Morris
Puro

MORRIS PURO was born on July 15, 1898 in Poland. His family came to America in 1900. After serving in the military during World War I, he married at the age of 23. 

By 1930 Morris Puro was already a successful automobile dealer. He owned a home at 4 Warren Street in Edgewater Park NJ, where he and his wife Bessie with their two daughters, Florence and Marian. He was still living there in 1936, according to the New Jersey bell Telephone Directory of that year. 

By that year Morris Puro had purchased the Watson Shallcross Inc. car dealership at 1721 Haddon Avenue in Camden, and renamed it Haddon Motors. This business had operated as a Dodge truck and Plymouth franchise. Morris Puro soon was operating a De Soto dealership here, and he did quite well over the years. In the late 1930s, he also served as the president of the Camden Automobile Dealers Association. Haddon Motors was a fixture on Haddon avenue, Camden's "other" new car dealer strip, into the late 1950s.

During the 1960s Morris Puro was involved in the relocation of Congregation Beth El from Parkside to Cherry Hill NJ. He served as co-chairman with Edward Saline of the Building Committee.

Morris Puro retired to Florida, where he died, on December 16, 1977, in Broward County.

Camden Courier-Post - January 28, 1938

Uncle Sam will ride out of the present recession in the 1938 model automobile. He wheeled out of the 1929 depression on rubber, and he'll do the same thing over again this year. 

This was the message the Camden Automobile Trade Association heard last night from H. J. Fink, vice president of the Commercial Investment Trust Corporation, of New York.

Fink addressed the association at its monthly dinner in the Hotel Walt Whitman. G. E. Weaver, head of the company that makes the apparatus which governs the official inspection of automobiles in New Jersey also was a guest speaker. Morris Puro, president of the organization, introduced the speakers. 

"It was the automobile business that pulled the country out of the depression in the 30's" Fink declared, "and it will be the automobile business that will pull us out of the present depression." 

"Just the means that will be used bY the industry to do this," he continued, "I do not know personally. But with Spring coming, business taking an upturn and the used car stagnation lessened greatly, the automobile industry will make fresh advances. 

"The automobile industry is the greatest of ally key industries in my mind. It is a true barometer of business, a true index of the purchasing power and spending capacity and willingness on the part of the people of this country to invest. 

Defends Installment 

"Much has been said about installment business. Whenever a writer runs short of material to fill a column he merely reaches out and picks on the installment business. Now let us really see how the installment business has worked as a factor in the home and community life of the Nation. 

"Essentially, installment buying on the part of the people is the investment of money in wealth. It is buying something on a margin, save that every week you reduce the margin until there is none remaining and the wealth purchased in that manner belongs to the buyer. 

"Persons go into the stock market and buy on margin, why cannot persons who want various things invest in commodities in the same manner? So long as the buyer of wealth, of radios, of automobiles or various things that are really wealth, pays his margins as they come due, installment buying is not only legitimate but it is the surest guarantee of keeping industry busy and people in the market buying. 

"The automobile world today faces a problem which was created by a peculiar combination of circumstances. The present depression, I lay largely to fear. It makes no difference in what quarter the fear originated, or how it was stimulated, fear rests at the bottom of the present depression. 

"Thus the first thing that people must regain is confidence in tl1emselves, in the country and in the ability of industry to make new advances. 

Credit Big Problem 

"In the automobile business three factors swayed conditions and governed the situation. They were the manufacturer, the distributor and the finance companies. Today the finance companies are the companies that are really facing the toughest tests. of all. 

"Automobiles will sell again, no question about that. But to sell the product it is necessary that we tell the truth. Persons who are asked to buy cars must be given the facts of the method of purchase, the method of selling and the method of financing. 

"I know the automobile industry will pull this country out of the present rough place. How it will be done I don't know and I'm not going to stand here and try to tell you something that I don't know myself. 

"I see favorable factors, though. 

There is the usual Spring impetus to automobile buying. There will be new methods of financing purchases which won't clog the market and be a hardship on the finance companies. 

"Once the automobile industry starts working back to normal the other industries that rely' for the greatest part of their output being absorbed by automobile manufacture will necessarily step up production and put men to work. 

Dealers Warned 

"Meanwhile the automobile dealer must be ready. He must profit by his experience in this recession and arrange manners differently a~ to credits and to purchases. He must deflate himself as an agent, and become a good, hard-headed business man who is willing to extend credit to the buyer who is worthy such extension of credit and to refuse a buyer who is not able to keep pace with the credit payments which are due. 

"Therefore while this Winter has been hard on automobile dealers, I think that already there are signs that Spring will see an upward movement that will mark the coming of better times." 

Weaver explained the various appliances that are used for testing automobiles. He offered to instruct any dealer in the manner of using these machines to obtain the best results, and went into a technical discussion of inspection. 

After the speechmaking the organization went into its usual business meeting. The reports of the committees indicated that conditions were a little easier in the trade. Puro and several associates who had attended a meeting at Newark recited the program which had been carried out there. 

Left: March 1942 ad for Haddon Motors service department.
Right: Mach 1942 photo of same.

Groundbreaking
Ceremony
for the new
Beth El
June 1966

Construction
of the new synagogue
Congregation Beth El
Cherry Hill NJ
1968

Left to Reight:
Jack Wall, Edward Saline, Morris Clymer,
&
Morris Puro

Haddon Motors DeSoto-Plymouth at 1761 Haddon Avenue - Summer of 2003