Arizona republican., 1920-07-14
BENJ. RICE TELLS HOW'
 HE GUT OUT IF RUSSIA. INTO UNITED STATES.

Seldom has the Phoenix k1wan1S club opened such an interesting meet ing as the one held yesterday at which Benjamin Rice, proprietor of the French Shop, told of his struggles for aff1uence begun at boyhood as a newly arrived immigrant in the United States from Russia. The members, who little suspected MT. Rice of being such an able speaker, were delighted to hear his vivid portrayal of his adventures while making his way out of Russia to the United States to engage in busi- ness.
 MT. Rice began his story with a de- scription of the life and surroundings of the colony of Russian Jews where he was born. He told of the difficult ties which confronted these people if they desired to immigrate. After he had bribed some of the authorities to allow him to cross the border into Prussia, he said, he was compelled to swim river in order to accomplish his object.
 Arriving in the United States, MT. Rice, then Is years of age, had only 20 cents and trunk full of clothing Tn his possession. It was at that time necessary for an immigrant to have at least $20 before he was allowed to land.s so, in lieu of this. MT. Rice left his trunk full of clothes with the imnigra- ton officials while he set out to earn the necessary money.
 The first thing in his new life was to secure a stock of shoestrings from a friend of his father, and with this he started to make a house-to- house canvass of New York to seld his wares. When he returned to his fathers friend at the end of the first day he had $5 in his pocket and still retained half of his original stock of merchandise In eight months he made $2, 300 in the shoestring business and with this cap- ital started for St. Louis. On his way to the river city, he was told of the golden opportunities in Tulsa, Okla homa, so he changed his destination to that place where in a short time he lost all his money speculating in oil.
 Borrowing $9e00 from a banker, as MT. Rice said, on the security of meal ticket which had not been paid for, he started in business and made a profit of $7,000 in 90 days.
 After this venture Mir. Rice came to Phoenix where he entered in business, the success of which is attested by the volume done at the French Shop every day.
 MT. Rice declared himself to be solidly opposed to the Thursday after noon closing rule which has been adopted by many Phoenix merchants for the summer. Much advice on the management of a business was given to the members of the club by the speaker, and his constant use of witty Illustrations made his talk one that was highly appreciated.
 MT. Rice is an advocate of Ameri- canization for the immigrant and de- clares that if every foreigner were compelled to attend an AmericaniZa- tion school for six months before be- ing allowed to make his living in the United States the country would profit greatly by the acquisition of new citi zens who would thoroughly understand the customs and ideals of their adopted land.
 Rowland Hall, auditor of the Arizo- ma Packing company, who came to Phoenix recently from Macon, Georgia, where he was a member of the Kiwanis club of that city, told the local mem bers of some of the accomplishments of the Macon Kiwanians and also spoke of the meat packing industry in Arizona which he declared would soon be one of the most important in the state.
 Other guests of the club yesterday were Chet Johnson of the Johnson Ad- vertising bureau of Bisbee; c. B. Perk- ins, Tucson realtor and insurance man; R. w. Hunting of the Pacific State Electric company of Los Angeles; Leslie c. Hardy of Nogales, John H. Allen of this city, George W. Campbell of this city, M. A. Murphy of Flagstaff, and Charles DeSales Wheeler, justice of the peace of Phoenix.