The Enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 192?-1930, 1927-05-20
Millionaire Banker
Who Began as Barber


work. Those samples he used until
he could pay in full for the order.
Meanwhile he borrowed nothing.
II never" he said yesterday, Dor
rowed a dollar in my life"
Such was the start of the man
who now owns 1925 feet of 'front.'
age on South State Street, between
34th and 74th Streets.
Soon after the start he rented one
of the flats in the building where he
had opened office with the dollar
and a half desk. Then he tinkered
that flat into shape and rerented it
at a substantial advance.
He Knows the Jobs
THAT was the point" he said-"I
could do the repair work myself. I
could do everything from digging a
posthole to topping a chimney. /
knew. Many night I've worked all
night on boilers and plumbing, and
wiping joints, and mending stairs,
and hanging paper. | knew materi-
ais and | knew when work was
right. Today have my own force
of carpenters and decorators and
spector. Then | know.
well that was the start.
''In those days-yes, and long
after-our group was mostly porters
and messengers and janitors and
walters thought that was the
great weakness OF our group-the
individual so seldom striking out for
himself and so. because he was more
or less a dependent, not considered
wasn't a very good risk.
THAT was 1.-THE man of color
wasn't very good risk.
Well said |. I'm going to give
II fair test, and If integrity counts
for anything, I'll win | felt that
only prejudice could beat me and |
determined that if II did beat me
| would go to South America and
start life in one OF those republics
where mans color is not his crime"
80 integrity was your prime as
SET" said l.
Others Credulity Helps
Jesse Binga pronounced Bin
gayl" by his "group") smiled. Yea,
| be twinkled-and said:
my greatest asset in business
won't say that II was altogether my
integrity. Il was partly the DISPOSE
! tion of the average white man to
underestimate my knowledge of real
estate values. They wouldn't believe
that a colored man could take al
most any old building and whip 1t
into shape"
| Success came in six years.
And with the requirement of his
! competency came the recognition
which Binga had prophesied would
come to every man of his race who
| acquired a competency--the recog-
| milton that the man was competent.
| Not Binga, but white men who have
| dealt with him gave me that testi-
/ mony. They would call up the First
| National for "a line" on Binga and
the reply would De, "You say it's
that lease with you? Well, you can't
do better than let him have anything
| he wants"
Integrity had won Prejudice had
not beaten Binga, and lone of those
republics" in South America on
which he had kept weather eye
had lost useful citizen.
Binga acquired leaseholds until
! rentals flowed in at the rate of
| $4,000 a month from one block of
buildings and 1880 a month from
| another.
His Bank Grows Steadily
The bank, which had been found
ed as a private institution in 1908,
/ W 20 etc h. H.,
] 1920. Between October, 1921, and
October, 1924, its deposits increased
from 100000 to $1,153,0OO.
Three years ago came the new
bank building of rich Ionic archi-
lecture, with such lofty reaches of
marble and bronze and such massive
steel vaults and such mellow wal
nut panelings and such subdued
hangings as you would expect to
find in the loop but not in "the
black belt" Although the lot on
which the structure stands is only
"a feet wide a remarkable effect of
spaciousness was achieved.
Il think" said the banker. that
have made every inch OF space
work for us" T asked the cost. He
ANP-hNNs tuihh 4 BOl OUT LOT De-
tween hundred and eighteen and
a hundred and twenty thousand dol
lars" The man who knew mater
ials" and who could talk to artisans
as an artisan must have made each
Iof his dollars do twice the work an
uniformed mans dollar would have
done
Limits His Distractions
While as banker he was keeping
not bankers hours but more than
workingman's hours, Binga avoided
two sources OF preoccupation and
distraction: He declined to allow
race hatred-or hatred of his race
Ito eat his heart out, or politics
that arena in which many Negroes
love to perform--to distract him.
OF race he said:
| "The reason refuse to let Il de-
stroy my soul Is that | know that