Editing Sam Zemurray (section)

== Career ==
=== Career beginnings ===
Zemurray encountered bananas for the first time in Selma in 1893. At the time, bananas were considered a new and exotic [[delicacy]] in the United States, and the industry was growing quickly. Zemurray went to the port of [[Mobile, Alabama]], in 1895 to enter the banana trade. Because bananas [[Ripening|ripen]] quickly, the banana trade relied on the ability to quickly bring the produce to market. In Mobile, Zemurray specialized in buying cheap bananas in danger of being overripe and quickly transporting and selling them in the surrounding region by [[Rail transport|rail]]. Starting with only $150, he had saved $100,000 by age 21. His success earned him the nickname "Sam the Banana Man".<ref name="Slate">{{cite web|last=Cohen|first=Rich|title=The Birth of America's Banana King: An excerpt from Rich Cohen's The Fish That Ate the Whale|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/06/banana_mangante_samuel_zemurray_rich_cohen_s_the_fish_that_ate_the_whale.single.html|publisher=[[Slate.com]]|date=June 6, 2012}}</ref><ref name=":0" />[[File:Unloading bananas, New Orleans LOC agc.7a03435.jpg|thumb|Workers unload bananas in New Orleans in the 1920s]]

In 1903, Zemurray signed a contract with [[United Fruit Company|United Fruit]], the dominant company in the banana trade. Along with his partner, Ashbell Hubbard, the newly-formed Hubbard-Zemurray Company would buy and distribute United Fruit's ripest bananas. United Fruit itself bought a portion of Hubbard-Zemurray. In 1905, Zemurray moved to New Orleans and the company acquired Thatcher Brothers Steamship Company. They also acquired the [[Cuyamel Fruit Company]] and started using that name for the company. At this time, the company imported bananas from Central American farmers, but did not grow bananas of their own.<ref name=":0" />

In 1910, Zemurray bought 5,000 acres (20&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of land along the [[Cuyamel River]] in Honduras, near the town of [[Omoa]]. He then continued to borrow money and buy more lowland forest land in Honduras, well-suited for growing bananas. He developed this land by adding plantations, railroads, and bridges. The work was done largely by [[Jamaica]]n workers, but Zemurray also liked to participate in the physical labor of the fields. At this point, Hubbard believed that Cuyamel Fruit Company's debts had grown too large, and Zemurray bought his share of the business.<ref name=":0" />

=== Honduran coup ===
[[File:Manuel Bonilla.jpg|thumb|Zemurray's coup installed [[Manuel Bonilla]] as president of Honduras]]
Zemurray had increased the efficiency of his business through bribery and special deals with the Honduran government. But in 1910, the government of Honduras was working to reschedule their [[Government debt|sovereign debt]] owed to the [[United Kingdom]]. [[United States Secretary of State]] [[Philander C. Knox]] facilitated the negotiations, which would place agents of [[bankers]] [[J.P. Morgan & Co.|J.P. Morgan and Company]] in the country's customs offices to collect the taxes needed to repay the debt. Zemurray feared that the enforcement of these taxes would ruin his business, and he lobbied Knox to make the deal more favorable to him.<ref name=":0" />

Knox made no concessions for Zemurray, and told him not to meddle in Honduran affairs. In spite of this instruction, Zemurray devised a plan to overthrow Honduran president [[Miguel R. Dávila|Miguel Dávila]] in order to prevent the deal. He recruited mercenary [[Lee Christmas]], who in turn recruited a force of about 100 other mercenaries in New Orleans, including famed Jewish soldier [[Sam Dreben]]. They sailed to Honduras in a former [[United States Navy]] vessel, the [[USS Hornet (1898)|USS Hornet]], where they began a war to install exiled Honduran former president [[Manuel Bonilla]], who had been living in New Orleans. Gaining rebel soldiers from the local population, the coup was successful, and Bonilla was inaugurated on February 1, 1912. He then rewarded Zemurray with very favorable tax and land concessions for Cuyamel Fruit Company.<ref name=":0" />

=== Sale of Cuyamel and first retirement ===
In 1913, Zemurray bought back the portion of his company owned by United Fruit, a transaction that was made possible by increasing [[United States antitrust law|anti-trust]] pressure on United Fruit from the United States government.<ref name=":0" /> Fully in control of the company, he expanded by buying 20 ships by 1915 that were outfitted with refrigerated holds. Cuyamel Fruit began to cultivate crops beyond bananas: [[coconut]]s, [[pineapple]]s, [[palm oil]], [[cattle]], [[lumber]], and [[sugarcane]].<ref name=":0" />

During the 1910's and 1920's, Zemurray continuously conflicted with United Fruit. Their competition over land in Central America included pranks, sabotage, legal challenges, and approached outright violence. In 1928, a Cuyamel Fruit boat was discovered with a cache of weapons aboard. In 1929, the [[United States Department of State]] facilitated discussions between Zemurray and United Fruit to merge their companies and end the conflict, which was endangering American interests abroad.<ref name="Salon">{{cite web|author=Steven Heller|date=March 13, 2012|title=America's Original Fast Food|url=https://www.salon.com/2012/03/14/americas_original_fast_food/|work=[[Salon.com]]}}</ref> A deal was completed in 1929, in which Zemurray sold Cuyamel to United Fruit for $31.5 million in stock, making him one of the richest people in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1929-11-26|title=CUYAMEL ACCEPTS UNITED FRUIT OFFER|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1929/11/26/archives/cuyamel-accepts-united-fruit-offer-holders-vote-for-merger-of.html|access-date=2020-10-18|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Though Zemurray had prided himself on independence, he sold his company because of increasing pressure from the Department of State and because of the financial insecurity brought on by the [[Great Depression]] in 1929.

