Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-03-26
VIRKER WINS IN
RACE FOR RICHES
Brains. Not Inherited Wealth,
Necessary in Business To- :
day. Says B. C. Forbes.
Nv 3. c. FORBES.

l. America the workman Of yesterday
~. ,softsIist of to-day. And the work
n today will be the capitalist of
..-,,... Have no doubts on that score.
'o., ,fts7 DO we hear: 1.-THE workman
...s5sys hasn't chance" Hasn't he?
Yesterday that complaint was made TO
nv man who has been moderately
.',..ssful challenged it. stralghtaway
81 cot thinking on the subject.
tets See, now, Just who Is who and
VINO was who.
VINO are these terrible capitalists, any
.,v7 Where did they come from7 Were
nv born that way or did they make
,,.msslves? Were they once upon time
,,sinsry workers like the rest Of us? Did
,bsy start at scratch7
V.u,s let's start with the (reputedly)
.i,,sst man on earth. Was John D.
eoskefsIIer born with golden spoon In
Nj, mouth? Was his brother William also
4 .oornously wealthy? No. John .. was as
,oor as church mouse and borrowed a
s. modest sum to start business on his own
account
How about the next In line, Andrew
8 carnsals7 Did he not begin In an engine
roor al a dollar or two week and have
n slave like a groWn-up TO exc out a
slender existence for his mother7 No all
YER spoon there-not even a steel one;
nothing but a horn one, ! trow.
The greatest Industry In the United
states Is raliroadIng. The first railroad
orsnt In this country was to Commodore
q Vanderbilt. He, as all the world knows,
was not reared on any lap Of luxury. The
greatest living railroad man in America Is
James ]. Hin. He had neither purse nor
influence when he set out to fulfil the In
junction decreed upon fallen Adam, but
he has worked like a trojan ever since
n transforming wlldernesses Into fruitful
farms and making two blades Of grass
arrow where only weeds grew before, thus
,srnlna for himself the enVlable title,
THE Grand Old Man Of the Northwest"
And vas not Edward n. Hartman the
son Of q poor, underpaId minister, and did
he not do his own capital making?
Gall the roll of other great railroad men.
dead or alive, and you Will find that most
tom. What OF such notable railroad pres
dents as Underwood, Of the Erie; Elliott,
Of Northern Pacific; Ripley, Of Atchlson;
Willard, Of Baltimore and ohio; Brown, of
New York centraI; Earring, Of St. Paul;
Rss, Of the Pennsylvanlai Bush, Of Mis-.
souri, Pacific; Kruttschnitt, Of the South
srn Pacific; Trumbell, Of Chesapeake
and Ohio; Truesdale, Of LackaWsnna, and
score Of others? Not one Of them was
him. They have won II by the sweat
Of their brows and brans.
Not one Of our steel magnates was born
rich. Gary, the head Of the Steel Corpo-
ration, was a none too opulent Illinois
lawyer, and President Farrell won his
spurs as steel salesman. Schwab, "the
greatest steel man Of them ALL" according
to Carnegie, was once as poor as he is
Bethlehem Steel Corporations SIS 1000 900
preferred stock on which per cent diVl-
dends are now being paid.
Theodore N: Vail, the genius who has
amazed Chrlstendom by his building up
Of the most wonderful telephone system
In the world, a system beside which all
others are Liliputlan, has had to start
from scratch-not once, but oftener. No
switchboard operator has been kept as
busy as he.
Was not Edison as scant Of cash as the
proVerolal inventor at the outset2 John
Mackay was not burdened with load of
Inherited riches. Neither was Hammond
4 OF typewriter fame; nor Henry Ford, the
automobile wizard, whose personal profits
asst year were in the neighborhood of ten
million dollars, his confreres declare.
James 8. Duke, the tobacco king, made
his own gigantic fortune. George 3.
Cortelyou, head of the Consolidated Gas
4 company of New York, Is an ex-stenog-
rapher. The president of the largest
1ationa bank in the United States, Frank
a Vanderbilt, was once financial news
reporter. and was something even lower
before he got that job, in Chicago.
Henry ?. Dawson, the active head of
me greatest banking firm In America, that
OF J. P. Morgan & Co., used to work on a
arm during school vacations. He began
% earn his own living about the age GID
60 youths are leaving the nursery.
Turning to merchant princes, did not
yohn Wanamaker start as an errand-boy
N BOOK store? Horace 3. Clafiin, found
sr OF the biggest wholesale dry goods firm
the country, and father of John Clahln,
rs present able head. began very humbly.
mscy strauss, 8loomingdale, GlmbeI and
otner names will spring to mind.
no me race to-day is not to the born
rlcn' Inherited wealth can not keep
oraness son at the head of any huge en-
sfpTise. Brains, not a bursting bank
rnol form the all-necessary qualification.
tempered sons of multi millionaires are
more otten ornaments than useful cogs in
we Industrial wheel. There Is no room in
1ns Ieverish struggle for interfering fig
The winner Is the Industrious, intelli-
GEM worker. He Is the capitalist of to-
.ya,,, Just as he is the head of almost
very industry to-day. There Is lots Of
room room at the top. And the pathway Is
Gear for all. There are more big Jobs
awaiting really big men to-day than there
are pig men awaiting Jobs.
MR. Srumbler, | hope have replied to
Iour crouch, even though it has had TO
os written at express speed and without
Sstp1PPoSrtunlty for going adequately into the