Editing Thomas J. Watson (section)

==Head of IBM==
[[File:Thomasjwatson1917.png|thumb|Watson in 1917]]

[[Charles Ranlett Flint]], who had engineered the [[Consolidation (business)|amalgamation]] (via stock acquisition) forming the [[Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company]] (CTR) found it difficult to manage the five companies. He hired Watson as general manager on May 1, 1914, when the five companies had about 1,300 employees. Eleven months later Watson was made President when court cases relating to his time at NCR were resolved.<ref>[[NCR Corporation#Expansion]]</ref> Within four years revenues had been doubled to $9&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1910.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041216105243/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1910.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 16, 2004 |title=IBM Archives: 1910s |date=January 23, 2003 |publisher=IBM |access-date=January 5, 2013}}</ref> In 1924, he renamed CTR to International Business Machines. Watson built IBM into such a dominant company that the federal government filed a civil [[antitrust]] suit against it in 1952. IBM owned and leased to its customers more than 90 percent of all tabulating machines in the United States at the time. When Watson died in 1956, IBM's revenues were $897&nbsp;million, and the company had 72,500 employees.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1956.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050117192449/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1956.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 17, 2005 |title=IBM Archives: 1956 |date=January 23, 2003 |publisher=IBM| access-date=September 8, 2009}}</ref>

Throughout his life, Watson maintained a deep interest in international relations, from both a diplomatic and a business perspective. He was known as US President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s unofficial ambassador in New York and often entertained foreign statesmen. In 1937, he was elected president of the [[International Chamber of Commerce]] (ICC) and at that year's biennial congress in Berlin stated that the conference keynote would be "World Peace Through World Trade."<ref>{{cite book|first = George L.|last= Ridgeway|title = Merchants of Peace: Twenty Years of Business Diplomacy Through the International Chamber of Commerce 1919–1938|publisher = Columbia University Press|year = 1938}}</ref> That phrase became the slogan of both the ICC and IBM.<ref>{{cite book|first= Thomas|last = Belden|author2=Belden, Marva |title = The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson|url= https://archive.org/details/lengtheningshado00beld|url-access= registration|publisher = Little, Brown and Company|year= 1962}}</ref>

===Dealings with Nazi Germany===
In 1937, as President of the International Chamber of Commerce, Watson met [[Adolf Hitler]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/11/lessons-from-ibm-in-nazi-germany|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219005653/https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/11/lessons-from-ibm-in-nazi-germany|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-19|title=Lessons from IBM in Nazi Germany|date=2020-02-19|access-date=2020-02-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/punched-cards/2/15/109|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200219005634/https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/punched-cards/2/15/109|url-status=dead|archive-date=2020-02-19|title=Tom Watson, Sr. meets with Adolf Hitler – CHM Revolution|date=2020-02-19|access-date=2020-02-19}}</ref> During the 1930s, IBM's German subsidiary was its most profitable foreign operation. A 2001 book by Edwin Black, ''[[IBM and the Holocaust]]'', claims that Watson's pursuit of profit led him to personally approve and spearhead IBM's strategic technological relationship with [[Nazi Germany]]. It describes how IBM provided the tabulating equipment Hitler used to round up the Jews. His Hollerith punch-card machines are in the Holocaust Museum today. The book describes IBM's punch cards as "a card with standardized holes", each representing a different trait of the individual. The card was fed into a "reader" and sorted. Punch cards identified Jews by name. Each one served as "a twentieth-century [[Barcode|bar code]] for human beings".<ref name="Black 2001">{{cite book | last = Black| first = Edwin|title = IBM and the Holocaust| publisher = Crown Publishers|year = 2001|url=http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/}}</ref> In particular, critics point to the [[Order of the German Eagle]] medal that Watson received at the Berlin ICC meeting in 1937, as evidence that he was being honored for the help that IBM's German subsidiary [[Dehomag]] (Deutsche Hollerith-Maschinen Gesellschaft mbH) and its punch card machines provided the [[Nazi]] regime, particularly in the tabulation of census data (which included the location of Jews). Another study argues that Watson believed, perhaps naively, that the medal was in recognition of his years of labor on behalf of global commerce and international peace.<ref name="Maney 2003" /><sup>[please add a precise citation page]</sup>