[[File:StChasZemurry2.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Formerly Zemurray's home, this mansion on [[St. Charles Avenue]] in New Orleans is now the residence for presidents of [[Tulane University]]]] As part of the deal with United Fruit, Zemurray agreed to retire from the banana business entirely, to make sure he would not start a new fruit company and continue to compete with United Fruit. During this two year period, Zemurray remodeled his ornate [[Beaux-Arts architecture|Beaux Arts]] mansion in New Orleans at 2 Audubon Place. He also acquired in 1928 [[Zemurray Gardens Lodge Complex|Houltonwood]], a 25,000-acre plantation located near [[Hammond, Louisiana]], which became a favorite retreat of Zemurray for the rest of his life.<ref>{{cite web|title=Zemurray Gardens|url=https://myhammond.com/tangi/historic/zemurray-gardens/|website=My Hammond / My Ponchatoula|access-date=January 25, 2021}}</ref> United Fruit suffered financially because of mismanagement and the [[Great Depression]], so much so that its stock declined in value by 90% after it acquired Cuyamel.<ref name="BusWk" />  This encouraged Zemurray to return to the banana business by buying a controlling share of United Fruit and voting out the board of directors.  Zemurray reorganized the company, decentralized decision-making and made the company profitable once more.

=== Leading United Fruit Company ===
After the sale of Cuyamel, United Fruit's business declined because of the impact of the Great Depression. In Zemurray's view, the company could be managed better to handle the economic downturn. Though he sent a letter and attended a board meeting, United Fruit's management was not interested in his ideas. Zemurray then visited individual United Fruit shareholders and collected their [[Proxy voting|proxies]], which would enable him to gain control of the company. He then attended a United Fruit board meeting, in which he produced the proxies, dramatically saying, "You've been fucking up this business long enough. I'm going to straighten it out."<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=1933-01-23|title=Business & Finance: United Fruit Obeys|language=en-US|magazine=Time|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,744983,00.html|access-date=2020-10-18|issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

Now as president of United Fruit Company, Zemurray succeeded in improving business. He considered his hands-on approach of visiting banana plantations to be the key to his success. He gained a detailed understanding of operations, resulting in mass [[Dismissal (employment)|terminations]] of weak employees, improved efficiency in the use of ships, and new financial approaches.

Partially as a result of banana diseases Sigatoka and [[Panama disease]], Zemurray presided over very large acquisitions of land in Central America. Because the diseases were not curable, United Fruit would simply move to a new area of land after previous ones became infected. In this way, United Fruit came to own the majority of private land in countries like Honduras, even though much of it was left uncultivated.

=== Guatemalan coup ===
In 1953, the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] and United Fruit embarked on a major [[public relations]] campaign to convince the American people and the rest of the U.S. government that Colonel [[Jacobo Arbenz]] intended to make Guatemala a Soviet "satellite".  Zemurray authorized [[Edward Bernays]] to launch a propaganda campaign against Col. Arbenz's democratically elected government, which intended to expropriate some of the unused land owned by the United Fruit Co. and redistribute it to the local peasants. In 1954, the campaign succeeded and the U.S. [[Central Intelligence Agency]] helped orchestrate a coup that replaced Arbenz with a military junta led by Col. [[Carlos Castillo Armas]].<ref name="BusWk">{{cite web|last=Grushkin|first=Daniel|title=Book Review: 'The Fish That Ate the Whale,' by Rich Cohen|url=http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-07/book-review-the-fish-that-ate-the-whale-by-rich-cohen|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120608223750/http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-07/book-review-the-fish-that-ate-the-whale-by-rich-cohen|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 8, 2012|publisher=[[Businessweek.com]]|date=June 7, 2012}}</ref>

Zemurray retired as president of United Fruit in late 1951.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unitedfruit.org/zemurray.htm|title=United Fruit Company - Samuel Zemurray|website=www.unitedfruit.org|access-date=2019-08-29}}</ref>  He and his family made generous donations to [[Tulane University]] (including a large collection of Mayan artifacts discovered in banana fields), the [[Zamorano]] Pan-American Agricultural School, and to other philanthropic ventures, including the [[Zionism|Zionist movement]] through his personal acquaintance, beginning in the 1920s, with [[Chaim Weizmann]].  Zemurray supported President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] policies,<ref name="BusWk" /> helping to draft the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act|Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] industry codes, and contributed financially to left-wing causes, such as ''[[The Nation]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite magazine | last=Buiso | first=Emily | title=Banana Kings: The history of banana cultivation is rife with labor and environmental abuse, corporate skulduggery and genetic experiments gone awry. | url=https://www.thenation.com/article/banana-kings/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003014452/https://www.thenation.com/article/banana-kings/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=2018-10-03 | magazine=[[The Nation]] | date=March 17, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Samuel Zemurray (1877-1961)|url=http://www.unitedfruit.org/zemurray.htm|publisher=United Fruit Historical Society|year=2001}}</ref>[[File:United Fruit Co., N.O., La LCCN2007662185.tif|center|thumb|900x900px|United Fruit ships in New Orleans, circa 1910]]