The independent-reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1909-1955, 1914-10-22


Wooden Company has located a plant
it has been to the benefit Of that COM
munity. 1t has brought an increase
in wages as well as added activity
The mills of the American Wooden
Company in SkoWhcsan have always
been successful; and although We have
mad periods of slack work and depres-
sion, we have endeayored to do our
best toward keeping these mills run
ming to the fullest capacity possib Die
under trying circumstances
You all know the hard time which
the industries of the country have had
TO battle with since the death of the
amented President Mckinley. whose
administration stands out pre-emiuent-
ly as showing what can be done when
a business man is at the helm His
administration was characteristically
d business administration During
that period the Industrial strength OF
this country increased as it never had
done before and never has done since
When the administration has been in
the hands of other than business men
the Industrial strength Of America has
always suffered
"Standpatism' has been made
term of derison, bur 10 me il means
Let we'll enough alone. ! believe
that we certainly We're doing we'll
enough before We changed to the new
and untried policies II "standpatism'
is old-fashoned. then according to my
humble views the sooner We get back
to old-fashioned ideas the better
The United States is a big country,
and it's affairs have got To be carried
on in a way commensurate with that
size. We have big men in this coun-
try, and they need TO work in a big
way and with big tools. Wherever
they have had chance TO show what
they can do it has been reflected in the
great advancement that has been
made When these men are thwarted,
and when their great plans are
thrown down, we get setback, and
that is partially what we have been
suffering from. Big business is the
natural evolution from no business
and small business.
In the earlier days each family made
its own cloth on a loom in its own
home. The members of the family
worked all hours, from early morning
until far into the night. the different
members taking turns at the loom.
Then some one conceived the idea that
it would be a good plan to assemble
the looms of the neighborhood and let
certain people devote their time to
them, thus relieving the other mem
bers of the family and taking the noise
and work from the home. 1t was a
splendid idea. and it was the beginning
of what led to the ownership of mills.
As the business increased ii got TO
be too large for individual ownership
with all its attendant liabilities. for
there are many losses to be reckoned
with as we'll as profits. | am told
that ninety-five out of one hundred
men fail in business. So it became
necessary to form corporations to
limit the liabilities. in order that the
failure of any enterprise need not
necessarily ruin the men engaged in
it, This also was good idea Then
the corporations multiplied. and keen
competition came into existence, so
very keen that some of the corpora
tons failed and others eked out a
most miserable existence. To help
this condition of things the further
idea was conceived that economies
could be effected if several corpora
tons would unite under one central
management This was the evolu-
ton from small business to big busi-
ness.
The question has often been raised
as to the relation of business to the
success of the individual and of the
communicative the Opportuni-
ties of the individual have been les
sened. and whether a young man now
tunity for advancement than he had
in the days when the mills were pri-
yate plants. | can speak with con-
fdence from my own experience, and
am firmly of the opinion that the
large corporation offers more oppOr-
tunities to the young man than he ever
had before. | have spent all my life
in corporation work. | can recall the
days of individual ownership. 1t eX-
lists today when some enterprisng man
starts his mill in a small community
and builds up that community.
Whom do we find filling the execu-
tive positions in that mill? Generally
members of the family and generation
after generation of the same family
succeed each other. What chance is
there for the poor boy who begins in
that mill to work up? He can get as
high as an overseership; he can per-
haps go higher; but as long as there
are members of that family to fill ex-
ecutive positions his chances are
small.
This is not so in the big corpora
tons, for there are few men who have
families large enough to distribute
among their sons all the executive po-
sitions of the big corporations, They
have to rely for success upon the
brainy men behind the machinery to
come forward to fill the positions
which must be filled by brains and
energy. And so | thoroughly believe
that the opportunities for the young
men are a grorr-1eal better today with
the big corporations than formerly
under the paternal management of in
diyidual ownership.
Big business is a great thing for
the people at large. II means pro-
duction on a more economical basis,
and consequently a much cheaper
price to the consumer. Never was
oil so cheap as when chiefly produced
by that great corporation the stand
ard Oil Never was cloth so cheap as
when produced by the American Wool
Zen Company. Never were Rubber
so p9onpoId uoQN sr dB9Qo os spoo5
the United STATES Rubber COmDauN.