History of Michigan, / by Charles Moore. [Vol. 3]

History of Michigan
STEPHEN OLIN JOHNSON. Detroit has produced and attracted from
other parts of the country many industrial leaders, men of preeminent
executive and organizing ability, and the industrial prosperity of the city
largely represents the practical ideals and character of such men, prominent among whom for nearly thirty years has been Stephen Olin Johnson,
president of the Penberthy Injector Company. From a small plant, hardly
more than a shop on a by-street, the Penberthy Injector Company has
developed until it is recognized as one of the largest individual industrial
plants of Detroit, and in the manufacture of injectors it is the largest in
the world.
While the record of this enterprise is in itself sufficient to make Mr.
Johnson known as one of the able business men of a great industrial
center, he has also played a prominent part in the wider fields of business
in that city. Most persons acquainted with the recent industrial history
of Detroit will recall the important part taken by the Employers' Association in making Detroit an "open shop" manufacturing center and a brief
recital of facts should be stated in this article. Up to I902 Detroit was,
industrially, in the complete grip of the unions, and strikes were called
by delegates on the slightest pretext. In that year the Brass Manufacturers' Association, of which Mr. Johnson was president, and the Metal
Manufacturers' Association were amalgamated under the name of Detroit
Employers' Association, of which organization Mr. Johnson became the
first vice president. With five other prominent manufacturers, composing the executive officers of the organization, they worked at different
periods for five years with later organizations in settling labor disputes,
until finally, on the amalgamation of the two associations, they came out
boldly and declared that Detroit was henceforth to be an open shop town.
The details of the subsequent struggle cannot be told here, but it is a fact
that through the efforts of Mr. Johnson and his associates open shop conditions were established, and have since been maintained by the Employers' Association. The value of this work had the broadest application to
Detroit's remarkable prosperity in the past decade. It should be remembered that about the time the Employers' Association was organized the
automobile industry was in its infancy, and there has been no one fact of
greater importance in Detroit's growing prestige as a center of automobile
manufacture than in the maintenance of the open shop principles in labor
circles. And what was done by this comparatively small group of men
working together in Detroit was not without its beneficial effect on industry
throughout the state, and extended to many manufacturing cities in the
immediate vicinity of Detroit.
Stephen Olin Johnson is a native of Massachusetts, born at Westfield,
June 15, 1847, and descended from notable American ancestors. His
1215