The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1908-02-29
VANITY INTO MONEY
By JOHN r. THOMPSON
Treasurer Cook County, Illinois.

ty their immediate purpose was fully
met. The paper production in which
they were most concerned was that
upon which the handsome stock certif-
Gates of the company were printed.
He Immediately turned his guns
upon wage workers of the printing
and paper trades.
BY personal solicitation and printed
literature he piled the members Of
these trades with the argument:
Make this your own industry! Here
is the opportunity for you to keep in
your own hands the thing which Is
going to revolutionize the paper bust
ness just as the typesetting machine
has revolutionized the printers craft.
You can, by coming in now, with a
small investment per man. place your.
selves in control of an industry which
will hold in its grip a product of mil
lions Of dollars a year-a product
upon which the whole paper and print
ing world depends for its existence"
This was an argument which every
man in the mechanical department of
a newspaper or a commercial printing
establishment, and every paper mill
or paper company, could understand.
1t met him on his own ground and he
began to see visions Of himself as n
of the powers in the very industry
in which he was an obscure wage
worker. What a turning of the tables
there would be when the world
awakened to the fact that this great
"revolutioniZing invention" was con
trOlled by the men at the type case
and machines, the printing presses,
the st~ereotyping tables, the pulp watts
and the paper warerOoms! Then the
last" would become first, the paper
industry would be ruled by the men
from the bottom of business; the
jOurneyman would be the magnate
and would know the feeling Of power
and authority!
By scores and hundreds the wage
workers In these trades rallied to this
cry and the leaders among them were
taken carr Of in a way which made
them feel that they had already come
into their own. These belEwethers
of the craft marshaled their follow
ings with a sincere confidence that
they were leading the way to a inan.
cial Utopia and the promoters rubbed
their hands in satisfaction at the rate
at which their Illuminated stock GER
tiicates were demanded by the work.
ers who wanted to become captains OF
industry and manage for them.
selves" Certain Subsidiary" and
allied" companies were organized
for the purpose of giving more OF
these men official position-to dis
tribute to a wider number the thrill
that comes from putting a hand on the
pilot wheel of affairs"
The outcome of this revolution to
place the trusting wage worker in the
control of an industry of his own is
fully covered by the suggestion that
the farmer is still blowing under" the
dead cornstalks upon which the news
of the world was to have been print
ed. Meantime hundreds Of faithful
workers in the printing and paper
trades are finding it more difficult to
manage" their own personal finances
because Of the deficit created by the
investment which was to make the
industry their own"
The ambition of the wage Garner
and the man on salary to better his
condition, to make his surplus work
for him." to find a broader expression
for his individuality and abilities in a
business way is both natural and com
mendable; but he will make a poor
start in the line of that ambition if he
fails to realize, at the outset, that
finance is as much a technical trade
as that which the typesetter, the ma
son, the carpenter, the machinist or
the plumber follows, and that it would
be no more absurd for the banker or
the man of finance to attempt to set a
galley of type, lay a brick wall or
serve at a machinist's lathe without a
technical training, an apprenticeship,
than for the journeyman in any OF
these crafts to take a financial opera
ton, no matter how modest, into his
own hands, Independent of the guild
ing council of the man who knows
the ropes of finance. And the invest
ment in a stock or a bond is a trans
action in finance" in the strict and
full sense of the term.
The man Of small means, ~unschooled
in the ways of finance, might just as
safely hand his pocket money or his
savings bank account ove to al utter
stranger who promises to meet him at
a certain place, at some future time.
and give him something valuable in
return, as to put his money into the
stocks and alleged securities which
are being foisted upon the public to-
day by the beating of publicity drums
and the blare of promotion trumpets.
One of these transactions does not re-
quire a whit greater stretch Of creduli-
ty than the other.
Let the man who has an ambition
to manage his small savings keep
steadily in mind the fact that the
nee whose literature or solicitors
attempt to influence him against seek
ing the advice of men familiar with
ms and Outs of finance il