The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-10-30
Mind Your Own Business.

The history of the late panic provee
Enthusiastically the existence of what
may be called the higher law Of trade.
Those merchants, bankers and capital
lists who attended closely to their own
proper business, and who left other
peoples business alone, as q rule, passed
successfully through the ordeal. On
the. other hand, those who transacted
a large and doubtful trade were the
first to succUmb to the storm. The
great firm of JAY Cooke & Co. passed
away almost like the memory of a dream,
g leaving no wreck behind" But it is
now clearly seen that this firm fell be-
cause it over-stepped its proper business
of banking, and engaged in railroad
construction to an extent far above
and beyond its proper business of bank
ing. The long lists of published assets
showed quantity of worthless securi-
ties, larger than might have been rea-
sonably supposed to have existed in the
United States. The dry-rot must have
got into this firm years before it failed.
Then, again, take the firm of Clews &
Co., for which so much deserved SYM
pathy has been cited on account of it's
repeated efforts to retrieve its position,
and we see the same career of specula-
EAOA IL hOL5illC65 LuE5 uIul
was loaded down with all sorts of south
ern railroad and state bonds of a worth
| less character. It was the same with
several other concerns that could be
named. Now, prudent bankers will gen.
orally be careful to avoid all securities
of this kind, and if they deal in them
at all it will be only on account of Gus
toners whose collateraIs they will al
ways take care shall fully cover their
accounts.
| OF the failures that have occurred
during the last year, it is ascertained
| that three-fifths consisted of firms which
had stepped beyond their proper line of
business. 1t is also a noticeable feature
that the failures which occurra ed by and
through outside speculations were what
is called "bad" ones, yielding only a
nominal percentage of assets, while the
| failure of houses which attended to
their proper business yielded an aver
age of so per cent. dividends.
In the case of the Sprague failure we
| have a conspicuous example of the con-
! sequences of not minding ones busi-
ness. This great firm had invested its
resources in all kinds of enterprises,
from Maine TO Texas, and when the
pressure for money came they could
not be realized on. and the result Was
suspension. OF course, the duty of at
tention to ones business is not incom
patible with all reasonable enterprise.
But the trouble in many cases is that
they involve too large loss of capital
to the regular firm, so that the latter il
unable to bear a strain which under
other circumstances would seriously bt
felt.
Perhaps one secret of the stability o.
the great European business houses
consists In the fact that the owners sci
dom take much money out of the firm
The founders of a trade generally liv,
modestly, and leave most of their earn
ings in the business to fructify and ex
pand a hundred fold. Thus, when {
storm comes, they are in a position tx
defy it. We put too little capital OF
the shelves and in the drawers, and too
much in SNOWY windows and gorgeous
fittings up which matter nothing to bu
siness men. And so the tide drifts OF
until the inevitable panic comes, whel
those who were taken unawares will dis
appear from sight forever Ulitec
States Economist.