Speech #570111910

It is from the contemplation of such lives as that of the late Senator that our posterity should learn the great lesson that in a country such as ours the avenues to a competency. yea. even to great wealth. as well as to the highest honors of the Republic. are ever open to the industrious. honest. and ambitious of our young men. however modest may be their stations in life. Springing from sturdy Scotch stock. and inheriting from his Gaelic ancestry those traits of industry. frugality. economy. and perseverance which have marked the careers of so many of our most successful leaders in the fields of finance and statesmanship who came from kindred parentage. born in Canada of parents whose limited means confined and restrained his early education to such training as the ordinary common school of that (lay usually afforded. we find young MeMiLLA.N at the early age of 14 years earning a scant livelihood at the nominal wage of a clerk behind the counter of a hardware" store in Hamilton. at a period when that now prosperous city of the Dominion was little more than a straggling and sparsely settled country village. At the end of these four years of his novitiate in commercial business. hopefully ambitious. confident. and selfreliant in the ability that was in him. boldly aspiring to a wider field for the development of his business talent. he then emigrated to Detroit. there to make his future home in his adopted State of Michigan. and before he reached his majority in his new residence he had won his way to trusted and responsible employment in the fulfilling of large and important railroad contracts. Progressing ever upward and onward. amassing little by little. by dint of unflagging industry and rigid economy. a limited capital. and then associating himself with other young men similarly circumstanced. he embarked in the establishment and carrying on of carbuilding enterprises. which at first conducted on a small scale gradually extended in a larger measure to other car works and various other financial enterprises in half a dozen or more growing railway centers. The successful conduct of these undertakings was largely attributable to his business sagacity and administrative ability. and his indefatigable attention to the details of operation and management of a trade which employed 2.500 persons. and gave an average of from $3.000.000 to $5.000.000 in receipts and expenditures per annum.