| Show NW ar ay i U lwe r eh rl it 40 41 A it ul 4 s x C 4 siar 1 1 1 41 S it ll 11 t i to r hilt I 1 man SR dy JOHN F THORNTON THORN TON JR 1 from the american boy detroit III distinctly the parting words of my old that june my iny lass ass graduated f as ahat hat ar are you alous going 1 FB to do now gowhe lie asked I 1 suppose t eier aerl one e here has several ideas of mint tit it he lie would like to be fluttering around in his head its arelt hard to decide between betin een thero them on a day like this when the fish are tire biting up in old sandy hii 31 advice to each one of you Is to get your fishing pole and carr aliv lie buc austli tai n along mith w ath you hear near the shores of iua iu 1 you will find schools of i t learn a lk on from 1 I I 1 ee e e pollin are on their way to you fallows ure on durmay our way to manhood dut but the polli i b arc are not in any particular hurry I 1 don dont t A think iu ou 11 II fl 11 id them tran trying to leap around and lift their vokes ioles like frogs As a matter of tact fact chev are going to ta ns assume unie searal different shapes before settle ilove into fro hood bior I 1 or the present liou lio weier exer they are content to go right on being you illions aie in the pollywog stage lour your POM errand abilities are only half revea luL look around litford you decide what flat you want mant to be or do in it acu 3 bears ears iou may become an aware are of qualities in bour our makeup whose existence you never neer suspected at the same time abilities that you think ou it now po possess sess inns ma fade am away ity take your time I 1 ou on may save yourself from the fate ot a misfit I 1 ou u ie e hell be itil d of them the doctors are un hap I 1 lause nube they are not riot lawa lawyers ers the chemists i who auld be of moie service to the world ai L iier men 1 I ila hau c i i t d on these thee n wise ise words to many ninny boys 4 v and I 1 liaa iticia on oil now with a new nen to tin file small town toun boy who mho dreams of achieving ach leiv su success ces in the city ills mini Is crammed with horatio aller jr stun stuff lie ile I 1 as read mad the picturesque life stories of some of our big men who nho left the farm for the 1 city I 1 ahe hem whistles 11 astles of a locomotive among the lit hills alls makes blin carn learn for the city bristling with mith opportunities port unities he ile looks upon the glistening ralls as the oie ole a nue to his ills opportunity he lie ts Is six av t sighted aa A few fen ears ago a big city was mas the place for an up wid coming man it needed him and it was vas lim pared to reward him film with money and position 71 luday however homeier the story Is reer reversed sed Ame A meilen ilca lm bas grown too fast say our deep think in ing and publicists she has ims spread herself thinly oer a large area the future of the country lies in its undeveloped small cities and towns arp arr aou ou looking 0 for opportunity 1 that little old one boss town of yours before you toil think of buying a one way nay ticket from it there are many ambitious and very wise young men who are deliberately leaving the larger cities and moving into towns such as yours A deft few w months ago I 1 visited a country store in a typical small town of the IN attest est the owner Is t a young man ten years ago he left the town and went m ent to chicago tor for a real job but he had not worked lone before he realized that it would be many spars before he could get the kind of job he wanted there were nere opportunities for foremen mann managers gers superintendents and other bosses but they were mere purely administrative jobs he lie wanted to create and build up a business bustness of his hit own onn the death of his father called him home to carp for or his mother and he got a job in a general store of the town it was a terrible grind the work itself was ma not back breaking but the dally daily round of little things to do the same dull routine hour after hour day after day week after week got on his nerves weighing out a bagful of this wrapping up a handful of that it was mas hanl hard mork simply because it was not interesting did this young fellow settle down don and wear himself deeper and deeper into the rut lie ile did not lie ile simply began to look around to see it if he lie could liven things up lie ile sit suggested ested to the owner that he adver advertise tim ad V snorted the owner ouner what cor for why atul l everyone round here knows knous were here and open for business busine qs all the time atul land and carrying almost anything in stock that they 11 ever want wont advertise I 1 hat tor lie ile suggested ted specializing 1 hy not throw out isome 0 of f these slow moving articles and put in goods that sell more quickly no said the merchant we depend on the farmers for the bulk of our trade and we ve got to carry a general line a little bit of everything no atul p tu mell w e 11 go right on with our line of staples the net next year the young roan man bought out tho the old man and started in to be a business builder ills first reform was to get rid of half the stock you know what a collection of junk the tho average country general store Is with its haunting odor of harness grease calico soda crackers hore hor e liniment till and cheese lie he hail observed