The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1904-12-08

Horace Lorimer. By permission OF
I'm sorry you ask so many questions
that you haven't right to ask, be-
cause you put yourself in the position
Of the inquisitive bull pup who started
out to smell the third rail on the troll
ley right of way. You're going to be
full of information in minute.
In the first place, it looks as If bust
ness might be pretty good this fall,
and I'm afraid you'll have your hands
SO full In your place as assistant man
ager OF the lard department that you
won't have time to run my job too.
Then l don't propose to break any
quick promotion records with you just
because you happened to be born into
a job with the house. A fond father
and fool son hitch up into a bad
team, and good business makes a
poor family carryall. Out of business
hours l like you better than any one
at the office, but in them there are
about twenty men ahead Of you in my
affections. The way for you to get
tirst place is by racing fair and square
and not by using your old daddy as a
springboard from which to jump over
their heads. A mans son is entitled to
a chance in his business, but not to u
cinch.
It's been my experience that when
an office begins to look like q family
tree you'll find worms tucked away
snug and cheerful in most of the ap-
pies. A fellow with an office full OF
relatives is like a SOW with litter of
pigs-apt to get a little thin and peak
ed as the others fat up. A receiver
is next of kin to a business mans rela-
tiveS, and after they are all nicely set
tied in the office they're not long in
finding a job for him there too.
want you to get this firmly fixed in
your mind, because, while you haven't
many relatives to hire, if you ever get
to be the head of the house you'll no
doubt marry a few with your wife.
After you have found ninety mine
sound reasons for hiring a man it's
all right to let his relationship to you
be the hundredth. It'll be the only
bad reason in the bunch.
Some men are like oak leaves-they
don't know when they're dead, but still
hang right on, and there are others who
let go before anything has really touch
ed them. OF course l may be in the
first class, but you can be dead sure
that l don't propose to get into the
second, even though | know lot OF
,1I
right along working after I've made
more money than l know how to spend
and more than / could spend if knew
how. They believe that money ought
to loaf; / believe it ought ito work.
They believe that money ought to go to
lieve that it ought to so to the Office
and keep sober.
/ don't mind owning up to you,
though, that don't hang on because
I'm indispensable to the business, but
because business is Indispensable to
me. / don't take much stock in this
indispensable man idea anyway. I've
never had one working for me, and if
/ had I'd fire him, because the fellow
who's as smart as that ought to be in
business for himself, and if he doesn't
get chance to start a new one he's
naturally going to eat up yours. Any
man can feel reasonably well salts
fed if he's sure that there's going to
be hole to look at when he's pulled
up by the roots.
! started business in a shanty, and
I've expanded it into half a mile Of
factories. began with ten men work
ing for me. and I'll quit with 10000.
/ found the American hog in a mud
puddle, without beauty spot on him
except the curl in his tail, and I'm
having him nicely packed in fancy
cans and cases, with gold medals hung
all over him. But after I've gone
some other fellow will come along and
add postgraduate course in pork
packing and make what I've done look
like a country school just after the
teachers been licked. And l want you
to be that fellow. For the present
shall report at the Office as usual, be-
cause don't know any other place
where can get ten hours fun a day.
year in and year out.
After forty years of close acquaInt-
ance with it I've found that work is
kind to its friends and harsh to its
enemies. 1t pays the fellow who dis
likes it his exact wages, and they're
generally pretty small. But it gives
the man who shines up to it all the
money he wants and throws in heap
Of fun and satisfaction for good meas