Morning journal and courier., 1886-04-30

men who have served the concern clerks partake of the peculiarities of their prinei pals and conform SO closely to their habits and traditions that they could not be counted on to give the business fresh impetus. They are apt to have too little independence of judgment, and to lack originality of ideas. The fact that they remained clerks and sub- ordinates rather initiates against the suppo- sition that they can be made more useful in other capacities involving large functions. The kind of men who are needed to infuse the spirit of progress into great enterprises are those who go naturally to the top, and such men are often promoted. As the rule they promote themselves. Nor is it often desirable that the new blood should be drawn from the veins of the trade. A man who has been brought up in the business is like ly to be hampered by it's traditions to such an extent that he lacks the courage of any new ideas that may come to him or from others What is needed to stimulate Tagging enter prise is genius, and the less it is hampered by the fixed habits of the trade the more use- ful it is likely to be.
 It is fact well established by the records of discovery and invention that the productive industries of the world have always received their great impulses of progress from men who were not previously identified with them in any important or prominent way. In fact it rarely happens that men thoroughly ac- quainted and intimately connected with an industry contribute anything to promote it's progress or originate leading ideas. A clev- CT man who comes fresh to 8 business (of which he has no practical knowledge) will accomplish more to advance 1t in one year than the veteran manufacturer would in ten years. He has no respect for established cus- toms which cannot be shown to be the best. He is not deterred from experimenting by the knowledge of past failures. The most obstinately unprogressive man in the world is the man who knows a thing cannot be l1 gl11a I,oI 4nsa ! IL by his experience, which is usefu simply as showing, not that what he tried cannot be done, but that he failed because he did not try in the right way. Every man who suc- ceeds does something which others have suc- cessfully attempted. The chances of suc- cess are all in the favor of the man who has not tried To the clever and ingenious me chanic scrap heap is full of interest and in- struction, and he is likely to learn more that is new and useful and progressive from other mems failures than from their sue cesses.
 But the true secret of business success is not in the discovery of ways in which lost ground may be recovered. It is in holding every advantage gained and steadily pressing forward in new directions. It is the part of wisdom to anticipate the decline which, if not foreseen and guarded against, is inevi- table from causes constantly and imper- ceptibly at work in successful concerns. Ev-
 
 such as we have suggested. Those who have passed the meridian of their careers should retire and give place to new men with the incentive to and capacity for vigorous and successful enterprise. If some such rule as that compelling the retirement of army off cers at certain age could be enforced in our manufacturing industries, we should see few CT examples of that decay of great concerns which is shown by the decline of old centers Of production and the rocket ascent of ones. We could name a great many manu- featuring concerns to which these remarks apply with peculiar force. The men who control them cannot hold on and do not know enough to let go. They do not see that younger and abler men, with fewer crochets and prejudices, are needed in control, and that under such management their shrinking pro perty would quickly increase in value. The progress of the trade has left them behind. Instead of leading they follow; instead of creating new things. they are content to weak ly initiate what other and abler men do ing. This answers the question which served us for 8 text, and the entire correctness of the answer will be conceded by every one ex- cept those for whom question and answer have the greatest concern.