The herald., 1897-08-21

G,
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
Los Angeles. Aug. 20, 1897.
THAT man who thinks, keeps his own
counsel and saws wood rarely fails to get
somewhere near the spot he aims at"
Never pay cash for anything if you want
to get commercial rating. said business
man the other day. Get goods on credit,
even when able to pay spot cash for them,
and pay the bill with promptness when it
becomes due. If you do this long enough
you will probably get the reputation of
possessing all the money you have got
trusted for, and, at any rate, will be known
in business circles where you wouldn't be
named If you always paid cash. A man
who pays cash for everything is supposed
to be doing business on a small capital,
while man who gets things on credit,
or, better still, pays for them in notes is
generally believed to be operating on such
large scale that he has no ready money
to spare for small deals"
+ + +
AS for getting credit, it is the first step
that costs, of course, but man can be-
gin by referring people to his landlord and
the tradesmen with whom he deals, if he
can do no better. If he has no accounts
anywhere he must set about having them;
get trust for small amounts and you will in
time get trusted for larger ones. The first
requisite to wealth is not money, but credit
Get credit and you will do business amount
ing to an indefinite number of times your
capital. Without dilating further on the
advantages of credit, let me give you an
illustration of the disadvantages of doing
business on a cash basis. A country
merchant I knew who had always paid
cash for everything he bought (and did
correspondingly small business) deter
mined finally to change his trade, and to do
this required the credit he had never before
asked for. When he came to town and
asked the men to whom he had always paid
the cash to let him have goods on time
they one and all became suspicious of him
and refused. The very fact that he had
always paid cash made them think, when
he finally asked for credit, that he wasn't
safe man to trust. Moral: Never pay
cash for anything if you would avoid sus-
picion.-New York Sun.
In an article treating upon the competi-
tion existing between banks and trust
companies the American Banker says: 1t
is familiar fact that the trust companies
have in recent years been making consid-
cradle inroads on the field formerly occu-
pied by commecial banks exclusively. In
the state of Massachusetts it has been
frankly admitted in official quarters that
the trust company is in the competest
sense a substitute for state bank. Their
powers, however, are so much more COM
prehensive than those exercised by the
banks that they become a serious element
of competition, disastrously affecting the
earning capacity of more than one national
bank in that state. In New York state the
competitive ability of the trust companies
is increased by reason of the fact that
they are not subject to the same mode OF
taxation as that which is applied to the
banks. The discrimination in their favor
which the law authorizes furnishes strik-
ing example of an abuse of the important
principle of equality in taxation. 1t has
been repeatedly shown that we have in
New York state two classes of institu-
same business, but which, through tech
ncal differences in their structure, are
subjected to different modes of assess
ment, but the offense remains unrectified.
Meanwhile the banks have to deal with
competitive problem of the gravest char
acter, while the trust companies thus fav-
ored are experiencing remarkable ex-
pansion of business.
+
The Mining Investor of Colorado Springs
says that the fundamental cause for east
ern and foreign antipathy to mining stocks
is apparently the light regard in which
stockholders are held. This gross error
appears to be prevalent among company
managements of the west. Some manage
ments bulldoze their stockholders with
brazen effrontery, some politely decline to
give out any information. some bluff their
stockholders by telling only just so much
as they want to tell, some mislead as their
fancy or their pockets suit them some try
to come near doing the right thing, but
In 1887 a local paper published list of
100 Wichita men who were estimated to be
worth from 100000 to $1,500.000 each, the
aggregate wealth of the entire 100 amount-
ing to $23,00O,0 0OO Now thirteen of them
have left, nine have nothing left and the
combined wealth of the other seventy-nine
is placed at less than $4,000.
A new industry is springing up in the
south to make starch out of sweet pota-
toes.
4 + +
The changing of the telegraph system of
the Union Pacific and Western Union is
expected to cause an outlay of nearly
$1,000,000.
+ + +
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company re-
ports for June:
Gross earnings. ......... $393, 1872 Inc. s1,07s
Operating expenses. 1885,, ,626 Inc. 33,546
Net earnings. $60,5O6 Dec. $32, 1853
+ y +
We hear that 1t is part of the plan of
the Glucose Company to make spirits, to
run stills to refine residue not used in
glucose or sugar making. If this is the
case, 1t is likely to affect the price and
profits of crude spirits and alcohol refiner-
les.
4. 49,.