Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-07-22
A RuINous PRACTICE.

If you are an employer, there is one
thing you ought not do, and that is to
let your employees draw money be-
tween pay days every week. You can
by allowing such a practice ruin the
system of your office and the useful
ness of your employees. In an article
in last Sundays issue, writer In the
Chicago Tribune said:
II you would do them real kind
ness and encourage the habits which
lead to success have rigid rule that
in none save such exceptional cases as
will readily be recognized when they
occur shall an employe be allowed to
draw on his salary except at the ap-
pointed time for the ghost to walk"
In the establishment in which l
grew up methods generally
were very lax, and this was
especially true of the collections
department. The management seemed
to harbor an idea that to present a
bill was to offer deadly insult. This
reacted on the employees, for the Sat
urday night pay roll was considerable,
and am not conscious of single Sat
urday night in which there were funds
enough In sight to have paid off the
full weekly pay roll. So each employee
on pay day was given an amount pro-
portionate to his salary, and by way of
recompense was allowed to draw as
needed from the cashier during the
week. Whatever balance remained
was made up by orders on debtors of
the firm for merchandise, pernicious
practice in itself, because the willy
dealer, knowing the customer came to
him with an order made out to him
personally, had no fear of losing the
sale, and invariably soaked his Gus
toner properly.
The firm paid liberal salaries, dis
cipline was lax, and altogether, wheth-
er from the viewpoint of the Sinking
or the willing employee, it was a pleas
an! place to work. But that cashier
had trouble of his own trying to keep
proper account of the pay roll, for It
| inevitably came to pass that every
| body whenever short of anything,
from half dollar to $40 note, rush
ed to the cashier and made his
touch"
|. A new employe received his full sal
airy the first week, the next week he
| got half of it, and then he fell in
with the peculiar ways of the estab-
lishment.
Mark the result! OF the long pro-
cession of young men who passed In
and out of that Office in my time I re-
call just two, who happened to be
canny by nature. who have been
thrifty and may be said to have pros
pered in life. The others have with
out exception developed into spend
thrifts, or at least have lost all sense
of the art of saving for the proverbial
rainy day. At any time it would have
been hard to find three men of the
forty who were not in debt beyond
present hope Of paying
The reason is plain. They had no
incentive to save under such regime.
With modicum of the salary doled
out Saturday night they had only
enough for present wants.
They never experienced the snug
satisfaction of grasping at one time
the considerable roll of bills that rep
resented the return for a full weeks
work, and then it became SO easy to
run to the cashier in every emer-
gency-and the amount when drawn
was SO insignificant that it seemed not
worth while saving any part of it.
The office replaced the savings bank
with a vengeance. There never was a
firm that meant greater kindness to
It's employees than that one, and yet |
venture there never was one that did
Its employees more actual and endur-
| ing harm.