The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-10-06
INTELLECT VS.. MONEY.
The Real and Imaginary Sorrows of Pool
Young Men


Young Men
Young men who are employed in
great establishments, at moderate
salaries, often feel discouraged by the
seeming impossibility of their ever get
ting into business. They argue thus
with themselves, and with us some
times in dolorous letters: ITO carry on
this business with effect requires a
capital of one hundred thousand dol
lars; how is it possible for young fell
low, with salary Olive or six hundred
dollars a year, to save a tenth part of
that sum-" They answer that it is
impossible, and hence conclude that it
is the unalterable decree of fate that
they must remain hireling drudges all
the days of their lives.
This reasoning appears to come homo
with whitening power to the minds of
young gentlemen who have had tho
luck to fall desperately in love with
pretty girls. Out of every hundred
letters we receive, at least ten are
from young men of ardent feelings and
small incomes, who are dead in love
and have no prospects of an advance,
and who would like to be informed
whether it is the part of wisdom to go
to South America and make rapid
fortune in the coffee trade, or marry at
home and live in a garnet, or lay them
selves and their sorrows at the bottom
of their native river, having previously
tied a brick-bat to each wrist; and if
none of these are wise, then what do
we recommend?
These ardent youths overlook a
fact with which they are perfectly IA
miliar, namely, that the very men
whom they serve, and whose fortuns
seems 50 unattainable, began life just as
they are beginning it, at the bottom of
the ladder. With a few well-known
exceptions, all the great factories, COM
mercial firms, newspapers, private
banking houses, retail stores in the
cities of New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia, Chicago, Cincinnati and Balti-
more are at this moment owned and
conducted by men who began their ca
reer in poverty, and whose prospects
during their youth and early manhood
were quite as disheartening as those of
any of our lOve-lorn correspondents.
And with regard to that delusive dream
Of emigrating to some other State or
country. we can assure our young
friends that the conditions of prosper
ity in every land are the same. The
one source of prosperity, at all times
and in all places, is this: Industry d.
rected By Intelligence.
The real capital of a great business
is not money, but intellect. This is
the cornerstone of our political econo-
my. The degree of intelligence with
which a business Is conducted is the
measure of its permanent prosperity.
Millions of capital can not save it if
there is fool in the counting-room
who exercises control. This funda-
mental business truth is not often
acknowledged in so many words, but
it is constantly acted upon in the sure
and rapid promotion of young men who
show that they possess a decided talent
for business. The best head tends up
ward by law as sure as gravitation.
That best head may be, to-day, in the
basement, officiating as water-bearer
and errand boy to the packers. We
look in next year, and find him the
foreman of that department; and so he
marches upward through all the graz
dations, until he lands safe and sound
in the counting-room as junior partner.
Though appearances are sometimes
against the remark, it is nevertheless
true that man generally gets on in
life as fast as he becomes fit to be en-
trusted with the more difficult duties
that belong to superior station. And
nowhere is this so generally true as in
the business world.-N Y. Ledger.
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