The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-11
says UNCLE CIV

1t is mighty small man who is too
big to take advice. There may be
reasons of policy why we should not
appear to heed the words of others,
but generally speaking it does not hurt
anybody to consider the ideas of others
and give them credit for the results.
For. the past 20 years the autocratic
captain of industry has been the ideal
of the American business world. The
man who let nothing stand in his way,
who listened neither to the public nor
to the stockholders, who rammed his
way through difficulties and opposition
to success or failure, caught the public
imagination and held it. Today We are
beginning to suspect that our idol has
flaws. We are beginning to under
stand that he has been guilty Of mis-
takes, some of which were merely blue
and others of which were positively
yellow. We fear that he has been quite
as much of a manipulation as a builder
and we know that he has a good many
wrecks to his credit. One error of judg
ment was his public be damned pol
icy. That might have been good buSi-
ness if the public could see it that way,
but it couldn't; and being bigger than
business the public has amused itself
for some years by picking business to
pieces to see what makes the wheels go
round. The fact that it sometimes stop
the wheels altogether doesn't noticeably
discourage the public. 1t still remem-
bers the man who was too big to take
advice.
Autocracy invariably breeds opposi-
ton. Possibly your position doesn't
bring you into touch with the public,
and you have no investigation to fear
if you ruffie the tempers of those about
uncompromising attitude wins few
friends, and that your fellow workers
are sometimes the court of last resort.
You may not be compelled to listen to
reason, but if you arouse sufficient an
tagonism and make enough mistakes,
you'll meet that blue slip and you have
to listen to that.
No man was ever big enough to
keep in his head all the good ideas
that pertain to his own particular
work. The great successes of tho
world are founded upon the principal
of team work-co-operatio the
beginning of team work is susceptible
ty to sound advice. If you know it all,
you don't know enough to serve men.
much less to lead them. If you are so
much of an egotist that you can't lis
ten to others, you spend SO much time
thinking about your own virtues that
you haven't much left for your work.
If you're afraid that you'll be cons1d-
cred a weakling if you accept sugges-
tons from your fellows, you belong in
home for the feeble minded, in either
case. you're not fit for mans work.
Back of every big business that is
at peace with the public permanently
prosperous you'll find a quiet, unob-
trusive man who does much thinking,
little talking and keeps his ear to the
ground. When he does quit listening
to the footsteps of public sentiment,
it is to ask a question or to give a
carefully considered order. These are
the big men-the real masters of their
times. They take advice and make use
of it. They're after results rather than
personal glory. The work, the institu-
ton is the thing.
They don't pose-they deliver the
goods. They don't antagonize-they
use. They know that friends are
worth more than foes and that team
work that extends all the way from
the force that brings in the raw ma
terial to the board of directors and
the public is the price of permanent
success. Don't be afraid of advice.
You don't know it all-not yet
Copyright. 1872 Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)