LIII An Immigrant Boy Becomes a National Figure in Reform.

THERE died recently in Ohio a man who made a high place for himself in the community. He won a strong hold on the hearts of the working people. He commanded also the respect and support of the majority of law-abiding citizens. I refer to Samuel Jones, late head executive and reform mayor of Toledo. His fame spread fast without the bounds of the municipality, and throughout the nation. He became as widely known as Governor Pingree, of Michigan, as a friend of the people, and for his peculiar yet practical ideas of municipal, social and industrial reform. He also won distinction as an able writer and fluent speaker on the social and economic conditions which affect our national life so strongly to-day.

Besides having been a conspicuous philanthropist, reformer, public officer, orator and writer, it is to be noted that Mayor Jones was, first and last, a successful man of business. He was president of the Acme Oil Company; an inventor and manufacturer of a successful patent—the Acme sucker-rod—an implement for pumping oil wells. He made a fortune as a successful operator in oil, and did it without influence or backing—by dint of industry, honesty and push, starting as a penniless boy, with only such education as he could acquire by himself.

A man of large heart and broad mind, his life presents a stimulating, wholesome example of the self-made, conscientious man of wealth impelled by Christian sympathy, and stung into action by what appeared to him to be the stress of political, industrial and social injustice. He embraced the opportunity which his social position afforded, of carrying out and putting into practice some ideas, of which, quoting Heine, he said: “They have taken possession of me, and are forcing me into the conflict whether I will or not.”

As showing the man, a few incidents are apropos. On going to his factory, one morning, during the hard winter of 1896, Mr. Jones found that some of his office help had affixed a sign to the outside door, “No help wanted.” This he ordered taken away as being contrary to the spirit of the institution. “Men who apply for work should have at least a decent reception,” he said; “maybe we can help them by kind words, even if we have no work for them.”

During the years of financial depression the prosperity of the oil business was affected by the conditions prevalent throughout the country. Mr. Jones issued an order that his work-people should not suffer. “Keep a little flour in the barrel and see that they have coal enough to keep them warm,” was the order.

LOVED BY HIS EMPLOYEES.

He loved to tell how, returning from a trip to Europe, the warmest welcome (and that which shows the popularity of the man) was that given by a crowd of his employees gathered at the Toledo depot to greet him as the train rolled in.

The election of Mr. Jones to the mayoralty of Toledo is an interesting story. He was the candidate nominated in the spring of 1897 to bridge the chasm between the two opposing factions in the Republican party. The saloons, corporations and rings of the city were marshaled against him, but his stout supporters, the wage-earners and the law-abiding people, carried the day after a lively campaign.

The frankness and plainness of Mr. Jones pleased the people as well as his eight-hour day and his ideas of social equality. His messages as mayor to the common council of Toledo were models of businesslike integrity and acumen, showing a vital interest in the welfare of the city, and the value of having a practical and upright business man at the head of civic affairs. Among measures pertinent and practical for the city’s self-government advocated by the mayor were a single-chambered board, city bids, the wage system, a municipal lighting plant, the abolishment of the contract system, the establishing of a purchasing agency to stop the waste of department buying, park and street improvements, etc.

His address before the annual convention of the League of American Municipalities, at Detroit, on “Municipal Ownership” was characterized as the best of the convention, and attracted wide attention. It was repeated at Chicago by request.

Mayor Jones was accorded a warm reception in Boston. He addressed the Twentieth Century Club at a dinner; he was banqueted by the Mayors’ Organization of Massachusetts; he dined with Mayor Quincy, who is something of a reformer himself; and he gave utterance to his views at a public mass-meeting of Boston’s best people. But with characteristic modesty, he looked upon such invitations merely as new opportunities to spread the new gospel, and not in any sense as the means of bringing fame or glory to himself.

The story of Mr. Jones’s successful career carries with it encouragement and example for the young man who starts in life with no capital but manliness, courage, persistency, and a willingness to work.

BORN IN A HUMBLE HOME.

Mr. Jones was born in 1846, in Wales. Of his humble home he says: “It could scarcely be dignified by the name of cottage, for, as I saw it a few years ago, it seemed a little barren hut, though still occupied.” It was in memory of this modest birthplace over the sea, which is known as Tan y Craig (under the rock), that Mr. Jones named his handsome Toledo mansion Tan y Oderwen (under the oak).