that the women did most of the buying ao 0 o he molded his store stores s service to meet their he lie investigated their buying habits lie ile lenued that those who could afford to buy finery the large city stores or sent tit away to lie me arill order houses the voting man visited the jobbers and manu facton in n the city he ile brought hack back a law large nt of hats suits quitt die ept and anthor r tah that women wear near jhen lie motif tip lup n i 1 i i I 1 it department in the seiw sli arni fro it v elih lill ki hp bi imd bad tl if own the gun oil zil und unit ten en imin callb and skunk traps and a lot of other odds and ends the other merchants mpr chants ot of the town toun predicted ruin for the so did the banker of the cornin unity hell 11 never be able to compete with the city stores tores 11 he said cut but the young merchant surprised them he ile sent rent letters to a list of prospect prospective lie customers customer ille wear was nos sold in two weeks from that or time ne on he lie gradually turned the old general store into a women s and childrens store he ile did not specialize on clothing but he limited his ills stock to those things in which a woman moman li 14 naturally interested clothing and house furnishings and groceries and he advertises that Is one of the iliin rea sons for his ills success the town alone could not support his store one new business idea he uses use Is very nery effective effect he ile lie he has appointed agents in the surrounding small towns their work Is to report to him weekly meekly on printed forms any in formation that will mill put him film in touch with new customers it if a girl becomes engaged or a couple la Is married he knows inous about it it and Is after the busin business that usually results from such events he ile knows also whenever a new bouse house Is built or an old house Is s remodeled or a new family moves noes into his territory in seven years this man has built up a bl lIneSS that Is known tor fa miles around seventy ent five the per cent of his tits business Is done farmers and their families who nho drive or motor in from points fifty miles away amay that Is the reason why during the past dear he has been able to do a business of mare more than in a town whose population does not run much over 2000 Ilund hundreds reds of small towns hold similar tunit unities les for young men if ever there were I 1 golden opportunities small town merchandising holds fields them today for american farming Is fast becom ing ink a mighty fine one pal paving ing business Is ac ne increase ng faster in the rural districts than in the cities and the american farmer and his family are no longer satisfied to exist on the very ery barest baret necessities of life they are fire buin buying a luxuries and conveniences in large quantities the introduction of electricity alone into farming corn com muni ties Is creating a tremendous demand tor for electric churns washers mashers irons fans and vacuum cleaners cle iners IN ater system porcelain sinks wall paper r paint and Nar barnish nish better house furnish ings these are only a few of the things that are i heavily in the rural districts an expert has hag figured that the american farm marl marlet et has a u wealth of 80 part of that market marlet Is around sou the chain stores are spreading out from the cities the mall mail order houses have secured quite a hold on the farmer farmers s trade but if you decide to build up a business in bour community you need not worry morry over oer their competition the mall mail order houses give ghe no better values alues than it Is possible for a local merchant to give ghe and a man or woman oman always prefers to trade with a friend whenever that Is possible the man with mith a capacity tor for friendship and a goodly share of brains and energy hag fins every assurance of success in small town merchandising but merchandising Is only one of leeral several fields in ubach the small town offers excellent opportunities tuni ties the president of one of our big pacific coast banks devotes an unusual amount of time to the development of his employees one day he called two clerks into his private office 1 I believe be he said that you two young men are going to make good at banking but you need a little broader experience with banking problems than your work here afford you in lit a big place like this you know you are liable to lose your sense of perspective 1 I have made arrangements with two tuo of our cor respondents there Is a job awaiting each of you in a country bank on these jobs you will be called upon to do a little of everything you will III become banking factotums facto tums then hen your edu cation is ka completed there Is an executive position here for each of you lou iou have hae a week niek to think it over oner the young men thought well of the propose tion and slid disappeared into the bushes 11 but the presidents plans went awry neither roan man returned to him one wrote him a long letter in which be listed some of the advantages of a small town job over a city job the cheaper 11 alv ing cost the more healthful surround surroundings Ins and the chance to make more intimate friends the other man in a te agram quoted cae caesar ar according to longfellow Lons fellow better be first in a