The Omaha Sunday Bee.
A PAPER FOR THE HOME
OMAHA BEE
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VOL XXXIX-NO. 48.
OMAHA, SSIWIUY MORNING, MAY i:. 1JU0.
SIXGLtt COPY FIVE CENTS.
MODERN MILL OF COMMERCE WHERE SKILL IS THE GRIST
Connicr;rfAl Collie Hm Come to Be a Recognised Factor, of Vast Importance in Everyday Business Life Throughout the Civilized World.
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KADY-MADE train dispatchers, ready-made station agents,
ready-made bank clerks, ready-made private secretaries,
rV ready-made bookkeepers ail of these turned out while
L V. you wait, and, as a rule, the waiting period la limited to
six months.
So much for the business evolution brought by the modern com
mercial college. Time was, not so very many years ago, when com
mercial 8chocls were few, and in those days only the sous and
(laughters of well-to-do citizens aspired to collegiate training for
business. Such schools were then located ohly in the larger cities,
and the cost of attendance was looked upon as being almost pro
hibitive, i
Hut the world moves, and the commercial school has moved for
ward in rythmic consonance with the motion of the earth, so that
now, every city, every town and even some of the villages have their
business colleges.
The forthcoming conventions of the Central Teachers' association
and tho Western Commercial School Managers' association, which
meet Jointly in Omaha, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 26, 27
and 28, bring vividly to mind what an important factor in the world's
work the modern business college has come to be. These conven
tionsthey meet simultaneously, but they are two distinct organi
zations will bring to Omaha a large delegation of representative
business educators of this country. Notable among the visitors will
be "Uncle" Robert Spencer of Milwaukee, of Spencerian fame, and
Colonel Ueorge Soulo of New Orleans. These are veterans In the
work and each occupies a prominent place on the program.
The meetings will be held in the Boyles building, dedicated to
commercial education, Eighteenth aud Harney streets, and head
quarters of both associations will be at tjic Rome hotel. A feature
of the conventions will bethe appearance of Miss Hose L. Krltz of
New York, who at the present time Is said to hold the world's record
for speed and accuracy In typewriter v.crk. Mi'ss Kritz will give
demonstrations dally.
Anothe feature which will add interest to the occasion is the
Brown . trophy conteut. G. V. Brown of Jacksonville, 111., has
offered a handsome cup as a prise for excellence in typewriter work.
The school winning the Brown trophy shall be allowed to retain it
until the next meeting of the association, at which time it shall be
returned for another contest. Any school winning the trophy for
five consecutive years shall be allowed to retain It as a permanent
possession.
While there will be many convention sidelights in the nature of
entertainment, including among which is a banquet at the Rome
hotel given by the Smith-Premier Typewriter company, the real pur
je of each of the associations is to transact business for the gen
eral promotion of commercial schools and commercial education.
The program is elaborate, taking In almost every subject that has a
bearing on the main idea.
Following the banquet at the Rome hotel, there will be a theater
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CENTRAL COMMERCIAL TEACHER'
AIJOCIATION PCORlA.IWL
fact, that the late secretary of state, John Hay, was a stenographer
of the early-day type, as was also F. A. Vandcrlip, ex-assistant sec
retary of the United States treasury, and Edward Bok, editor of the
Ladies' Home Journal.
General Passenger Agent C. S. Fee of the Northern Pacific ij an-
factories, etc., and the work a day routine of the business world 1
llved in exact reproduction. Thus the student goes from school to !
office, not as a novice, but as one well seasoned in the work that is
to be taken up. Year by year the volume of students increases; ;
year by year the scope of the schools expand; year by year new ideas
are introduced. Gymnasiums have been made a feature of some of
the more prominent schools and colors have been adopted after thi J
fashion of the great universities. ,
The two cenventions will bring to Omaha leading lights In com- :
menial education all the way from New York to New Orleans, with. '
especially large representation from the middle-western cities. Type
writers by the ton will be on display and pretty stenographers, blue
eyed girls, black-eyed girls, girls with raven tresses, girls with golden
tresses every type of stenographic beauty, will be in evidence.
If the man stenographer, as hereinbefore shown, has through his
pot hooks found a stepping stone to future greatness, what of the girl
stenographer?
She is not likely to become a railroad manager, division superin
tendent or general passenger agent; she is not likely to found a great
newspaper or to become the guiding spirit of a factory.
