Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-11

VXTOULDNT it surprise you to hear a
w bass voice on n baby? But there are
other surprises even greater, For instance,
why are the poor poor? BY what effort Of
genius does any person remain poor in a
country where rail-splltters become titans of
history, where newsboys become magnates
and butchers clerks crowd the reputation of
the Medicts as patrons of art? Poverty is
the greatest of all stimulants to ambition.
Scarcely a multlmillionaire of today would
have been what he is but for terrible pow
erty in his youth that made him from boy
hood a warm friend of riches and a sworn
enemy of poverty. How then, in defiance
of this stimulant, deaf to the numberless
siren calls of Opportunity in a country
where the man or woman risen from the
least promising level Is the admired of all
admirers does any one of our millions of
poor remain poor! 1t is as surprising as a
bass voice on a baby.
To say that it is just as abnormal is not
to take an extreme view, either. '
The Big Bass Voice .
Why are the poor poor? was answered
the other day, very definitely in house in
Germantown. certain young schoolgirl
there is employed to keep an eye on five
day she appeared on the job in neat, new
silk blouse. which the mother who EMPLOYS
her took pains to admire as an encourage
ment to her budding good taste-albeit the
mother had her msgivings over the good
sense of the waist. with its evident cost bal
anced against it's owners weekly wage.
Marking these misgivlngs in her employers
face. the young nurse was moved to explain
II made it myself" she said "out of a silk
shirt of my brothers that he didn't like very
much"
The brother is paid $S a week to drive the
delivery wagon Of a grocer. Yet he buys silk
shirts, and at IS a week, is sufficiently su-
perior to silk shirts to toss one away to his
sister.
That boy is you might say, the bass voice
on the baby, His ear rings not with the call
OF Opportunity, but with the call of the silk
shirt He is a proof of the fact that every
American is a potential millionaire But he
Is also proof of the disaster that follows when
you let the millionaire in you speak out too
soon. He is one reason, and the chief reason
why the poor remain poor.
Most Employees Incompetent
1t is difficult feat to remain poor, yet
these people have marvellous facility for
doing so. And every employer of labor knows
how numerous these people are When
Charles s. Melen was president of the New
Haven Railroad he one time said in the
course OF speech, that, in his experience,
and he thought the experience held true in
all branches of industry, easily sixty per
cent. OF all employees were incompetent.
Every employer every employer of only so
much as a kitchen maid, knows that this is
deadly true, Every faithful worker in an
ofiiee or factory knows out of his own ex
perienee how many others he has to carry |
round on his back He knows how much
thinking he has to do for the other fellow
Now why should this be?
Just now In England business conditions |
resultant from war have enormously en-
larged the average return OF the faithful
worker Even the unskilled workers IN the
coal mines have had their wages Increased
several times over the average OF peaceful
times. The skilled mechanic Is not merely
paid double his ordinary wage, he is petted as
a patriot. Such are the unusual demands of
the situation that the eommonest ability
returns that are totally uncom-
mon And what is the result7
what prudent use are these workers MAX
ing OF their sudden prosperity Are they
sailing 1t down in eanny real estate VEN
turesF Are they saving II any one OF the
thousand ana one ways opened TO themq
Unfortunately not. They are treating them
selves to oysters before dinner. They hear
The call, not Of Opportunity. but OF the silk
shirt. s'iA
Rich in Taste. Poor in Backbone
IN way they cannot be blamed. Evan
2 america they should not be blamed n
5 n9s totally their fault. The whole trutb
I. she matter IS that the poor are poor h
ash because they have been left - - -
'haEaeter arat 81 Al The ss -