little iberian village than second in home rome there arc are something like thirty thousand banks in the tinted states more afore than three fourths of these are situated in towns of lebs than ten thou sand population it Is in these swill town tona banks that many of our future banking lenders leaders arc are being formed tor for here a new idea in banking Is being de dev eloped As one banker has said it has bein found rood good bucl business ness to take interest in people as well sell as from them in other words the bankers of the country are going out of their ways to help their clients to grow richer I 1 could mention many instances of the rise of 0 men nion in the banking world because of their thelt ability in this direction but space permits of only one in a cetti ln rei r stern farming community there were a few fen years ago two banks they were competitors A young man in one ot of the hinks said to the cashler r there Is just so much money in tills community both banks here anre falling over oer each other trying to indge far to bring their busi business liess to thim vc no I 1 line me it great many good accounts nl at read U b hv not mil roll vp up our ft es and help our depositors to become richer it if non depositors de PO see us doing this they have the best argument in III the world for bringing their accounts to us the farmers of the community were mere bard hard workers and intelligent but they had no leader without a single by your leave the bank assumed the leadership it organized a farmers farmei f forum on the banks recommendation the farmers formers employed a field demonstrator thoroughly grounded in the theory and practice of scientific farming the federal government paid halt half the expenses of this tills soil boll doctor ue lie spent his time traveling trav cUng from farm to farm making soil testa tests and advising the farmers regarding the product A best adapted adopted to their acres the bank purchased a carload of purebred cattle selected by a gov eminent dairy expert these were sold to the farmers at cost that was three years ago today that community Is one of the most prosperous agricultural districts in the country there Is only one bank the business bust ness of tho the competing bank has been taken over by the live bank the young man Is president of the enlarged bink he ile has been offered a cleo presidency la in a large city bank with a salary doul Is la that which be he now receives lie ile prefers to remain in tha the bushes lie ile too would mould rather be fl alm to a a little iberian village than second in rome on a trip last year through one of the richest agricultural sections of the middle west I 1 was mas continually hearing the name of one man I 1 call him jim ingalls because that Is not his name five rive S ears ago he helas was an overn corked reporter on a big lit city dilly ills vork nork did not seem to ba be gettig getting him any anywhere here there were half a do dozen zen men ahead of him in the line for promotion aej the best that he lie could hope for was an assistant editorship in about ten bears ears finhen bea ills tits two weeks meeks vacation period rolled around be made a trip through the rural districts of hla his state lie ile did not return return to the city for in n 1 I little tow toun n be he found the subject of many man v daydreams a rundown run down domn country newspaper for sale and into it he put every cent that he lie had managed to scrape serape together on his ills city job I 1 not ot n very N ery promising bab baba ba bj you say but jim ingalla ingalls had a vision of possibilities the town tonn was uns in the heart of a prosperous farming region that was as well mell populated most of tho the fir had a big city dally daily delivered del hered at their gates there was nas a growing community spirit among the county du dwellers ellers jim baw the need for a real community newspaper the first thing that he be did was to improve the appearance of the paper then he be toured tha the county and created a chain of correspondents railroad agents school teachers doctors lodge secretaries justices of the peace everyone ee in a position to gather news nes was mas supplied bup plied with stationery ti onery and given free subscriptions there were fe few who he did not consider it a privilege to send in news items he ile gave gate ga te up foreign news entirely leaving this to the city dallies dailies ills news policy lias as always been one of intensive reporting of the affairs of town tomu and county ills pour in to him every week meek a steady stream of the gossip and chitchat of every hamlet and crossroads village it if farmer porters wife ife holds a pie social sh she 1 knori s where she will find a full account of it and her guests know where they can find their names in all the glory of print farmer former lawler and his neighbors are interested in the hay grain and forage reports from up state they look in jim s paper for them lie ile keeps close tabs on tha the developments at the county experimental farm and nothing gets by him at the meetings of the county agricultural societies the papers circulation Is now nearly four times what it was uns when he took it over and it Is lecog ns as a n valuable able advertising medium jim no longer has to worry over bis |
