Last week Joe Axelrod's personnel department at the headquarters of his textile empire in Woonsocket, Rhode Island was still sorting and classifying the mail as it came in, and he was answering it as fast as he could. Said he: "Holy cats! I never dreamed a story could stir up such a response. One day you're quietly doing business in the same old way; the next you're a national figure with mail and telegrams pouring in from all over the hemisphere."

We have been hearing about the results of the Axelrod story ever since Fred Brown, proprietor of Brown's Drug Store in Woonsocket, got a tip that it would be in the forthcoming (Feb. 2) issue of TIME and ran the following ad in the Woonsocket Call:

"Local man makes good in TIME magazine. Read about Woonsocket's Joe Axelrod in TIME, for sale at Brown's Drug Store."

Thanks to Donald Rogers, our Providence, R.I. correspondent, TIME'S Business & Finance department had known about Joe Axelrod for some time. As our story said, in nine and a half years he had parlayed a $5,500 investment into an integrated textile empire worth $16 million. When a recent addition of a seventh plant to his holdings completed the integration, our Business editor decided it was time to tell the story.

Since the day his story appeared on the newsstands, Joe Axelrod figures he has heard from just about everybody he ever knew (messages of congratulation, etc.). He has also received hundreds of letters (over 400 at this writing) from people he doesn't know, and one man, a Canadian lumber salesman who had read the story, dropped in at the plant to say "hello," explaining that he had felt like taking a trip and "just wanted to meet a fellow like you."

Quite a few of Axelrod's letters begin "You're the kind of guy I want to work for," and are from experienced weavers, loom-fixers, fashion designers, buyers, superintendents, salesmen, workers from nearby mills, from all over New England, and from Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Delaware, New York, California, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Others are from novices who want to enroll in Axelrod's school in textile technique.

Thirteen Chambers of Commerce and a number of railroads have seized the occasion to offer their territories as ideal locations for a further expansion of Joe's empire. So far, Honduras, Costa Rica, Belgium, Canada and Guatemala have also been heard from. Here are some examples of the correspondence :

A firm of New Haven, Conn, textile building engineers suggests some ideas for remodeling Joe's plants.

An engineer of the Norfolk, Va. Industrial Commission recalls the "success" of Southern textile mills during the '305 depression and offers help in starting a Southern branch "to round out your empire."

A Honduran cites the advantages of expanding there.

A man from Methuen, Mass, thinks Joe's plants would be a safe haven "during the coming competition in the textile industry."

A Californian wants Joe to become a partner in his gold mine.

A San Franciscan wants to distribute Joe's products there.

A nautically-minded TIME reader, noting that Joe owned a cruiser, suggested that "when you are on board you are sitting on a valuable source of material for some good fabric designs. Have you ever taken a second glance at mounted red algae? They're beautiful, and they are not limited to the old idea of nautical patterns."

An executive of a large manufacturing concern wrote in to say that the account of what Joe had done had made him feel fine.

As for the mail itself, Joe Axelrod says: "I've found most of the communications very valuable. For one thing, we have the biggest backlog of employment applications we've ever enjoyed, and it now looks like we can get the cream of the textile workers."

Cordially,

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