Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-12-19
Work Hard, Avoid Laziness,
Stick to Your Joby Are Prin-
cipIeS He Lays Down for
Ultimate Success
BY MARGUERITE MARSHALL

Otlli ia w OOOOOOO
BY MARGUERITE MARSHALL
NEW YORK.-"From newsboy at
15-to United States senator at sou
1t sounds like one of Horatio Al
gers titles, doesn't it? And yet it's
merely the correct headline for a
story of real life-the story CT Mayor
james Couzens, of Detroit, newly APP
pointed United States senator from
Michigan, in place Of the lately re-
signed and generally unlamented
Senator Newberry.
There vii. be no more picturesque
figure in the upper house than De
;rcit's multi-millionaire mayor anC
former police commissioner. lie has
just passed Thanksgiving day in
New York, with his daughter, who
is at school here, and at the Hotel
Belmont L found this vigorous,
fortnight, IoW-spoken eX-neWsbOy
life with such a remarkable record
of accomplishment behind him.
Before we go any further, suppose
I give you in tabloid form the simple
philosophy of success which Mayor
Couzens eXpounded to me-and
which should interest all young men
with ambitions of their own:
There are thousands of great OPP
portunities open to boys today, and
the rich boy who succeeds will de-
serve more credit than the poor boy
The former has everything; the lat
ter has everything to win.
"Stick to your job give it all
you've got in you and don't be think
ing about what you're going to do
next.
Don't be afraid to work; if there's
one thing of which I'm intolerant it's
lazness.
"The reason why SO many fail is
because they will not make the sacri-
fees of time, Of pleasure, of comfort,
demanded by success.
/. another word for failure is self
ishness'-the fear that if you work
overtime or do more than you must
some one else besides yourself will
benefit.
Marry young, just as soon as you
find the right girl, and don't be
afraid of the babies!
Money is the easiest thing in the
world to make and the stupidest
thing to have"
Mayor Couzens utters these bits
of compressed common sense almost
reluctantly-his lips are thin and
part so narrowly when he talks that
he gives one the impression of speak
ing with gritted teeth. He has a
square, fresh-colored face, a fine
forehead, a ruthless jaw and eyes as
sharply blue as icicles. He doesn't
lose his air of controlled dominance
even when he sits in the corner Of
one of the Belmont's crimson plush
sofas and answers questions about
his remarkable and yet typically
American career.
"Were you really a train news
boy" I began.
Eyes" he said. IT was a news
boy on the same line with Thomas
was fifteen at the time. While my
father had his own business and
we were by no means destitute
still we had no money to spare, and
I thought I'd like to make some
during my summer vacation. This
was the first job for which I was
ever compensated.
Mayor Couzens, by the way, was
born in Ontario. After his summer
as news butcher" he returned
home, and when he went to Detroit
for his next job he was seventeen.
81 went for it but I didn't get
it." he recalled with a dry smile.
II had to bear some criticism from
my father for not getting it, too.
About five or six months later [
[ landed a job as car checker with
the Michigan Central.
1T held that job for six years at
$50 a month. 1 worked from noon
to midnight, or from six to six, ac-
cording to the shift; a tWelve-hOur
day, seven days a week. l knew
plenty of young men who said they'd
never work like that for any en-
ployer or company-that's what [
mean when l say that people fail
because they Will not make the
necessary sacrifices of time and
comfort to insure success.
""Then I got a chance with a coal
company at SIS a month. In 1897
times We're hard and my employer
wanted to reduce me to $50. But I
had met my wife, and we were plan
ming to marry. 1 went to my en-
ployer and told him that if he would
keep me on for six months at $75,
while 1 was getting the marriage
business out of the way, l would
work for him, for six months after
that, at SEQ
"He agreed. But then he en-
larged his business and made me
manager of the new branch. So
[ never had to go back to the
$50; instead, l was raised to 500.
"Jn 1903 Henry Ford, that coal