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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 1908)
The . Omaha Sunday Bee PART IIL IIALF-T0!1E SECTIQII PACKS 1 TO 4. Qooa Into tho Nomn THE OMAHA DEC Best t1:. West f VOL. XXXVII NO. 31. OMAHA, SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 19, 1908. v SINGLE COPY FIVE CENTS. WILLIAM L.YETTER PRESIDENT OMAHA COMMERCIAL CLUB How a St. Joe Boy Has Risen .by Dint of Careful Attention to Business to Become One of the Leaders Among Missouri River Jobbers and as Man of Affairs in Omaha BUSINESS" la the word that describe William L. Yetter. the young man who has been elected president of the Commer cial club of Omaha, an organisation representing the varied interests of the throbbing western city, the great market town and queen of the agricultural world, set away in a kingdom of corn. But the chill of the word Is mollified by Mr. Yetter's radiance. He does not bear a superficial, physical, nor even a physiognomical, resemblance to the cold man of business. He radiates a lot of good things, physical well-being, good humor, good nature, and good business principles. Some people think he is popular simply be cause he, has tact which enables a perfect blend of good fellowship with proper business dignity. But that is not all. He Is a success In his business, and though he has been In Omaha less than ten years, he has succeeded in getting the goods which he sells known in al most every town and city in the west where there is a jug trade on Standard oil. Placed anywhere Mr. Yetter has shown that he is al ways In harmony enough to be agreeable without surrendering his own Ideas. He takes a little of the suavity of society Into business and carries Lack a little of the good poise of an alert business man when he returns to society. He Is a sort of storehouse of general healthiness of view, but business above all other things. William L. i Yetter is a regular connoisseur of business characters, and has gath ered around him information about them which has guided his personal business to success. "They don't put enough into business or life outside of host Una," Is the way he puts It. And he was never found out selling his goods because he can put something In besides the hustling which will yield better 'dividends. Mr. Yetter was born in Missouri and schooled in Missouri. He has had tlie Missouri spirit almost all his life. His years are forty and he has enjoyed them all They have been busy, but he has got -some fun oit of what others would make only a grim, solemn, dry, pompous buBlr.css. It Ci in St. Joseph, Buchanan county, that Mr. Yetter started the Ktrujrple with a lot of other bully western boys. His father was a merchant cf modest means, and William L. had to hustle. St. Jo reph was doing the same thing in those good old days.. The mer criarts ha! (he goods and they had the trade. Everything east of tlio Rnchy mountains pinned a rose on old St. Joe some twenty-flve years ago. Korsas City and Omaha had some trade territory, ,but the real trade In the west went to St. Joseph or Chicago. The Denver merchants who attempted to enter the wholesale field fell down, and Pike's Peak gold was not mined fast, enough' to overcome the jon-netHlnp whlcV was given Drnver by "little old St. Joe," as they lltd the city hi the red, red west.' ' In the Newspaper Business In such an atmosphere Mr. Yetter started, and, strange to say, he sold papers about the first thing he did after he reached an age 1: -uct l:os start in business for themselves. It was in the good old Oays of tho "St. Joe Gaaette" before Missouri thought of child Inlor lai s or the city government thought of wasting money on pro bation olfictrs. The circulation managers had not opened up schools lor boxing, when "Willie," or "Bill" "Yetter became one of "de kids what works at night." That he has made a success of the wall paper business after selling newspapers and "loafln 'round the boiler shop newspaper offices," is still a wonder to Mr. Yetter. But all things handed him could not be bad, and he frankly admits the newspaper office experience was far from being time wasted. 