St. Paul daily globe., 1888-07-09
MEN WHO SUCCEED.
Lessons of Experience and Sta
tistics-PrOfits From Transac-
tiOnS I'm Realtv


tions in Realty.
Philadelphia Press
Little in the great field covered by the
Sunday Press in the past six months has
excited the interest awakened by the
answers of successful men in Philadel-
phia to the questions addressed to them
upon the conditions of success. The
kind of men who succeed and the chance
of success are embraced in the not less in
terestlng inquiry just made and printed
by .. A. Walker, of Worcester. WOr-
ceSter is quiet, conservative place of
steady life, large capital and stable
business. 1t is place in which one
would be likely to assume that the sons
OF rich and successful men would prob
ably grow to fill the place, wealth and
work of their fathers. But Mr.. Walker
found that the sort of men who succeed
are the new men.
In 1910 Worcester had 80 leading man.
ufacturerS, of whom % began as Jour
neymen and as sons of manufacturers.
VI 70 manufacturers in 1850 only were
sons OF manufacturers, only of 107 in
1860. and of 176 manufacturers in 1878
only Is. The chance that the head of a
manufacturing business will be reached
by the son of an owner in Worcester for
forty years has been pretty steadily
about one in ten of the total chances of
going to the head. AS the sons of man.
ufacturers in Worcester in 1910 could
not have been, taking thirty manufact-
urerS as the number, l per cent of the
population, the chances for success for
them was above the average, but not so
far above as to discourage young men
without this good fortune. The chance
that property will stay two generations
in one family seems also to be about one
in ten in Worcester.
Of the thirty manufacturers in 1910,
forty of whom died or retired with prop
erty, only three in 1883 had left sons
with money: of the seventy-ive in 1850,
the sons of only six survive now; and of
1G7 in 1860, eight only were repre-
sented by sons in the business world of
Worcester twenty-eight years later.
The business field at any given year is
apt to look to young men as if all the
leading places were filled by men
whose sons were certain to enjoy the
advantages of wealth, and likely to
take the places OF their fathers. But
there is not over one chance in ten that
this will take place, and scarcely this
that wealth will be left by those who
inherit it. While of those in business
on any date, One-fOurth drop out in five
years, One-half in ten, and tWO-thirdS in
fifteen years.
Nine places out of ten thirty years
hence are therefore open to those who
today have nothing. What sort of men
will these be? Out of Sc leading busi-
ness men Worcester in 1S45, 81 per cent
were church members, 81 church-goers
and IL nOn-religiOuS. The first class re-
manned in business an average Az
general average being 1219, so that in
Worcester it is literally true of the non
religious in business that they "shall
not live out half their days" Of l57
men in business in Worcester in 1870 in
the permanent lines of traffic, five out
of six were either church members or
church-gOers, and at the end Of fifteen
years, in 1885, when siXty-two had gone
out of business, the proportion remained
the same. Either the time is not long
enough tor fair average or religion is
a less important factor now than forty
years ago.
These facts sufficiently show, at least
for small city, how little inherited
wide the field of success to the new
man, and how generally it is occupied
by those in some way identified with
church life. The proportions, doubt
less, vary elsewhere, and in place like
Philadelphia inherited wealth is a more
powerful factor than in smaller place.
Of the thirty-fiye persons who returned
incomes of over 500, 600 in 1864 in this
city. nine-tenths are to-day represented
by descendants enjoying wealth, and
two-thirdS of these are in active business.
The proportion is about the same in diff
ferent clases down to $75, 600; but in the
ranks from $4,000 to $4,000 the gaps
are numerous after twenty-four years.
In great cities money is lost with as
much rapidity as tits made. There is no
fiction so groundleSs as the one that the
chances are all gone. There was more
money made in tie last fifteen years in
real estate than in the previous fifteen,
and more in that than the fifteen before,
and more will be made in the next
fifteen than in the last. This is true in
every trade, and we venture to say that
not in one case out of ten will it be
made by the sons of those having money
now.