Document text
October 25, 1959
Walter Smith (Salesman)
422 North College Street
Charlotte, N.C.
Wiry Brown, Writer
Dudley W. Crawford, Reviser
Original Names: Changed Names:
Kings Mountain Ferguson
Charlotte Riverton
"In 1909 the stork visited Ferguson, N.C. and left
me at a place where some would say now there was already a
big family; two boys and two girls. Of course it did sort
of upset a nice family balance but what was I to do? I am
thankful to say my parents never thought of the family as
too large, I have often heard them say they wished they had
twelve children. You see, we never caused them any trouble
but there was never a dull moment at our house.
"Living in the country as we did, there were always
the chores to be done, and in the hunting season brother and
I felt the urge to go out and shoot at the birds and rabbits;
it was many a year before we killed anything. I think the
first rabbit I killed was accidental, for I always closed my
eyes when I pulled the trigger.
"My sisters were older than I, and of course every time
I came into the house they looked for dirt behind my ears,
and when their beaux came they would want me to scat —but
they always had to pay me.
"Father was a mining engineer --not from going to school,
but by experience. He was away a lot of the time and mother
thought we boys were supposed to assume the responsibility
of the farm, we had a few tenants but they had to be looked
after. In that way I learned to farm and I like it a lot.
"I graduated from high school and came on to Riverton
to take a business course. I took everything they had to
offer but shorthand. I find now that is what I needed most.
If I had taken that course I might have had a better position
now, but I had the idea that only a sissy would want to write
shorthand. I think today is the age of specialization and
the boy or girl without even a high school education has no
more chance than one of these blind men we see walking up
and down the streets led by some of their friends. I have
been on this job for four months. In order to get the position
I had to buy a car, but to my mind a home should have come
first with everybody. To awn a home gives such a sense of
security.
"I am at present working as salesman for a Sewing Machine
company. It's a commission and small salary basis. When I
started to work with this company I thought my people were
going to disown me. They had heard so many stories about the
'SEWING MACHINE AGENTS'. Mother said, 'Son come on home and
farm, or try to get something else; anything but becoming a
machine agent'. I think she changed her mind when I went home
last week -end and she learned I had made a little over $53.00
in one week. I would say an adequate income for a single man
would be around $1800 a year, end I am doing everything in
my power to make it, and I think I will.
"I like my work very much; there are a lot of things
I don't know about a machine, and still more I don't know
about people. They will meet you at the door and declare
they are not going to buy a machine when they know they are
not going to let you leave until they have bought. I get
a big thrill out of fighting for a sale. I feel like I have
worked for what I get then, but these easy sales are the ones
that are hard to collect on.
',my company is all right. I am proud to be connected
with a big concern, and I want them to be proud of me. I
guess I have hitched my wagon to a star because some day
I want to become manager of a shop; I believe they will
promote me when I am qualified. You know there is always
room at the top for good men. In the last three months I
have sold over 12000 worth of machines, which isn't at all
bad when you take into consideration the cheap dresses the
shops have to offer and the number of women who wear ready-
made clothes.
"I vote for the Democratic party, not because father
votes that way; but because I think its the right party. I
remember once when I was in Charleston, S. C. I saw two
negroes in the custom house, and I knew they were put in
there by the Republican party, since then I couldn't get
the consent of my mind to vote for the Republican party no
matter who they run.
"I attend the Methodist church. Rather hate to admit
that I haven't been going as regularly as I should since I
came here but I am going to get started. Its at church you
find the best people and I want to be identified with that
class. It also does something to your morals; you feel the
church influence all the next week. All churches should
have a fund set aside to aid their poor, then we could do
away with some of the welfare and Community Chest business.
"Its very little the poor gets from the different or-
ganizations grouped together to make up the community chest,
because each organization has a head and that head has to
have a big salary. I have heard the Superintendent of Public
Welfare gets two hundred and fifty dollars a month; then
there are the interviewers, the case workers and so forth;
in a year's time their salaries amount to a big thing. Then
the Salvation Army, Red Cross, YMCA, YWCA and numerous other
agencies, don't you know by the time all the officials are
paid there is very little left for the poor? Oh yes, the
business men are going to contribute to it as long as they
are called on to do it, for it is a good advertising scheme.
How many times have you heard about how generous Mr. Smith
or Mr. Jones were when he gave so and so to the Community
Chest. What about that man giving the crippled show girl
here in Riverton a check for OM.? Do you think he would
have given it if he had been sure no one would find out
about it? Not on your life. Isn't that contrary to the
Bible, doesn't it say 'Take heed that you do not your alms
before men?' If the people would only tithe and do that
faithfully, then the churches could take care of their poor
in a Christian -like wey, and I don't think they would be
caught sending women out in the fields to pick cotton when
they had three months old babies at home, as they did here
a few weeks ago, some of them even fainting in the fields.
I tell you I hate to give a dollar of my money to any or-
ganization when I feel that the larger portion is going to
pay salaries to people who, if they really had to get out
and work for a living like I do, would think it was a disgrace
to sell Sewing Machines.
"Ifly health is very good now. I have had a great deal
of sinus trouble, but since the operation I have been better
and this fresh air is fine for me.
"I stay pretty close around the boarding house all week;
some nights I have to make some collections on accounts where
husband and wife each work. On week -ends I usually go home
and T. date a little. Me and my girl go to the show and dance,
or maybe to a ball game. One thing is certain, I am not going
to let anything come between me and my work. I am in this
business to make all I can. I hope some day to reach my goal,
build a nice little home and with the only girl settle down."