'He denies, in his mild way that he ever' took advantage of the passengers coming across from Atchison -by hoppin' trains and telling them that it waa "do last chance ter git yer Gaz-zet." The "Murrlkln" and "Noose" were not sold In those days and Mr. Yetter escaped having yellow journalism charged to his boyhood days. Another close escape which Mr: Yetter had Is still referred to wl h mingled delight and regret by the man who came so near going Into the newspaper business that he has chosen the wall paper busi ness as a life profession. No less a person than Eugene Field "helped 'em whoop up local" on the St. Joe Gazette, when Yetter was carry ing papers and later when he was In the mailing department Not a blush now comes to his face when he recalls the service he did field by mailing thousands of copies of his poems to the readers of the old Gazette. Like "PapM,Abel of the old Pacific house in St Joseph, Mr. Yetter knew the pedigrees of all tha human race, or at least that proportion of it contained In the city directories of the yelghtles. "Yes, I remember Eugene Field well," says Mr. Yetter. "Ha was dodging around the mailing room and business office a good bit He said he got something like f 30 a week for doing everything from turning the press to editing the yards and yards of telegraph and he acted like he had about that much to de. Of course we did not kmow .then the genius of Field. He waa the homespun, humorous sort of a fellow which numerous writers have since described, and put a lot of bustle and brains into the make-up of the St Joe Gazette. V.:- aaa and South Dakota and numerous jaunts out over the trade terri tory In Nebraska. For three years Mr. Yetter aerved at the head of the committee. He has succeeded without buying a brass band. He doesn't even work the press. What he has done for the Commercial club he has done simply in the course of his duty. Doing things for the dur through the Commercial club waa an old thing before Mr. Yetter got into the harness and he knows it. The work he does he has been doing Just as he would co-operate with his salesmen and assist them in opening a new strip of territory. And it has been done with the same regularity with which he opens the safe of his offioe. Works With Ak-Sar-Ben It is the same with his work In the interest of Ak-Sar-Ben. Ha la serving his third year on the Board of Governors, and has been chairman of the ritual committoe, that little branch body which Is responsible for much of the fun at court Tortures untold have been devised which have Impressed candidates with the greatness of tha realm of King Ak-Sar-Ben and the influence which Samson, tha Lord High Chamberlain, has with the powers that be. As a member of the parade committee Mr. Yetter assisted in handling one of tha best series of parades ever seen at the carnival the last year. As to his membership in the Field club, it doesn't amount to much. Chasing a putty ball over the links, from "T" to green, over bunkers and through hollows, does not appeal to Mr. Yetter. Recrea tion never appealed to him very strongly, anyway. He never played a game of base ball in his life, and even as a boy he was always on the "make" and had little use for the "godless, ribald vanities which modern youth pursue," not that Mr. Yetter objects to others taking all the outside recreation which they desire, but he never had the time to hear him tell about it. By living such a life Mr. Yetter is enabled to do a lot of work under a full head of steam, and he has made some money by it. He does not carry any outward signs of money and does not want to. He Is Just as good a fellow as ha was when he "helped 'em whoop up the circulation on the St. Jo Gazette." and In the Missouri city there are hundreds who were his friends when he had something like $10 avweek. They are his friends still. To find out how popular Mr. Yetter Is at the Commer cial club, start to "knock" him in any mixed crowd and see how many and. prompt the responses to the effect that he Is Just what he seems and no four-flusher either as to ability or energy or gen eral sentiment System His Great Hobby WILL L. YETTER. other who Interested Mr. Yetter, and when an opportunity to Join hla fafr'in BliBlHess and move fo Hastings, Neb., which city pre sented a good opportunity, came he put his practical experience with his father's modest capital and the Yetter retail paint and wall paper store was opened for business in 18S6. The Yetters were successful. William L. Yetter grew into the business. He was popular in Hastings. For once he Identified him self with republican politics and was elected city treasurer by a majority which made his opponent explain that Yetter was such a good feflow that he Just stood still and let him win. But it did not happen to be the exact truth. Mr. Yetter won because he was recognised as a business man. Finally Mr. Yetter took the business as his own and conducted it with success through the hard times of 1893 to 1896 and by 1899 he bad reached the top and saw nothing more In the business world of Hastings for him to conquer, at least in his line. He Joined his brother In Denver in a manufacturing en terprise, but it was not suited to his tastes. It was then he saw the rising star of Omaha and hitched his wagon to It. When he entered the business here he occupied a small store on lower Farnam street, which loeks Just the size of a base ball pitcher's box as compared to the present seven-story build ing 66x132 which his wholesale wall paper house now occupies on Howard street . When Mr. Yetter Identified himself with the business