The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1920-05-08
WHERE THEY WERE AT TWENTY
Positions Occupied by Men Now Lead
ers in Business.

1t dealt with men who have come TO
he national figures in industrial al
fairs in America.
where 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 ID. Rockefeller's big interests in
transportation lines.
"Where were you at twenty?" the
newspaper man asked.
! Telegraph operator at way station
on railroad in Arkansas" was the
reply
"Wbere did you begin % the greatest
publisher in America, if not the world,
was asked.
"At twelve years of age, with a CAPT
tai of three cents" was the answer.
Are your opportunities to-day as good
as in days gone by? Assuredly. There
never was greater opportunity From
out of the ranks of the Office boys, the
clerks, the railroad employees, the road
men, the students, the shopmen, the
| factory workers, the statesmen of to-
day will come the great captains of to-
morrow.
The opportunity is bigger to-day be-
cause the active, the enterprising, the
alert and the capable stand out in vivid
contrast at a time when there is so
MUCH of inclination to shirk and loaf
GA the job.
The shirker gets nowhere. The
worker climbs.
One of the partners in the banking
house of j. p. Morgan 4 company was
a reporter in New York getting $50 a
week twenty years ago.
The head of the biggest life insur
anee company in the world was a small
town school teacher, when he was
twenty. Before that he worked on a
farm.
Frederick Underwood, president of
the Erie railroad, was brakeman.
The president of the Fidelity Mutual
Life Insurance company of Philadel
phia started his business career as err
rand boy for John Wanamaker at 81
week
Thomas A. Edison was a train
butcher" selling candy, cakes and such
things TO railroad travellers.
The mayor of New York was loco
motive fireman.
The greatest retail merchant the
world ever has known, and who died
leaving S65 100000, was a hired hand
in country store.
John Carly, one Of the principal ad
ministratiye officers of the American
Telephone and Telegraph company,
rose from a S. a week job in the com.
pany's Boston Office.
ID. c. lacking, the biggest figure in
copper mining in America. was farm
hand in st. Clair county, Missouri ard
got his start educationally by studying
at night by candle light in the attic of
the rude shack he called 'hOme."
diehael diversity Pupn, who deyel
oped the long distance telephone, was a
porter in New York store. Before
that he was a farm hand.
George NJ Reynolds, president of the
Continental and Commercial bank, of
Chicago the largest financial institu
ton outside of New York, started as an
office boy for concern in Pamela,
Iowa.
A list like this could be continued I'M
til columns were filed.
The foregoing has been suggested by
bit of stuff that came floating in from
Armour & company, which shows how
nearly all the men in that monster or
ganization rose from small Jobs in the
Armour plant For instance:
Arthur Meeker, vice president, start
ed at the bill desk. So did Everett
Wilson. superintendent of branch
houses. and Frank w. Wsddell, head of
the provision department,
f. Edison White, vice president, spent
his first years with the company as a
clerk.
f.. A. Valentine. vice president and
head OF the soap works, made his start
as a salesman.
Robert j. Durham, vice president. be
gan az a clerk, and Frederick w Croll,
wee president and treasurer, as assist
ant to the paymaster
Charles H. Macdonald, president Of
the Armour fertilizer works. entered
the employ Of the company as a stenog
rapher
George b. Robbins. vice president.
was clerk in the transportation de
partment
John +. OHern went to Chicago
twenty three years ago looking for a
lob and found one in the Armour Oleo-
margarine department at $40 day.
To-day he is general superintendent Of
sixteen Armour plants.
Myrick d. Harding, general superin
tendent Of the Chicago plant, who d.
reefs the work Of 10000 men, started
with the company as messenger at 81
a week
Fred c. Shaw. division superinten-
dent Of the Chicago plants, started as
bookkeepcr.
A. p. penson. head OF the canning de-
partment. sits to-day AZ desk 100
feet from the table at which, as boy
Of fourteen. he worked for $3.50 a
week.
Charles Eikel. general superintendent
Of the St Paul plant, started with the
company a. an Office boy.
Would these men have had their fine
positions TO day had they been shirkers
and clock watchers
Not in a thousand years.
For every big job there Is in America |
today there will be two twenty years
from now.
There never was better opportunity |
for the bright youngster or the bright |
Young man. Il does not matter what |
YOU arc to-day. Office boy or bank clerk,
farmland or salesman, shop attendant
or truekman.
For. in this country more than IN
any other. can it be said with truth:
Il am the master OF my fate.
I am the captain of my soul
III - -, win Tnaf and Won