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RICHES—
OR JUST A
COMPETENCE?
By DAVID WALES
Tl I ERE is living in a middle
size town in Ohio a man
who in his community is reputed
to be a success. He is
shrewd, resourceful, yet conservative.
He never has been
known to risk a penny unless he
was certain to get that penny back,
plus a half-mill as interest.
Some who have met both this
man and John D. Rockefeller aver
that the two resemble each other
markedly in appearance, and
somewhat in manner. Each has the
same sphinx-like smile, the same
calculating eye, the same fondness for
economy. Here, however, the resemblance
ceases. Every dollar that this man
possesses, Rockefeller probably can
match with twenty thousand dollars. As
against the billion dollars of the latter,
our Ohio man can set but fifty thousand.
Against the fabulous income of the one,
the other can show but three thousand
dollars annually.
We are not going to raise the cry
"opportunity made the difference," for
in all probability had our little capitalist
been placed early in life in the oil king's
shoes, he would still have been about
where he is today. Nor does difference
in ability account for the enormous discrepancy
in their fortunes. It is largely
a matter of individual temperament.
Each stands just where he does today,
because he had in his mind's eye the goal
he would like to achieve. Rockefeller
doubtless got much farther than he
dreamed. The other stands just about
where, thirty or forty years ago, he expected
that he would.
The Ohio man started out with the
"At an Early Age I Discovered the Importance of
Being Rich"
idea of acquiring a competency. Any
idea beyond that involved risk, speculation,
gamble. He chose the safe path of
the conservator in preference to the dizzy
flights of the financier. Nearly every
man on a salary can, if he wishes, follow
the safer example. Nearly every man on
a salary can have a snug little fortune
by the time he has turned definitely over
the top of the hill of life. But in order
to be reasonably sure of this competency,
he must forswear all dreams of great
wealth.
Here is the story told by the small
Ohio capitalist as to why he chose the
course he did. Among other things, the
story has the unusual merit of touching
upon certain important problems and
methods of wealth getting.
"At an early age, I discovered the
importance of being rich. I must have
been in my seventh year when father
made the long journey from Western
New York to Central Kansas. From
the first, misfortune was with us. The
frost was late in getting out of the
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