No. Even the most s&nguine of new woman boosters would
hardy slate the girl for such executive place. There is a rising gen-
eratlon of bosses coming on. And there'B nothing to hinder her
Canada as a high railroad official, and who was knighted by the frQm becom)ng the wlf of one of the bosses-to-be. And meanwhll
British in recognition of his services in the industrial development Htenograpnv rem0ves her from drudgery, enabling her the while to
of Canada, was once a telegraph operator for the Illinois Central enj the lndependence tnat woman derives from self-suDDort. Go
WA.DYER.ctN.Mc,,
SMITH PRIHIER TMPCWRiTWl (ft.
SYRACUSE.. NMf
flarty at the Boyd, where the visitors will see "Peter Pan," as guests other who Journeyed from "pot hooks" to executive prominence. His
or the Underwood Typewriter company. Four hundred scats have
been engaged probably the largest theater party ever given In
Omaha or any other wstern city.
Many uninformed persons perhaps have the belief in a vague sort
f way that the chief mission of a business college Is to teach short
hand and typewriting. True, the pretty black-eyed stenographer,
well as she of the golden curls and azure orbs. Is a commercial
college product, yet the same is true of the olean-cut, clear-eyed
young man who manipulates the telegraph key or who, perchance,
enters your deposits on the big bank book back of the frosted
window.
Not all stenographers, not all telegraph operators, not all bank
tellers, not all bookkeepeers are from the college, but a majority of
them are today and more will be tomorrow. Time was in the long
road is one of the most important in the United States and am-
passenger officials he ranks as a leader.
Everybody is familiar with the romantic rise of William Loeb
and George B. Cortelyou. Some persons of pessimistic trend may
shake their heads knowingly, declurlng the while that politics and
pull placed Cortelyou and Loeb on the pinnacles to which they have
risen. Very well, grant that politics and pull might have sent them
lailroad in Chicago.
W. C. Brown, the New York Central chief, was a telegrapher in
the service of the Burlington in various parts of the west. Later
he became general manager, with headquarters In St. Joseph, and
upon leaving thai system he took high service with the Vanderbllt
lines.
Others who have risen Ivow the key to take up executive work
are Albeit J. Earling. president of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St.
Paul; Marvin Hughitt of the Chicago & Northwestern; Stuyvesant
Fish, former president of the Illinois Central; Charles R. Hudson,
to the front. It is a certainty that politics and pull could not retain president of the Mexican Central; A. A. Allen, president of the Mis
souri, Kansas & Texas; A. J. Davidson, president of tne bt. Louis &
fan Francisco, besides a host of active railroad officials and others
prcmlntnt in the world of affairs.
Telegraphy and railroad work groove together so naturally that
the two are almost inseparable, and it is easy at a glance to see how
the wire is a stepping stone to future greatness in railroad work.
Stenography Is an even broader stepping stone, for the man who
takes dictation from the "boss," writing the boss' letters day in and
Hav nut. has amnle opportunity to grasp ideas. By the very nature
their positions for them, because there is work to 'be done and It
takes workers to hold high places.
In the law stenography has been the stepping stone of thousands
of men who are prominent legal lights today. Frank Walsh of
Kansas City, for instanre, who within ten years has amassed a for-
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tune of three-quarters of a million dollars from legal fees. Mr.
ago, when a college educttlon was not legally essential to the jned- Walsh begun life in a most humble manner, fought his way up little
teal practitioner, but that time has been relegated Into the scrap by little, worked as a newsboy, became a stenographer in a law office
heap of antiquity. Time was, also, when the lawyer simply "read and eventually bloomed out. as a full-fledged lawyer. Here in
law" in Judge Somebody's office and then walked over to the court Omaha there are many successful lawyers who used stenography as of his daily employment he becomes skilled In the technique of the
house to represent his clients. That method may have answered all a stepping stone. bots' business no matter whether that business be the operating
requirements la that day and age, but the world moves and what Telegraphy is also a passport to a bright future. Perhaps it Is of a railroad, a bank or a factory. Or, if it be law, he Is daily en
was quite the nroDer thing a quarter century or so ago Is passe In no exaggeration to say that two-thirds of the really bits railwav ex- veloDed in legal atmosphere, and there is no reason why, if he ap-
thesa onward days of prosperity and progress. ecutives of this country studied
So, there comes the natural deduction that the commercial col- dots and dashes in the early !