Because of his strong feelings about the issue, Watson wanted to return his German citation shortly after receiving it. When [[Cordell Hull|Secretary of State Hull]] advised him against that course of action, he gave up the idea until the spring of 1940. Then Hull refused advice, and Watson sent the medal back in June 1940.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson|last=Belden|first=Thomas and Marva|publisher=Little, Brown and Company, Inc.|year=1962|edition=1st|location=United States of America and Canada|pages=207|lccn=61-8065}}</ref> Dehomag's management disapproved of Watson's action and considered separating from IBM. This occurred when Germany declared war on the United States in December 1941, and the German shareholders took custody of the Dehomag operation.<ref name="Maney 2003" /> However, during [[World War II]], IBM subsidiaries in occupied Europe never stopped delivery of punch cards to Dehomag, and documents uncovered show that senior executives at IBM world headquarters in New York took great pains to maintain legal authority over Dehomag's operations and assets through the personal intervention of IBM managers in neutral [[Switzerland]], directed via personal communications and private letters, which confirms the close ties between the company’s headquarters and its subsidiaries throughout the war.<ref name="Black 2001" />

===Dealings with the United States===
During this same period, IBM became more deeply involved in the war effort for the U.S., focusing on producing large quantities of data processing equipment for the military and experimenting with [[analog computer]]s. Watson Sr. also developed the "1% doctrine" for war profits which mandated that IBM receive no more than 1% profit from the sales of military equipment to U.S. Government.<ref name="onepercentdoctrine">{{cite web|url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1940.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120717213504/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/decade_1940.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 17, 2012|title=IBM Archives: 1940s|date=January 23, 2003|publisher=IBM|access-date=July 30, 2007}}</ref> Watson was one of the few CEOs to develop such a policy.

In 1941, Watson received the third highest salary and compensation package in the U.S., $517,221, on which he paid 69% in tax.<ref>{{Cite news
| title = Compensation and the I.R.S.: It's not the 'Good' Old Days
| newspaper = [[The New York Times]]| location = Business Day
| access-date = 21 January 2014| date = December 1, 2010
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/12/01/business/01retrographic.html?ref=economy
}}</ref>

Watson had a personal interest in the progress of the war. His eldest son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., joined the [[United States Army Air Corps]] and became a bomber pilot. He was soon hand-picked to become the assistant and personal pilot for General Follet Bradley, who was in charge of all [[Lend-Lease]] equipment supplied to the Soviet Union from the United States. Watson Sr.'s youngest son, [[Arthur K. Watson]], also joined the military during the conflict.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

===Post-World War II===
[[File:Thomas J. Watson - National Portrait Gallery.jpg|thumb|Watson in 1950]]

Watson worked with local leaders to create a college in the [[Binghamton, New York|Binghamton]] area, where IBM was founded and had major plants. In 1946, IBM provided land and funding for Triple Cities College, an extension of [[Syracuse University]]. Later it became known as Harpur College, and eventually evolved into [[Binghamton University]]. 

After World War II, Watson began work to further the extent of IBM's influence abroad and in 1949, he created the IBM World Trade Corporation in order to oversee IBM's foreign business.<ref>[http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/icons/ibmworldtrade/ "The Creation of the World Trade Corporation"]. IBM. Retrieved January 28, 2012.</ref>

Watson retired in May 1956 and his oldest son, [[Thomas J. Watson Jr.]], became IBM's CEO.<ref>{{cite news |title=Watson Yields I.B.M. Helm at 82. Son, 42, Is Elected Chief Executive of Company |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/05/09/archives/watson-yields-ibm-helm-at-82-son-42-is-elected-chief-executive-of.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=May 9, 1956 }}</ref> Watson Sr. died on June 19, 1956, in [[Manhattan, New York City]]<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Thomas J. Watson Sr. Is Dead. I.B.M. Board Chairman Was 82 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/06/20/archives/thomas-j-watson-sr-is-dead-ibm-board-chairman-was-82-worlds.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 20, 1956 }}</ref> and was buried in [[Sleepy Hollow Cemetery]] in [[Sleepy Hollow, New York]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Famous Interments |url=https://sleepyhollowcemetery.org/about-us/famous-interments/ |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=Sleepy Hollow Cemetery |language=en-US}}</ref>