The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-07
MANY GOOD OPENINGS
IN BANKS---CHANCES FOR YOUNG
 MEN,
But They Must Begin at the Bot toms

tom.
 While the question of how to get new bank clerks is troubling some Chicago institutions to the extent that they have to advertise, the problem of what to do with some of the old clerks is regarded as quite as serious. For man grows old comparatively early at banking there are few new methods in book keeping and account keeping for him to keep pace with, but there is such vast amount of "woodsaWing" book work to be done that the old accountant gets switched there early, and in a little while he is looked on as Q pensioner. A new generation grows up around him which can do his work quicker and more satisfactorily than he can, and he looks better in the background. But the new generation is having it's diffi- eulties in Chicago; the banks are haV- ing their troubles in selecting just the class of boys to make competent book keepers and accountants, and there are indications that the banks, more than less pretentious institutions, are lead- ing away from the higher education as a prerequisite for employees. It comes about from the growing disposition of the banks to recruit their working forces from the levels of messengers. It is becoming a rule with a good many banks to take on messengers with the idea of developing them into whatever department work is required. Using this system of promotion for mes- sengers, the implied guarantee goes with it that no book-keeper or account ant from the outside shall be taken in over the head of one competent for ad- Vancement.
 This is the reward held out to the be- ginner but in spite of this there is hitch in the scheme, in that a graduate of a college or university, who may have exhausted his means in schooling, may find also that he needs more than the $25 a month aid to the average bank messenger in order to live and to dress as becomes an employe of big banking house Then, again, there is no royal road to success in banking, and the experience of bankers has been that a college man is not by any means the most adaptable material in the making of a good banker ''We have had some college graduates who have been good men, ,and,ag we have had those who were not" said the cashier of Dearborn street bank. Our eX- perience has taught us that, with the individual to start with. we need not care whether the boy is from a high school or a college; whether he is from Halstead street or from a fashionable avenue; whether his father is a busi- ness man or a shoemaker. And this re- minds me of an experience in this bank just few years ago.
 We needed several bank messengers and in the ranks of the applicants we chanced to have boy from Blue Isl 1 and avenue and young man from the l University of Michigan, who had made | a mark in that school. Both these young | fellows were chosen and were put to | work They were messengers at the | beck of the office, until finally they were | intrusted with clearing-house work, | with collections, and with statements, | When the Blue Island avenue boy first | came to us it was necessary to remind l him that his clothes should be q little ! better kept but it was easier to do that | than it was to make a quick, active | messenger out of the college man. The two fellows worked side by side for sev- eral months until there was chance for lHey pdSetl lllIUuSll ScNGIdl stages of bank messenger work and finally each was given a ledger to work on In each case it was the merest put ting down of figures and adding them up, but the Blue IsIand-avenue boy walked right away from his co-worker, and he continued to do the walking un- til he was no longer in the other fel- lows class must say for the college Io t,o1 oil I,o hat necessary; he would work here till ' o'clock at night; then he would come back after dinner and work often till midnight But he was not in the class with the other fellow, and while the col 1ege man has gone the way of many other new messengers, the boy from Blue Island avenue is our general book keeper now, having charge of the whole bok keeping staff''
 Taking the averagf age of the bank in Chicago, he is not far from F years old He is under bond from the beginning, and while he may have to look out after ink wells and do the small errands indoors work &C., cording to his ability will be found for him as soon as that ability Is shown. There is no special term of apprentice , ship; the boy by his own aptness proves himself. It is an easy matter for him to work in a great bank, year in and year out, without ever acquiring the general | of banking that the assistant in a country bank would learn in year But in case the taste and capac- ity are in the apprentice, the opportun- ity for the ely bank to round out the cashier, his assistant, and