The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-06-17
WHY Do PEOPLE
FAIL IN BUSINESS
insufficient Amount of Capital
the Chief Cause of Failure
for Many
LACK OF EXPERIENCE COMES NEXT
Men Just VIII Not Be Conservative
for the Reason that All Aspire ia
Financial independence and Arc
Willing to Take a Chance.

Why do people lose money In Wall
street and in State street? For the
same reason that they lose money
outside of Wall street and State
street. Ethical considerations are
neither more nor less regarded
in Wall street than elsewhere, but
the public that goes to Wall street
there with different intentions and
from different motives than actuato
the people who go to the bakeries, the
grocery stores, the department stores
and the shoe shops. If people wish
to be buncoed they do not have to
go to Wall street; likewise, If they
wish to be buncoed in Boston they do
not have to go to State street There
are crooks there and there are crooks
also up town and out-of-town, and
when we analyZe the stories of the
victims of the stock market that are
so luridly pictured in the Saturday
Evening Post, and other magazines,
we think this: People lose money in
Wall street and State street chiefly
because of insufficient capital and ig-
norance.
Bradstreet's report of commercial
failures in the United States In 1908
shows that thirty-four and two-tenths
per cent. resulted from lack of capt.
tai, and twenty-one and six-tenths per
cent from incompetence. We have
these figures before us, therefore we
infer that the rest Of the failures were
caused by disaster, fraud, inexperi-
ence, neglect, unwise credits, compe-
tition, failures Of others, extrava-
gance and speculation. Bradstreet's
report shows that only one per cent.
of failures resulted from speculation.
Has It ever occurred to anyone that
more than one per cent. of our mer-
chants must have speculated, but
were successful probably because they
were intelligent? Competition, not
withstanding the era of trusts and
combinations. bankrupted only eigh-
teen out of a thousand, according to
the same report. The failures result.
yond the control Of the business man
were only about twenty per cent.
We thus find that approximately eigh-
ty per cent. OF the bankrupts failed
because they did not know how to
run their own business, and the prin-
cipal item was lack Of capital.
1t is exactly the same in Wall
street and State street, only, instead
OF insufficient capital they call 1t
there "overtrading." or "shoestring
margins" Now, what makes men
overtrade? The answer is greed. How
are we to force men, merchants and
spectators to become conservative
and cautious as we'll as intelligent?
Every man aspires to financial inde
pendence, to being his own master
to being masters of others, to going
into business for himself. Does the
study OF Bradstreets or Dun's pathe-
tic reports OF the causes of business
failure deter him from going on be.
cause SO many others have failed?
These problems which are here so
crudely set forth are as old as CIV
iilzation, and even II losses by gam.
L.e:s could be prevented, how about
speculation?
We pause for reply and We think
we shall be still awaiting reply
when the angel Gabriel calls.