Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-10-04

He at orce began to study his new
task and the things related to 1T. h
two things that interested him most
We're the new force that was begin
ming to create a furore in the world.
electricity. and drawing. He watched
the draughtsmen using mathematics.
and he determined to study advanced
mathematics and drawing. But there
We're no evening schools and no teach
ers. However, by paying a man 80
cents an hour-two-thirds of what the
boy earned all day-he got lessons in
descriptive geometry and d~raughting.
The family purse sorely needed the so
cents, so Nanderlip turned tutor. teach
ing algebra to other fellows in the
shop.
His ambition squirting him on, the
apprentice resolved. at no matter what
cost in pinchinS. scraping and saving.
he would go to college for a year. He
went to the University of Illinois.
Mrs. Scroggin, a typical Dickens char
acter. boarded him for $2.25 a week
not. of course. in Delmonico style.
His carefully kept cash book shows
that Vanderlip's total expenditures for
the student year reached $265! BY
working as a machinist IN Saturdays.
he earned S1.50 each week.: this paid
more than half his MISUNDERSTANDING
bill.
Somewhat disappointed because the
university could not give him a course
In electricity Cornell Their having the
only class of this kind in the coun-
try). Vanderbilt. having successfully
completed a course in mechanical en-
cheering. returned home. He wrote
to Edison for q JOB. but received a
stereotyped nothing doing" reply-a
disappointment for which Mr.. Wander
lip has since chided h inventor.
Back to the machine shop he had to
go. at s1.35 a day. 1t was not long
before tho superintendent informed him
that promotion to a foreman was in
store. Instead of feeling elated. Van
derlip there and then deliberately made
up his mind that he would not rest
until he became something more than
a foreman in a machine shop.
Shorthand lessons by mail. he concluded,
might open the door leading from mechan-
ical toll to some mental occupation. The
teacher sent him from Chicago a book
and did nothing more except to correct In
bright red ink the mistakes the machinist
made. While attending to his lathe the
gritty youth practiced writing shorthand
characters with chalk on fiat pieces of
iron. a picture that would have delighted
the heart of old Samuel Smiles. of Self
Help fame. His mother patiently read to
him by the hour to enable him to take die
tation. and he succeeded in mastering
1.-The winged art"
Becomes a Newspaper Man.
DePfeSSlou dlIi dtlu tIic udCIllLo MP
shut down temporarily. Vanderlip did not
let the grass grow under his feet; he i'm
mediately applied for a job with the local
daily paper. Perhaps the poorest daily
paper in America, Mr.. Vanderbilt has
since called it. The office was at the back
of an un~dertaker's. the owner was the
editor and Vanderlip was made city edi-
/ tor. reporter, bill collector and office boy.
His pay was S. a week-but he didn't get
it unless he could go out and collect 1t.
He learned to write and also to set type.
His salary was raised to s.. but collections
did not always reach this figure and on
those sad occasions he had to go without
pay.
Joseph French Johnson-now dean of
the School of Commerce. Accounts and
Finance. New York university-an Aurora
boy who had been educated at home and
foreign universities. met Vanderlip, while
on Il visit to his native town and. liking
him. began to direct the young reporters
reading along economic lines. Later Mr..
Johnson CAV him a job as stenographer
with Scudder's Investigation agency in
Chicago, Of which Mr.. Johnson had
charge. This organization supplied brok-
ers. ankers and others with analytical
reports on corporations and other useful
financial information. Here Mr.. Wander
lip spent three or four very useful years,
learning to analyze corporate accounts,
"ADs oSS iAAN r - NANN ~ WIZ ~
Johnson having accepted the financial edi-
torship Of the Chicago Tribune. Mr.. Van
derlip became his successor as active head
OF the agency.
johnson next got Vanderlip a job on the
Tribune as q reporter. In two weeks his
salary was raised, within a month he was
assisting the city editor, and before long
was assistant financial editor and. later.
financial editor. Here, at Is, Vanderlip
made his mark.
Eis training as an investigator enabled
him to go to the roots of things financial.
Charles T. Yerkes. the traction overload,
was plundering the city and Vanderlip
after another until the whole city became
aroused. Yerkes did Vanderlip the honor
of calling him the worst enemy he had
ever encountered.
Corporate publicity. then virtually I'M
known. owes its growth in no small
measure to the pioneer work Of Wander
lip. No reporters were allowed to attend
annual meetings. The enterprising finan-
cial editor conceived an original and most
effective idea. 'If they won't let me in
as a reporter they are bound to let me Is
as Il stockholder,'' he said to himself. and
forthwith he purchased one share of stock
in every local corporation. The Tribune
regularly came out with exclusive reports
OF these meetings and its scoops be-
came the talk of Chicago. 1t took the 9TH
err newspapers a whole year to ferret out
how 1t was done.
At IL o'clock one night. Vanderbilt. who
had by his time become part owner Of
the Economist, was called out Of bed and
told to hasten to the home of Phil Ar
mour. Arriving there on the run. he
found the whole of financial Chicago, the
governors of the Stock Exchange, the
presidents of all the banks and other in
situations. the Moore Brothers. Yerkes
and other notables waiting to receive him.