Don's column in the Columbian celebrates another of Washington's entrepreneurial pioneers, Jim Casey, a founder of United Parcel Service.
Here's Don:
Most people don't realize Jim Casey started what is now the Microsoft of package shipping, United Parcel Service, a 100-y ear-old company employing 427,000 workers in more than 200 countries worldwide.
Casey was just 19 years old in 1907 when he partnered with Claude Ryan and borrowed $100 to start a delivery company headquartered in Seattle's Pioneer Square.
Over the next century, UPS transformed the way the world does business,
he company that made "Brown" a household word is now a $42.6-billion business with its iconic brown delivery trucks and drivers clad in brown uniforms.
By going head-to-head with postal services around the world, UPS forced those government monopolies to be competitive. Many were heavily subsidized by taxpayers, and the United States was no different. Our Congress had committees in both houses that oversaw postal operations and often propped up the postal service with government subsidies. The mail delivery system was inefficient, and many were convinced there was no profit in delivering packages and letters.
UPS proved that when there is competition, innovation flourishes and money could be made.
It's a good column and a timely reminder of the power of entrepreneurial vision realized in a free market system.