part of their career. A general
manager or a superintendent
who cannot "Jerk lightning" is
an exception to the rule. Tel
egraphy and railroad operation
are so closely allied that they
lege is a fixed Institution In the business world of today, and It is a
fact that cannot.be treated lightly that the big banks, the big rail
roads and other concerns of magnitude are turning to the training
school for recruits to fill the places vacated by good old "has beens"
"who, with the encroachment of age, are dropping one by one from
the service.
r What future does stenography or telegraphy hold out to the as- are taken as matters of course,
pyrin g youngster? " But, once in a while, teleg-
Krom "pot hooks" to the presidency of a vast railroad system Is raphy is the stepping stone
a long Jump, but C. M. Hayes Is one man who made it. The name of to great achievement in other
Mr. Hayes U well known In railroad circles, not only in the United
States, but in Canada also. Nearer borne may be mentioned J.
Francis, general pasengor agent cf the Burlington Route, who for
many years was a familiar figure in Omaha. Mr. Francis begun his
service with the Burlington as stenographer in the office of a division
superintendent in Lincoln. James B. Barr, high executive on the
Seaboard Air Line, was once a stenographer in Burlington head
quarters, this city. He was thorough in his work and his rise was
PmViR PS it is not generally remembered now, yet none tne less a
lines of endeavor. The late
Edward Rosewater, founder of
The Omaha Bee, and who left
a powerful newspaper and a
magnificent building as monu
ments toJiis work on earth, be
gan as a telegrapher.
Sir William C. Van Home,
Vhose name is known through
ut the United States and
Prominent Figures in Omaha
Conventions
OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
CENTRAL COMMERCIAL TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION
H. E. Read, President, Lena A. Vogt, Secretary,
orlii. 111.
G. E. King, Vice President, C. W.
Cedar Ha'iida. ja.
Executive Committee
H. B. Boyles, E. A. Zartman,
Omaha, Neh. Omaha, J'il.
Cedar taiiliin, la.
Ransom, Treasurer,
Kunaua City, Mo
G. A. Rohrbough,
Omaha, Neb.
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OFFICERS WESTERN COMMERCIAL SCHOOOL
MANAGERS' ASSOCIATION
W. Watherly, President, E. A. Zartman, Vice President,
Joplln. Mo. Omaha. Nub.
Almon F. Gates, Secretary-Treasurer,
Waterloo, la.
plies himself, he should not un
dergo the natural evolution
and become a boss himself.
Naturally, with the general
expansion of business and the
modern way of doing things,
the commercial college has
grown. New Ideas are being
Injected all the while and the
Journey from the primitive to
the present is being rapidly
covered.
In the early days of Spencer
and Soule a commercial college
was simply a school room
where penmanship and a few
other adjuncts of business were
drilled into the cranlums of
bucolic students. Now-adays
the up-to-date commercial
school is equipped with tel
egraph wires, make believe
into any modern commercial Bchool any day in the week and you
will see a bright aggregation of future executives and future
executivesses.
It Is probable that the late lamented Mr. Noah Webster would
disown "executlvesses" as a word, but the descriptive la so apt in its
application to the girls who come from business college that it's
coinage is perhaps pardonable.
Now and then there comes from somewhere this pessimistic
query :
"Do all commercial college graduates succeed In the business
world?"
The answer is:
"No."
Whereat, there may with due regard to eternal fitness be pro
pounded this counter query:
"Do all theological seminary graduates become distinguished
preachers?" ov, "Do all law school graduates develop into supreme
Judges?"
The same "No" that answer one question simultaneously answers
the others.
But, a commercial college diploma, while not a blanket passport
to success In business life, is beyond question the cornerstone of suc
cess, and in the vernacular of the street, "it is up to" the graduate
to make the most of bis opportunity.
The school simply helps the graduate to help himself and, after
all, that class of help Is the best help.
With the cornerstone given, the resourceful young man or
woman, as a rule, will find completion of the structure of success
comparatively easy.
After all, life is what the individual makes it.
Graduates of Yale and Harvard are sometimes found ringing up
fares on trolley tars, yelling "front" from the other side of a hotel
counter, or washing dishes in the back end of a restaurant.
Education is the stepping stone to success, but no college can
Insure the graduate that h's feet will not slip while climbing the
steps.
The college has power to bulM the track leading to fortune, but
It cannot undertake to perennially ballast the track and without
ballast no track Is safe.
It has been ordained by the Creator"bf the universe that ever
individual must furnish his own ballast.
Therefore, it Is not good logic to place blame upon the system of
college education simply because now and then in Isolated cases a
college graduate makes a failure of life. Such failures are in spite
of education, and not because of It.
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