery.
  I have known all the generations except the founder, who was an 
immigrant named Richard Schmidt, who came from Germany. He was the 
first generation, and he immigrated to Central Illinois in 1881. He was 
followed in the business by his son, Paul A. Schmidt, his son, Richard 
E. Schmidt, and his son, Steven P. Schmidt, and his two children, 
Michael and Jenny. They are all very real people to me, not just names.
  As has been the pattern over the years, small businesses grow and 
merge. Sometimes they divide. But in this case the Schmidt Implement 
Business has grown and merged with the Marcotte Implement Business, and 
then in the nineties merged with the Cox-Evans Implement Business, and 
here again my relationship with the Cox-Evans family goes back for 
almost my entire life. This family is now in its fourth generation in 
the farm implement business.
  It is my hope as we recognize the Schmidt-Marcotte Implement Business 
today we will also reflect a little bit upon what in this country has 
made it possible for this country to grow and prosper, and with those 
reflections, we should rededicate our efforts and our commitment to 
keeping America strong and our government supportive and not 
overpowering, so that this small business can survive a second 100 
years, and so that all small businesses across America can continue the 
opportunity to grow and prosper.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record my full text of the history of 
the Schmidt-Marcotte Implement Business in Illinois.
  The business actually began with Richard Schmidt's immigration to 
Atlanta, Illinois, from Germany in 1881. Upon his arrival, Richard 
began work for Mr. Demer Rhodes, the local blacksmith. Richard worked 
for Mr. Rhodes for several years, learning the ``smithy'' business. In 
1895, Richard married Minnie Butler and set up housekeeping. Three 
years later, two events occurred which would eventually set the course 
for the business: Richard purchased the blacksmith shop from Mr. Rhodes 
and his son, Paul A. Schmidt was born.
  The first shop, a two-story building, was located near the railroad 
on First Street. The lower level was a general blacksmith shop. A day's 
work consisted of shoeing horses, sharpening plow shares, and general 
welding, all very hard, physical labor. The firing of the metal was 
done in two coal-fired forges and then pounded into shape on anvils. 
The second floor of the building housed a complete wagon and buggy 
manufacturing facility and repair shop. Finished buggies and wagons 
were moved upstairs by means of an outdoor ramp.
  Around 1915, Richard purchased a gas engine to power a set of 
overhead line shafts which ran various machines by individual belts. 
This engine powered a 75 pound trip hammer to forge metal once done by 
human hand, a punch and sheer to cut iron, a drill press, and a threat 
cutting machine. This was the beginning of automation for the business. 
Eventually the gas engine was replace by an electric motor.
  In 1916, Richard's son, Paul, graduated from Atlanta High School and 
joined his father in the business. When World War I started in 1917, 
Paul went into the armed services and served a tour of duty in France. 
Upon his son's return in 1918, Richard had added to the blacksmithing 
business a line of horse drawn implements--the beginning of the family 
farm implement business as I know it today.
  The first horse-drawn implements sold by the business were 
manufactured by Emerson-Braningham Company. The line of implements 
included horse-drawn gang plows, sickle mowers, and disk harrows. 
Still, the blacksmithing business flourished as the bulk of farm power 
was still furnished by horses.
  1926 was to become a letter year for the business; Richard Schmidt 
died and son, Paul, took over the business. In that same year, the 
Emerson-Braningham Company was bought out by J.I. Case Company of 
Racine, Wisconsin, and Paul Schmidt signed his first contract with J.I. 
Case Company, the beginning of 72 years of continuous service to the 
local farm community. Two years later, Paul and his wife Ruth, had a 
son--Richard E. Schmidt--the third generation.
  With the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930's, the word for 
the next several years was ``survival.'' In 1933, total cash sales for 
Paul Schmidt were less than $1,500.00. in order to keep the business 
going, a large portion of the work done was either for barter or 
charged on the book. Few tractors and machines were sold at this time. 
The business survived once again on blacksmith work and welding. Life 
was hard for farmers. A bushel of corn was worth $.10. The heat wave 
and great drought of 1936 caused many crop failures and that winter was 
one of the coldest on record.
  1937 seemed to be the turning point in the farm machinery business. 
The economy had picked up and the Great Depression appeared to be over. 
Paul purchased two train carloads of Case two-row cornpickers. The cost 
of these machines was approximately $900.00. Modern combines that could 
be pulled by a tractor, began to replace the threshing machines.
  The farm economy was on an upswing. The practice of trading horses 
and cow for new machines was common-place. At one time, Paul had eight 
horses and two cows boarded at Hoblit Farms south of Atlanta. The late 
1930s introduced rubber tractor tires, taking the place of steel-lugged 
wheels. This enabled the farmers to travel faster, provided more 
traction in the fields, and made local road commissioners happier.
  Few farm machines were made with the onset of World War II in 1941. 
Farm machinery manufacturers turned their efforts to making war 
equipment. The bulk of the business at the blacksmith shop was that of 
repairing old equipment. By the end of the war in 1946, Paul Schmidt 
had built a new modern tractor shop, a parts room and office facility.
  It was always Richard E. Schmidt's intention to join the 
family business. He graduated from Atlanta High School in 1946 and was 
accepted at the University of Illinois. After one year of college, 
Richard returned home to help manage the business. In 1950, Richard was 
drafted into the U.S. Army and served his tour in Korea. At the same 
time, post-war sales increased and the business flourished. By the end 
of the Korean Conflict in 1953, the business had changed from a 
blacksmith shop selling some machinery to a farm machinery dealership 
doing some blacksmith work. Richard returned home from the war, and in 
January of 1953 married Dema Smith. One year later, the future fourth 
generation to take over the business, Steven Paul Schmidt was born.

