The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1908-02-27
TURNING VANITY INTO MONEY
By JOHN r. THOMPSON,
Treasurer Cook County, Illinois.

anu NhCoBCl ~ huAN NAASAA cNhAN
in fiocks and droves than singly. When
the sportsman wishes to get big bag
of game and get it quickly he goes
after the birds which travel in f1ocks.
So with these gunners who are adopts
in the use of decoys and calls" They
arrange their hunts in line with this
idea of clannishness, of mass move
ment, and use the ammunition of "act
for yourself" so that every shot will be
pot shot"
Here is an example of how this kind
of financial sportsmanship is prosecut-
ed: Some time ago an inventor
brought out a machine for the making
of print paper from the pith of corn
stalks. So far as making an impress
sive, scientific demonstration was con-
cerned. the device was admirable, but
when it came to its ability to compete
commercially with wood pulp mills
and their products. that was prob
lem that did not greatly concern the
promoters with whom the inventor
and patentee became associated. So
long as the machine did its demonstra-
tion work with convincing plausibili-
ty their immediate purpose was fully
met. The paper production in which
they were most concerned was that
upon which the handsome stock certifi-
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 III
your own hands the thing which is
| going to revolutionize the paper bust
ness just as the typesetting machine
has revolHtionized 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 one
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 stereotyping tables, the pulp watts
and the paper warerooms!
By scores and hundreds the wage
workers in these trades rallied to this
cry and the leaders among them were
taken care Of in way which made
them feel that they had already come
into their own. These bell-Wethers
of the craft marshaled their follow
ings with sincere confidence thai
they were leading the way to a finan
cial Utopia and the promoters rubbed
their hands in satisfaction at the rate
at which their illuminated stock Ger
titicates were demanded by the work
ers who wanted to become captains o1
industry and manage for them
| selves" Certain subsidiary" anC
allied" companies were organized
for the purpose of giving more o
these men official position-to dis
tribute to wider number the thrill
that comes from putting d hand on the
pilot wheel of "afa airs"
The outcome of this revolution tt
place the trusting wage worker in the
control of an industry of his own is
fully covered by the suggestion tha
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 pape
trades are finding it more difficult tt
manage" their own personal finance!
because of the deficit created by the
investment which was to make thu
industry their own"
The ambition of the wage earnel
and the man On salary to better hi!
condition, to make his surplus worl
for him." to find broader expression
for his individuality and abilities in ;
business way is both natural and com
mendable; but he will make a poo
start i'll the line of that ambition if HI
fails to realize, at the outset, tina
finance is as much a technical trade
as that which the typesetter, the ma
son, the carpenter, the machinist OF
the plumber follows, and that it woulC
be no more absurd for the banker OF
the man of finance to attemrt to get -:
| galley of type, lay a brick wall OF
serve at machinist's lathe without {
technical training, an apprenticeship
than for the iourneyman in any O
these crafts to take financial opera
ton, no matter how modest, into hi
own hands, independent of the guild
ing council of the man who knows
the ropes Of finance. And the invest
ment in stock or bond is q trans
action in finance" in the strict AM
full sense of the term.
| The man of small means, unschoolet
in the ways of finance, might just a.
safely hand his pocket money or hi
savings bank account over to an utte
stranger who promises to meet him q
certain place, at some future time
and give him something valuable ii
return. as to put his money into thu
stocks and alleged securities whicl
are being f0isted upon the public to
day by the beating Of publicity drum
and the blare of promotion trumpets
One of these transactions does not re
quire whit greater stretch of creduli
| txg h.In ho