Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-04-19
WINNING 4 roRrUNE.
Andrew Carnegie Discusses Young
Meme Opportunities for Business
Advauuernont.


recent number of the New York Tribune
very interesting paper, addressed mainly
70 the young, on "How to Win Fortune
The following extracts and summary give
the substance Of the article,
Labor IL divided into two great armies
the agricultural and the industrial. In
these diverse forces are in operation. II
distribution Of land among the many; IL
the latter everything tends to a concen.
tratiOn Of business in the hands of the few
The farmer who cultivates small farm by
his own labor IL able 10 drive out of tn,
field the ambitious capitalist who attempts
others. In Great Britain nothing has been
more significant than that the tillers o.
small farms have passed through the agri-
cultural depression there far better than
those who cultivated large farms. So In
both countries we have proof that under
ing more and more divided among the
masses of the people. In the whole range
OF social questions no fact il more impOr-
tant than this, and nothing gives the
thoughtful student greater satisfaction.
The triumph of the small proprietor over
the large proprietor insures the growth and
maintenance of that element in society up
on which civilization can most securely
depend, for there Is no force in nation 80
conservative of what is good, so fair, 30
virtuous, as race of men who till the soil
they own.
When we turn to the other army of labor,
the industrial-we are obliged to confess
that 1t is swayed by the opposite law,
which tends to concentrate manufacturing
and business affairs generally in a few
vast establishments. The fall In prices of
manufactured articles has been startling.
Never were the principal articles of con-
sumption SO low as they are to day. This
cheapening process Is made possible only
by concentration.
Turning to the question, elias the young
man now a chance9 9' Mr.. Carnegie dis
cusses the difficulties that he must meet
He then takes up the prizes won in the in
dustrial world by trained mechanics. He
mentions Studebaker, Pullman, Babbitt,
Howe, Harper Bros, Mccormick, Walter
A. Wood, Roach, Cramp, Steinway,
Chickering and many others, and con-
tinues Every one Of these great works
was founded and managed by mechanics,
men who served their apprenticeship.
Thelist could be greatly extended ,and if we
were to include those which were created
clerks, we should embrace almost every
famous manufacturing concern in the
country. Edison, for instance, was q tele-
graph operator. Corliss, of Corliss engine;
Cheney, Of Cheney silk Roebling, of wire
fame; Spreckels, in sugar refining-all and
poor boys with natural aptitude, to whom
. regular apprenticeship was scarcely
necessary.
In the mercantile, commercial. and
financial branches of business. which are
all under the law which drives business
affairs into large concerns, the poor clerk
takes the place of the trained mechanic In
Sloan's, the Lords, the Taylors, the Phel-
pses, the Dodges, the gigantic houses Of
Jordan & Marsh in Boston, of Field in
Chicago, Barr in st. Louis, Wanamaker in
Philadelphia, Medium Il Anderson
Buffalo; Newcomb. Endicott & Co., Detroit;
Taylor, Cleveland; Daniels Il Fisher,
Denver; Horne, and Campbell & Dick,
Pittsburg, all these and the corresponding
houses throughout the country, as far as
l am able to trace their history, have the
same story to tell. Wanainaker, Claflin,
Jordan Lord, Field, Barr and the others all
poor boys in the store, and Phelps and
Dodge both poor clerks.
In banking and finance, 1t is an oft-re-
peated story that our Stanfords, Rookie
fellers, Goulds, Sages, Fields, billions,
6eligmans, Wilson's and Huntingtons came
from the ranks. The niillionaires who are
In active control started rs poor boys, and
were trained in that sternest but most
efficient Of all schools-poverty.
A New York banker gave Mr.. Carnegie
q list of SO names of presidents and vice
presidents of city banks who had begun as
boys or clerks, and promised to send more
the next day. Mr.. Carnegie notes the
almost total absence of the college graduate
from high positions in the business world,
and says that the facts seem 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 20, against the boy who swept
the Office, or who begins as shipping clerk
at IA. The facts prove this.
There has come, however, In recen.
years, the polytechnic and scientific school,
or course of study, for boys, which is be-
ginning to show most valuable fruit in the
manufacturing branch. The trained me-
Chanic of the past, who has, as we have
seen, hitherto carried off most of the houors
In our industrial works, is now to meet
rival in the scientifically educated youth,
who will push him hard-very hard in
deed. Three of the largest steel Manufactur-
ing concerns in the world are already un-
der the management Of three young educa-
ted men--students of those schools who left
theory at school for practice in the works
while yet in their teens. Walker, Illinois
Steel company, Chicago; Schwab, Edgar
Thomson works Potter, Homestead steel
works, PittsDurg are types of the new pro-
duct-not one OF them yet 80. Most of the
chiefs Of departments under them are of the
same class. Such yoang educated men
prenticed mechanic-they are Open-minded
and without prejudice. The scientific at
titude of mind, that of the searcher after
truth, renders them receptive of the new
ideas. Let no one, therefore, underrate the
advantage of seiucation; only it must be
must give instruction bearing upon man. q
career.
1t is infinitely easier for young, practi-
cal man of ability TO obtain an interest in
existing firms than it has ever been. Real
ability, the capacity for doing things, never
was SO eagerly searched for as now, and
never commanded such rewards. The law
which concentrates the leading industries
and commercial, mercantile and financial
affairs in a few great factories or firms con-
tains within itself another law not less i'm
perious. These vast concerns cannot be
successfully conducted by salaried en-
rloyes.
lii the industrial world the days Of cor
porations seem likely to come to an end.
1t has been necessary for me to watch
closely most of my life the operations of
great establishments owned by hundreds
Of absent capitalist, and conducted by sala-
ried officers. Contrasted with these
believe that the partnership conducted by
men vitality interested and owning the
works. will make satisfactory dividends
when the corporation Is embarrassed and
scarcely knows upon which side the bal
ance is to be at the end of years opera
tions. In every branch of business this
law is at work, and concerns are prosper
Gus, generally speaking, just in proportion
as they succeed in interesting in the profit
q larger and larger proportion of their able
workers.
Cooperation In this form is fast coming
In all great establishments. The manufac-
turing business that does not have practi-
cal manufacturing partners had better sup
ply the omission without delay, and prob
ably the YarY men reauired are the hriahJ