interests of Omaha, his first step was to Join the Commercial club. That was not quite ten years ago, and he soon made himself felt He waa needed In the club. He succeeded to a high place and was appointed a member of the executive committee and placed at the head of the committee on trade extension. While he headed this committee trips were taken by the wholesalers and Jobbers of Omaha to Kan- Mr. Yetter Is a "crank" on system in his business house. All his clerks Bay so, but they like him because of his poise. He is not too soft aa to his heart or too hard at to his head. The young men Interest him. He has started a number in his business, and wants to start more as fast as he can find those who will meet a few of his ideas as to "signs" of a future. All his business life in Omaha ha has devoted his time to the management and to the buying, leaving the selling for those who have hustle without the love for business routine and care. He co-operates with his salesmen in a larger way than most of those who are selling to a large trade," and the result is that he has built up a good business in about half the time. He un consciously gives the Impression to his employes that there Is some thing to cultivate in business besides greed for money and though" he loves the "rigor of the game." like Ella's old friend, he "plays It with a clean hand." As president of the Commercial club Mr. Yetter succeeds such .men as Herman Kountze, Tate president of the First NaUonal bank; the late A. L. Gibbon; J. H. Dumont, J. 23. Baum, C. S. Hayward, "Euclid Martin, C. H. Pickens, the late J. Frank Carpenter, A. C.' Smith. R. S. Wilcox, W. & Wright, F. W. Judson and C. M. Wilhelm. Mr. Yetter was married In Hastings In 1888. His home la at 108 North Thirty-first avenue, and hla family consists of his wife and one son. None of the frienda of his boyhood days are about him fn Omaha. One of his old chums who has always crowded the chairs closer together when Yetter came around, is Charles Berry as sistant general freight agent of the Chicago Great Western railroad company. Even so looks William L. Yetter, the new president of tha Cosi merclal club and even so he. Is and has been. He has done a lot of big things since he has been in Omaha and has not personally made so much money out of them either. He doesn't want to be disgrace fully wealthy, but Just to continue to be the good mixer that he Is. When he's business he is business, and when he is off on a trada excursion it is to make friends. Then he Just Jollies along, saying "What do we care?" and Is Just good fellow enough. Just pious enough. Just dignified enough and high enough to be able to look over everyone in the crowd, but very well liked in any circle or set That's more than something. Days of Boyhood Busy While Field was around to Milton Tootle'a opera house when a minstrel show was due to get a bit of dramatic news, Yetter, the boy of 14 was on the "make" to get Into the Bhow and investigate some of the early-day dramatic art. the which haa never slipped his mind. And while Field the reporter-editor-manager was tackling farmers for the "noble bits of news," Yetter was selling the papers to them, and where Field got the pecks of apples and peaehea, Yetter does not j, deny that he got his pockets full. It was far more profitable selling Gazettes to Colonel Waller Young, Colonel James N. Burns and Frank M. Posegate than hoppin' the cars with a basket full of water lilies as some of the boys did to separate the travelers from their negotiable tin when they left for back east after "lookln over the town." And Yetter stuck to the newspaper business and hla school books. As for "Lover's Lane,- which runs from Grand avenue and Seventeenth street to the northwest limits of St Joseph, It waa never a real lover'a lane to Mr. Yetter. but the old barefooted, hungry lean 'ornery boys of tha city had seme great times In the old narrow road here the maples make a canopy and It's shady time all the time. These scenes made their impression on Mr. Yetter and while he escaped becoming one of the "poets in their misery, dead" he did be eome a compositor and a painter of landscapes. Of German descent Mr. Yetter went to work in the mechanical department of tha St Joseph Volksblatt. a big German paper and set type for a year. But It was not a trade to his liking. He saw no business future which could possibly result from setting type, and be had already begun to admire the men around him who were a business success In the com munity. Another trade was more attractive after he finished school, and he learned to hang wall paper and paint The painting which Mr. Yetter did was no common painting either, for he became a v first-class decorator and then finished off by acquiring no little skill as a painter of landscapes. If Mr. Yetter was not a connoisseur of business Ideas he would doubtless