Chapter12 THE MULTINATIONAL 245 Eccles may have shared Browning’s view. In any case, Littlefield quickly realized that the real “bone of contention was our profitsharing plan for retirement purposes.” The men discussed the matter literally for months without finding agreement. Finally Eccles took Littlefield aside and said, “Look, Ed, let’s face it. You and I just can’t agree on this.” During their conversation about the subject, Eccles told Littlefield that he should present both Marriner’s view and his own view to the board, and leave the outcome to the board. Littlefield agreed he could not “ask for a fairer shake than that.” As it turned out, the majority of the board favored Littlefield’s position. Eccles did not want the board to be split on important decisions, so he said, “I think our action should be unanimous, and I think we should be in support of Ed’s view.” The motion was passed unanimously in the affirmative, with Eccles supporting a position he had long opposed. “Now I submit,” Littlefield related, “that’s the mark of a big man!” One amusing account relating to the Eccles tenure as board chairman involved Littlefield’s efforts, during his stint as financial vice president, to obtain the prime rate for the company’s working capital loans because of its credit worthiness, including the maintenance of modest compensating balances in its bank accounts. To achieve this goal, he believed it important for senior management to establish its own banking relationships and not rely solely on the traditional help of George Eccles. “When we had to borrow money, George took it over, and the First Security would keep what they could in regard to their legal limit, and then he would lay it off with different banks,” Littlefield said. “I took some pains to get in control,” by exploring prime rate possibilities with other banks without letting George Eccles know who the other banks were. Successful in his search, Littlefield notified Marriner Eccles of his actions, and Marriner endorsed them. When Littlefield brought the topic before the board, “George [Eccles] went right through the roof and said, ‘No construction company in history has ever had the prime rate.’” Marriner responded with equal heat, as Littlefield withdrew, thinking it best to let the two Eccles men fight it out. The conflict “got hotter and hotter” until Marriner slammed his fist on the table and said, “Damn it, George, if the First Security won’t give us the prime rate,