Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1890-04-23
Carncgic on Winning Wealth.

In The New York Tribune Andrew
Carnegie writes n letter on the possibili-
ties of winning fortune in these days.
He SAYS it is more difficult to start new
business than it used to be, on account
of the colossal proportions of mercantile
and manufacturing establishments in our
time, but it is easier for thoroughly
capable young man to get share in a
business already started than it ever was
before.
There are three leading drawbacks
to the success of the young man in
life. The first and most fatal is drunk
enness. To reach the top a young
man should never enter a barroom
and never touch any Intoxicating
liquors except at meal times. The
second drawback is speculation and the
third is akin to it, indorsing. Then there
is another drawback, and that is lack of
concentration of both business talent and
capital. Carnegie says you should put
all your eggs in one basket and then
watch the basket, as far as money invest
ments are concerned.
Another point is emphasized. The
millionaire manufacturers, merchants
and bankers of today are almost with
out exception those who started in as
poor boys, clerks and mechanics. More
over, one feature strikes Mr.. Carnegie
forcibly, and that is the absence of the
college graduate from every department
of successful business. He remarks:
lido not speak of the effect of college education
upon young men training for the learned profes-
sons but the almost total absence of the graduate
from high position in the business world seems to
Justify the conclusion that college education as it
exists is fatal to success in that domain. The
graduate has not the slightest chance, entering at
%, against the boy who swept the Office or who
begins as shipping clerk at IA The facts prove
this.
Lately the technical schools are furnish
ing young men as managers to great
manufacturing establishments, and grad
yates of these schools are in such de-
mand that they are snapped up as soon as
they have finished their courses of study.
In the industrial department the trained me-
chanic is the founder and manager of famous con-
Germs In the mercantile, commercial and fnan-
cial it is the poor office boy who has proved to be
the merchant prince in disguise, who surely comes
into his heritage They are the winning classes.
1t is the poor clerk and the working mechanic
who rule in every branch Of affairs without capi
tai, without family influence, and without college
education. 1t is they who have risen to the top
and taken command Neither capital, nor iuflu-
ence, nor college learning, nor all combined have
proved able to contend successfully against the
energy and indomitable will which spring from
all conquering poverty.
Mr. Carnegie is sure the day is nearly
past when salaried employees can be left
to manage successfully the affairs Of cap
italists who are absent and have no tech
nical knowledge of their own business.
Competition is now so close in all fields
that it requires the strictest watching on
the part of men who know all about
their business to be prosperous. There
fore it is to the real interests of all firms
to give their best employees q share in
their profits.
But the poor young man who expects
W 1lSc A1uSh LII oOAAO way e'CIAoSV eiO oS-
tention of his superiors. That even Mr..
Carnegie admits. He must show excep-
tional ability or devation to his en-
ployer's interests. Ii workingman
makes Improvements, either in the way
of invention or otherwise, in business,
Carnegie tells him to hang on to those
improvements himself and get their value
from the firm. AS their price he should
always ask share in the business rather
than increase of salary. On one point
the writer lays great stress, as followsi
Concerns are prosperous, generally speaking,
just in proportion as they succeed in interesting
in the profits larger and larger proportion Of
their abest workers. Cooperation in this form is
fast coming in all great establishments. The man.
ufacturing business that does not have practical
manufacturing partners had better supply the
omission without delay, and probably the very
men required are the bright young mechanics
who have distinguished themselves while work
ing for few dollars per day. or the youths from
the polytechnic school. Instances constantly oo-
cur where the corporation unwilling to interest
promising practical man loses his services, and
sees interest given him by some able individual
manufacturer or commercial firm who are con-
stantly on the lookout for that indispensable ar
ticle-ability. 1t has not hitherto been the prac
tice for corporations properly to reward these
embryo managers but this they must come to, If
they are to stand the competition of works oper.
| ated by those interested in the profits