The sun., 1919-07-20
Successful Business Men with Pc.
culiar AyOcations.

Successful Business Men with Pc
culiar .Ayocations.
II there is any useful lesson in the
cross-examination Of HENRY FORD 1t
| is the revelation Of the manner In
| which a man who Is great in his vo-
cation is likely to founder when he
tries to swim In an unfamiliar avo-
cation, particularly when his devo-
ton to his regular business Is so
great as to keep him from the pur-
suit of general intelligence.
| Mr.. FoRD's ailment Is not uncom-
mon among very successful business
men 1t is not so much vapity as 1t
| is assumption. The victim of the dis
ease comes to believe that, having ac1
complished great things in one prac-i
! teal line Of life, he Is qualified to give
an opinion on almost any subject, to
teach other men to do almost any
thing, and to reform the world In
some particular manner not at all re-
lated to his own experience. If he
fails, II he makes himself ridiculous,
II he wastes his own money and other
peoples time he signs that be was
right but that the world In general
was not bright enough to take advan-
tage of the opportunity he offered.
A great soap manufacturer who has
not been in school for forty years de-
cides that he would make wonderful
education commissioner. A lawyer
with a big practice spends his spare
hours advocating new plan for the
conservation of forests. A clergyman
who has never worked for wages or
hired a hand comes to the conclusion
that he, and he only, knows the solu-
ton of the problems of labor. A
banker. after his first summer on his
new farm, evolves a completely new
set Of theories In agriculture. A phy5
stefan takes up economics as side
line and discovers the law Of supply
and demand, but does not realize that
II has existed since one cave man with
two stone hatchets traded with an
other man who had two dogs.
Most Of these excursions from vo-
cation to avocation are harmless hob
bies. 1t Is only when the adventurer
plunges into a field where his diver
sion Is a serious matter to other peo-
pie that he comes to grief. Mr.. FORD
manifestly did not know the differ
ence between the terms 'milltarism"
and "army organization" yet he pre-
sumed to lecture the American peo-
pie on the absurdity Of preparedness.
In his own line of business he knows
perhaps as much as any man about
shop methods and intensive produc-
ton. In the line of general intelli-
J gence he could not say who BENEDICT
ARNOLD was. but he made no bones
about telling America what 1t ought
! to do in the crisis of war.
i It is only occasionally that the
i great business man with hobby lets
the hobby run out and bite other
people. II an illiterate fertilizer
manufacturer bought million dollar
library he probably would not publicly
declare that SHAKESPEARE wrote
vanity Fair" or that HAROLD BELL
WRIGHT ought to put paradise Lost
into readable English, yet such a dis
play of ignorance would be no worse
than some of Mr.. FoRD's published
thoughts on national defence. Mt
FoRD's misfortune was that he was
the victim of a group Of persons who
found in the Ford name and wealth
means of circulating misinforma'
ton among the gullible.
Your wise man does not have ia
know everything, but at least he must
know what he doesn't know. He does
not need even to have what is com
, monty known as general intelligence
: although having 1t is handy In q
world where not every one cares "a
discourse entirely on the weather
And general intelligence is not a by
product of business success. 1t has
: to be pursued either from pure Joy OF
the chase or from a desire to know
: for the sake of knowing. what has
gone on and Is going on In complex
world full of incidents.
Once there was man at a public
dinner. He was stranger to the res,
of the company and he looked so wise
that the others surveyed him with
: awe. He maintained complete and
, admired silence until the fish course
, when he uttered single contribution
} to the wisdom Of the feast: yShrimps
Is the good eats!" He had destroyed