Arizona republican., 1920-01-25
PICK RIGHT MEN TRUST THEM AND. SUCCESSES SURE
J. c. Penney Who Will Open In Phoenix His 19Sth Store Tells the Secret of His Remarkable Business Life

new Walker building, now being at the northwest corner Third avenue and Washington street, and will establish a store in Phoenix to add to his al ready long string of stores through out the United States. The Phoenix store will be the 19Sth, and he expects tC open 100 others the coming spring.
 J. c. Penny was born on a farm in Missouri, September 16, 1875. He was the seventh of F children His father, having served in the Confederate army iE the Civil war, entered the Baptist ministry in 1864, preaching for the Primitive Baptists 13 years.
 Naturally, with the income that meant, and with such a large family to support, there never was a surplus of jam in the cupboard, and when young Penney was years old he en- tered the list of future capitalists with one Berkshire hog, being encouraged oy his father, who allowed him on Saturdays to go over the fields after the corn had been gathered by the huskers and take what he found.
 Enters Store at 19
 He made money on his hogs, also on his next venture, watermelons, all though he had no help and had to sleep in a tent with dog and gun for iiS companions to remove temptation rom watermelon lovers roundabout. A title later he edited a newspaper in Hamilton which he sold for pins, a pin being of more value in those days han two cents today. When he was l9 he went to work in a general store in Hamilton, receiving S25 for II months work You who complain there is nc longer opportunity for the poor man, take heed of that $25. The boys eagerness to learn, his willingness to sweep, dust-to do anything if he might, while doing it, add to his stock of EnQWlpd0e QNPrVthine DprfaInin0 to the merchandise in the store-bore fruit for the second year he was pro- noted to $200 a year, and when he left to seek better health in Colorado he was getting S25 month.
 His first job in Denver paid him $6 a week, and he left it to go into the butcher business in Longmont, mak ing dismal failure. III, without money or friends, he obtained a tenn porary position with dry goods firm made good, and when the man whose place he was supplying returned to work, Penney's employer sent him to Evanston, Wyo., to work for his partner there at $50 a month.
 Lays Cornerstone of Success
 When he had saved $500 he bor rowed $1,500 and bought one- third interest in a store at Kemmerer, Wyo., and it was there the cornerstone of his success was laid.
 
 and two children, lived in a half story room above the store; discarded dry goods boxes served as tables and chairs; they experienced many priva tions, but always saved a little money. Ili five years he had paid off his in debtedneSs and had bought a little home, his wife aiding him by building the summer kitchen of dry goods boxes.
 He bought out his partners; his one little store grew into more, and soon there was a chain of stores.
 T take no credit to myself" says Mir. Penney. T owe my success to my partners. The Penney company stores have gone ahead by picking men with partnership qualities
 There was one little debt-coyered store in Kemmerere, Wyo., in April, 1902. The 18th birthday of this ad- venture in 27 states, and by the open ing of 100 more stores. All due, to quote the modest young man at the head of them, to his partners.
 When MT. Penney wants young man for one of his many stores this is the sort of advertisement that is placed in the newspaper:
 MEN WANTED
 We'll established merantiIe con-
 cern operating 197 retail stores
 Long and continuous hours of
 work.
 The work itself hard, ceaseIess,
 trying, testing.
 The work drive unreIentng day
 in and day out.
 And for 1t small living salary;
 perhaps less than you are getting
 now.
 That is MT. Penney's advertisement. There could never be any accusation ot eNaggeration against it; some might doubt if such an unalluring advertise ment would draw inquiries, yet MT. Penney considered thousands of appli- cations for jobs last year.
 T want to say" says MT. Penney, ito make our first offer as unattrac- tive as possible, as the first test of the man. I picture to him the dull little town in which he may have to live. the hard work ahead, the small salary to which he will have to adapt his living-I purposely make every thing except the opportunity Of real partnership little tempting as pos sibie. The kind of man I want is the one who will fix his mind on the ulti- mate goal and be willing to pay the position as an actual partner in his own business"
 His plan may be summarized briefly by calling 1t original principle of organization in management, founded upon a real belief in the inherent hon eSty of human nature. It results in an intensive cooperation in the pass ing on of a mans knowledge and quail ties of leadership to his helpers in the business and an endless chain of the development of the individual.
 Opens Second Store sI
 Mir Penney's first partner was en- couraged by him to open another store, 1 into which they placed one of their assistants as manager and partner. The first two furnished the capital and took notes for it. This man in turn opened a store and under the J. c. l Penney company plan the man he had trained became partner and manager. By that time MT. Penney dropped out of this particular store and took an interest in other stores with managers he had trained In other words, the originator of the plan has never wanted to retain all the profits. He offers men a real partnership and not a | profit sharing scheme, and to make it a real partnership, instead of gradu- ally diminishing share to each partner, | each store has only three partners, the first man to drop out when a new oox,oc i,, xxrffI, uew store