Perhaps the following autobiographical statement will serve better than anything I could write to present his life story:

“I came with my parents to America when I was three years old, and I have often heard them tell of the tedious voyage of thirty days in an emigrant sailing ship, and the subsequent voyage over the Erie Canal to central New York, where they settled in Lewis County. My parents were very poor and very pious. The poverty in our family was so stringent that it was necessary for me to go out and work, and I bear upon my body to-day the marks of the injustice and wrong of child labor.

“At the age of eighteen I heard of the opportunities in the oil regions in Pennsylvania, and at once made my way to Titusville. I landed there with fifteen cents in my pocket, and without an acquaintance in the State. For three days I went through one of the most trying experiences of any young man’s life—living without money and seeking work among strangers. I had promised to write to my mother, and I used hotel stationery to fulfil my promise, but was without the necessary three cents then needed to purchase a postage stamp. This was one of the hardest financial problems of my life. I overcame it through stratagem. Seeing a man on the way to the post-office with a bundle of letters I inquired of him: ‘Are you going to the post-office?’ ‘Yes, sir,’ he said. ‘Will you have the kindness to mail this for me?’ At the same time I put my hand into my empty pocket in search of the necessary coin, fumbling my pocket-knife and keys a moment. The gentleman kindly said: ‘Never mind, I’ll stamp it,’ and the revenue was provided which took my first letter to my mother.

THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES.

“But I was on the right track; I was in a land of opportunities. I soon found work and a business that was to my taste; a business, too, that the good Providence has removed in part, at least, from the domain of the competitive destroyer—the business of producing crude petroleum from the earth.

“Since 1870 I have been more or less of an oil producer. In 1866, I came to the Ohio oil fields and began the business of producing oil at Lima. Since that time I have followed it both in Ohio and Indiana, and to some extent in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In 1893 I invented some improvements in appliances for producing oil, and, finding manufacturers unwilling to make the articles, fearing there would be no profit, I concluded to undertake their manufacture. This brought me in contact with labor conditions in a city for the first time in my life. As a rule, labor in the oil fields had enjoyed large wages compared with similar classes outside. I found men working in Toledo for a fraction of a dollar a day. I began to wonder how it was possible for men to live on such a small sum of money in a way becoming to citizens of a free republic. I studied social conditions, and these led me to feel very keenly the degradation of my fellow-men, and I at once declared that the ‘going wages’ rule should not govern in the Acme Sucker-Rod Company, which is the firm name of our business. I said that the rule that every man is entitled to such a share of the product of his toil as will enable him to live decently, and in such a way that he and his children may be fitted to be citizens of the free republic, should be the rule governing the wages of our establishment.

“To break down the feeling of social inequality, we began to ‘get together,’—that is, we had little excursions down the bay. We invited our workmen and their families, and also some other people who live in big houses and do not work with their hands. We sought to mix them, to let them understand that we were all people—just people, you know.

GOOD WILL AND FELLOWSHIP IN BUSINESS.

“As our business increased, we took in new men. We made no special effort to select. We asked no questions as to their habits, their morals, their religion or their irreligion. We were ignoring the sacred rule of business, getting along in a sort of free and easy way, occasionally giving the boys a word of caution, printed on the envelopes; then, perhaps, a little letter expressing good will and fellowship. Then we came to feel the need of a rule to govern the place. We thought, to that extent, we ought to be like other people. So we had the following printed on a piece of tin and nailed to the wall. It’s there to-day:

“‘The Rule Governing This Factory: Therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.’

“In 1895, at Christmas time, we made a little cash dividend, accompanying it with such a letter as we believed would be helpful. In 1896, we repeated the dividend and the letter. In 1897 and 1898 we did the same.”

In response to the query as to how he would regulate property interests, Mayor Jones said:

“If you will read the Fourth of Acts and see how property was regarded and treated by the early Christians, you will read what I believe to be the one scientific way in which property can be handled for the good of all. The manifest destiny of the world is to realize brotherhood. We are brothers, not competitors.”

“What would you advise the rising generation to do to bring about such a realization?”

“That is an important question,” replied the mayor. “Well, I am free to answer that I think by far the best thing that the Acme Sucker-Rod Company has done has been to open the adjoining corner lot as a Golden Rule park and playground. Here is a spot of God’s green earth in the heart of the industrial part of our city that is as free to the people as when the red Indian trod there. And I am sure that the healthful play of the children and the delightful studies of the older ones as we discuss the questions of brotherhood, golden rule, and right relations generally, in our Sunday afternoon meetings, will do more to bring about the era of peace and good will than all else that has been done there. And now we have added Golden Rule Hall, where we may continue these studies, for we must first understand our disease before we can apply the remedy.

TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO HELP EACH OTHER.

“How delightful are the hours which we pass together in the study of the question of right social relations! How much like men it makes us feel to think that we are spending a part of our time in trying to learn how we can help each other; that is, help all the people, instead of devoting it all to the piggish business of helping ourselves!

“As an outgrowth of that spirit, during the past year, we have: our coöperative insurance; the Co-operative Oil Company; the Tuesday Night Social Study Club; and the Equality Club.

“Our experience has been progressive, and, I believe, profitable, in a moral as well as a material way. I have learned much of my relation to my fellow-men. I have learned that we are all dependent on each other.

“In introducing the shorter workday and trying to establish living wages we have tried to acknowledge, in some measure, the relation of brotherhood that exists between us and all other men; for we must remember that this bond is only limited by the confines of the globe itself.”

“When I first took office I ignored the professional politicians. Some of my friends expostulated with me. They assured me that I was ruining my future. I answered that I did not want a future based upon a disregard of the principle that an office-holder should faithfully serve the people. I told them that I would be glad to sacrifice my chances for a second term as mayor, if I could be equal to the responsibilities that were pressing upon me. They laughed, and called me impracticable—a dreamer. And yet, my way, so far, has proved successful, even from their standard of success, which, in some particulars, is quite remote from my own. My political experience has been of great encouragement to me. It has made me feel that, despite the seeming success of mere self-seekers, honesty of purpose in the discharge of public duties will, in the end, prevail.

YOUNG MEN IN POLITICS.

“And because I believe this is true, I hope to see earnest, honest young men go into politics. If they have strong convictions of what is right, and force of character enough to hold to these convictions against the many wrongful pressures and influences of political life, they will achieve success of the best kind.

“To-day, more than ever before in its history, the country needs men of this kind. Conditions have come into existence which must be changed. From an experience of years in practical business, I say that the young man now starts in commercial life heavily handicapped. In almost every line of business, he must fight great accumulations of capital, that usually either crush him or make a hireling of him. It has been said that the very name of America is a synonym of opportunity. It was so once, but my experience has taught me that this is entirely true no longer.

EVILS OF CONCENTRATION.

“In my opinion, the reason for the present hard conditions for the rank and file of men is the concentration of business within a few hands. This is a vast subject, and I do not intend to discuss it now. I only want to say that the remedy for the evil, which is felt most keenly by young men trying to succeed in life, lies largely in their own hands. Let them interest themselves in politics and insist, in the first place, that public utilities in cities, such as gas works and street-car lines, which all the people must use, and which bring in great revenues, be conducted for the benefit of the people at large, instead of for a few individuals. This would be only the first step to bring about improvement, but it would be a very important one. The present conditions may be worse before they are better, but, sooner or later, the problem will be solved. I have too much faith in the American people not to be sanguine of the future. And even now, although fortunes cannot be acquired as easily as they used to be, there are ample opportunities to acquire true success in life.

A WRONG CONCEPTION OF SUCCESS.

“The trouble with a great many young men is that they have a wrong conception of success. Large numbers imagine it lies in mere money-making. Yet the average millionaire is not a happy or even a contented man. He has been so engrossed from his youth in piling up dollars that he has had no time for the cultivation of the higher qualities of his mind and heart, in the exercise of which the only true happiness is to be found. You may remember that Emerson said: ‘Happiness lies only in the triumph of principle.’

“Of course, a certain amount of money is a necessity, and more of it enables one to enjoy many things which would be an impossibility without it. I am not advising any young man not to do all he can in a legitimate way to make money; but, if he is successful, he must be careful to keep money his servant, and not let it become his master.

SLAVES OF WEALTH.

“Many rich men are the slaves of their own wealth, and their sons, growing up without a purpose in life, never know what real living is. I knew what poverty was when I was a young man, and few have suffered from it more than I. Yet now I am thankful for it, because it made me work. To live, we must work, and one must work to live. It is not birth, nor money, nor a college education, that makes a man; it is work. It has brought me commercial success. I am a practical man, yet I can never express too earnestly my thankfulness that I learned from my good mother to set up usefulness as my standard of success—usefulness to others as well as to myself.”