(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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Samuel Milton Jones was born on August 3, 1846, near Beddgelert in Caernarvonshire, Wales, United Kingdom. The Jones family was impoverished when Samuel was 3 years old, they emigrated to the United States in search of economic opportunity, winding up in central New York state.
Jones was brought to the United States at the age of three and raised in New York, where he received only about thirty months of schooling.
Jones studied oil field production.
After working for a time on his family's small farm, he left at age 14 to take work in a sawmill. From age 16 he began working summers aboard a steamship.
At the age of 18, in 1864, Jones found work in the Titusville, Pennsylvania, oil fields. He was initially unsuccessful there and he returned to New York the next year, where he found employment and managed to save up a modest sum of money over the next three years. Jones returned to Pennsylvania at the age of 22, where he began to speculatively invest his small nest egg in oil leases, from which he began to accumulate wealth.
He operated from a headquarters in Lima, Ohio, and operated his oil fields, which were the result of a big strike that year. In 1892, Jones moved to Toledo, Ohio, the first time that he had lived in a large city.
In 1893 he invented the "sucker rod, " a device that permitted deep–well drilling. Jones turned his talents to mechanical invention, obtaining a patent in 1894 for a new variety of iron pumping rod for deep well drilling. This marked a new career turn for Jones, from that of a mineral rights speculator and oil drilling operator to that of an employer of wage labor in a factory setting. Jones made the decision to operate his new enterprise in accord with some of the emerging ideas about workplace reform. Jones implemented the 8-hour day for his workers and offered them paid vacation, revenue-sharing, and subsidized meals in a company cafeteria. Jones also contributed to workplace culture by paying for instruments for employees so that they could form a company band.
He instituted a five percent Christmas Bonus. Instead of a lengthy list of company regulations governing employee behavior, Acme Sucker Rod posted only one rule on the company notice board: "The golden rule: Do unto others as you would do unto yourself. " Jones hung a sign in his factory extolling the "Golden Rule" and encouraged all employees to honor it.
He used the same Golden Rule in his own dealings and believed it worked.
Golden Rule Jones entered politics in 1897.
But his political allies did not support the reforms he championed, and he fell out of favor.
Following this victory, Jones brought the 8-hour day and minimum wage to city workers. Jones continued with his reforms as he won four successive elections.
He added public services and established public parks and kindergartens.
Jones died suddenly during his second term as mayor on July 12, 1904. Citizens of Toledo lined the streets to view his funeral procession. His successor, Brand Whitlock, continued Jones' reform efforts.
Jones was famous for his outspoken advocacy of the proverbial Ethic of reciprocity or "Golden Rule, " hence his nickname. Jones was an influential advocate of municipal reform and oversaw implementation of a series of humane modifications of the city of Toledo's administration during his tenure as mayor.
He strove to improve conditions for the working class of his community. Again based on his belief in the Golden Rule, Jones: opened free kindergartens,
developed a park system, established playgrounds for children, established free public baths, instituted an eight-hour day for city workers, took away truncheons from the police, refused to enforce blue laws, and reformed the city government.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Jones was a Christian Socialist.
Running as a Republican, he was elected mayor of Toledo.
The Republicans refused to nominate Jones in 1899.
He pushed for municipal ownership of services and utilities, and the direct popular nomination of candidates for public office by petition (without the intervention of political party machinations).
Jones was impressed by the injustices of the competitive system, and advocated a cooperative society.
Quotations: He was influenced by Henry George, but argued that "land is not the only property which is in its very nature social and not individual. . .. Is not machinery a social product, the result of centuries of experiment and invention? In short, is not our whole civilization essentially a social product? Back of every inventor stands a thousand others who made his invention possible. Back of every enterprising capitalist stands the entire nation, without which not one of his schemes could succeed. . .. No man can point to his pile of gold and say 'Alone I earned it. ' What is called Socialism is not a visionary plan for remodeling society; it is a present fact, which is not yet recognized in the distribution of wealth. "
He was also a kind and benevolent employer who introduced many worker reforms such as the 8–hour day, paid vacations, and a minimum wage.
In 1886 Jones met and married a woman from a prominent Toledo family, Helen W. Beach and sired three children. Following the death of his wife, Jones and his two surviving children left Pennsylvania for the oil fields of Ohio in 1886.
