Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-03-24
WHY IT PAYS TO BE HONEST
BY Chauncey NJ. Depew.

Honesty is too much talked about as IL
it were scarce in these days. The BUSH
ness principles of today are better, purer
and more universally honest than they
were in the days of my hoyhood. Then
the motto OF life ran something like this:
Al is fair in love, war and trade!' But
this generation has tabooed that maxim,
and business methods were never better
or more reputable than they are at this
minute.
Many immense fortunes have been
made by men of this generation. who en-
ployed strictly honest means TO attain
their ultimate success and great wealth.
Take Bessemer, for example, No. /. FIe
invented the steel which is usedaSO ex4
tensively all over the world for car rails
and revolutionized the manufacture Of
steel, giving employment to thousands st
persons ',nG bringing wealt.i 10 man,y bA-
side himself. He only made ten milir
ions out of the invention, II I have
heard people say that they thought It
was entirely too sma'l 4 sum tor the
inventor of SO wonderful All impiONe,
ment. l think myself hat it was quite
6. respectable sum.
John Wanamaker is Il good man to
take for example No. ?. lie started in q
small way with a small store, and he is
today II of the wealthiest men in the
c lantrs, and he has been always an uD-
right, honest man. In what lay the Sc
AAk AA AAtN0 LILY
knew what the people wanted: he knew
where to buy it and he knew how to adj
Vertlse. Many a man, as we all know.
has made a fortune through judicious
advertising. Fake two men starting in
business at the same time. One uses all
the money he makes in living we'll Inc
sometimes even e~Xtravagantly.
The other invests all the surplus cash
that he can lay his hands on in advertise
ing here, there, everywhere that he
thinks will attract public notice. What
is the result? The man who advertises
has crowds hocking to his shop to see
the beauties of the advertised goods, and
as the public begin to run so they will
continue from sheer force of habit. The
first shopkeeper will in the meantime be
sitting, u~nthought of and uncared for,
ashast at the crowds which daily throng
the counters of his competitor and Bit
terly bewailing the bad luck which has
OlloWed his own venture into trade. Yet
he has no one to blame for it but him
self.
Some persons might consider that old
Commodore Vanderbilt was dishonest
because he did not refund the money
River and Harlem railroads would have
made if they had continued to hold their
stock after he took hold of the roads. But
he was not. They cheated themselves
out of the money by not being farsight-
ed enough to hold ON to their stock.
When the commodore had made twenty
millions in shipping and various sorts he
looked about for something good in
which he might invest his capital. He
found these railroads., hich were then
in a most d%eplorable out-of-date condi
tion-the stock only worth IS on 800
and the bonds you could not sell for
love or money. But he took hold, built
new bridges, put all modern improve
signal systems: in short, he infused new
blood into the entire service of the road
at an enormous outlay Of capital-and
! then he waited. And all the capital came
back, bringing much additional wealth
along with it. +sH 1s
l nave seen many men become
wealthy through dishonest methods, and
m experience with them has taught me
this: That most men who gain wealth
dishonesty, If they live long enough. get