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Show j; TYPICAL AMERICAN. j I The death of Henry II. Rogers. vice president ! of the Standard Oil company, naturally brings to light many incidents in tir. career of the great it ; financier which were not generally known while he was yet alive. In one of iheso newspaper oiogra- i phies we learn. that .Mr. Rogers was of humble origin; ori-gin; that he began his business career as a vendor I of new-papers, at which he made $!) a week. Dur- ing his lifetime ho nros,. in -,o business world I from a $:! a week bov to one of the leading finan- I eiers and business men of the country, with a for- l tune estimated a! no less than $0.00.1.000. : This is somewhat typical of other men who be- ! J, gan life hack in th.e '30s and 40s. Of course there were many born of that time who have grown up as poor as they were when they started in life, but. I those who had the insight to summon to their aid I the natural opportunities of their time, advanced in wealth with giant strides. It is said that Mr. riogcrs. by dint of hard work and far-sighted sav- j ing, accumulated a small stake of ftr.OO. with which I j princely sum he entered the Pennsylvania oil fields and bought a half interest in an oil refinery, Sue- l j cess followed after success, and when the oil busi- ness grew out of all proportion to tho fancied pos- isibilities of even the most enthusiastic, the giant corporation known. as the. Standard Oil company was formed, and 4 he wealth of Mr. Rogers from his $(i00 stake grew almost beyond bounds. I In this day a man with $000 cash capital has I very little chance of buying a half interest in an oil 1 refinery, or. indeed, in any olher infant industry. I Conditions now are very dif f vent from those ob- I laining in ante-bellum days, when individuals with . initiative had a chance 1o work out their own sal-f sal-f vation without calling in the assistance of those I who control the wealth of the country. Nowadays. I if a man sees his opportunity in some natural product, pro-duct, he must organize a million-dollar corporation: must fortify himself strongly or. on some fine day j when he begins to see the fruits of his labors, the I business will suddenly be eemfronted by a- rival I concern backed by the men who have made iheir J fortunes out of other things, and before which cp- position the new ndustry must fail. The capital necessary to embark in any new industry which J gives promise of making returns is not measured by j the hundreds, and a wage'-earner in this day win) has j accumulated $0(K) has about as much chance of be-: be-: ing a magnate or a plutocrat through investment as j he does by staying in the ranks of the wage earn-j earn-j crs. If lie should embark in a good paying proposition propo-sition he will soon be discovered by those who have money they want to invest, and who will soon mo-! mo-! nopolize the trade through their larger activities and greater financial resources. Vet the career of Mr. Rogers is one fnun which several great lessons may bo learned for the benetit of the children of the present generation. Mr. Rogers got his start by saving. That is some- thing we. can all emulate. And it is a great deal j easier for the average man to accumulate IfHOO by saving now than it was in the 10s, or in the intervening in-tervening years up to the 'I'O.s, It is not as easy for the child of poverty to become the multi-miilion-i aire, but he may secure a competence which guarantees guar-antees him a comfortable old age and furnish protection pro-tection to his family. The fortune of Mr. Rogers, as indeed of mot other men who have secured great fortunes, was gained mainly by laying hold of natural nat-ural resources and turning them over to the public in a desirable form for their convenience and comfort. com-fort. Tin method of growing rich is now mure difficult than in earlier limes, but that faci has not lessened the opportunities of saving and investment invest-ment in paying things; but of these the most important im-portant is the saving. Kven so great a financier as Mr. Rogers had to save $000 out of a small salary sal-ary before he was in a position to make money. About all careers which show typical success in America had their beginning in frugality, a trait which we of today esteem too lightly. |