Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-11-23
Trouble Is Not In Agreeing on
Price for Services, but in Find
ing Executives Capable Of Do
ing Work Worth High Wage.
J. P. Morgan Would Have Been
Cheap at 100000 Annually,
Say Experts, and Col. Goethais'
Value Hardly Can Be Estimated.

twenty Ave thousand dollars year.
Ia any man worth more than that?
Charles s. MeIlen, recently retired
as president Of the New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad, has
brought down upon his head a tor
rent of arguments, abuse and ridicule
by his recent declaration that no
man, IN hts opinion, can be worth
more than $25, 900 a year to any cor
poration-
How much would John D. Rookie
Teller be worth to some rival Of the
Standard Oh Company If the services
Of the wizard Of organization were for
sale2 How much would a rival bank
ing concern or foreign banking con-
Germ have paid the late John Pier
pont Morgan for seating himself at
a desk in their counting room a few
hours every day?
How much could a shrewd bust
ness man pay to have the epoch
making brain of Thomas A. Edison
at his beck and call for 50 weeks?
And Woodrow Wilson.
Doesn't Woodrow Wilson earn his
salary of $4,000 a year and a good
bit more? Isn't he worth as much
as the hereditary monarchs of Europe,
whose yearly incomes run far into
The millions?
Isn't Colonel George W. Goethals,
che army engineer who has probably
saved the United States 800, 900, 900
in the building of the Panama Canal,
worth a sum which would make $685.
600 a year look like an Office boys
wages?
These and thousand other search
ing questions are showing under the
bold Mr.. Mellen. So far he hasn't
been able to find anybody to agree
with him-and probably won't.
n believe the paying of tremen-
dous salaries to corporation officials
is a waste of money" asserted Mr..
Mellen. 81 believe that no man in
the country is worth more than $25,-
900 year. l know that I would work
fully as hard for the New Haven
Railroad for s25, 900 as did for $780,
900 or $4,000
That last statement Is probably
true. Twenty five thousand dollar "a
year men aren't, as a rule, shirks. But
she New Haven Railroad Is afraid
literally afraid-to pay Mr.. Mellen's
successor, Howard Elliott, $4,000 a
year. They're afraid some other rail-
road would coax Mr.. Elliott away
from them II they did. Mr.. Elliott is
said to get 100000 year-and VIII
ham Rockefeller, ]. Pierpont Morgan,
the younger, and several other shrewd
gentlemen who sit on the New Ha-
VEINS board offered him that to coax
MIN out of a position at the head Of
the Northern Pacific, which itself
brought him much over Mr.. Mellep's
upper limit.
So as economists agree that the
worth of a thing is what 1t will bring
there you are!
Depew's Analysis
But old Chauncey M. Depew, who
was president Of the New York Gem
ETal Railroad SO many years ago that
most Of us have forgotten all about
It, has a shrewd analysis OF the stu
alton.
Mr.. MeIIen's statement would be
al right If there was a superabun-
dance Of SIS, 900 a year men," said the
gsmous Senator and orator recently
But, as a matter of fact, the kind Of
talent needed by big corporations Is
exceedingly rare.
Inc question of salary Is not the
paramount one.
The real question is the worth Of
mon of extraordinary genius. The
great executive who can put a cor
poration on its feet is a genius There
ought not to be any limit to the sal
airy Of such a man. Some men with
good reputations have sent promising
corporations to the wall. The man
with the real capacity would have put
thsm on their feet. Why, then, should
there be any limit to the financial
worth OF the latter
Take Colonel Goethals, for IN