Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-12-26
PROFITS IN MIXING
BRAINS WITH BUSINESS
Successful Men Do Not Wait for 0ppor-
tunities, But Make Them Mind the
Only Commodity That Has
High Market Value.
Bv JOSEPH H. oDELL

places to hl just so many Jobs to be done,
and that the lucky man is he who manages
to get the vacancy The real chances Of
the modern world are the possibilities that
come from adding new values to old things
by mixing in a little more brains. Fortunes
and honors are waiting for the men who
can meet mechanical needs, supply indus
trial deficiencies clip off a few minutes
from the time required to accomplish
given piece of work or find q new use for
a by-product
Ichabod washburn was a New England
| blacksmith, working diligently at his anvil.
One day he learned that no steel wire was
being made in America; Great Britain had
a monopoly OF the trade He determined to
make the best wire that could be made and
win the market. The new departure in
volved study and experiment but he per-
sisted until he drew nearly all the fine wire
used in America John,D. Rockefeller when
every one was rushing to buy oil lands, saw
that the oil could be lmmeasurably improved
in quality and value by being properly re-
fined He took up the problem from a
scientific standpoint. fitted up a laboratory,
studied chemistry, carried on experiments
day and night, until he was able to triple
the value of every gallon of crude oil he
could get,
Men of Imagination
Ell whitney saw the piles of Southern
cotton being treated by hand, and realized
that II a machine for clearing the green
cotton seed could be devised It would do
the work of hundred men and make the
Southern States prosperous. He set to work
with will and invented the cotton gin.
Ezra Cornell saw that telegraphy could be
only an expensive luxury II single wires
had to be insulated by a sheathing and laid
in trenches underground; so he set up poles,
insulated the wires with bottles and made
the world his debtor. Elias Howe built his
mechanical sewing machine because he
suddenly realized the cost and slowness OF
hand labor. Bessemer invented his famous
steel process because he believed that steel
would take the place Of iron and wood IL
It could be made cheaply, quickly and in
sufficient quantity. Mccormick built his
reaper and harvester when he had estimated
that the population of America was increas-
ing rapidly that 1t would soon be i'm
possible to feed the many millions If grain
had to be moved and bound by hand.
Wherever there is a possibility of cheap
ening production by new methods; of pro-
ducing two articles where only one is now
available; of quickening transportation; of
forces to mechanical ends; of saving time or
strength to the worker there is an oppor-
unity. Scattered all over the earth-latent
in the moving air. dormant in the up
turned sod, pulsing in every flowing stream
are forces or fabrics that say, I'VE are
yours, If you will use u.s."
The Two Machines
IF 1 had only thought" The man who
tSa Gpto
mechanical device for carrying out some
other mans thinking. The difference between
the human machine and the metal machine
is that the one can suffer and the other
cannot We stand today on the threshold
of immeasurable possibilities for men who
will think, who can think Almost every
industry is in its infancy and is demanding
clear brains and skilled hands TO guide it to
its larger development; every profession is
seeking for men of disciplined mind and
trained imagination TO cope with the ever
enIarging opportunities.
1t is almost possible to arrange a scale
showing the financial value of brains ap-
piled to raw material. A favorite iIustra-
tion is: "A blacksmith makes fve dollars
worth of iron into horseshoes and gets $40
for them. machinist makes the same
amount of iron into needles and gets s6sOO,
matchmaker takes a similar piece of iron
and makes It into mainsprings, and gets
100000; or into hairsprings, and gets s2,-
100000 so times the value of the same
weight of gold"
Undoubtedly the great difference between
the successful man and the comparative
failure does not lie in the amount of work
done by each. but in the amount OF intel
ligence, brains and thought put into the
work. One man puddles iron. and when
he had worked for hours the product Is
still iron; another man takes the same
metal. adds brains to it, and though It is
still iTon yet by virtue OF the creative and
constructive thought It has become a ma
chine. The quarryman cuts out a block OF
marble by mere muscle; Saint Gaudens
takes It, directs his hand by his brain and
produces a piece OF statuary that Is worth
its weight in gold.
conqueEors Of Circumstance
Whoever is resolved to excel in paint
ing, or indeed in any other art" said Sir
Joshua Reynolds, must bring all his mind
to bear upon that one object from the mo-
ment that he rises tin he goes to bed" Aris-
totle admitted that he owed his vast ac-
quirements to his having command over his
mind to the ability to concentrate an OF
his thought upon one object. Sir william
Hamilton contended that .'the difference be-
tween an ordinary man ana Isaac Newton
consists primarily ia this, that the one Is
capable OF more continuous mental appIi-
cation than the other" The words Of En-
erson are always worth recalling BY any
one who wonders why he does not succeed,
VINO bla1nes fate or chance. or circumstance.