Sumner Simpson and E. H. Jeffords on American Tobacco Company Help with Dust Control (1935)

Three one-page letters of April 9 to 11, 1935, between Sumner Simpson, president of Raybestos-Manhattan, and E. H. Jeffords, general manager of its General Asbestos & Rubber Division in North Charleston, South Carolina. Jeffords had asked M. F. Judd, the company's secretary, for the American Tobacco Company's cooperation "in working with you on Dust control." Simpson reports that a Mr. Dillon had been in touch with American Tobacco and its lawyers and that Jeffords could expect "all, and more, of the cooperation than you ask for"; the next day he adds that a lawyer close to American Tobacco's first vice president would tell him to "get busy." Jeffords thanks Simpson in a letter marked "Confidential."

What it shows

The letters show Raybestos-Manhattan using personal connections to get help with dust control at its Charleston plant from a large manufacturer in another dusty industry. They do not say what form the help took or whether it was given. The same plant was the subject of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company dust work and of lawsuits later that year (Simpson to McConnell, October 1935).

In Johns-Manville's chronology

Johns-Manville's own chronology of what the company knew describes this document as follows:

Jeffords-Judd (R-M) discussions re American Tobacco Company cooperation in South Carolina dust control in April 1935.

Editor's note: J-M's description calls these Jeffords-Judd discussions. The letters are between Jeffords and Sumner Simpson of Raybestos-Manhattan; Judd is mentioned only as the person Jeffords first asked.