The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1920-04-29
CLIMBING TO THE TOP.
Way is Open for Brains, Energy and
Perseverance.

In one of the magazines there was
a story printed recently under a
heading, "Where they Were at Thir-
ty.''
1t dealt with men who have come
to be- national figures in industrial
affairs in Amrica.
tsWhere They Were at Twenty
would be more interesting.
The present writer was over in New
York recently to see the man who is
head of one of the greatest railroads
in the world and representative OF
John D. Rockefeller's big interests IN
transportation lines.
ssWhere were you at twenty! the
newspaper man asked.
ssTelegraph operator at way STA
tion on a railroad in Arkansas, was
the reply.
"Where did you begin?" the great
-est publisher in America, if not in the
world, was asked.
eAt twelve years of age, with
capital of three cents" was the an
swer.
Are the opportunities today as
good as in days gone by? Assuredly.
There never was greater opportunity.
From out of the ranks of office boys,
the clerks, the railroad employees,
the roadmen, the students, the shop
men, the factory workers, the sales
men of today will come the great cap
tains of tomorrow.
The opportunity is bigger TO-DAY oe-
cause the active, the enterprlslng,
the alert and the capable stand out
in vivid contrast at time when there
is SO much of inclination to shlrk
and loaf on the job. y
The shirker gets nowhere. The
worker climbs.
One of the partners of the banking
house of j, P. Morgan & Co. was a
reporter in New York getting $50 a
< week twenty years ago.
The head of the biggst life lnsur-
ance company in the world was a
small-town school teacher when he
was twenty. Before that he worked
on farm.
Frederick Underwood, president OF
the Fri Railroad, was brakeman.
% The president of the Fidelity Mu-
{ tual Life Insurance Co., of Philadel-
phia. started his business career as
errand boy for John Wannamaker at
81 a week.
u Thomas Edison was a train
butcher" selling candy, cakes and
such things to railroad travellers.
The mayor of New York was To-
z comotive fireman.
The greatest retail merchant the
world has ever known, and who died
leaving ss5, 100000, was hired hand
In a country store.
s$S John Carty, one of the principal
administrative officers of the Amerl-
can Telephone and Telegraph Co.,;
rose from a SIS a week job in the
company's Boston Office.
d. C. Jackling, the biggest figure in
copper mining in America, was farm
hand in St. Clair county, Missouri
and got his start educationally by
studying at night by candle light in
the attic of the rude shack he called
home
Michael Idvorsky Pupin, wo de-
yaloped the long-distance telephone,
was porter in a New York store,
!. before that he was farm hand. =
George M. Reynolds, president OF
the Continental and Commercial
Bank, of Chicago, the largest fnan-
4 cial institution outside of New York
started as an Office boy for concern
: in Penora, Iowa.
A list like this could be continued
until columns were filled.
The foregoing has been suggested
by a bit of stuff that came floating in
from Armour & Co., which shows
how nearly all the men in that mons
ter organization rose from small jobs
in the Armour plant. For instance:
& Arthur Meeker, vice president,
started at the bill desk. So did
Everett Wilson, superintendent OF
branch houses, and Frank w. Wad-
dell, head of the provision depart
ment.
F.. Edison White, vice-president,
spent his first years with the company
as clerk.
E. A. Valentine, vice president and
head of the soap works, made his