Forbes

EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL/ALAMY; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; PHOTOQUEST/GETTY IMAGES; MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ/AP

80 | FORBES ASIA JULY 2016

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Ceiling Crashers

Rosie the Riveter is an icon of

World War II, but women taking

men’s place in the workforce during

wartime goes back long before.

FORBES highlighted Ida E. Fox of

Chicago as a role model. The former

stenographer had become a local

foundry’s purchasing agent even

before the conflict began:

“I have always loved figures. I love

to be in control and power. I like

responsibility and the chance to go

ahead without orders from anyone.”

Financiers at the Front: June 1, 1918

As FORBES’ September 2017 centennial approaches,

we’re unearthing our favorite covers.

DOPPELGANGERS

A Tale of Two Schwabs

1918: Charles M. Schwab, steel

millionaire. Woodrow Wilson

tapped Schwab—who had run

Carnegie Steel and U.S. Steel—to

lead the Emergency Fleet Corp.

and bolster U.S. shipbuilding.

Schwab squandered his $200

million fortune (close to $3 billion

today) on lavish living and bad

investments.

2016: Charles R. Schwab, investing

billionaire. Chuck formed the

core of his money-management

firm around the kinds of prudent

investment tips that Charles M.

(no relation) should have used.

FORGOTTEN FIGURE

Working Warriors

Vets wounded in WWI

returned from Europe only

to face another battle: Many

employers were reluctant to

hire them. Enter Douglas C.

McMurtrie, director of the Red

Cross Institute for Crippled and

Disabled Men. He labored to

get wounded soldiers working

again through training and job

placement—as messengers,

elevator operators, hotel clerks,

even toymakers.

FOURTEEN MONTHS after America’s entry

into World War I, Wall Street had contrib-

uted men to the armed forces—B.C. Forbes

walked through the emptied Bankers Trust

Company Building and counted 490 away

on the front lines—and men to sell the

government bonds necessary to finance

the war. “Brokers went the length

of discouraging purchases in other

securities and exhorting their cus-

tomers to invest in the war loan,”

B.C. wrote in his cover story. By

his calculation, no other industry

was supplying more “free ser-

vice” to the war effort.

Victory would arrive five

months later but not before

America had raised $17 bil-

lion ($320 billion today) in

five debt offerings while

sending more than 1

million men off to

Europe.

FORBES ASIA

FORBES @ 100

BY ABRAM BROWN