The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-07-05
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era OF strenuous endeavor In husi
ness became the raic III commercial
Ilits-the constant concern anon
employers has hess to secure ths
services OF men who ara faithful ant
steady all the time. The world 1:
full OF brilliant fellows-men whC
have ideas. and initiative, and clever
ness, and inventiveness. but probably
ten out OF fifteen OF them are fail
ures-whether working for some one
or for themselves. Often men are
found in lowly positions or in medi-
OGRE employment who are Is bright
and shining mentally as the proverb-
ial mirror, yet they do not hold their
positions long.
Business men have come to know
this and they hesitate long before
employing men who come to them
unusual cleverness. This anomalous
condition is due to the fact that they
have experimental with the fifteen
and have found the ten to be fail
ures.
Why are they failures? Because
they are brilliant in spurts, clever
by starts, and inventive by fits. Be-
cause, if they are consecutive in theis
cleyerness. their brilliancy, their in
v-entiyeness, they are only so until
the opportunity arises for intemper7
ance or laziness to take a hold upon
them, and then they are not only of
no value in business life while their
attack lasts, but they are a positive
detriment to business because they
mentally are unbalanced and apt to
commit serious errors or to act to-
ward patrons in a way to offend
them. These faults are fatal and not
to be condoned by brilliancy, clever
ness, or inventive genius.
This condition, deplorable as it is,
is better illustrated in the newspaper
field than anywhere else. A few years,
ago, say fifteen, newspaper editors.
reporters and artists were notorious
ly Incorporate. 1t "a their common
fault to be either drunkards or adj
dicted to drugs. 1t was the nightmare
of the average city editor of a great
daily newspaper that he never could
be absolutely certain that the re-
porter he sent out to cover an i'm
portant story would return for a
week. He eve vas quite sure that
the story would be covered. His men
commonly were Incorporate and
some of them uncontrollably so. 1t
seemed that the more brilliant a man
the less reliable he was. Because of
this unfortunate condition the GUS
tom grew up in newspaper Offices al
ways to keep in employment one or
two men who were steady going old
Dobbins, never brilliant, never re-
.sourceful, but always at the pillow
and always ready to turn a furrow,
though it be not so well turned by
half nor so quickly as that of the
brilliant ones.
Today, although conditions in
newspaper Offices have been revolu-
tioniZed, one or two of these steady
going, reliable men are to be found
in every newspaper Office of any size.
They are retained in their old days
and kept at light routine work be-
cause the heads of the great news
papers feel a deep gratitude to them
for faithful services rendered.
But the conditions have changed.
The one unforgivable fault in a news
paper Office is intemperance and con-
sequent unreliability. Men who once
belonged to the timetables we're
forced by loss of position and inabili-
ty to get another, to reform. There
are none of the oldtime drunkards
to be found in newspaper work be-
cause it is known that temperance,
continuous sanity, stead
mess, and brilliancy must go togeth-
Sl VI CuCIS Is III pldCG Oh d u6WSpd-
per open. Ability and reliability must
go together.
There is hardly a business man at
the head of a concern which employs
many men who has not experimental
with men of the type which has abil-
ity but not reliability. These expert
ments have cost them money and
mental worry. The busy business
man with large interests would as
soon lose money as to lose physical
force, which goes out when continual
mental worry comes in. That is why
men of only moderate abilities, just
plain pillow horses as it were, often
are found in positions of consider
able Importance, while other men
whose abilities are known to be
greater, whose minds are brilliant,
who are full of ideas, either are in
lowly positions or are denied posi-
tons altogether.
In the great commercial world it