have been an art collector and had his offiee and home lined with plcturea of the masters' and hla own making, but as It Is he has a collection of photographs of busi , ness men. They have artistic frames and their quality and atyla tella that they are the work of the artlaU In photography. But It J is the men which Mr. Yetter admlrea. not the photographs nor tha artlafa work. He might bo said also to bo a connoisseur of character. Life Work of General Grenville M. Dodge Reviewed Ideal of the Young Man John Wanamaker was a much-talked-of man In Mr. Yetter's young manhood days. Wanamaker became one of his ideals. The financial trickster had no place in the admiration of Mr. Yetter. It was the man who built up a great business and made millions with out splurging but maintained a respectably elegant status consistent with simplicity which interested Mr. Yetter. Marshal Field not tha wealthiest man of his time, but the biggest tax-payer, was an- A NOTABLE review of great achievements In military and civil life was the ad dress of John N. Baldwin on the career of General Grenville M. Dodge, deliv ered at the thirty-sixth annual reunion of tha Army of the Tennessee at Council Bluffs November 9. 1906. It was reread at last year's reunion of the society at Vicksburg. Miss., and is now printed in booklet form. The address follows: In this time of great national eminence, with happiness pregnant in 20,000,000 American homes, with our astral emblem honored and respected throughout the world, with the seat of peace of both hemispheres by the Potomac, with a naUon distinguished for its commerce. Its wealth, Its Christianity and its enlightenment, it is meet that wa should pause In our onward flight to acknowl edge with full hearts our love, our reverence, our boundless gratitude and obligation to and for our preserver and benefactor the union soldier. We have with us one of the chief actors in what history truly represents aa the greatest trag edy aver played In the theater of war. He saw tha curtain rise on Fort Sumpter and fall on Ap pomattox. He shared with his comrades in arms tha fortuaea and misfortunes of military life, and like them he received his plaudits and his wounds. I have the honor to speak of our distinguished fellow townsman, our neighbor, our friend. Gren ville M. Dodge. If our honored friend experiences some em barrassment aa he listens to the recital of his deeds and achlevemenU. he must remember the pleasure it affords those who offer their tribute and their expressions of esteem, and also remem ber, that if the struggles and triumphs of the strong an successful are never to be recounted, tho InsplraU-. of worthy action might be lost and' many tender chorda remain untouched. "Let us. its?, bo what we are and speak what wa think, and In all things keep ourselves loyal to tha truth and tho sacred professions of friend ship." I believe that It will be both profitable and pleasurable for us to stop a moment during these tempestuous, tumultuous, business expanding wealth getting and property developing times and seriously contemplate tha rugged and lasting quai- ltles of such a man as General Dodge, and also with fitting ceremony and circumstance, in tho presence of the highest in the community, give to him his true meed and merit The Army of the Tennessee Is conspicuous In American history. Around It Is woven the story of the civil war. It participated In more than forty engagements, among them being a number . of the great battles of that war. It not only par ticipated, It was In the thick of the conflict, and was often the medium through which defeat was turned into victory. More than once the fate of the union depended upon its prowess and sol dierly valor. It was so at Shlloh. Vicksburg, Corinth, Atlanta, and in fact nearly all the great battlefields of the war. As General Grant, speak ing of Vicksburg, says in his personal memoirs, "It looks now as if Providence directed the course of the eampaign. while the Army of the Tennes see executed the decree." The name of General Dodse will forever be associated with the Army of the Tennessee, its great soldier In time of war and its great citizen in time of peace. - He was one of the best and hononed commanders, a fit companion of Sherman, McPherson and Logan. Id the personal memoirs of Grant. Sherman and Sheridan are found the highest testimonials of these great soldiers to the valor, courage, skill and bravery of General Dodge. Commendation from such a source Is a priceless 'legacy. ' I desire to speak of the achievements and triumphs of General Dodge In the ranks of private citizenship. , While he has Illuminated the pages of American history with his deeds of valor, he has also made his Impress as a private citizen in the sphere of Industry. It is not the rule that men ascend to eminence by leaps and bounds. It is by steady tread that we move up