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.