Sir William has an extensive farm not far from Winnipeg. On a recent occasion, when the agriculturists of the region were holding a meeting to discuss their relations with the Canadian Pacific Railway, and to air some little grievances which they thought they had, Sir William was present, and was called upon to make a speech. He slowly arose, and the tillers of the soil settled back in their chairs to listen to words of great weight and finality from the master spirit of the road.
“I am inclined to think, gentlemen,” said Sir William in one of his opening sentences, “that we farmers are pretty well treated by this road.” From this point the agriculturists were with him to a man, and they left the hall with the feeling that their interests could not be otherwise than well looked after by the railroad company, since at the head of it they had a fellow-farmer.
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.