Quincy Mining Company and Paternalism - Set 1

Mining Managers Managing Doctors

 

A historic portrait photo of Quincy Mining Company President William Rogers Todd.

133. Photocopied July 1978. (QMC) President William Rogers Todd. - Quincy Mining Company, Hancock, Houghton County, MI Photos from Survey HAER MI

Context:

Paternalism was built on the idea that people at the top in the company were better equipped to make decisions than those below them, which sometimes resulted in managers making certain choices instead of trained medical staff.

The following letters were from the Quincy Mining Company’s president, William Rogers Todd. Although he lived in New Jersey most of the year, Todd had many suggestions for how the medical department should run day-to-day. He especially cared about “outside practice,” a normal practice in the Keweenaw where company doctors earned extra money treating private patients. In these letters, Todd discussed their head of medical staff, Dr. McDonald, and his replacement, Dr. Fischer.

Keep in mind that from 1910-20, copper companies were struggling with market prices, and top executives at Quincy took pay cuts in the 1920s to keep everything running.¹ Could this have affected Todd’s opinion about company priorities ?

While reading, look past the literal orders Todd gave. Does he reveal how he feels about himself and the doctors? Why did he have so much concern about their actions? What can be understood about the company from these letters?

¹ Larry D. Lankton and Charles K. Hyde, Old Reliable: An Illustrated History of the Quincy Mining Company (Hancock, MI: Quincy Mine Hoist Association, 1982), 142.

 

An Immediate Resignation in Cipher

 

William R. Todd to Chase Lawton, December 8, 1910, Quincy Mining Company Collection, MS-001, box 336, folder 17, Michigan Tech Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections, Houghton, MI.

 

Document text transcript

Quincy Mining Company,
32 Broadway,
New York,
Dec. 8th, 1910.

Mr. Chas. L. Lawton, Genl. Mgr.,
Hancock, Mich.

Dear Sir:
Yours of the 6th inst. regarding Dr. Ferguson received, and we at once telegraphed you in cipher which translated should read:

“Accept resignation Dr. Ferguson immediately. Have written”.

These young doctors must be kept in line and recognize that Dr. McDonald is still the head of the medical staff, and insubordination must lead to their discharge, however valuable and strong they may be.

Yours very truly,
W. R. Todd
Pr.

 

Questions about Managing Doctors

 

William R. Todd to Chase Lawton, December 13, 1910, Quincy Mining Company Collection, MS-001, box 336, folder 17, Michigan Tech Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections, Houghton, MI.

 

Document text transcript

Page 1:
Quincy Mining Company,
32 Broadway,
New York,

Dec. 13, 1910.
Mr. Chas. L. Lawton, Genl. Mgr.,
Hancock, Mich.

Dear Sir:
Yours of the 8th inst. received, and I note what you say about Dr. McDonald, Dr. Ferguson, etc.

I do not think it necessary to go into any further controversy in regard to the merits or demerits of the Medical Department, more than to say I am in entire sympathy with Dr. McDonald except his outside practice, for I believe most of the trouble in the Medical Department arises from this cause, which is a thing that in my opinion is very objectionable for him or his assistants to continue.

In this connection I would mention that there are several improvements that I think could well be introduced, among them it seems to me important that the pharmacy should be more centrally located than it is at the present time, and that a resident physician should be stationed at the Franklin Mine where he could attend to those patients that might find it inconvenient to travel all the way to the present doctor’s office. Besides, I think it very objectionable to send so many prescriptions to the pharmacy

Page 2:
as I understand is now the practice. If the doctor on his visits could carry a medical case with him, as is customary in this section with family practice, he could save his patients the trouble of going all the way to the pharmacy to get medicine which he could conveniently carry himself.

Yours very truly,
W. R. Todd
Pr.

 

A Conference with Dr. "Fisher"

 

William R. Todd to Chase Lawton, April 25, 1913, Quincy Mining Company Collection, MS-001, box 336, folder 17, Michigan Tech Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections, Houghton, MI.

 

Document text transcript

Quincy Mining Company,
32 Broadway,
New York,
April 25, 1913.
Mr. Chas. L. Lawton, Genl. Mgr.,
Hancock, Mich.

Dear Sir:
Re Medical Dept.
I notice in recent report from our No.-15 that “no afternoon doctor hour after May first, prescriptions only from one to one thirty”, all of which I consider most radically wrong, and when I get to the mine, as I hope to some time next month, I shall make it my business to inquire somewhat into the management of the Medical Department. It is a think I prefer not to meddle with, but I have never been pleased with the way it has been conducted, and therefore expect to have a conference with Dr. Fisher and ascertain and be informed a little better than we are at present as to his work.

In my opinion the pharmacy should be open, or at least prescriptions should be put up at any time day or night when called for and the doctors must be ready to answer calls day or night as required.

I have never been satisfied with the outside practice that has been permitted, which instead of being considered as a privilege granted them they seem to take it as a right and I fear more or less interferes with the mine practice.

Yours very truly,
W. R. Todd
President.

 

Stop and Reflect:

Keep in mind that from 1910-20, copper companies were struggling with market prices, and top executives at Quincy took pay cuts in the 1920s to keep everything running.

• Could this have affected Todd’s opinion about priorities for the company?

• Does Todd reveal how he feels about himself and the doctors?

• Why did he have so much concern about their actions?

• What can be understood about the company from these letters?

 

Historian's Perspective:

President Todd may be used as a demonstration of how paternalism was set up to make powerful people believe themselves to be skilled in everything. This is not to say Todd’s ideas were wrong or right, but that he had a pattern of assuming he was needed for correct answers. The archives are full of examples of company managers getting personally involved with complicated projects, such as designing an entire hospital instead of allowing for the expertise of architects. When Todd said he preferred “not to meddle,” that did not mean he thought the doctors could handle it alone.

One focus point is his concern about doctors' outside practices. While companies like Calumet and Hecla encouraged some outside patients because they felt it kept their doctors up-to-date with modern medicine, Todd implied it was the cause of most issues in the Quincy medical department. His second letter reveals that part of the issue he had about outside practice was a supposed lack of gratitude on the part of doctors. He also said he wanted to be “informed a little better than we are at present,” which implies that he saw the department as somehow separate or beyond his usual sphere of control.

What might have prompted his opinions? Maybe it was just in Todd’s personality to want more oversight, or maybe the tighter profit margins made him worried about how each part of the company was performing. While it is impossible to know what he was thinking without a source like a diary, researchers do their best to make connections when they can. A good place to start would be to look back further through the archives to see if the medical department always had tension with management, which could tell you when issues began.

 

Set 2

Proceed to the next set of documents in the Quincy Mining Company (QMC) and Paternalism group.

QMC and Paternalism - Set 2

 

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