Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-03-26
WORKER WINS IN
Trace FOR RICHES
rains. Not Inherited Wealth,
Necessary in Business To-
day, Says B. c. Forbes.
BY q. c. FORBES.

i America the workman Of yesterday
4 .hs cspitaIlst of to-day. And the work.
n of to-day viii be the capitalist of
i norrow. Have no doubts on that score.
n, often do we hear: 1.-The workman
2,.asays hasn't chance" Hasn't he?
Yesterday that complaint was made to
i. by man who has been moderately
M,c,essful. challenged It. Stralghtaway
~ thinking on the subject.
/ cts see, now, Just who Is who and
&c was who.
Nvho are these terrible capitalists, any
IN? Where did they come from? Were
Ney born that way or did they make
&emselVes7 Were they once upon time
binary workers like the rest Of us1 Did
ey start at scratch2
ANslfs let's start with the (reputedIy)
shsst man on earth. Was John o.
ckefsller born with a golden spoon In
81 MOUTH Was his brother William also
orruously wealthy No. John D. was as
n as a church mouse and borrowed
best sum to start business on his own
ount.
low about the next In line, Andrew
ensaie2 Did he not begin In an engine
In at a dollar or two a week and have
slave like grown-up to exc out a
der existence for his mother7 No sill
spoon there-not even a steel one;
hIng but horn one, trow.
rhs greatest Industry In the United
stes Is raiIroadIng. The first railroad
ant In this country was to Commodore
snderblt. He, as all the world knows,
ss not reared on any lap OF luxury. The
SFeatest living railroad man in America Is
Ssmes J. Hill. He had neither purse nor
nfuence when he set out to fulfill the In
hnetIon decreed upon fallen Adam, out
be has worked like a trojan ever since
transforming wlIdernesses into fruitful
Iarms and making two blades Of grass
brow where only weeds grew before, thus
sarnnq for himself the enViable title,
FThe Grand Old Man Of the Northwest"
Md was not Edward n. Hartman the
lon of poor, underpald minister, and did
he not do his own capital making?
Call the roll of other great railroad men,
lead or alive, and you will find that most
Very one Of them began at the very bot
pm, What of such notable railroad pres
nents as Underwood, Of the Erie; Elliott,
u Northern Pacific; Ripley, Of Atchlson;
Willard, Of Baltimore and ohio; Brown, of
NEW TOTR NGNHdtg EdTliVQt OF RAUL
Pea, Of the PennsylVanla; Bush, Of Mis-.
|curI Pacific; kruttschnItt, of the South
I'm Pacific; TrumbeIl, Of Chesapeake
Ind Ohio; Truesdale, of Lackawanna, and
score Of others? Not one Of them was
lorn great or had greatness thrust upon
y their brows and brans.
Not one Of our steel magnates was born
'ch. Gary, the head of the Steel corpo-
|ation, was none too opuent Illinois
swyer, and President Farrell won his
|purs as steel salesman. Schwab, "the
)reatest steel man of them ALL" according
e Carnegie, was once as poor as he is
low rich-he owns more than half of the
Bethlehem Steel Corporations $4,000 900
referred stock on which per cent diVi-
lends are now being paid.
Theodore N. Vail, the genius who has
lmazed Chrlstendom by his building up
u the most wonderful telephone system
1thers are LilIiputlan, has had to start
Pom scratch-not once, but oftener No
switchboard operator has been kept as
1usy as he.
WAS not Edison as scant of cash as the
proverblaI inventor at the outset2 John
faekay was not burdened with a load of
nherted riches. Neither was Hammond,
n typewriter fame; nor Henry Ford, the
|etomobile wizard, whose personal profits
PSI year were In the neighborhood of ten
e
lames 8. Duke, the tobacco king, made
Us own gigantic fortune. George B.
sortelyou, head of the Consolidated Gas
company Of New York, is an ex stenog-
|apher. The president of the largest
sational bank In the United States, Frank
VANDERBILT, was once a financial news
eporter, and was something even lower
'etore he got that job, in Chicago.
4 Hehry =. DAWSON, the active head OF
e greatest banking firm In America, that
IA j.. MNFnan ~ n 81 m 4
Prm during school vacations. He began
earn his own living about the age GID
Y youths are leaving the nursery.
Turning to merchant princes, did not
pm Wanamaker start as an errand- boy
book store? Horace 3. Clafln, found
o. the biggest wholesale dry goods firm
the country, and father of John Clafiln,
n present able head, began very humbly.
icy strauss, Bioomlngdale, Glmbel and
8ner names will spring to mind.
&No' the race to day Is not to the born
~ inherited wealth can not keep a
&alnless son at the head of any huge en-
%Prlse Brains, not a bursting bank
~ form the unnecessary qualification.
@mpered sons of multi milionares are
pre- often ornaments than useful cogs In
II Industrial wheel. There Is no room In
8eheads.
The winner is the industrious, lntell-
~ worker. He is the capitalist of to-
prov lust as he is the head of almost
&ery industry to-day. There Is lots Of
2om at the top. And the pathway Is
Eear Tor all. There are more big jobs
gazing really big men to-day than there
IN pig men awaiting jobs.
- Grumbler, | hope ! have replied to
~ crouch, even though It has had to
written at express speed and without
Rportunty for going adequately into the