Series II. Competitive Companies

Series II, Competitive Companies, contains files on the numerous manufacturers that were in competition with the Dixie Cup. Similar to the arrangement of Series I this material is filed alphabetically and is organized into two subseries: Subseries 1, New York (1911-1919), includes a small group of files which the company gathered in the early days of the cup-making business; Section 2-Easton reflects the growing number of competitors and has three parts: General (1920-1946), Cup & Liquid (1920-1934), and Milk Bottles (1921-1948). This subseries contains correspondence, annual reports, transcripts of investigative interviews, retail credit company reports, advertisement circular, and photographs. Many of the files also include samples of one-piece, flat-folded cups. (See Series VIII for samples of competitor’s two-piece, round cups). Almost all files contain Dun & Bradstreet reports that summarize competitor’s financial portfolio, court records, patent rights, fines paid, bank investigation, trade investigation, and rating. Some files also contain reports by Moore’s legal counsel. The largest files were gathered about major competitors like the Mono-Service Company, Sealright Company (a division of Oswego Falls-which also bought the Kalix Company in 1931), Tulip Cup Corporation, Public Service Cup Company (makers of the Lily Cup-the Lily Cup Company acted only as a selling agent for the Public Service Cup Company), U.S. Envelope Company, Dayton Cup Company (makers of the Tulip cup vendor), and the F.N. Burt Company. The Cup & Liquid file contains material about liquid vendor manufacturers that were dispensing cups manufactured by competitors. The Milk Bottle file contains material about the various companies that were developing paper containers to replace the glass bottle. For additional material on competitive companies see also Series I and III.