the rough and rugged path to suc cess. This Is be age of concrete thought and those of whatever vocation who rise above mediocrity and reach eminence and distinction are they who subject their lives to the crucible of hard intel lectual and physical endeavor. We often and wisely repeat the truism that man la the architect of his own fortune. In dividuality 1 tha despot, destiny the subject v I do not ubscrlbo, U dootrlne that aU men are created equal or that at the threshold of life's contest all are equally armed, but among those who are thus favored some fail, while others suc ceed, thus establishing the fact that success Is a reward and not a legacy. A man rising to eminence acquires that estate at tremendous cost. Many they are who crave it but few they are who are willing to strive for it in the only way it can be obtained, that 1b, by hard and constant endeavor. And is it not true that those who stand on the pedestal of fame are, as a rule, those who have crossed life's chasms on the bridge of sacrifice? General Dodge's position today in the business and transportation world represents an investment pf years of hard labor, and useful life. Without beraldy of birth, without moneyed or influential friends, but with labor, diligence, integrity and faith In himself, he has risen steadily and marked a path across the railroad world. Studious, thoughtful and Indefatigable, he has had much to encounter and much to conquer. He never despised an opponent and therefore never became careless, and he never feared one and therefore never became unnerved.' He always had faith. He may have thought sometimes In the struggle that right would be defeated, but he never be lieved for a moment that wrong would triumph. Fidelity was his sovereign, loyalty his guide, and devotion hla ruler. He bivouacked at his post of duty and absolutely only sought relief and solace In Increased opportunity. He Is the very Incarnation or resoluteness and determination. It Is because be saw events and their causes, strove to obviate consequences, studied to ascertain contingencies, and because of caution and foresight, that he became distia gulshed in this realm of action, reaching a point where he had no superiors. The Paclflo railways were tha great con structive forces In the development of the country west of the Missouri river, and of these the Union Pacific was the pioneer and the first to lead the march of civilization Into the wilderness. It was not conceived for private ends nor born of the spirit of commercialism, but waa created to pre serve a republlo and projected by the impulse of Improvement It is tha only, railroad In tha United States that was constructed under federal niuskets and protected by federal troops, and of which it was said by tha supreme court of tha'' United States that the people of this country would have aanetlonad the action of congress In its creation if it had departed from the traditional policy of the country regarding works of Internal Improvement and charged the government Itself with the direct execution of the enterprise. Its construction began on tha 2d day of De cember. 1863. on the west bank of the Missouri river, in the city of Omaha. May 10, 1869, on -Promontory Point. Utah, with simple but ImpresV sive ceremonies, the last spike was driven fasten ing the connecting rail between the Central and Union Pacific, railwaya. completing an Iron high way between the two oceans and consummating: one of the greatest achievements of this age.. President Lincoln, fully appreciating: ' tho genius and indomitable will of General Dodge, immediately yaf ter the war caUed him to the task of construction of the Union Pacific railroad. Ho turned his face, recently bathed In tha smoke of musketry, toward the "wilderness," tha "Rook ies," and the "Great American Desert." and ha surveyed and supervised the construction of that road, then a "military necessity." now one of tha great systems of railways which move tho com merce of the world. He had no maps or charts to afford him Information of the topography of the country. The territory traversed was desig nated in text books as a wilderness dedicated by nature to be the eternal habitations of the savage and the buffalo. Limited by law to a maximum gradient of 116 feet to the mile, not compensated for curvature, he held It down to ninety feet to the mile. Pressed for time, congress Impatient, the people demand ing an early completion, ne had to contend with hostile Indians, inadequate funds, lack of trans portation facilities, high priced labor, and numer ous other obstacles, but in spite of all he pushed1 his line across the continent, consummating a feat in railway engineering unequalled in the history of American railway construction. To emphasize this great achievement, I speak authoritatively, officially, and with full knowledge i Continued on Page Four.),