Life in Canada

by Thomas Conant

Two brothers came out from Ireland about thirty-five years ago. They possessed a good education, which is all they did possess besides the clothes upon their backs. Each got a situation as clerk in dry goods stores in one of our cities. By dint of close saving and strict attention to business, they were able after ten years to start a store on their own account. In this store they did all their work, and if there was any profit in storekeeping they got paid for it. After a few years they opened out branch stores in smaller Ontario towns, and these branches invariably succeeded and the profits were good. Their credit now had become assured, and buying mostly for cash, with their high credit they were able to buy at the lowest possible figure. The war broke out in the States about this time in my story of these men. The United States money went down a long way below par, but for some time their goods did not rise to keep pace with their depreciated currency. Our men bought largely in the United States and sent over their gold drafts, which were sold at a great premium, and thus their goods were placed upon their shelves at ridiculously low figures.

In boots and shoes, of which they bought enormous quantities, they doubled their money on every invoice. Without pursuing this narrative further, it is just as well to say that as the war went on and the equilibrium came about in the price of goods in the United States, and the depreciated currency got in sympathy, these men found themselves with thousands of available funds on hand.

Into manufacturing they then entered. In this new branch the same painstaking and foresight which gained them success in storekeeping made the wheels of the manufactories revolve to their profit. Year by year their manufacturing operations succeeded, and they found themselves the possessors of more capital than their manufacturing operations required. Next they became bankers, and again in this new line the old business habits of constant care, watchfulness and keen oversight, wrested success from the business. Their manufacturing operations they still kept on in connection with their banking business.

Success so phenomenal pointed out the principals as sound, far-seeing men, and we next find each brother the president of a bank and their financial position fully assured. During this series of years they have found time to take a relaxation now and again by trips to Europe, besides holding municipal offices among the people where they reside. I am not in a position to tell for a certainty of the wealth of these brothers at this time, but it is conceded by all who know them to be in the hundreds of thousands.

This has all been done in thirty years in Ontario, and done fairly and honestly. They have never gambled, nor taken chances, but always done a square, legitimate business, open to the closest scrutiny. If those persons in our country who are railing at capitalists will stop and read this narrative, they must see that these persons have a moral as well as a legal right to their capital, and it is to the glory of our Ontario that they have made it and possess it. Indeed these men worked and saved and lived close until they made their start, and they surely have a right to it.

All capital in Ontario was acquired by closeness and saving, for very few persons in Ontario brought much money into the country. The capital, in fact, has been created here by just such saving and downright hard work as these men did. What is true in the case of these men is invariably true in the case of others who have succeeded in becoming capitalists in Ontario. I hope this narrative may be in somewise an incentive to others to try and do likewise in their own particular calling.

A young New England lad began about forty years ago selling goods through Ontario from a waggon. His employer furnished the horses and waggon. Every working day through rain and snow found this young man on the road. No storms, nor floods, nor cold snaps deterred him, but every day he did business for his employer, and weekly he made up his balance sheets, and remitted to his employer his weekly sales.

His salary he saved, every cent of it, reserving for himself only enough for the strong serviceable clothing he wore. He got an interest in the business in a few years, or sold the goods on commission. The knowledge he had gained while selling before for his employer at a salary enabled him as he grew older to increase his sales, and likewise his profits. Daily he plodded on, never for a moment swerving from the path of duty, and as in the instances before narrated, such application has only one result—and that is success. Success he certainly did have, and at the age of twenty-five this young man found himself the absolute owner of $10,000.

He then became a farmer. Here, as in the selling of goods, the same perseverance which succeeded before caused success now. In his farming he succeeded. His harvest was always got in first in the neighborhood, and his plough was soonest after the harvest dancing through the fields making the next crop a certainty. It is almost a pity that so good a farmer as this young man was was debarred from farming. His wife’s health failed, however, and he found it necessary to get nearer a town, where she might have better medical care, and so he sold out his farm. From a farmer he became a manufacturer. In this new calling he masters every detail of his business. He is at his work early and late, and daily does more downright hard work than any man in his employ. Gradually his works are added to, and his shop becomes known throughout the length and breadth of our land. Seasons of adversity are guarded against, for he always keeps an eye to the future. In fact, a panic can scarcely strike him. Cash he pays for his stock, and his position becomes so strong that he feels he really knows his ground and is fully master of his business. Capital gathers; it is the same story I have to tell as in the former instances. Such work, plodding and oversight cannot fail to bring accumulated capital. There is no other way to get it so that it will stick. Of course, we have the examples of stock-gambling, but who will pretend to assert that capital by stock-jobbing ever does stick? And now this manufacturer, having made capital, becomes a banker. His banking operations, in the hands of a man who has literally carved his own fortune, cannot fail to be a success. A millowner he next becomes besides a manufacturer and a banker, and about as busy a man as Ontario can produce to-day. Daily he is on the move, early and late he is at his post, and every wheel is well oiled and runs smoothly. Such men are a positive benefit as well as an ornament to our young country. $300,000 he has made in thirty-five years, that being his present wealth, which is conceded by all who know him. Recollect, he began as a lad, fresh from a New England common school, and has literally made himself.