  The late 1950's brought major growth to the business and to the farm 
economy. In 1958, Case Company introduced their first automatic tractor 
transmission. This was the beginning of major technological advances 
for farm machinery manufacturers. Machinery was becoming larger and 
more sophisticated.
  With the addition of the New Idea farm machinery line in 1960, 
Richard E. Schmidt broadened the business' customer-base twofold. 
First, to include a larger group of farmers and second to the seed corn 
industry. New Idea appealed not only to area farmers but to the seed 
corn industry because of its introduction of self-propelled corn 
harvesters. With the addition of this new equipment line, an additional 
building was erected at the downtown location in 1968 so that machinery 
could be repaired inside where it was sheltered from the weather. Paul 
A. Schmidt and Son employed five people at this time. Sadly, the decade 
closed with the passing of Paul A. Schmidt on February 4, 1969. Paul 
had enjoyed over 50 years in the farm machinery business.
  Schmidt Implement Company was formed in 1970. Good grain prices 
during the mid-1970s encouraged rapid growth in the business. In 1976, 
Dick's son, Steven P. Schmidt graduated from Illinois Wesleyan 
University, Bloomington, Illinois; with a degree in business 
administration. Shortly after graduation, Steven joined the family 
business.
  The growth of the business determined the fate of the original 
blacksmith shop. It had become apparent that the business had outgrown 
its original downtown location; a move was required. An eight-acre 
tract of land was purchased on the south edge of Atlanta. The business 
would be bordered by I-55 and U.S. 66. An 11,200 square foot metal 
building was constructed on the site in May of 1978, doubling the 
original shop size. The new site, once the northwest edge of the old 
Atlanta fairgrounds, is marked by a cornerstone. The day of the village 
blacksmith has passed on.
  This was a busy time for both Richard and Steven Schmidt. 1977 
welcomed the birth of son Michael to Steven Schmidt; daughter Jenni was 
to follow in 1979. The fifth generation of Schmidts had arrived.
  For Richard, 1978 found him elected to the office of president of the 
J.I. Case Dealer Council. This council was formed to provide a common 
link between dealers and corporate management.

[[Page H1834]]

  The business continued to flourish under the government's PIK 
(payment-in-kind) program and in 1985, two major equipment lines, J.I. 
Case and International Harvester, merged to become Case International. 
This merger eventually precipitated another partnership. On November 1, 
1987, two Logan County farm equipment dealers joined forces, Schmidt 
Implement Company and Marcotte International, Inc. of Lincoln, 
Illinois. This merger became operational under the name of Schmidt-
Marcotte, Inc., resulting in the cloture of the Marcotte dealership on 
Woodlawn Road in Lincoln. With the merger came the construction of two 
more buildings and doubled the number of employees.
  William (Bill) Marcotte brought to the business 21 years of 
association with International Harvester products. Bill graduated from 
Southern Illinois University in 1966 with a degree in agriculture. He 
worked for International Harvester as a sales representative out of 
their Peoria office. In 1973, he was transferred to Lincoln, Illinois 
as an assistant manager and purchased the dealership in 1974. He had 
been owner/operator until the merger in 1987.
  In 1992 Schmidt-Marcotte further enhanced their central Illinois 
leadership in agriculture implement sales by merging with Evans 
Implement of Lawndale. David Evans closed his business in Lawndale, 
purchased stock in Schmidt-Marcotte, and joined the Schmidts and Bill 
Marcotte as a business partner. This merger provided the company with 
their second major farm equipment manufacturer-New Holland-as well as 
several short line companies including Kinze, an industry leader in 
planting equipment.
  David Evans' family has been involved in the farm equipment business 
since 1953. That year his grandfather and uncle, John Cox and John R. 
Cox, started Cox implement Company, an Allis-Chalmers dealership in 
Lincoln. Cox Implement flourished and in 1966 they moved their business 
to Lawndale to accommodate the business' growth and need for space. In 
1979, David and his father, Tom, bought the dealership and operated it 
under the name of Evans Implement. As the years passed, the Allis-
Chalmers dealership grew with the addition of Steiger, Kinze, New 
Holland, and a host of short line companies. Tom Evans retired in 1991. 
That same year Dave's son, Tim Evans, joined the business. Tim, 
currently the office manager of Schmidt-Marcotte, is a fourth 
generation family member involved in the farm equipment business.
  Schmidt-Marcotte's merger with Evans resulted in greatly expanded 
customer services in areas including sales and parts.
  Schmidt-Marcotte, Inc., currently operates with Steve Schmidt as 
president, Bill Marcotte as vice-president, and Dave Evans as 
treasurer, and currently employs 30 individuals. In December, 1998, 
Michael Schmidt will graduate with a degree in agriculture from Western 
Illinois University, and plans to join his father, Steve, in the 
business, marking five generations in the farm implement business.
  In closing, a celebration marking their 100 years of service will be 
held in Atlanta, Illinois at the business on July 25, 1998.

                          ____________________