Four Way Test Creator Herb Taylor

One of the ethical foundations of Rotary International is the Four Way Test. Herb Taylor, who created the 4 Way Test, joined us by way of Jim White.

Herb Taylor was born in 1893 near Sault Ste. Marie. He served in the military during WW I and worked for the YMCA after the war. He was recruited by the Sinclair Oil company in Ohio. In 1930, he moved to Chicago and took an executive job at the Jewel Tea Company. He was working for Jewel when a bank approached him to see if he would consider working with a failing customer of theirs. 

Herb took the challenge and became the CEO of Club Aluminum Products, a cookware manufacturer. In the depths of the recession, he went from a salary of $33,000/year to $6,000/year to work for an almost bankrupt company. He spent time observing company operations and decided that the company's distinction could be the character of their relationships. The employees were good people, but the code of ethics was a long document and difficult to remember. Herb wanted a simple test that his employees could remember and use.

He came up with the four points and decided that he would attempt to live by the test before telling anyone else about what he had written. He found it challenging to change his thinking to the way of the test. After he tried using the test for 2 months, he brought his four department heads into a meeting and shared the test with them. They agreed that it was a succinct statement of ethics and something they would try.

Eventually, the test was rolled out to all of the employees. The biggest challenge came in advertising and marketing. Their advertising was purged of claims that could not be proven. Their method of working with their distributors was to force them to take more products than they could sell, so they urged customers to buy Club merchandise. Herb noted that this was not “Fair to all concerned” or “Beneficial to all concerned”. They changed their dealings so that they became partners and helped their dealers.

Due to the changes that Herb made after moving in 1932, Club Aluminum became profitable, paid off its debt, and paid out a dividend to its shareholders in 1936. Herb was a long-time Rotarian and was president of the Chicago Downtown Club in 1939-40. He promoted the 4-Way Test to others, and many businesses adopted it. Because of this adoption, Rotary International adopted the test in 1943. Herb served as the international president in 1954-55. He died in 1978.