Law of Success (21st Century Edition)

THE HABIT OF SAVING 279

COMMENTARY

In the following section Napoleon Hill goes on at length citing examples of people

spending their money on bootleg alcohol instead of saving. The editors have cho-

sen to include these examples in this new edition as a short lesson in human nature.

As you read the following section, in your mind replace the word liquor with the

words drugs, video games, lottery tickets, or any other current trend, and no doubt

you will experience Hill's stories from 1927 suddenly becoming as contemporary

as today's headlines.

During 1926 I was in partnership with the late Don R. Mellett, who
was, at that time, the publisher of the Ca~ton (Ohio) Daily News. Mr.
Mellett became interested in the Law of Success philosophy because it
offered, as he believed, sound counsel to young men and young women
who really wish to get ahead in life. Through the pages of the Daily
News Mr. Mellett was conducting a fierce battle against the underworld
forces of Canton. With the aid of detectives and investigators, some of
whom were supplied by the governor of Ohio, Mr. Mellett and I gathered
accurate data as to the way most of the people in Canton were living.
In July 1926, Mr. Mellett was assassinated. During the investigation
into crime conditions in Canton all reports came to my office, and the
data described following are, therefore, absolutely accurate.
A bank teller, whose salary was $ I 50 a month, was spending an
average of $75 a month for liquor, and in addition to this unpardonable
waste of money, out of a salary that was none too great at most, he was
traveling at a pace and with a crowd that meant ruin for him later on.
The superintendent of a large manufacturing plant, whose salary was
$5,000 a year and who should have been saving at least $125 a month,
was saving nothing. His bootlegger's bill averaged $ I 50 a month.
A policeman whose income was $ I 60 a month was spending over
$400 a month on dinner parties at a nearby roadhouse. Where he got the
difference between his legitimate income and his actual expenditures is
a question that reflects no particular credit on the policeman.