The Washington bee., 1902-01-11
4 GOOD INVESTMENT
Honesty Pays Better Profits Than
Trickery or Deceit.
Senator Chnuncey NJ. Depew breaches
a Sermon to Young Men Who
Want to Become Rich and
Respected.

Honesty is too much talked about
Is if il were scarce in these days. The
business principles of to-day are bet
ter, pUrer and more universally hon..
est than they were in the days of my
boyhood Then the motto of life ran
something like this: "All is fair in
love, war aud trade" But this gener-
alton has tabOoed that maxim and
business methods we're never better
or more reputable than they are at
this minute.
Many immense fortunes, ssya
Chauncey 81. Depew, in the Chicago
Chronicle, have been made by men OF
this generation who employed strictly
honest means TO attain their ultimate
success and great wealth. Take Bes-
semer as an apt illustration. He in.
vented the steel which is used so ex-
tensively all over the world for ear
rails and rsvolutiOniZed the manufac-
ture of steel, giving employment to
thousands of persons and bringing
wealth to many besides himself. He
only made $1O.OOO,OOO out of the in
gention, and l have heard people say
thay they thought this amount was
entirely TOO small a sum for the inveR-
tion of 80 wonderful an Improvement.
| think myself that it was quite a re-
spectacle sum.
Many a man, as we all know, has
made fortune through judicious ad-
vertising Take two men starting in
business at the same time; one uses
all the money he makes in living well,
and sometimes even eXtraVagantly.
The other invests all the surplus cash
that he can lay his hands on in adver-
tising here, there, everywhere that he
thinks will attract public notice. What
is the result? The man who adver-
tlses has crowds fiOcking 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 unthOught
of and uncared for, aghast at the
crowds that daily thTong the counters
of his competitor and bitterly bewail-
ing the bad luck which has followed
his own venture into trade. Yet he
has no one to blame for ii but himself.
Some persons might consider that
old Commodore Vanderbilt was dis
honest because he did not refund the
money which the stockholders Of the
Hudson River & Harlem railroads
would have made if they had contin-
ued 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 far-sighted
enough to hold on TO their stock.
When the commodore had made S2o,-
100000 in shipping OF various sorts he
looked about for some thing good m
which he might invest his capital He
found these railroads, which were
then in a most dePlorable, out-of-dats
candition-the stock only worth S. oa
500 and the bonds you could not sell
for love or money. But he took hold,
built new bridges, put all modern in-
provements into the car service, advo~
Gated new signal systems, in short, ks
infused new blood into the entire
service of the road at an enormous
outlay of capital-and then be waited.
And all the capital came back, bring
ing much additional wealth with it.
have seen many men who have be-
come wealthy through dishonest
methods, and my experience with
them has taught me this: That most
men who gain wealth dishonesty, il
they live long enough, get poor again.
| It 10 almost an invariable rule.
The main temptation with which
/ the ordinary business man OF to-day is
beset is the temptation to misrepre-
sent his capital or business prospects,
and thus obtain greater credit. But
don't do it. It does not pay. The old.
old adage, Honesty is the best pol
| ICY" is the safest motto for every
business man to follow. And l know
what | am talking about, too.
! BE COOL and you'll be happy, but
you won't have a good time" may
/ sound very smart and elicit rounds of
applause, but it is a faIlacy through
and through. 1t is easier, much easier,
for an honest man 10 become wealthy
than for his dishonest brother, who
may seem to prosper for a time, but.
mark my words, ii is only temporary
success.