The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1910-09-01

.=z- o the average man the
banker Is IL thing apart,
k% a sort of superior crea-
V0uDN ture who moves on an.
g other plane-always CARRIED
in apparent richness. with
look of prosperity, self-possessed,
shrewd. able. The rest of us simply
look up to him. that's all.
And so the boy looks up to the
bank messenger or the bank clerk
the one that comes out of the forbid
ding portals, with a black package or
a satchel in his hand and an air of
hloofness that makes the envious
youthful observer sort of gasp.
And yet that same banker and his
messenger are not SO far above US,
after all. They are not different; it Is
We that are different-we have clothed
them in an atmosphere somewhat like
that which we draped round the man
that wore a silk hat and a frock coat
when we were ten or twelve and lived
in the country or a small town.
Anybody can be a banker! Your
boy is an ordinary boy, say, of thir-
teen to fifteen, and you have dreamed
dreams about his future, and, some
how, YOU have wondered if-no, he
could never be banker-a banker
Is so far out Of your comprehension.
So you dismiss banking and banker
from your calculations, and decide
that the youngster shall be civil en-
Bineer, or school teacher, or take
job as helper to the family grocer,
or something.
But If both you and your boy have
the right kind of nerve, you hold
brief talk with him and then he goes
of tremblingly to ask the minister of
the church where his mother attends
and he goes to Sunday school for a
letter telling what flne, honorable,
ambitious young fellow he is, and
how he Is bound to succeed In any
thing he attempts. Then he gets an
other from the family doctor, and one
or two from the wise men he has seen
with his father-then he goes to the
bank itself.
And once there? Well, he finds
that it isn't so hard to get job after
all. That same aloorness that seems
to surround the banker has apparent
ly kept the. boys from applying for a
job there, as 1t has the ordinary
grown-up individual from keeping his
hat on when he enters the impressive
doorway. The cashier of prominent
metropolitan bank expressed to me
the other day his wonderment that his
institution couldn't get enough boys.
They don't pay much at the start,
Of course-only $1o or so a month
(we're talking of big city banks), but
this is to boy Of thirteen to fifteen,
and after year managing a feather
duster, or pushing the lever of a coin
counting machine, or running errands,
he gets $25 to $50. Then he must have
a bond. because he Is a messenger,
and goes out collecting drafts and
checks on other banks, etc.; but the
bank furnishes this, and there Is no
bother about 1t at all.
Then, after two years or 80, he is
assistant or head messenger. and may
get as much as 1928 a month. And
from there. II he is bright enough to
work out Of the messenger rutland
the average boy is-he goes into the
receiving teller's cage, or the book
keeping department, or the discount,
or the collecting, and gets, not 1925
month. but only $50 or $50 month.
Quite a drop in salary, 1t is true, but
the ambitious boy will make this tenn
porary monetary sacrifice-and you
will encourage him to do so-that he
may not remain a messenger all his
life, but will open up before him an
occupational vista that has at its end
a bank presidents chair.
His next step. maybe, is receiving
teller itself. when he will be paid
sometimes as much as $4,000 a year,
or as assistant in the paying teller's
booth at as much salary (the paying
teller gets more than the receiving),
and on as paying teller, then assistant
cashier. then cashier. acknowledgements
dent, or president. or anything as big
as the young banker has in him.
If your boy has a position as teller
by the time he Is thirty, he has gone
on pretty fast-but not more than a
fairly bright young man ought to-and
by five years later, or, at the most,
when he is forty, he is sure to be we'll
along and highly regarded in business
circles. Cashier at thirty-flve; salary
$4,000 up (referring to large city
banks): big man-this is not at all
remarkable, for the ambitious boy can
surely get there. From there on one