The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-11-26
MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS,
One of the Reasons why some People
Fail in Business.

The history of the late panic, says
the United States Economist, proves
Enthusiastically the existence of what may
be called the higher law of trade.
Those merchants, bankers and capital
lists who attended to their own proper
business, and who left other peoples
business alone, as a rule, passed sue
cessfully 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 & Go. passed away
almost like the memory of dream,
"leaving no wreck behind" But it is
now clearly seen that the firm fell be-
cause it overstepped its proper bust
ness of banking and engaged in rail
road construction to an extent far above
and beyond its proper business of bank
ing. The long list of published assets
showed a 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 long before it failed.
Then, again, take the firm of Clews &
Co., for which SO much deserved SYM
pathy has been excited on account OF
its repeated efforts to retrieve its posi-.
tion, and we see the same career OF
speculation in worthless securities.
This firm was loaded down with all
sorts of railroad and State bonds of q
worthless character. It was the same
with several other concerns that could
be named. Now, prudent bankers will
generally be careful to avoid all securi.
ties of this kind, and if they deal in
them at all it will be only on account
of customers whose collaterals they
will always take care shall fully cover
their accounts.
Of the failures that have occurred
during the last year, it is ascertained
that three -ffths consisted of firms
which had stepped beyond their proper
line of business. 1t is also a notice.
able feature that tho failures which oc.
Cured by and through outside specu.
lations were what is called "bad" ones,
yielding only nominal percentage ol
assets, while the failure of houses
which attended to their proper busi.
ness yielded an average of fifty pc,
cent. dividends.
In the case of the Sprague failure
we have a conspicuous example of not
minding ones business. The great
firm had invested it's resources in all
kinds of enterprises, from Maine to
Texas, and when the pressure fol
money came they could not be realized
on, and the result was suspension. Ol
course, the duty of attention to one;
business is not incompatible with al
reasonable enterprise. But the trouble
in many cases is that they involve toe
large loss of capital to the regular
firm, so that the latter is unable to beal
strain which, under other circum
stances, would seriously be felt.
Perhaps one secret of the stability O.
the great European business houses
consists in the fact that the owners
seldom take much money out of tn,
firm. The founders of a trade gener
ally live modestly and leave most O
their earnings in the business, tt
fructify and expand a hundredfold
We put too little capital on the shelves
and in the drawers, and too much il
snowy windows and gorgeous fitting
up, which matter nothing to business
men and so the tide drifts on unit
the inevitable panic comes, when thos
who are taken unawares will disappea
from sight forever.