Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-21
FROM APPRENTICE
TO SHAREHOLDER
the Opportunity For Rapid Promo
tion and Partnership Offered to
Boys in Philadelphia Hat Fac
tory.
Rr GEoRGE w. pouGLAs

/ WHAT l6-year-Olu DOy WVuAu HOt Inv "
w get job in business at 50 a week.
only to be promoted to $40 week within
month IL he proved his fitness, and within
five years become shareholder in the COM
pany which pays dividends of 25 per cent on
It's capital stock, and within ten years be
sent on the road as a salesman with the OPP
portunity to make $4,000 year in commits
sions on his sales, and possibly to become
| president Of the company at the age Of 40
years7
There are boys right here in Philadelphia
to whom this opportunity Is presented. Some
Of them are on the way to promotion and
competence. Some of them have already
won both and can look forward to old age
with a feeling of confidence and security,
and others have just settled down to living
from hand to mouth without ambition or
desire to get on All these classes Of men
are found at the hat factory of the John B.
Stetson Company in Kenslngton. If young
man does not get on there It Is his own
fault and not the fault OF the opportunities.
John B. Stetson, who established the busi-
ness, never adopted the plan of promotion
by seniority, but pushed his men ahead
whenever they showed fitness and whenever
the openings for them appeared or could be
made, ]. II. Cummings, his successor as
president of the company, who entered the
business as an errand boy in the office con-
tinues the same policy.
Workmen as Shareholders
From the lowest apprentice up to the most
skilled workmen the company exerts itself
to develop It's employees to the utmost for
their good and for It's own profit, on the
assumption that mutual helpfulnesB Is
better than mutual hostility. AS already in
dicated, the apprentices are employed at the
rate of 50 a week. The boys hired are
usually II or IS years old. They are never
under II, because the boy before that age is
not strong enough to do the work The
wages of 50 a week are regarded as nominal,
and continue only while the boy is learning
to mako a hat AS soon as he can make a
complete hat he rs paid for what he does on
a sliding SCALE The price for the first dozen
is low. but it increases with succeeding
dozens in order to encourage the workman
to learn to act quickly and with precision.
A bright boy can learn to make a hat In
three or four weeks, and 1t seldom takes,
the slow boys more than eight weeks. It
sometimes happens that before boy has
completed his apprenticeship. he is making
more money than some of the journeymen
years. But the average apprentices soon
begin to earn $40 and s12 week. When
they show unusual ability they are rewarded
while still apprentices with three or four
Shares OF stock in a building company,
valued at 5000 each, organized to assist the
men in owning homes of their own. II his
efficiency continues he Is likely to receive
soon after he completes his apprenticeship al
least three shares of the stock of the John
B. Stetson Company itself worth $3.50 a
share at present prices and paying % per
cent. dividends. He does not have to pay q
cent. for these shares, The dividends pay
for them In about four years, after which
he receives the dividends himself though the
shares are held in trust for him for 15 years,
after which he may do with them as he
chooses.
Eight hundred employees of the company
are shareholders under this system, which is
an average of about one out of every three
and half eligible to the privilege. The 1900
women employees are continually changing
because they get married within three or four
years. or before they would have earned the
right TO shares of stock, and the appren-
tices and journeymen in the early stages of
their employment still further reduce the
number of eligibles.
The expert hatmaker, with quick eye and
a sensitive touch, is likely to be promoted to
a ''passer' or inspector OF hats, as they are
passed from one process Of finishing to an
other. Then he may become foreman, and
If he develops the proper capabilities he
may even be sent on the road to learn the
art Of selling what he has made While
there is no formal system of training passers
and foremen there is continual watch
kept for men with the required abilities, so
that there are in every department two or
three understudles for every man In place
of responsibility.
'If a man tries to attend to every little
thing in his department, and does not give
the others an opportunity to learn the art
of management" said Vice President Free
man. I'VE usually arrange to give him a
long vacation so that some one else may be
trained to take his place In any unforeseen
Statesmen at $4,000 Year
The sales force is recruited by system
of trying out young men from the different
departments. Such a man is sent on the
road with a regular salesman to act as his
secretary in arranging dates and looking
after the baggage and transportation and in
any other ways that are possible. Some OF